Beating the Averages

Would you say functional programming lets you create and be more efficient in your language?  I have always sustained the point that if we were to create a messaging service, the almost perfect way to do it is without mutable state in a functional programming language. Nevertheless, this is only because I was able to expose my mind to a different programming languages.

I would have to disagree with Paul Graham on this one, coding in a functional programming languages, and having your job postings in them, elevates your costs and your available staff to a fraction of the already small pool of software engineers. Yes, you have advantages that are created due to the language, but hiring coders is becoming an increasingly difficult problem, and it is compounded if you ask for coders with "Extensive Lisp experience" and "Expert in Clojure" is going to be a hell of a ride.

Paul Graham has been a figure in the startup world because of his relationship with Y combinator. As the time has advanced, it seems that most of his posts are lauded by the community, In my personal experience, I've seen that most of his posts are a hit or miss for different types of communities.

But he does have a point, if 90% of startups fail, and 90% of startups are using the same languages, trying out something new, would probably work really good. But knowingly keeping the language to a set standard of language is really problematic as advice.

There is another argument which mentions that programmers who dabble in clojure are already smart, so that is why they code in clojure. So really, you are looking for programmers who code in functional languages, because that is a point that he is trying to make: Hire smart coders, and you'll have a good startup.


Graham, P. Beating the Averages (2001) Consulted on Aug 22, 2017. Retrieved from http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html
views