> I had this list of languages to explore in more depth: Python, Ruby, Lisp, Pascal (though I still plan to explore those). Oh, and find a good scripting language, in addition to one from the compiled language group.
The phrasing of "oh, and find a good scripting language" makes it sound like that's a completely separate goal than exploring Python, Ruby, etc. in depth. It reads to me like you plan to explore those four languages, then afterwards go find a good scripting language. This doesn't seem like it would be necessary if you find either Python or Ruby to be a good scripting language when you explore them, which implies that you don't expect to have found either of them to be good. Given that, I was curious about your motivation to explore those languages if you didn't expect them to be good.
Based on your confusion, it seems like you weren't intending these to be read as separate goals. I'm still not sure why you'd explicitly call out "finding a good scripting language" after mentioning you wanted to explore Python and Ruby, but my initial question appears not to be relevant.
* but seem to consider ... separate goal
* if you don't expect either to be good