@rml when I was young, I read "The C Programming Language" by K&R and learned C. But then I saw Stroustrup's "The C++ Programming Language", and thought to myself: "since this book is so thick, it must be what professionals use to solve serious problems".

I think the whole industry still thinks that way. "It can't be serious if it's only 4MB and compiles itself in seconds, rather than hours"