[tom_b]

"Having said that, there are languages that are designed to solve hard problems."

Which kind of says that there are actually elite languages, right?

I agree that people conflate their use of an "elite" programming language or framework with actually being an elite hacker.

And certainly there are masterful hackers in any given language.

There is no substitute for getting things done, but my own programming life would have been more productive earlier had I simply known more programming paradigms to start with. The wonderful idea in an "elite programming language" is that the thinking hacker is forced to look at least a little at languages that support different programming paradigms. Then, their mental modeling of problems may be forever changed - improved even.