[pjmlp]

Python is growing in fashion because those Fortran and C++ GPGPU libraries happen to have Python bindings out of the box, whereas other languages are only getting them now.

That and has replaced Java in many introduction to programming courses.

Which is good, when learning to programm performance isn't a concern as such.

I know Python since Zope was the only reason to use it, so around Python 1.5 or something.

Other than replacing what I used Perl for, regarding UNIX shell scripting, I never used Python in any scenario where performance might come into play.

There are plenty of options that beat Python's LOC, while providing an AOT/JIT toolchain out of the box.