My first thought exactly. Pandas API is complicated enough that it requires a good grasp of Python in general to be able to tell what is regular Python, and wha

My first thought exactly. Pandas API is complicated enough that it requires a good grasp of Python in general to be able to tell what is regular Python, and what is the convoluted convention that Pandas uses to achieve its ends. This is not a criticism of pandas -- I think it extremely very well in being an R-like data analysis framework given the limitations/features of the Python syntax. But learning it before being confident with Python is like learning Ruby at the same time as learning Ruby on Rails.