We never hire someone because of an explicit language they know. We hire them for their ability to problem solve, know at least one major language L = { c++ / java / .net / ruby / python }, and their willingness to learn another one as the job needs. We use a lot of advanced frameworks, where 1/2 the work is figuring out the right way to configure everything.

Insightful ? hahahahah no. If he was a fucking ninja, he wouldn't have brought a gun in the first place. The gun works because it causes people to back away (rightfully afraid for their lives) instead of overwhelming the crazy man with raw pounds force (dog pile). Once there is no gun, a single man is quickly subdued by the dozen others in the bank. Or by simply running away and calling the police. Banks have a lockable room typically somewhere....

I like it. And I think it is a good starting langauge.

You can actually acomplish things quickly with it. And a full OO paradigm for teaching more complex business coding style and organization. I saw "perl and bash scripting" on a job posting today, clearly that could be replaced with ruby.

And python is maintained by nazis

So I should stop eating them? Or just put them in cocaine baggies first?

Can you give an example of something you feel you did better ( more maintainable? ) than is done in STL? Containers? Algorithms? In general, using STL is more maintainable because c++ programers know it, so bringing someone onto a project doesn't require re-training them to use your home grown code base.

in general I agree. For us, we followed fedora's lead and wrapped up gem's we needed into rpms so that they are maintained by the system package manager (yum), and are still visible to any ruby code.

I read everything you said. It in no way counters what I said. It kind of reminds me like the side story of Ender's Game "bean". 'This other guy also made money' k.

I'll bite. Grading curves. Bad teachers [ or rather, bad test writters] grade on a curve so they are sure to get atleast a certain bell curve of A's, B's, and C's. So, if you are surrounded by idiots as early as middle school, you'll get better grades. Then, because of quota's, you'll get in to a magnet school, which will have better teachers, and more interesting classes, and smaller class sizes. That is a recipe for sucess [ for someone like me anyways].

Repetition is important. You can basically re-write the receptor's in the brain that react to things as "this is what I want" and "this is what I don't want". Forcibly associate things you know are good for you in your brain, and it slowly gets easier and easier.

All I have to do is channel my Catholic upbringing and it is easy to feel guilty about even thinking about ordering pizza.

I'm sorry, there are other comics than xkcd? Maybe in the multiverse...

So, as a scientist you would then investigate possible causes of autism, and find that we have broadened our definition of it and increased our awareness of it.

True, but the parent point was on not feelign the burn of paying that money. I assume, that when you buy something, you acknoledge how much it costs and don't just swipe your CC blindly.

I was born and raised catholic. So when the following comes off as harsh, it is because I lived through a lot of BS.

The same catholics who preaced abstinance only sex ed which is proven not to work. The same catholics who banned the use of contraception so that women were going to get pregnant. These women now are faced with a horrible choice: throw away any chance they had at a career, or go to hell.

Oh father, who art in heaven, that is some truely got awful parenting, IMO

In college I had wierd income that it was hard to figure out if it was taxable or not. I downloaded the IRS document on education based tax deducions; it was over 100 pages. I bought turbo tax an hour later. The math isn't hard; it is figuring out what is tax deductable and what isn't that made turbotax worth it for me.

"Most people have no idea how much they pay in taxes." proof?

Even though I don't write a check, my tax software it kind enough to provide me exactly how much I paid in taxes, so that I can easily calculate my EffeciveTaxRate (19%)