[AndrejM]

Gah! I wish I could have the mental capacity to learn all of this stuff at once. I'm busy with Python, C, tons of code that I want to explore, plus I'm interested in D (waiting anxiously for the DPL book). And then there's all that talk about Haskell and Clojure which really sparks my interest. I fear if I try to read too much, my head will explode (or worse, I'll simply forget what I've learnt).

[hello_moto]

Life is about making choices and perhaps knowing your limitations as a human being.

You can either be someone who knew various programming languages and wrote a few small single-purposed libraries (and jump the wagon to another new languages) or knew two or three programming languages and build something big.

It's a choice. Ask yourself if you are truly interested at these languages or is it because of the HN side-effect (hang out with a crowd with certain belief, you'll become them or want to become them).

[AndrejM]

Well popularity is not really the reason I'm interested in these languages. The practical guy in me tells me to stick with the languages that I know, and expand my knowledge in that domain. But then there's that other side of me that's really interested in everything. These days I'm leaning towards being more practical, but I was always interested in just about everything (be it programming, music, 3D/art, or even various sports).

And you're absolutely right about making decisions, they have to be made. Anyway, I don't want to steal the topic, but thanks for the handy reminder. :)

[GeneralMaximus]

I'm in the same boat. A few months ago, I decided I'm not going to learn a new programming language unless I need to.

These days, learning a new programming language every year is the fashionable thing to do. This trend, IMO, is stupid. I'd say build something new every year with what you already know. If what you know isn't enough to build that something, then go ahead and learn a new technology. (For example, I mostly program Cocoa but now I want to build a webapp. I can't write a webapp in Cocoa, which is why I'm learning Django.)

[hello_moto]

Good suggestion!

Pick one for the specific domain if your current one can't handle it.

[DenisM]

I fear if I try to read too much, my head will explode

That's how you know you're learning - your brain rebuilds itself around new concepts. If you push it hard enough you will start hearing a hum in your ears after few hours of continuous learning.