Agreed that if your goal is not mastery you can actually learn the basics of a language and become semi-productive in a month. Anything more requires exception

Agreed that if your goal is not mastery you can actually learn the basics of a language and become semi-productive in a month. Anything more requires exceptional skill, or more likely much more time. Checkout the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell asserts (not originally) that it takes 10,000 hours to master a subject. See: http://robertoyudice.com/thoughts/10000-hours-to-master-programming/ http://robertoyudice.com/thoughts/10000-hours-to-master-prog...