Language and Thought

I believe that the language you speak influences the way you think. I don’t have any kind of proof other than some anecdotal evidence. 

Recently I started noticing this in the field of computer languages as well. I consider Python to be my dominant language. I have a coworker (let’s call him Aaron, because that’s his name) who likes to bait me by pointing out certain lack of features in Python and how Ruby gets it right. Most of the time I dismiss his complaints as invalid because I never have a use for those features in my day to day coding.

Then it dawned on me that I don’t have a need for those features because I tend to think in Python. When I am presented with a problem I think of a solution that can be implemented in Python and my thought process naturally gravitates towards the features available in Python. 

What I learned from this realization is, if you learn many different languages you’ll never be happy with any single language. You’ll always yearn for that sweet feature that is missing in your current language. 

Let that be a lesson.