"What programming language should I learn?" - is the most frequent question I get from my students. There are tons of "experts" on the internet - and on YouTube - that are trying to give the ultimate answer.

They either try to analyze the language design, or throw numbers around - like market demand, jobs in this language, Google search trends etc.

They're all wrong.

Learning Programming is hard. You will be investing a lot of time - and often money - in the process. So I treat this question from the ROI perspective. What is ROI?

ROI stands for "return on investment" and is used by virtually any serious organization to plan long-term project. You should apply this principle to your programming career as well. After all - why would you not? Is your time or your money less valuable than those gentlemen on Wall Street? No? Well - then use their tools - to reach your goals!

"Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement. A person without goals is like a ship without a rudder, drifting aimlessly and always in danger of ending up on the rocks. A person with goals is like a ship with rudder, guided by a captain with a map, a compass, and a destination, sailing straight and true toward a port of his own choosing."

- Brian Tracy, "Maximum Achievement"

If you completed the action exercises by the end of the day you should have a list of technologies you could build the product you wanted, sorted out by approachability.

What you're going to do with your list today - is to take the first item on that list - and find the resources where you can learn about the technology: books, articles, tutorials, online courses.

I will provide you with the example list of resources below. In order for your to come up with your OWN list is to focus.

Remember the first principle you learned yesterday - Learning vs. Building. When you'll be looking at the resources - evaluate them by this one simple rule:

"Will I have built something after I finished reading this book, watching this tutorial, completing this course?"

"Everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you"

- Steve Jobs

The most challenging task I tell my students to do is, at the same time, the most rewarding one. By the end of the day you'll get to know and talk to people behind the technology / programming language you're about to learn.

It's essential to understand that even though you're just about to learn this hot new thing - people who built it are just like you. And they started exactly where you are now. The greatest thing about programming - is the community. The brightest programmers I've known - are at the same time - the humblest, easy-going and cool human beings.

So when I tell you that by the end of the day you will be essentially chatting the top programmers in the world - just take my word for it: it's not a secret club. There is no barrier to enter. And you are welcome to join.