[still_grokking]

Which languages?

Python is OOP; but the "classical" data-centric languages are actually all more or less in the FP space. (I count array languages and APL-likes to FP in this case).

Just an example: You don't have immutable data types by default in Python. This is actually a pretty bad default for data processing tasks.

[joaogui1]

Python has a huge library ecosystem and the average Machine Learning programmer is not a CS geek and so prefers pythonic quasi-OOO then over FP (one of the hurdles for JAX adoption is it's functional paradigm)

[still_grokking]

The claim was that Python is better suited to writing such libs and frameworks than other languages.

You now say it's like that because Python has already quite some libs / frameworks in that direction.

This looks like circular reasoning.

Also the the "prototypical ML dude" comes form the math department. People with math background have a much easier time to grasp FP than procedural programming. FP is much more "natural" when you're used to math.

(Procedural programming says things like `x = x + 1`, but even my grandma would know that "this has no solution", or is likewise "plain wrong" ;-))