Irreproachable Honourableness

Switch early, late, and often?

In a discussion of the average programming language, and Beating the Averages, Paul Graham goes on to write:

But once you've admitted that [Perl 5 is more powerful than Perl 4], you've admitted that one high level language can be more powerful than another. And it follows inexorably that, except in special cases, you ought to use the most powerful you can get.

This idea is rarely followed to its conclusion, though. After a certain age, programmers rarely switch languages voluntarily. Whatever language people happen to be used to, they tend to consider just good enough.

Maybe always looking for a new language is a good idea.

Update:I fixed a typo above.

Can I Borrow Rather Than Buy?

Want to read a book, but don't necessarily want to buy a copy? Like to support your local library? Or just too many books in the house already?

Use LibraryLookup (Build your own bookmarklet) to put a link on your toolbar. Read about a book on (say) Amazon, and click the link: it will take you to your local library's entry for the book.