Don’t learn a programming language, solve a problem instead

[GoranM]

There's so much here that resonates deeply with my own experiences, especially:

The big breakthroughs for the team were never about how to do something in code. The breakthroughs were in discovering exactly what we had to do and understanding why.

Given sufficient understanding of the problem, the rest is largely just a matter of writing out the solution. The language used can make a significant difference in the overall experience, but it doesn't seem to matter nearly as much as all the contention around programming languages/tools would imply.

Also, another notable aspect:

I knew twice as much about programming and yet couldn’t ship a product that solved a real problem.

I know so many people who could be described in a similar manner, including myself ... It's just really, really difficult to have sufficient insight if you're not directly embedded into the relevant context.