You're right that this is all just posturing and anecdotes.
For every anecdote of a Python developer who doesn't have the slightest idea of memory management, i can bring out an anecdote about a C developer who learned Perl and wrote C in it because he didn't trust hashes and had no idea of how to capitalize on high level algorithms.
It's also important that programming is still very young. The entirety of the human race has only been programming for about 3 generations, and only now are the first programmers beginning to die of old age. It will be a long time before we actually have enough data on what works and what doesn't.
I think a better message to send to programmers is not "don't learn Python as your first language", but rather "don't think Python is the only game in town". People should never suggest that you should pigeonhole yourself into one language or one programming paradigm. I know many people who learned Python as their very first language and are currently proficient in languages like C and Haskell and Scala.
If you really care about cars, you should learn a stick shift. If you really care about programming and computing, you should learn C. But just because you learn an automatic first, to ease you into driving, doesn't necessarily mean you're any less likely to go and learn to drive a stick. If you're really interested in using and understanding cars, you'll realize automatic is not the end-all-be-all. The same is true for programming.
>It's also important that programming is still very young. The entirety of the human race has only been programming for about 3 generations, and only now are the first programmers beginning to die of old age.
I often think about this too. What languages will be the gold standards in 30 or 50 years from now? Or 100? Will people view Python and Ruby as many people view COBOL and Pascal today?
> I often think about this too. What languages will be the gold standards in 30 or 50 years from now? Or 100? Will people view Python and Ruby as many people view COBOL and Pascal today?
It's hard for me to believe that they will view Python and Ruby as charitably as we view COBOL and Pascal. Cobol is only 32 years older than Python (1959/1991) and Pascal only 25 years older than Ruby (1970/1995).
I imagine the gold standard programming language for the 2040s is either a twinkle in someone's eye or just invented.
"You're right that this is all just posturing and anecdotes."
Maybe in programming, but I think there are plenty of areas wherein this "manual transmission" learning curve should be practiced.
I hate to stomp all over this guys grave, but that air france pilot who responded to the STALL STALL STALL blaring in his face for two minutes by pulling up on the yoke as hard as he could ... perhaps that guy could have used some more "manual transmission" knowledge of the plane.
That was a much more complex situation, and fundamental knowledge about airplanes (that all of the pilots probably have plenty) wouldn't have helped anybody.
From that same link.
"this led to a perverse reversal that lasted nearly to the impact: each time Bonin happened to lower the nose, rendering the angle of attack marginally less severe, the stall warning sounded again—a negative reinforcement that may have locked him into his pattern of pitching up"
For every anecdote of a Python developer who doesn't have the slightest idea of memory management, i can bring out an anecdote about a C developer who learned Perl and wrote C in it because he didn't trust hashes and had no idea of how to capitalize on high level algorithms.
It's also important that programming is still very young. The entirety of the human race has only been programming for about 3 generations, and only now are the first programmers beginning to die of old age. It will be a long time before we actually have enough data on what works and what doesn't.