[pfoof]

I try to read at least 16 books a year (usually it turns out to be more). I cannot stress enough how much this helped me increase my skills.

One example: The Go Programming Language. I tried using Go several years back after using Java for years and my experience was horrible. Then I read this book and I understood the philosophy behind Go, followed all exercises. Am I Go expert? Far from it. But I am proficient enough to write my own tools or contribute small fixes to other teams at work efficiently.

[tasuki]

That's a curious example. In my circles, Go is viewed as a very plebeian language.

Go is a practical language. It's for getting things done in (large and often changing?) teams. It didn't strike me as a language for people who are ambitious about improving their computer programming skills. Lisp, Haskell, Prolog, whatever J/K/APL... those always seemed to me like languages for the ambitious.

[ludicity]

I never realized how bad I was at Python until reading Fluent Python, hah.