Friend: "Don't all computer science people learn multiple languages so they can use the right one for the job?"

My reply:
We learn multiple languages because some asshat before us had a hard-on for it and now we need to keep that shit running and we don't have time to rewrite it.

Yeah man, screw English. Chinese is the way to go.

@jimmaayy what?! No, no, no. GTFO!

while what you said is true, what he asked was true also. I use alot of languages myself. java for android, c for daemons, php for server side cause every dime store hosting supports it, html/css/js cause there's no other option for Web browsers

@jckimble You are absolutely correct. This conversation actually came out of him asking me what he should learn.

At the time, I was working on Javascript - so I said 'Javascript', explaining that we all pretty much have to touch Javascript at least once in our careers.

He complained that he didn't want to do 'web dev'.

I had then remembered my early days, when I thought sweetly about building gorgeous applications in the best languages available...

And then I remembered I was fixing server-side Javascript because someone thought Node.js was the future of development.

ah ok, one of those wannabe conversations. atleast that's what I always called them cause they never get far into one language cause they keep jumping around with trends

@jckimble Yeah, I've recommended various things and linked tutorials over the years. Maybe some day he'll fall into one. :)