So I've decided to think smaller. Reading up on MapReduce has made me interested in learning a functional programming language, at least a little. What is a functional programming language? Well, if I knew, I'd tell you. I have a very vague idea in my head, but it's so vague I can't even delude myself into thinking I know what it is.
I'm going to need some projects to learn this new method, however. Luckily, Project Euler has a large selection of simple problems to work on. They increase in difficulty monotonically. Eventually I'd like to solve them all, but for now I'm going to start at the beginning.
I'm still broke, so I'll have to use online resources for the time (which might be the best kind anyway), but if anyone has any suggestions for learning Haskell, let me know. I plan on trying to solve each problem using both a functional and an imperative language. This should really show the differences between the two approaches. In the end, maybe this exercise will result in a better understanding of the functional concepts that underlie something like the MapReduce juggernaut.
cool!
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