If Programming Languages were Transportation

Language	Transportation	Comment
Perl	Muscle car	Old school, still pretty awesome
C	Shoes	Get EXACTLY where you want to be
C++	Airplane	Complicated enough yet?
Go	Hydraplane	Like C++, but the landing is easier
Lua	Roller blades	Whip this out anywhere
C#	Car	Fast, comfortable and convenient
Lisp	Vostok rocket	Amazingly futurist, and yet strangely outdated
Haskell	Segway	A curiosity not fit for practical use
COBOL	Flintstones car	Your grandparents thought it was obsolete
Python	Bike	Fun but slow
Ruby	BMX	Python for cool kids
Brainfuck	Slinky	Well TECHNICALLY it can go anywhere
Prolog	Zeppelin	slow, useless and outdated, but still awesome
Pascal	Antique Bentley	Fond memories
Bash	Elevator	Not hip, but practical
Javascript	Subway	You're not anything special
Typescript	Tramway	At least the view is nicer
VHDL	Steamroller	A vehicle that enables other vehicles!
Objective-C	Hummer	In some places it's the only thing you'll see - and you'll only see it there
Java	Astronaut suit	Will run ANYWHERE, but damned inconvenient to do anything with
PHP	Motorized wheelchair	hurr durr

Don't be a Programmer

My advice as a software engineer since 1999: Get out of programming as fast as you can. Go into Server Admin or Network Security.

Programmers are the ditch diggers of IT. In my experience, at least working in the large corporation world, they are treated like crap, constantly saddled with unrealistic expectations and time lines, and inevitably take direction from someone who has absolutely no experience or knowledge of programming. Even if your immediate manager is a Good Guy, his boss won't be, or his boss.... point being sooner or later as you go up the chain you run into that guy who thinks all programmers are liars and are way overpaid, and everything is easy and should only take 1 day. And testing? We don't have time to test! We need to DELIVER!

Sales people will promise the clients anything to get the sale, then dump it in your lap, take their fat commission, and go on vacation, leaving you to eat the shit sandwich they just made.

Customers will want more more more faster faster faster and, since they write the checks, that's what you'll have to produce. Scope creep? More like scope sprint. And forget about getting extra time. You don't need extra time! It's just a few additional features. How hard can it be?

You'll bust your ass for 8 months to build an in-house accounting system that saves the company 3 million a year and your bonus will be a shitty free breakfast with the CEO. And then the programmers start disappearing because guess what? The system is built and we don't need all those programmers any more!

That's right, programmers are the first to go. They're over paid and no one understands what they do anyway. Beside, you only need carpenters when you're building the house. Once the house is built....

But guess what. The Network still has to Network and be secure, and the Servers need to Server.....

So bail on programming NOW, before it's too late.

If you absolutely, positively are convinced things will be different for you (and they won't) and you want to stick it out, got for a hybrid like database development/admin. You can do database development and design to satisfy your desire to create, but when there's no development to do and all the programmers are getting fired, they'll still need a DBA to keep the Database up and running....