I'm a small business programmer. I love solving tough problems with Python and PHP. If you like what you're seeing, you should probably follow me here on dev.to and then checkout my blog.
It's kind of a weird question. I'm not sure there's that much benefit in chasing after the language you think might be popular in 10 or 20 years, unless your job calls for it.
If my work or hobbies demand that I learn a new language, I just sit down and start learning it. But I believe that spending time learning languages just to learn them is probably not a great investment. You can pick up the syntax but unless you really work in a language, your knowledge of it will remain superficial.
However, learning about testing, security, clean code, software craftsmanship, project management, design patterns, systems theory, complexity, refactoring, teamwork, leadership, professionalism, negotiation, communication, psychology, continuous improvement, business, etc. are helpful no matter what language you are using. And the useful half-life of these skills is measured in decades, not years.
If you're looking to invest a couple of hours per week in yourself, I'd encourage you to focus on these topics, not more languages.
It's kind of a weird question. I'm not sure there's that much benefit in chasing after the language you think might be popular in 10 or 20 years, unless your job calls for it.
If my work or hobbies demand that I learn a new language, I just sit down and start learning it. But I believe that spending time learning languages just to learn them is probably not a great investment. You can pick up the syntax but unless you really work in a language, your knowledge of it will remain superficial.
However, learning about testing, security, clean code, software craftsmanship, project management, design patterns, systems theory, complexity, refactoring, teamwork, leadership, professionalism, negotiation, communication, psychology, continuous improvement, business, etc. are helpful no matter what language you are using. And the useful half-life of these skills is measured in decades, not years.
If you're looking to invest a couple of hours per week in yourself, I'd encourage you to focus on these topics, not more languages.
I agree 100%, focus on being a better programmer and a better human being :-)
Programming language theory and monads can wait!
You can absolutely be a great programmer even if you don't know all the typing systems or have rewrote a todo app in all the languages :D