My guess - In the short term, those who read it based on signaling value (the "pretenders") will be worse programmers than those who read it purely for fun ("t

My guess - In the short term, those who read it based on signaling value (the "pretenders") will be worse programmers than those who read it purely for fun ("the originals"). But in the long term, action matters more than intent. Those who kept "pretending" and kept learning (no matter the reason) will be just as good or better.