No. With Python, Perl,R, Bash... whatever, I never had to know any C to be very productive. With F#, good luck not knowing C#. With Clojure, not knowing Java

No. With Python, Perl,R, Bash... whatever, I never had to know any C to be very productive. With F#, good luck not knowing C#. With Clojure, not knowing Java is a pain. I've tried both several times and was frustrated by constantly being referred to something Java related that I didn't understand. Because of that, I feel like those languages will never pick up anyone outside of regular users of C# or Java that want to try something different. Of course there are exceptions, but they're just that. I agree with you that perhaps one should go through all of what you're referring to Ex: learn assembly, write a Forth...etc. I'm just saying a lot of these supposedly amazing languages stagnant with regards to their userbase for a reason. APL uses an entirely different way of doing things than Clojure, but I'd bet I could get up to speed a lot faster with APL than Clojure where I constantly have to fight with learning the daunting ecosystem.