What is the more effective way of becoming a Programming Languages Polyglot for a busy developer?

Question

I've been aware for a while, specially after reading the "Pragmatic Programmer", of the importance for both enhancing you skill set and programming skills depth of mastering as many programming languages as you can. What do you thing are the best approaches for achieving that goal in a rational and balanced way, especially if you're a very busy developer?

Answer 1

I find the easiest way to get better at your "native" programming language is to try others.

Dream up a relatively simple (less than 4 hours in "native" programming), interesting project and code that same project in a few different languages. For example, let's say you were a traditional ASP.NET webforms developer. Try writing the app first in ASP.NET MVC. Then write the same app using python and the Google App Engine. Finally, write it again in your "native" language and see how much better your code is now that you've had a chance to write it twice.

Be warned that this could make you hate your "native" language when you see how easy certain things are done in other languages.