What Languages do you Speak?

When I'm asked which modern (or in-use, or non-obsolete) programming languages I can code in, I sometimes feel like I'm playing an ego card when I say, "all of them."

Sure, I have operational experience (meaning I've written real, customer-facing projects) in C, C++, C#, Java, Go, Python, Scala, JS... and I've played around doing PoC in Rust, Dart and a few others.

More than that, though, I could pick up pretty-much any in-use language in a long weekend. So can any developer who has the years of experience in place. And then figuring out a platform for any given language is just a case of skimming the documentation so you know where to look. Nobody memorizes a whole platform any more (I think the last one I did was MFC? Maybe?).

A more accurate gauge of a developer, to me, would be to hear about their approach to design. What patterns did you use? Which did you consider and then eliminate, and why? What pivots did you make during development, and how did the final product compare to your initial vision. What got you up in the morning in terms of problems to be solved?

Once a certain threshold has been crossed, the keywords become irrelevant.

This thought process brought to you by the number of pitches I get for jobs that are based 100% on the keywords of which languages I've used in the past. These pitches pay zero attention to what I actually did. They just want to see the "[language]" or "[platform]" box checked (ticked, for you Europeans :-)).

It almost makes me want to take a week off, learn *every single modern language* in an "I've been exposed" way, and literally list them all.

Would anyone believe me?

Am I off base here? Or is this a legit position?

#programming #languages #platforms #development #experience #KaleIsNotAFood