I was going to suggest a functional language, but then realized that these days it's not the language choice but rather how it's used. I can't think of a beginn

I was going to suggest a functional language, but then realized that these days it's not the language choice but rather how it's used. I can't think of a beginner-friendly functional language--F# is close but doesn't lead to many jobs. Maybe Elixir. Regardless of what language is first learned, I wish that more attention was paid to how the language is introduced and used. Specifically, rather than going bottom up mutating things willy-nilly to get the job done, express solutions decomposed in a functional style with localized side-effects. Keep using this pattern until it's the first/second nature. So much of becoming a good developer is unlearning bad habits picked up starting day 1.