Python is not a great language for data science. Part 1: The experience
2025-12-31
The author argues that Python is overused in data science due to historical accident rather than inherent suitability, particularly for tasks beyond deep learning like data wrangling, visualization, and statistical modeling. Drawing from two decades of observing competent graduate students in his computational biology lab, he notes that ad-hoc data manipulation requests that take minutes in R consistently require extended problem-solving sessions for Python users, suggesting the issue lies with Python's tools rather than user competence.
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