I can offer anecdotal evidence to the contrary. I am proficient in both C++ and Python and I am able to whip up something in Python much faster than in C++. Boo

I can offer anecdotal evidence to the contrary. I am proficient in both C++ and Python and I am able to whip up something in Python much faster than in C++. Boost and C++11 closed the gap somewhat but the difference is: * Python's approach of "batteries included", ruch standard library. Sure you can find a library in C++ for almost everything, but it is never as easy as "pip install" and subsequent import. * I do not have to declare types. It works well for small programs where I can maintain implicit typing in my head but becomes an impediment for larger programs. * Compilation time for any moderately sized C++ program and the lack of REPL quickly become a problem in fast iteration cycle. No IPython for C++. * Small syntactic sugar things always help. As an example, In Python I can assign array, set, or dict literal to any variable. In C++11 even though I should supposedly be able to do some of that, it is not universally across platforms.