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People on Hacker News seem to know a lot of different languages and it has me wondering if I am not as good of a developer because I only know those two languages.
I do need to take a second to point out the obvious. I've had exposure to a lot of different languages and technologies but I only consider myself proficient in C# and JavaScript.
How can only knowing a small number of languages make someone a bad developer? As a developer, it's about the things you can develop. You might be limited by your language and the language implementations but this is why being rounded with a good variety of languages puts you at an advantage.
My first programming language was PHP 15 years ago, but I keep myself proficient with a systems language (e.g. C or C++), a server application language (like Go), and a web client side language (like JavaScript). I have chosen to work with C++, Go, and TypeScript as much as possible for now.
I hope this helps in any way.
You will become a better developer if you study more mathematics or statistics.
You will become a better developer if you study psychology and interpersonal relationships.
You will become a better developer in many, many ways.
Keep studying. Keep growing.
You can build virtually any web app, client app, mobile app or service with these 2 languages, so ask yourself what you can do with these tools and probably whether you can earn a living using them. If you want to learn a bit about some other areas just do it...
For the past eight years I've been mostly working as a .NET developer, with my last two roles being senior roles with some form of leadership. If I stuck with my last job I would've probably been in a leadership role at a large agency, but I wanted a change.
I, too, would read HN most days, and would feel a hint of "imposter syndrome". It was great enough that I decided to teach myself Python and Django. Working in another language when my life was strong-typed compiled languages felt odd, so instead of fighting the urge I decided to work somewhere that would hire me as something other than a C# dev.
So, I joined a software house that does a bit of everything. Since joining I've worked on a mixture of Ruby, Java, Python, and Node projects in the last six months, and there's opportunities to pick up pretty much anything that I feel I can roll with for a project.
It's been tricky going from being experienced in one language to being a newbie in another. When things work the way you expect, new languages are fairly easy to pick up, but the pain points or differences will bring you back to the days when you were struggling with C#.
I think imposter syndrome is more common in .NET developers than other groups, mainly because the community is so secluded from others due to its heavy use of Windows and its own tool set. Also, there's the stigma of it being a big-business language, even though many .NET devs will go their entire careers without working in an enterprise setting. From my experience, a .NET developer is no less a developer than those in other languages, but I will say that it's very easy to be comfortable in a single stack. Giving something else a try will reduce that comfort, and you might learn a few things that help in both stacks.
So, in terms of missing it, it depends on what you feel like you're missing?
That's not to say you can't be an excellent programmer but less likely a well rounded software engineer, if that makes sense. The opposite can also be true, those of that dabble in everything with no depth or appreciation of each.
I've been looking say more than usual resumes and interviewing candidates. I would now not interview a candidate for an intermediate position who only has Microsoft experience. This is a proxy for operating in a corporate environment with little exposure to a narrow range of responsibility. Having too few languages/tech also indicates a lack of curiosity/passion. That's not to say you can't be an excellent programmer…
I can't imagine you'd interview someone for a junior position looking for said experience, so are such people just screwed?
I've been looking say more than usual resumes and interviewing candidates. I would now not interview a candidate for an intermediate position who only has Microsoft experience. This is a proxy for operating in a corporate environment with little exposure to a narrow range of responsibility. Having too few languages/tech also indicates a lack of curiosity/passion. That's not to say you can't be an excellent programmer…
As a noob trying to start a career I ask.... at what point do you list things on your resume?
So I messed around on my own time with Python, PHP, and some other things but feel like I don't know them well. Do you still list it on your resume? At this point I don't because I feel like my knowledge isn't very strong in those areas.