Ruby introduced me to the ideas of first class functions, closures, and higher order functions and the design patterns that can be easily implemented using them

Ruby introduced me to the ideas of first class functions, closures, and higher order functions and the design patterns that can be easily implemented using them. These same patterns can be implemented in Java, albeit with a much more verbose syntax. Most Java programmers are unaware of even these basic functional concepts and it shows because they end up copy-pasting a lot of code they don't have to and writing silly functions that can be easily implemented in terms of functions like map, filter, and reduce. Yes, learning a new language can and does make you a better programmer if it introduces new concepts you can apply to other languages.