[rdin]

I think part of it is that everybody has their own opinion of where others should start. For example, some people think that new programmers should start low-level (such as with C) and learn how memory management works; others think that a higher-level language (such as Java) is better and abstracts away all of the things that people can learn later. And of course, there's also web app programming, which brings in another curve

[maxbrown]

So maybe a resource of compiled answers could offer a flow-chart of differing opinions?

IE if you want to learn this, start here. If you think this is more important, start here.