Ask HN: You can only be fluent in 3 programming languages. Which ones?

I don't think there's a reason to be limited to 3 programming languages. Perhaps you can only be fluent in 3 languages at once, but knowing more languages is definitely not harmful. I know more than 10 languages to a degree where I have written at least one non-trivial project with them. I can't claim to be fluent in all of them at this moment, but I can quickly ramp up to a productive level in a matter of a few days.

Now if I had to pick three languages, they would probably be something along the lines of:

1. C. This language has been relevant for 40 years, and will remain relevant for at least another 40 years. Low level understanding of computer operation is paramount for a lot of advanced tasks.

2. Python/Ruby/Lua. A dynamic "scripting" language is very useful to get stuff done quickly when you need it.

3. A functional language: Haskell, ML or Lisp. Knowledge of this paradigm will make you a better programmer, regardless whether or not you get to use it in your day job.

There are languages I'd like to add to this list, namely something like Java/C# (a "managed" imperative language). And then some "brain teaser" languages to expand your horizons, Prolog is a good one for a rainy weekend and doing some simple Brainfuck programming because Brainfuck is to Turing machines what Lisp is to Lambda calculus.

But I disagree with the "3 languages" rule here, I'd recommend trying to learn a little bit of a new language every year. Next on my list is Rust.

"But I disagree with the "3 languages" rule here, I'd recommend trying to learn a little bit of a new language every year"

Absolutletly agree. By the way, an interesting language to learn is Smalltalk.

- C - Python - JavaScript

This is, of course, only based off of what I know so far and what I would find most useful. I could probably trade JS for a SQL, though, if I was thinking purely in terms of work that I'm into now. I don't use C at all, except to look at Python bindings occasionally...but all the concepts I've learned from learning C are vital, even when working with high-level languages. Plus, it'd be nice to switch to iOS development at some point.

Does Assembly count as one language? If not, then

1 JS

2 JavaEE

3 C

If yes Assembly goes to the top

Something at the back end, JavaScript plus a crapload of frameworks, libraries, build tools, development tools, database query languages, cloud services, your IDE and deep Linux.