But what he implies is his belief is that learning those languages actually damages your ability to think. I'd agree that he was kidding, but I read the rest of the article (http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD04xx/EW...).

He puts this statement in a list of very serious statements, most of which are actually true, claiming:

  Nearly all computing scientists I know well will 
  agree without hesitation to nearly all of them. 

That sure as heck doesn't sound toungue-in-cheek.