Choosing a programming language as a competitive tool

[Steve Cooper]

Do you work for a publically held company?  Does it create software products?
You don't actually have to answer (obviously :-)), although I confess to
curiousity.  I'm just trying to bring up the reality that the above two factors
are powerful, often irresistable forces in creating short-sited environments.

My experience has been that such companies invariably have cultures that are
almost totally unwilling to take risks or make investments that have only long
term returns.  There's too many stakeholders in the status quo and the quarterly
numbers, including their engineers.

I hope my cynicism is misguided, and that some day I discover otherwise. :-)

cheers,
|steve

Alex Martelli wrote:

> "Steve Holden" <sholden at holdenweb.com> wrote in message
> news:tbWH6.63675$qc2.16320477 at typhoon.southeast.rr.com...
>     [snip]
> > The main problem underlying the lack of good programmers is most
> > organizations' unwillingness to invest in training their staff. They would
>
> Incidentally, there ARE good economic reasons for that, unless one
> can count on some extra-economic mechanism to retain programmers
> in whose training you have invested heavily (gratitude...?).  Say you
> and I both have a budget of X $$$ per programmer.  If you choose
> to spend K $$$ per programmer in training them, then the salary you
> can offer is only X-K.  I, on the contrary, can offer the full X as salary,
> and thereby (unless gratitude or some other extra-economic force is
> at work) systematically steal from you all well-trained programmers
> who act as maximizers of economic returns.
>
> > rather poach from others than homegrow their programming talent, and never
> > bother to think what kind of mindset this engenders in programmers. And
> yet,
> > dammit, programming work is so much more fun when you have others around
> you
> > who will help you to learn and grow. In such an environment *everybody*
> > learns to be more productive.
>
> True, and part of the non-economic aspects that MAY influence some
> programmers to stay with their current employers (hey, I may know
> all about the theory of economic agents, but I've been with my current
> employer for the last 12+ years... there are some things no money can
> buy, and the "feel" of working here is definitely among those!).  Still,
> it's quite a gamble, if the training you give your employees makes them
> more valuable to OTHER employers, that your employees' gratitude, or
> whatever, will convince them to give up serious potential opportunities
> of enhancing their income, isn't it?
>
> > There's a kind of Peter principle in operation, dictating that if you're
> > good enough at programming you will eventually end up in charge of a bunch
> > of monkeys, with nobody who can train you.
>
> It _IS_ possible to beat this scheme -- if your employer is clever enough,
> at least; said employer will eventually realize that if your productivity as
> a programmer is 10 times average, and your productivity as a manager
> is about average, it's crazy to move you to management.  Clever enough
> employers establish parallel career tracks, one for managers and one for
> high-level technicians -- just as star-performing salespeople would never
> be pushed by a clever-enough employer to stop selling in order to manage
> other salespeople, and for similar reasons... it's NOT true that being great
> at selling ensures you're great at motivating, organizing, directing OTHER
> salespeople.  Of course, rewards on the parallel career tracks DO need to
> be parallel, or clever technicians/salespeople/etc will smell the trick:-).
>
> > Disclaimer: I make a living from training, so may be biased.
>
> It's a good thing to "declare one's interests", but I suspect your job puts
> you in a position to better observe the "average" organizations.  I have
> nowhere as much of a vantage point as you do, being in an organization
> that's definitely far from average (and sometimes enjoys calling itself
> an "upstart"... we can't be a "start-up" because we've been around for
> almost 20 years, albeit under two different names:-).
>
> Alex
>
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list