It is a good question, and I am glad you asked as many new python developers hear this advice from Zed. I think in 2019 there is no question that you should be

It is a good question, and I am glad you asked as many new python developers hear this advice from Zed. I think in 2019 there is no question that you should be using python 3. Zed seems to be personally offended by both how the transition was handled and some of the design choices in python 3, but I think he is doing his readers a disservice if he is still recommending python 2 today.