Very useful for an intermediate programmer who appreciates the craft and wants to extend their skills by becoming a true polyglot. As for total beginners, it c

Very useful for an intermediate programmer who appreciates the craft and wants to extend their skills by becoming a true polyglot. As for total beginners, it can be demeaning to explain why asking which language of the ALGOL descendants to learn is a pointless question. For their case, I don't bury the lead: I tell them "They all have the same lineage and are fundamentally similar, so just pick the one you'll learn the most robustly with. Most everything else is learning libraries."