For data work, "It's actually pretty hard to argue *against* using Python"

I wrote my first Python program in 1996, and my most recent a couple of weeks ago, so I can appreciate Python's advance to cover a very broad range of computing tasks. I don't program much anymore, but in my work over the years -- and yours too, if you do much coding -- data manipulation has always played an important role. You can't build and apply analytical models, manage transactions, craft a Web experience, or carry out any other significant task without investing time and attention to data acquisition, cleansing, and structuring. Python is ideal for those tasks, and then for model building and data analysis. Python is great for natural language processing (NLP), in particular, a special interest of mine, and for just about any data work that interests you, chances are.