Popular conceit about learning programming languages

[David Mertz, Ph.D.]

Carl Banks <imbosol at vt.edu> wrote previously:
|Try two or three months [to learn Common Lisp], at worst.  A competent
|and experienced programmer can probably learn a language like Common
|Lisp in a couple weeks in their spare time.

There's a strange phenomenon with programmers, especially (but not
exclusively) ones who are attached to one or a couple favorite
langauges.  They claim--rather persistently--that someone/anyone can
learn their language in an absurdly short time period.

Sometimes it is "a few hours to pick up the basics of Python;" other
times "a couple weeks to master CL;" or occasionally "a few months to
become an expert in X."  All these claims are quite literally
unbelievable... and yet they come up over and over from every advocate.

The funny thing about all the claims is that they are enthymatic
contrasts with all "those other languages."  The writers apparently
expect readers to have a realistic sense about how long it takes to
learn most programming languages (months or years), so the silly claim
about <favorite-language> is then drawn as such a strong contrast with
that.  But as soon as anyone explicitly STATES the claim that
<non-favorite-language> actually takes -many- months to learn, the
optimistic "days" for <favorite-language> appears as an absurdity rather
than a language advantage.

It's a funny structure... sort of like what ordinary language
philosophers (Grice or Dummett, I think) call "essentially accidental"
events.  But this is "essentially implicit."

Yours, David...

P.S. I'm a pretty smart guy, btw.  From kindergarten through doctorate,
I always learned things faster than just about everyone around me.  I
remember more than almost anyone I know.  Everywhere I've worked as a
programmer, I've been pretty much the best one at the site.

And you know what:  I CANNOT learn CL in a couple weeks of my spare
time.  I've spent more than that, and understand little about it,
really.  When I first learned Python, it took me much longer than a few
hours to pick up even the barest essentials.  And when I have programmed
with languages fulltime for several years, I continued to learn new
things about them after those years.

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