"I've been in software development for 50 years (now retired) and languages come and go. If you're into software development, keep active in several, and strive to learn a new and different culture language every year or two. In simple terms today I like Python and JavaScript. For longevity in marketable skills, C and C++ are essential base skills. I used C for over 30 years. Learn Haskell, it'll improve all your other programming skills even if you never use it in a project." - Gordon
"For data science it is most important to understand and implement algorithms. Python is one of the languages that is really self describing. And one of the major reasons why I use it for data science projects especially machine learning is that it is very light. Anyway, for all my projects that have complicated algorithms, I use OCTAVE for trying out algorithms (since I have all datascience codes stored there). Mainly by breaking it into simpler problems and then in the end I convert it into desired language and join the simpler and shorter algorithms." - Hardi