rafanoronha.speaking()

Maybe the biggest mistake made by programmers is marrying with the tool they have at hands.
I really can’t figure out something worse than that.

Being married isn’t the same as being specialist:                                                          

Being a Microsoft specialist is ok.
Being a Java guru is ok.
Being a Ruby on Rails expert is ok.

The problem comes when you specialize in a technology and get tied to it.
Closing your eyes for the different options out there.

Don’t do that if you plan to be a better programmer.
When you tie yourself to one specific technology, you lose the big picture.

Until you get closely in touch with some different programming languages, platforms and technologies, you won’t be capable of saying a given tool is nice, or best suited for a job at hands.

Typewriters aren’t that bad while you don’t hear about computers.
Tied to a single technology you would also be merely resolving specific issues, lost in the middle of countless platform-specific developers.

Let me give you some of my (short) work experience.
I worked one year developing web applications upon the .net platform, and something called web forms.

At .net community, there are a lot of guys thinking asp net web forms is such a great web platform. You know why?
Because all the relevant web development experience they have was built on top of this single technology.
They lost the big picture! And they are tied to such horrible piece of technology. 

What about different programming paradigms?
While working with .net, my language of choice is c# (by now). 

While attempting to build decent software with it, I saw myself juggling.
Juggling to please c# compiler.

As I don’t work to a cirque, I realized something could be wrong.
Luckily I’m not the guy married to a tool.
And I had heard about something called Ruby on Rails.
So I decided to give it a shot, while working with web development.

Today I must say Ruby on Rails seems to me a much more reasonable tool to have at hands while I’m building web applications.
And I know exactly why Ruby and Rails are better suited for it.
I met the options out there. 

Probably I’m going to switch the tool at my hands for a long time.
Because there is no divorce pain on it.

Your engineering skills and career can only benefit from the different experiences you are going to dip. 

Try it!