The Hacker's Path

I'd suggest learning C as soon as a basic grasp of programming (variables, condition, iteration, basic data structures and abstract data types) is there. C is the lingua-franca of programming: advanced algorithms are often implemented in C (or in C like languages), other language concepts are often expressed in terms of C language concepts. "Gold standards" of systems programming are the C POSIX API and BSD sockets (best books on network programming use C for all of their examples). Learning UNIX and the GNU tool chain is also important.

Learning a non-imperative languages is also vital: most importantly Lisp such as Scheme and a strictly and statically typed functional language with type inference like Haskell or ML.

As for Ruby vs. Python, it's an implementation detail. The languages are close enough as if you know one, you can learn the other when you need to (at a new job, or when there's an open source project you'd like to contribute to). Make sure to be fluent in one, however, as "scripting" is a vital skill (especially if you have to deal with a production environment or build/release tooling).

Same principle as Ruby vs. Python also goes for Java vs. C#. I would, however, suggest learning C++ and/or (one of) Java/C#, as they're rather widely used in industry (and not just for legacy work).

Important thing is understanding the fundamentals and seeing the overall patterns.

I feel slightly betrayed that the link says heroku.com and it isn't actually a Heroku blog.

This should be called The Coder's Path for the same reason this site should be called Coder News. A whole section on "Gettin’ Paid, Makin’ Money"? Fucking please.

I've taught Ruby to six or seven people now. We're talking average joe people (well, for the most part. my girlfriend is a nerd). All of them told me point blank "The Pickaxe book made me fall asleep".

The storyline and madness keep the reader's attention in a sea of absolutely alien ideas. If you can't see the value in that...

1. Yes, I've read these books.

2. Yes, I've taught my students this way.

3. I've chosen Ruby, SQLite, and the like because of how easy it is to go from 0 to learning. Have you ever spent 8 hours trying to figure out a messy install of MySQL? You can bet a learner will.

All of these are "path of least (possible) resistance"