The Dangers of Learning Too Many Languages

You are always learning new programming languages or frameworks.

I think all of us have fallen victims to this.

Whether it is the hype of a certain technology, or you just decide one day that you want to master something completely new just for the challenge of it.

It is really a vain pursuit.

Why? Well I'm all for you being a constant learner.

That is a good thing you actually have to do in this industry.

You have to always be learning.

But the question is, "What are you learning?"

It is much more beneficial to be learning and mastering the concepts of programming and how things are really working than learning many different languages.

Which to be honest, each one is just a new syntax.

It is just the new language. Why do that.

If you really understand the concepts that underline programming,

• A loop can be looked up in any language
• A switch statement can be looked up in any language

It is all just syntax!

Also read: How I would Learn JavaScript If I was Starting Over

So, if you are asked to build a feature in a new language or frameworks, something that you haven't used before, you should be able to:

1. Read a quick overview of that technology and how it works.
2. Be able to build that feature based on programming concepts or pseudo code even and then transforming it into whatever syntax that language speaks.

Also, and I did an article on this one recently. I will share a link.

But if you are going to learn a new language for the sake of doing so, pick a lower level language like

• C
• Rust
• Go or
• C#

If you are coming from Python or something high level like that.

And once you have put in the work of learning the deeper concepts that those languages force you to understand, you can really jump in anywhere.

Rooting for you,

Karl

Ps. Also, don't forget to follow me here and on Twitter/X for more upcoming posts!