I don't know how they know that they'd they'd love a job programming a functional programming language, if they were not passionate enough about Haskell to self-learn (not hard, there are books).

It seems so paradoxical.

It's a bit like someone saying, I'd love to be a hairdresser, do you think it's worth studying to be a hairdresser? There's something which blows up my brain to read that. If you love it, do it.

Nothing makes sense here!

Think of it this way.

I like the idea of hairdressing, however I hear there are not many jobs in that field. Is it worth studying this, if my intention is to use it professionally?

There is no paradox in wanting get some meta information on a subject before investing in learning it.

> I think school rots brains

What do you mean by this? I've been out of school for decades.

Why do you think you need permission to learn? Try learning. If it sucks, hit the bricks. In school, that’s not allowed, but it’s how everything works outside of school.