At this late stage in the game, learning a new language for me is a matter of deciding on a project and building it while keeping some appropriate reference at

At this late stage in the game, learning a new language for me is a matter of deciding on a project and building it while keeping some appropriate reference at hand. If I read a book linearly at all it's to read just enough to get the "Hello, World" going. BTW, it doesn't take very long to become usefully productive in a language. When I hire developers who've never worked with a language before I budget 6 weeks for them to start being productive and 6 months until they're truly proficient. Because of that, I place a higher premium on their raw talent and level of interest in the platform and type of work we have than on the particular stack they're already familiar with.