An excellent article, well worth reading. As it points out, implementing the idea of learning a programming language for the sake of learning requires being highly selective in deciding which languages to learn. One language I would advise against learning is C++ - because, first, it may take too much time to learn to be worth the effort, and, second, the language itself is not all that interesting, and its standard library (especially STL), while does bring some novel ideas to the table, is so heavily affected by the particulars of the language itself, that maybe the D language would serve the same purpose better. Also, please do yourself a service and learn C# instead of Java. (This is not to create any doubt in the extreme usefulness of learning both C++ and/or Java for practical purposes.)
> Also, please do yourself a service and learn C# instead of Java.
Nah. Learn whatever takes your fancy. Or whatever you think will get you a job. Or learn whatever you can get tutored in because it's almost always easier to learn when you have someone you can ask questions to in person.
Learn structure and logic, but don't tell anyone they're less of a programmer because they use X instead of Y.
