In the post on why to learn JavaScript it was mentioned there are 693 programming languages out there. Some of them are obsolete, but still there are a lot of active languages that you can learn today. Why then, among all these opportunities, to choose and learn Python? I invite you to find it out.
Easy to get started
Because Python is a dynamically typed language, it is easier and faster to learn than other languages such as Java or C.
Python was designed to be fun to use and easy to understand. It is a beginner-friendly programming language that replaced Java as the most popular introductory language at Top U.S. Universities according to a study conducted in 2014.
It reads like English
One of the things that makes Python so easy to get started with is its syntax. Just take a look at this chunk of code:
for person in population:
print(person.get('age'))
You don’t need to learn a ton of details regarding how to write code, so you can focus on learning the basic programming concepts.
Rewarding experience
One of the reasons many people fail their resolutions is that they do not see in a relatively short time the effect of what they start to do.
Know somebody who went to the gym but then left this idea after a month or two because “it doesn’t have any effect on me,” or somebody who do not want to eat healthy because they do not feel any difference after staying on a diet for several days?
Python is different.
Here you see your work almost immediately. You receive a pleasant feeling of satisfaction of what you are doing. You receive this psychological reward because you see how it turns out. Not in a year, not in a month, not even in a week. Now.
You wrote a piece of code and you saw the change it made. That’s really rewarding.
Coding is short term. Any code that you write affects your program instantly. However, working on a project as a programmer is long-term. You have to write code that will be easy to maintain when reviewing it in several weeks or months. But this is a topic for another post.
Fast prototyping
Because of its seemingly simple nature, Python is a great tool to use when you need to prototype a project. Have a product idea that you would like to test? With Python you can do it faster and check whether it is worth investing your time/money in it.
Career Opportunities
Knowing Python can land you a pretty good job nowadays, as it is used in many domains, including:
- Web development. You can write the backends for websites and web apps in Python. There are many frameworks written in Python for that, with several of them (Django, Flask, web2py, Bottle) being more popular than others. One of the most prominent examples of Python usage as a backend technology is Instagram, which has its backend written entirely in Django.
- Data science. Our world is moving from a material driven economy toward a data driven economy and now is a great time to learn the tools you will need in the future, as more and more companies gather myriads of data that needs to be processed. Python is a widely used programming language in this field, as there are many libraries that let you do scientific computing, visualization, machine learning and more.
- Raspberry Pi. Have you ever heard about it? Raspberry Pi is a card-sized, inexpensive microcomputer used for a quite large range of things such as robots, remote-controlled cars, video game consoles and many more. And is has Python as one of its main programming language.
- Desktop apps. You can even write programs that you can install on your computer.
And what is more important, Python’s job demand is constantly growing, making it a popular and needed skill for a lot of companies. By learning it you become a potential employee in today’s world of global opportunities.
Money
If previous benefits do not appeal to you, then how about the prospect of having more money? As already mentioned, Python’s job demand increases, a fact that places it in top 10 in-demand technologies with an average salary of $100,000. Companies like Google, Yahoo! and IBM all use Python among other languages. Therefore, you will not only make good money, but you have a chance of working at such great companies as well.
Wide community
Last, but not least, an important factor is the Python community that exists and is there to help when you face a problem with your code.
It is the 7th biggest community on StackOverflow.
It is also the most tagged language at GitHub with over 1.27 million repositories.
All this means that Python is widely adopted and used and that you will definitely have a job if you learn Python. Besides that, you will easily find an answer to any problem that you might encounter, as there are lots of packages made available by Python community that may have among them that one package that already does what you want to achieve.
Conclusion
Python is widely adopted today, making it a good candidate to study as a programming language. You can do web development as well as data science and desktop and mobile development with it. And with the increasing amounts of data that everyone (person or company) collects, Pythonistas will become even more searched for as professionals.
If you are a complete newbie in Python, become a Hero of Programming and check what Heroes of Programming are there in Python.
In case you already know Python, feel free to browse this site for interesting information.
Also, irrespective of your experience, check out the interviews page to find out what other Python Heroes are doing, what they are working on and what tips they have for you to improve your programming skills.
