Amazing. No Google search led me to an answer this helpful. Thank you for your input on languages also...it seems there is quite a debate between Java and Python.
Python's a good language, but it's a soft-typed interpreted language. Which means it will let you get away with certain things.
It is also has some differences in syntax from a lot of other languages that might give you some trouble when you switch. C/C++, Java, PHP, Perl, Javascript and many other languages share a lot of common syntax. Python's still really similar, but it deviates in some key ways.
It also tends to have really hard core adherents who will swear by it above and over anything else, which is why there is something of a debate. It really doesn't matter that much what language you start with.
One of the keys to being a good programmer is knowing your toolbox. And that includes knowing multiple languages. The best programmers don't have one favorite language. Rather they have a toolbox of a half a dozen or more, and they pick the best language for the task at hand.
My first manager taught me something college had failed to (or that I failed to learn there), which is that programming languages come and go in trends, but they are all based on recurring fundamental concepts, which endure beyond any single language.
Most new programming languages are a remix or mashup of some or all of these concepts, so if you master those concepts you'll be able to easily pick up any other language.
It's like learning Latin as your first foreign language, and being able to quickly pick up any Latin-based language after that. C, Lisp, and Haskell are the Latin of the CS world.
Since you're at MIT, take the famous Structure & Interpretation of Computer Programs (used to be 6.001, not sure if it still is). http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.001/abelson-sussma.... That'll get you started with Lisp (specifically the Scheme dialect).
Since it sounds like you're running a business you may feel pressured to learn Java or whatever your coders are currently using to get your business off the ground. But I heartily recommend resisting that pressure, doing it right, and mastering the enduring fundamentals first. It may cost you something in immediacy and expedience, but that's what school is for, especially one such as MIT. You should carefully weigh how you spend your time there, and unless you think you've got the next Facebook, focus on mastering the enduring concepts, not the trends. You'll be glad you did the rest of your life and career.
PS - there's little to nothing that Clojure (a Lisp dialect on the JVM) and Haskell can't do in the web space, so the cost in immediacy and expedience is slim to none anyway.
PPS - it didn't register till just now that you're an Econ Major not going into CS or Software Engineering as a career. If you just want a tried-and-true, versatile, easy-to-get-started-with language with tons of libraries and frameworks (reusable code) to hack in, huge and helpful community go with Python. Java is too bureaucratic a language for this purpose.
Start with Zed Shaw's excellent introduction, Learn Python the Hard Way (hard way = by doing lots of follow-along examples until it gets into your brain muscle memory), then go from there.
It is also has some differences in syntax from a lot of other languages that might give you some trouble when you switch. C/C++, Java, PHP, Perl, Javascript and many other languages share a lot of common syntax. Python's still really similar, but it deviates in some key ways.
It also tends to have really hard core adherents who will swear by it above and over anything else, which is why there is something of a debate. It really doesn't matter that much what language you start with.
One of the keys to being a good programmer is knowing your toolbox. And that includes knowing multiple languages. The best programmers don't have one favorite language. Rather they have a toolbox of a half a dozen or more, and they pick the best language for the task at hand.