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Well, this question has different ways it can be answered. Here's the approach I'd take to be versatile:

1. Javascript because there is no other choice for the browser. Even things that compile to JS will occasionally have you debugging the transpiled code to figure out what went wrong;

2. C. This is really C or C++ as you need something that's close to the metal and on some occasions nothing else will do. C probably edges out C++ in terms of versatility here;

3. Honestly, it'd probably be Java, which makes me sad. I'd like it to be Go but Java is just too ubiquitous and useful to ignore. It covers you for both a ton of web apps and Android development.

An alternative to (3) is really Python. The above list doesn't include any scripting languages, which is a weakness. Python covers this but really loses (first class) Android support. I don't like Python for large systems either.

For fun it might look a lot different eg Go, Swift and yes even C++. It really depends on what your goals are.



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