TL;DR: A programming language's syntax is now the least durable thing you can spend time memorizing — AI tools translate, generate, and refactor it in seconds. What still separates a strong engineer from a weak one is understanding the building blocks every language shares (variables, control flow, functions, data structures) and being able to trace how data actually moves and transforms as it flows through a system. Learn the building blocks and the data flow first, and any language becomes a thin notation layered on top of a model you already understand.