Exactly. When I was a proto-hacker I suffered from a kind of paranoid monoglossia. I had found Perl, Perl made me happy, therefore I needed no other languages

Exactly. When I was a proto-hacker I suffered from a kind of paranoid monoglossia. I had found Perl, Perl made me happy, therefore I needed no other languages, thankyouverymuch. Over time, I've grown out of that, and have learned to appreciate learning a language simply for the sake of learning it. Playing with Erlang and Lisp and C makes you a better Rubyist. Sub any other languages for those 4. So my advice? Pick one. Any one will do. Spend a week hacking in it. Read a little, but don't read too much without actually using the language. Write some programs that solve a very small itch, or do something fun like simulating a swarm of bees or creating two bots that battle to the death. Play, and then after a week or two, play with something else. I think new programmers sometimes worry about learning a language that will be financially viable, or will help them get a job. I know I did. I also know I'm worse off for that belief. I would have been better served, both personally and professionally, if I'd just played more.