Beating the avengers by Paul Graham

In the article called "Beating the Avengers" by Paul Graham, the author develops several ideas that support the use of the Lisp language based on his experience with this language and the advantages of this language. One of the ideas that I totally agree with is that writing software much faster than competitors is a task that will clearly give you a competitive advantage that will allow you to increase the chances of success.

On the other hand, I can say that learning Lisp can also be useful since it is not a very complicated language and has characteristics (such as macros) that seem to be unique and invaluable in this language.

Another idea that Graham talks about and I agree with is that in a Startup you must use the best programming language that exists for the task you need. However, for now I cannot accept that Lisp is the best language since I do not know it well; although I think it's worth taking the risk of a language with many features and power, even if no other company or Startup is using it. In fact, I agree with the author that risking doing this kind of thing could greatly increase the chances of success.

However, something I do not think anyone can be completely sure about is which is the best programming language. I think the author's opinion is based on his good experience with Lisp. The same would happen if some developer had a great experience with another language, then this developer could say that the language is the best. Nevertheless, having a good experience and seeing great potential within a language does not make it better. One of the largest companies today is Twitter, which was created with "Ruby on Rails" (Encyclopædia Britannica), this made it possible to build it quickly, in addition to providing a good and safe service. Then Twitter developers could think that Ruby is the best language to build web applications, but everything is very related to the experience and the moment in which things happen.


Another reality is that, regardless of whether you use “the best programming language”, if your idea is not convincing or is not good at all, even if your software or application is safe and fast, it may not be successful due to the simple fact that users could not like it or find it useless. I think there are many factors besides the programming language for a company or startup to succeed. In my opinion, the best option is to analyze the most appropriate programming languages for the construction of your project and then use the one that has the most complete and useful features for what you want to do.

References:

Encyclopedia Britannica. (S/f). Twitter | History, Description, & Uses. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Twitter [Accessed 22 Jan. 2018].

Graham, P. (2001). Beating the Averages. [online] Paulgraham.com. Available at: http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html [Accessed 22 Jan. 2018].

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