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Learning to program is not the same as learning a new language. Norvig is talking about something utterly different that has no relevance here. It's even hinted

• cabalamat 12y ago
  > Learning to program is not the same as learning a new language. Norvig is talking about something utterly different that has no relevance here. At least in parts of his essay, Norvig is talking about learning a new language when one already knows how to program. For example, where he says: In 3 days you might be able to learn some of the syntax of C++ (if you already know another language), but you couldn't learn much about how to use the language. In short, if you were, say, a Basic programmer, you could learn to write programs in the style of Basic using C++ syntax, but you couldn't learn what C++ is actually good (and bad) for.