Learn something useful -> Learn Scala or Erlang on the side.

P. T. Barnum just turned in his grave! He said USEFUL! If you said "learn to write SQL instead of abstracting stuff through a framework" or even "learn to mix cement and lay formwork" - THAT would be useful.

Erlang, Scala (or dare i say it), Lisp - possibly not so much 'useful' as an academic pursuit.

Are you sure about this? Erlang for example . . . seriously, consider what Erlang is best at and then consider where hardware is headed in terms of processors . . .

Trivial enough to be useless.

I agree. It would be great to see an analogous article written by someone knowledgeable in both business and technology.

Interesting thing for me personally is that I have often wanted to read an updated - so to speak - version of that fine little book by Barnum.