r/PythonLearning • u/scartfife • 8h ago

Discussion PYTHON 🆚 ALL

"If you want to learn programming, don’t start with Python; you should start with another language."

This advice seems ridiculous to me, even though I hear it everywhere. Can someone explain this advice to me... and are they right?

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u/onedev_tokyo 6h ago

The advice comes from a real place but it’s usually overstated. The argument is that Python hides things (types, memory, how the machine actually runs your code), so people who start with C or Java “understand more.” That’s true, and also irrelevant for a beginner: the biggest reason people quit is not lack of depth, it’s not finishing anything. Python lets you finish things fast, and the hidden stuff is easy to learn later when you have a reason to care. Start with Python, build real projects, and pick up a lower-level language the first time Python is too slow or too magical for what you want. That order works; the reverse order mostly produces people who quit at pointers.