My progression went something like this: some form of basic, Visual Basic, Python, C++. I then stuck with C++ for personal projects for about five years. In thi

My progression went something like this: some form of basic, Visual Basic, Python, C++. I then stuck with C++ for personal projects for about five years. In this time I tinkered with a ton of other languages too (assembly, ML, prolog, pascal, ...) Sometime during my C++ years I studied computer science, where I learned Java, some more x86 assembly, some mips assembly, some haskell, some more prolog and rediscovered Python. I then used Python as my main language for a few years. After university, I worked with Java and a little C++ for a few years and then left to do contract work, where I used Python for web work and assembly (PIC24), C and C++ for embedded systems work. And now I run a startup, where we use Clojure, Python and a tiny bit of C++. So to answer your questions, Python played an important role in my programming history (indeed, still does), but I think the most important thing is to learn many (different!) languages. Python is a good language and will serve you well, but you don't want to get stuck with a single way of thinking. For example, there's more to the world of programming than Object Oriented programming.