allenskd

I feel it's not that PHP is low bar but rather widely accessible out of the box on almost all web hosting services... you don't have to set up a lot of stuff before running your web application.

I'd argue the only reason PHP still remains at the top is because no one has made X language to work out of the box with cpanel installations and run with little to no modification to run, lets say, django apps or RoR apps. Maybe if Python or any other language spent more time on improving that type of accessibility in the realm of web applications we could see PHP fragmenting in the later years...

I think someone starting, or intermediate, or perhaps advanced won't be able to tell what's good or bad... even I have problems sometimes identifying what would be the best approach of implementing a good design and could end up implementing a bad one easily.

And refactoring as almost always a must... unless you are stuck in a legacy support project where you are just hacking fixes away despite the glaring flaws and the client doesn't want to spend any more money on improving things.

I want to expand my knowledge. I'm almost done with college and I'm both thrilled and terrified on what will I encounter from here on, there is still a lot to learn.

I'm not as good as many people here I just lurk most of the time, although, I've been doing web development for years, mostly self-taught. I had the opportunity to freelance as well.

Most of my drive to learn C++ is curiosity and the need to be able to write/understand C++ code because I wanted to work with it, I've been meaning to get an Arduino kit too. I'd love to enter the field in C++ as junior dev if possible, at the same time I won't neglect web development if the opportunity is there.

As I said before, I want to expand. I won't just "throw away" web development either. Lastly, I'm not in the US, the job market here is pretty terrible, and have found it hard to look for a place to work. I can work in the U.S, but sadly being both college student + no cash to do much it's pretty hard to pull off.

As someone who have spent the last six months learning C++ (making the transition from web developer) all I can say is that it'll be hard for me to leave Qt framework. It's very pleasant to work with it (although some corner cases can give you headaches). I'm mostly working with Qt Quick/QML in general (previously I used the widgets but I needed "easy access" to more eye candy effects without spending too much time in code. There's a overhead to pay though).

I agree. I feel like people amplify their emotional reasoning to the extreme with social networks enough to jump into whatever moralistic "shoulds" or anything that can get them behind the "right", sort of like putting your morals on the line in a popularity contest, a hell of a emotional rollercoaster.

People seldom take perspective and context in account. Especially if they all go into the angry mob mentality as you mention which I'm pretty sure we have seen plenty of times.