[bsmithers]

I see quite a few people disagreeing with the author but I think there's a key difference between:

a.) Learning python when you are also a beginner to programming

b.) Learning python when you're comfortable in another language

If, like the student in the story, you are in category a.) then I think the author is definitely right. The distractions of myriad libraries isn't helpful.

However, for category b.) it depends a lot more. I think there is value in understanding the core of a language but - depending on experience, familiarity with similar languages, end goal etc - I think we're talking between a few hours and a first sketch at a project before you're hindering yourself by ignoring the rest of the ecosystem.