We live in a world today where there are many ways to get a job done. We have many tools in our arsenal and just as many resources to help get any developer up to speed. In a relatively short time, we can become confident and effective in any new task or tool we pick up. Because we have to.

The industry is ever changing, more so each day. It’s almost like the wild west. We have frameworks, libraries, utilities, text editors, languages, and anything else you can think of coming out of the woodwork. With so much going on, it’s easy for a developer(old or new) to stay afloat. There will always be those chasing the cutting edge, those that wait for the dust to settle, or those that are curious enough to step out and see what it’s all about.

I think one of the most fundamental attributes to a developer these days is flexibility. Flexibility, paired with an understanding of most programming paradigms(this depends on what you are developing), will keep you as a forerunner for hireability. The ability to pick up something new and run with it. This alleviates the reliance of a language and frees you to create how you want to create. You made a web app in Ruby on Rails, great! Let’s make the next one using the MEAN stack. Oh, you have tried Bootstrap? Well, how about using Foundation or Skeleton? My point is that the more flexible we are, the more desirable we are.

I feel that I benefit the most out of juggling a few projects that are all in different languages. This allows me to see how they work side by side. If I were to spend 6 months on one project in one language, then go to another in another language, after a year, I would be forgetting most of the first language. Just don’t overwhelm yourself. You know your own limits.

So get out there and explore! Convert a current project into a new language/framework. Pick a new tool for the job. The more you bounce around the more you will understand the strengths of each and will have the knowledge to make a decision about what to use for the next one! Keep coding!

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