> If you don't know Git, you don't know shit. If you have a Tumblr site you haven't updated in six months and you call yourself a programmer, you're an embarrassment to the language you claim to know. That pretty much tells you everything you need to know about this writer. It doesn't seem hard to imagine that if you're a hacker wannabe who thinks things like having a tumblr are important to selling your skillset, or…
If I'm just a "hacker wannabe" then how did I write my own complete blogging system from scratch: http://bitters.gwenbell.com/ Keep hating, you wear your jealousy on your sleeve...
A blogging platform is a similar sort of project. Any novice programmer can build one given enough time and motivation. Building a polished one is an accomplishment, but it's by no means a feat of programming creativity or a demonstration of vast skill.
When I hire junior developers I'm looking for people who know at least a few different programming languages and are skilled with a number of different tools. I'm not looking for a tumblr blog or deep knowledge of git. Git can be reasonably taught in a week or two; a programming language can't.
Most startups use a few different programming languages. Mine used 3 before we were acquired. Since we were acquired we now use 6 languages on 4 OSes (Win,Lin,QNX,iOS) to provide our sensor-based solution to our clients. A real hacker is the kind of programmer who can quickly adapt to such an environment and get up to speed quickly. That's not what defines a hacker* , but that's what makes them so valuable.
* I define a hacker as someone skilled at creatively misusing available technology to solve hard problems under extreme constraints