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Those of you who’ve been around a bit know I used to be an Al Bundy.
Yes… I will come clean. I used to sell shoes. And, by the way, I was pretty damn good. I remember I once sold $8100 worth of shoes in one week… which was crazy for the chain I worked at. Double what was considered a good week.
Anyway, of course, in the store we had all kinds of shoes.
And, most of use who worked there were in love with the brand: Ecco. They were a very high quality brand that were comfortable as hell. In fact, the shoes I wore every day to work were $150 pair of Ecco dress shoes.
I’d even spent $200 on a pair of Ecco casual shoes I wore everywhere else.
Of course, we also had the other end of the spectrum… the shoes I despised… the Adidas Superstar. I couldn’t stand those things. They looked like boats on people’s feet… with their stupid little plastic toe.
Just plain ugly.
But, everybody wanted them. I sold more of those damn things than I’d ever care to admit. Because that’s what the people wanted.
That’s generally my same opinion on PHP vs Python or Django or Node.
It might be true that Python or Django or Node… or whatever else… is a superior language to PHP. We could debate that until we’re blue in the face probably.
And, you might be right that PHP is garbage.
I mean, who knows really.
But, I do know one thing… the people want PHP. I looked it up just today… and PHP’s market share is estimated at 82.1% of all web sites… whose server-side language we know.
That’s just fact.
No amount of “owning” people about how rotten you think PHP is… or calling people stupid for using it… is going to change that.
I couldn’t stand those ugly superstars… but I’d have been out of job quick if I refused to sell them to the people that wanted them.
And look…
It’s probably true that Python, Django or NodeJS skills are valued more… so you might make more if you learn them. But, it’s also probably true that you might find it difficult to find any job openings for people with those skills. Or, have a steady flow of clients who want projects built using those languages.
It’s also probably true that they could fade away into oblivion in the next 10 years.
Not likely, no. But they could and probably nobody would notice.
Now, of course, that could also happen to PHP… but it’s so embedded into the fabric of the web that if it dies… it’ll be a slow painful death you’ll see coming and can adjust to. Those other languages? Eh.
So, should you learn Python or Django or Node?
Sure.
But also learn PHP.
And if you’d like to learn it the easy way, then head over tohttps://johnmorrisonline.com/php and enroll in my brand new PHP 101 course.
P.S. If you liked the show, give it a like and share with the communities and people you think will benefit. And, you can always find all my tutorials, p
