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by dion.
Original Post: Economic choices of a consultant
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David Hannson wrote about Fear-driven technology choices.
At first I thought this was going to have something to do with the world of fear that Bush puts us in ;)
He discusses some of the thoughts that consultants like Matt Raible made. Basically, can you get Ruby gigs? Can you get the same price for those gigs?
Although you can argue that it would be better for "clients" if you choose the best technology for them, unfortunately that isn't always the way it works. Yes, you can try to find projects which give you this power, but it isn't guaranteed.
I have worked on projects where I had the ability to use whatever technology made sense, but have also not been in that position. Also, it doesn't always make sense to use Ruby ;) Forget any technical arguments. There are plenty of others. If I am one new consultant coming into a project that has a team of great Java developers, with a 2.0 product out there, does it make sense to move to Ruby? Maybe not.
I love Ruby. It is fun. It is creative. It is productive. However, I also like tools in the Java world, including the editors (Textmate is good, but is no IDEA in my opinion).
At the end of the day the technology choice is only one part of the puzzle anyway. Give me a bunch of smart guys and the project will be a success (hey, EVEN with something weird like having to use EJB ;). Give me a bunch of guys who don't care, and the best tools in the world won't help.
Here's to all of the tools out there!
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