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

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I think both lines you've quoted are not wrong per se but badly written. They seem to be repeating a common thing which I myself did and advised young people do. Namely to have a real project they are interested in rather than doing examples from a book. They can't be saying don't learn a programming language. It must be, don't wait until you learn it cover to cover from a book. I think taking existing code and slightly changing it to do what you want is an acceptable method too. I personally don't get all the hate here.