At some point in your coding journey, you realize that syntax doesn’t matter nearly as much as people argue about it. You might care about the syntax of a language because you feel that certain patterns make you faster or more efficient, but the real concern is how easily you can express your ideas to make the computer do what you want.

Syntax is important when you are learning a language—without it, your code won’t run, and you won’t be able to build anything. It also matters when you want others to contribute to your project because shared conventions and readability impact collaboration. But beyond these concerns, syntax itself is a minor detail compared to the bigger picture: how effectively the language helps you solve your problem.

The fundamental purpose of writing code is to direct a general-purpose machine to solve problems. A programming language is an extension of yourself, much like spoken language. If the way you code is slowing you down or making it harder to achieve your goals, then that language is not serving you well. Likewise, if no one can understand the code you write—whether due to obscure syntax or poor structure—then communication breaks down, much as it would in a spoken conversation.

We don’t speak languages simply for the sake of their grammar; we speak to communicate meaning. The same applies to programming languages. The most important factor is not how elegant the syntax is but how effectively you can use it to turn ideas into working solutions. If a language helps you express yourself clearly and efficiently, then it’s doing its job. Everything else is just details.