Extreme disadvantage to what? A stupid example is that all other things being equal you likely will be even on your success on Tinder. Another stupid example.

Extreme disadvantage to what? A stupid example is that all other things being equal you likely will be even on your success on Tinder. Another stupid example. If you're learning to play hockey, then the person learning C would be at a severe disadvantage to the person practicing hockey. If you're the technical co-founder of a lean but fast moving startup then you'll likely be better off writing code than to learn C unless your product really needs to be written in C. That person might also be better off putting that time into interviewing, helping with sales or anything else which provides immediate feedback. Sorry for the dumb examples, but I see this as an issue all the time. We have limited hours in the day. Often people get sidetracked on similar distractions. Premature optimization is one often discussed example. There are endless more. We all have that friend who seems to get hopelessly bogged down in details before doing anything and ultimately giving up.