Context:
At work, I code primarily with Java.

I'm a big believer in the mantra, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but I find myself conflicted with that when I can see how much of an improvement it would be to use a different language for some of the simple pieces in our integration.

Question:
When should one start considering other languages for your team? And if you choose other options, how do you do it in such a way where you don't end up building a chimera of an integration?

My lead loves to over engineer crap and waste weeks building complicated solutions.

And then during retro when a team member has the stones to say we should've thought about it a little more or used the input of some other teammates, he shuts them down by saying that more input would've been bad for the design. I can see where he's coming from, but he always seems to have an excuse for us. Why can't he just be more transparent and clear with us? If he has a problem, just say it. That's what retros are for.

Oh and then he takes a shot at me saying that we shouldn't have built a UI in tandem with it. I didn't even recommend a UI for the thing. All I said was that if we ever have a UI, we should consider a database setup that assists both the server and UI. But nooo, he's stuck with this "server design" approach. Everything has to be built to make it easier for the server.

I still don't understand why anyone would have their server logic influence the design. Especially the database. I just seems too targeted. It just creates these nasty denormalized tables.

Ugh... Our team is getting dragged around by this arrogant and silly man.

I can't convince my team that a good database model promotes a good API design and a good UI/UX experience.

Instead, I have to work with a ridiculous table setup.

Imagine, if you will, a table (table B) that references another table (table A) via a foreign key. The FK is a string in both tables. And table A only has one column, which is labeled as "name".

The schema i have to look at it kind of like this:

Table parent
Name varchar(10) primary key

Table child
Name varchar (10),
parent_name varchar(10),
Foreign key (parent_name) references parent (name)

Sorry if the syntax is wrong, a little frustrated having to look at it...

Am I crazy to want to change this table design? Am I missing something? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, because this is just scratching the surface of the problems I have to deal with.

!rant (am I doing this right?)

I want to dive into Python, but I read that python 2 won't be maintained by 2020. Should I pickup Python 3 or work with Python 2?

Slight background notice: I am a developer right now. I swap between Java and Javascript for most of my job. I'm familiar with the fundamentals of programming and am just looking for a language to automate some tasks or just explore. Python looks lightweight and open to a lot of potential projects, like AI (which I guarantee will take a while for me to grasp).

RF devices. Also, working with windows CE and debugging code on that tiny device.

Pulled into a meeting because a search didn't create a new table record for any result NOT found. Apparently, the user wanted dummy results to fill the table if what he searched for wasn't found.... And it was suppose to have nearly every column say "RECORD NOT FOUND". Just.... Why....

User: there an issue with this app, it's broken.
Me: what seems to be the problem
User: it doesn't filter by X
Me: you didn't ask for that when we started building it...
User: okay, so when will it be ready?

I would want the Super power that allows me to transfer all I learn or want to learn with a single touch.

Dealing with stubborn devs who don't understand why non prod apps shouldn't talk to production apps.

"Git is timing out in this ubuntu Docker image I built, let's have the image use git bash instead"

What...