[kornish]

PG has a couple essays directly related to this topic. The first about using a language which is implicitly more powerful than others ("Beating the Averages") [1] and the other is about how using a less common language is a positive selector in the hiring process ("The Python Paradox") [2].

[1]: http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html [2]: http://www.paulgraham.com/pypar.html

[omtanks]

Agree on the first. On the second, "And people don't learn Python because it will get them a job; they learn it because they genuinely like to program and aren't satisfied with the languages they already know.". I disagree, I like to solve problems more in Java. I tried several including Python over the years. I'm asked to do something in Python I will but for my money, Java is more readable than Python. It's an acute and false observation that he made. Less common does not necessarily equate to smarter/better/faster.

[dllthomas]

This was dramatically more true of Python when he wrote it than presently. FWIW, I've recently been using Python for a job and find it deeply unsatisfying. I'm inclined to think that current-gen Java may well be better; the last time I used Java in anger it was basically a different language. Though to be fair, truly modern Python is also a bit different than what I've been working in.