I think that the tree analogy and "the untroubled ease of programming beneath its sheltering branches" is not applicable in his case. Having been in a similar situation, my best guess is that his company's "tree" is called Java EE and in its shadow there is no trace of any academic or industrial advance from the past 10 years.

Then you haven't really absorbed the value of the prior posts.

You don't understand what pigeonholing really means.

When programmers talk about pigeonholing it usually means they like Python and want to go at Python conferences where people talk about math, science and machine learning, but they are pigeonholed in Java EE and surrounded by people who only talk about POJOs and beans.

And to top it all off, Java experience is badly regarded in Python tech companies and long term pigeonholing usually cuts you off from the world you want to be in.

"they like Python and want to go at Python conferences"

What prevents them from doing this?

Jobs that don't let (or help) developers go to conferences that appear to be of little immediate or long-term business value.

$1500 ticket prices and employers that won't pay unless it's directly related to the work you do?

I see--thank you!

I was thinking of this more from the independent consultant's perspective, not the FTE viewpoint.

Oh yeah, that's one thing I miss from being independent. "Conference"? You mean "tax deduction"!