> First of all, pretty much all languages ever will make vacuous claims of "higher programmer productivity". The problem is that for a business this usually doesn't matter. Why? Because the actual programming is not the main time sink. In a business, what takes time is to actually figure out what the task really is. So something like a 10% or 20% "productivity boost" won't even register. A 100% increase in productivity might show, but even that isn't guaranteed.
I stopped reading here. This is like saying typing speed doesn't matter because most of your time is spent thinking about what to type. If your argument basically evaluates to saying that it doesn't matter how productive you are while doing the actual activity of your job itself... at some point it's like, I dunno, do you actually believe what you're saying?
Also, not to go off on too unrelated/unhinged a tangent, but, I've also started noticing in the last five years this widespread fear of actually sitting down and programming. There's a weird meta-culture where people want to do anything but sit down and write code, because it's hard and scary. I hear arguments made all the time for how important everything is — aligning stakeholders, scoping tasks, communication, mentoring juniors, soft skills, whatever. Everything except writing the actual code, which is somehow a mere technical triviality that anyone can do, or something.
I agree especially with that last point. There is something about programming that is very difficult. It gets _more_ difficult if you write complex things, but that's not the essence of it. I think it has something to do with raw concentration.
We have all of these tools that help us to write code while making few mistakes. From constrained DSLs/configuration languages, schemas, static typing to automated tests etc. But in the end we still have to exert all that energy to sit down, focus and do the coding.
Meetings, design, coordination etc. All of those things are important, and they can be exhausting in their own way. But programming is by far the most challenging, hour per hour (pound for pound). Making all of these micro decisions, think about the impact of your code, the readability, the correctness. It is _at least_ two times harder and more draining than anything else I do, even when I'm in a flow state and the actual work is fun, more fun than all of the other tasks.
And I agree: It is the most important thing. I mean all of the other stuff is basically there to support the core task that solves your problems: producing working software (except if it isn't but then you have political problems). There are seemingly infinite dimensions for improvement as well, tradeoffs such as performance, efficiency, robustness, usability, leverage, creativity...
I stopped reading here. This is like saying typing speed doesn't matter because most of your time is spent thinking about what to type. If your argument basically evaluates to saying that it doesn't matter how productive you are while doing the actual activity of your job itself... at some point it's like, I dunno, do you actually believe what you're saying?
Also, not to go off on too unrelated/unhinged a tangent, but, I've also started noticing in the last five years this widespread fear of actually sitting down and programming. There's a weird meta-culture where people want to do anything but sit down and write code, because it's hard and scary. I hear arguments made all the time for how important everything is — aligning stakeholders, scoping tasks, communication, mentoring juniors, soft skills, whatever. Everything except writing the actual code, which is somehow a mere technical triviality that anyone can do, or something.