Reaching basic literacy - sure. Reaching the kind of mastery where you see extremely subtle mistakes instantly - well, no, I think that really does take years

Reaching basic literacy - sure. Reaching the kind of mastery where you see extremely subtle mistakes instantly - well, no, I think that really does take years to reach, even if you're an expert in a similar language. I've picked up TypeScript for $DAYJOB in the past year, and there are definitely still deep aspects of the type system I only half-understand. Granted, my decades of JS experience didn't really prepare me for static type systems, nor did the years of Python's strong-but-dynamic typing. Still, I'm reminded of the quote "A language that doesn't change how you think about programming isn't worth knowing." Most languages have some corners that are genuinely unlike most other languages, and without knowing those bits you don't count as a master, IMO.