# EO the Career Killer
Source: https://www.yegor256.com/2020/05/13/career-killer.html
It's time to answer one of the most popular questions I hear from junior
programmers when they meet me at a software conference or online: What is
the point of studying [Elegant Objects](https://www.elegantobjects.org)
(the new object-oriented paradigm I've been preaching for the last five years)
if almost nobody is using it on real projects?
Why swim against the current and learn something that may only harm
my career, even if it does seem like a sound technical concept? Where is the
profit in making myself an outsider? These are good questions; thanks for asking them!
{% jb_picture_body %}
Let me quote one of the emails I received recently, after
the first lecture in [MIPT](https://youtu.be/aLaDDoT2v54) about OOP:
> Recently I have seen the first part of your lecture called "Pain of OOP"
and was very intrigued by the average age of the visitors. How do you think,
will it be hard for them to find a job when the courses are over?
Won't that leave a "footprint" in their minds that almost everything they
will see as junior software engineers will be totally against what you
taught them? Or do they have to accept that as it is, taking into
account that, as juniors, they will have no right to even
propose changes to the architecture?
Indeed, the question makes a lot of sense. [Elegant Objects](https://www.elegantobjects.org)
is a very alternative concept, provoking you, a junior programmer, to renounce everything
you've learned to date [about OOP]({% pst 2016/aug/2016-08-15-what-is-wrong-object-oriented-programming %})
and to start thinking differently. It sounds
interesting while you are sitting in a room listening to my lecture, but it
~~may~~ will [hurt]({% pst 2019/nov/2019-11-05-revolutionary-evolution %})
you once you attend your first job interview.
I've heard stories of people failing job interviews just after saying my
name and claiming that they agree with my OOP ideas. That was enough to
tell their interviewers that they wouldn't be able to work normally in a traditional
Java team, which uses a good old semi-procedural Spring-based Java
coding style.
I've even heard stories of programmers being fired after their attempts to teach
the team a "better OOP," ultimately ruining their reputations. If you want
to hear those stories, just join our Telegram group [@elegantobjects](https://t.me/elegantobjects)
and ask there. You will hear many of them.
Will something similar happen to you? Most probably, yes.
{% quote You will suffer. You will get fired. Your career will be stuck. You will be in a big trouble %}
You will suffer. You will get fired. You will have issues finding interesting
projects, because everything you will see written in traditional Java, Ruby, C++,
or Python will look like garbage to you. You will be constantly annoyed that
people around you don't understand you. Your career will be stuck. You
won't be able to get a promotion, because your thinking will be toxic---people
will be afraid of your technical ideas---they will sound too extreme
for them. You will be very tempted to go back to the good old procedural
nightmare, but won't be able to do it anymore. You will be in a big trouble.
This is exactly what was happening to me before I started writing this blog
and publishing [my books](/books.html): I was alone, on my own, in front of those who were
ready to criticize my ideas just for the fun of it. However, once I gave my concept
a name and started getting followers around it, everything changed. I was
not a crazy programmer any more, I became a member of a new [tech sect](https://www.elegantobjects.org),
which, of course, had its pros and cons, but ... it was _organized_!
It became much more difficult for my opponents to diminish the value of my
words, because no longer was I just yet another regular programmer with crazy ideas.
I was a book author, who managed to structure his thoughts, publish the book,
and even to get some readers and positive reviews. I was still wrong (as far
as they were concerned), but now I was _respected_.
I'm suggesting you do the same. Don't merely listen to my videos,
follow my blog, or read my books, but also become an active participant!
Once they see you as a vocal member of an organized group of engineers,
they will treat you completely differently.
You will still be wrong, in their eyes, but you will be respected and your career will
go just fine. You will have all the rights to "propose changes to the
architecture." It's easy to shut up a young programmer, but it's much
more difficult to shut up a young programmer who is a speaker and a book
writer, and a member of a professional community.
This is how you can truly join our community:
* Add your name to [elegantobjects.org](https://www.elegantobjects.org);
* Join two Telegram groups:
[@elegantobjects](https://t.me/elegantobjects) (for professionals)
and
[@painofoop](https://t.me/painofoop) (for juniors);
* Write a blog about OOP, like
[@skapral](https://web.archive.org/web/20220208044249/https://www.pragmaticobjects.com/)
and [@g4s8](https://g4s8.wtf/) are doing;
* Create an open source framework or a library in the EO style
and make it popular on GitHub
(join our [Telegram group](https://t.me/elegantobjects) to get help);
* Speak at our [Object Thinking meetup](https://www.meetup.com/Object-Thinking/),
like [@driver773](https://youtu.be/Z61mvuzLtbg),
[@guseyn](https://youtu.be/Ptz6kJ3NXGI) and
[@DronMDF](https://youtu.be/EbmJoolbQZw) already did;
* Make a speech about EO at some software conference or a meetup,
like [@filrfreire](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlkptvKK6Mw) did;
* Publish a book (I will be more than happy to help you).
Pick the one you like most, they are sorted from the easiest to the
most complex actions you can take.
Don't be scared, act!