I'd Rather Feel Right Than Be Right

Recently, I was reading a post about how Perl blew it (here-- and why it's lost its viability as a web language for new projects. Many of the comments were savage in their response. Yet, ask any non-Perl person and I think they'd agree that Perl no longer has the luster for writing web apps it once did. Given that, why the extreme reaction to what seems a fairly obvious point?

I've said this again and again: as programmers, we should have no allegiance to a language. That is, I believe, good advice -- yet it's almost universally ignored. Further, people who have moved out of denial (like Mr. Drashkov in his post) are pilloried for suggesting that favorite language X has lost its appeal. Why?

I've come to the conclusion that the problem is the tendency we all have to stick with what we know -- even when change is called for. If Perl works for certain programmers, what do they have to fear? I suspect we all know: it's that future jobs, further advancement may be lacking. The reaction? Fight! Deny! Ignore!

But is that wise? Let's compare two technologies often written about to illustrate this point: Betamax and VHS. Betamax was, technically, a better technology. But Sony missed the video rental market and its initial 60-minute maximum was unsuited to this market. That was later changed, but by then, it was too late.

Now, there were passionate defenders of Betamax that martialled impressive arguments. But those arguments were moot in the face of reality: VHS won that battle. Of course, VHS lost to another new technology: DVDs. Perhaps we're now in the process of moving from DVDs to online video.

All the arguments in the world, all the self-comforting agreements among fellow passionistas simply fail in the face of reality. Yes, reality can be frightening and the frenzied pace of change can create great discomfort. I "get" the desire to prefer stasis to change -- but we embrace stasis at our own peril. Feeling right provides false comfort, illusory security. The only real security is to be willing to move forward -- and then to move forward again and again.