It really depends what you want to do as a programmer. Different programming languages do better or worse jobs of making the general concepts of computer scien

It really depends what you want to do as a programmer. Different programming languages do better or worse jobs of making the general concepts of computer science digestible. My advice for someone just starting off, who wants to be "well rounded", is to start learning Python. 'Learn Python the Hard Way' followed by a couple more introductory tutorials will help you get your head around a lot of the concepts of computer science that are found in most programming languages. From there, it's worth working on a couple projects. You'll have built a few by following the introductory Python tutorials, but pick something you're interested in and actually build it. It doesn't need to be a huge project, something small will do. Once you understand the syntax of the language and why you use specific concepts, building something helps cement that knowledge. Once you've built a few of your own programs, you'll have a better idea of what you're actually interested in, and what you can do. You won't need to follow a specific route by then, you'll be able to learn what you want to learn. I'd suggest that you pick up a functional language next. Haskell does a great job of packing in a LOT of computer science concepts, especially on the functional side of things. Follow the same process you did with Python. Start with a couple introductory tutorials, then build a couple programs. If you've got Python and Haskell under your belt, you're really ready to tackle anything you can think of. Learning a new language will be easy. You'll find deep library support for pretty much anything you could want to do. From there you really can pick anything you're interested in and built it or learn it.