I wish I had a well-informed reason to learn Haskell. Something like "I have studied all the other options available to me, and have determined through statistical analysis that Haskell is the correct language for me to invest my time in learning". I wish I could say that.
But I can't. I want to learn Haskell because my friend Dan is learning it.
Dan is an amazing guy. He loves coding. So much so that I can't point you to his blog because he would rather write code than blog posts. He's been coding for years. Started off with PHP & Perl, transitioned to Ruby, and has now become smitted with Functional Programming. I started off with PHP & Perl too, muddled my way through Python and Ruby, and have been trying to write code most of my life. So why Haskell? Why now?
In addition to learning a language my friend Dan likes, my other justification comes from a quote from Christopher Allen's book "Haskell Programming from First Principles":
We use Haskell because it is easier (over the long run) and enables us to do a better job.
That’s it.
I'm a "should not run with scissors" kind of guy. I can write code, but I quickly make a mess and end up cutting myself. There are still so many things I want to create with code, but without something that makes my life easier in the long run I will end up coding myself into a proverbial corner and end up confused, frustrated, and no further along than I have been in the past.
So today marks my first day re-re-re-committing myself to learning Haskell :)