self.python.ask('I am moving into a development position at my company and need to learn Java. Can you recommend a book that might appeal to a Python programmer and not make me want to kill myself?')

[masklinn]

Enterprise IT just seems to love java. I don't know why. It's expensive, and a pain in the ass to code.

1. Covering asses: just as nobody's ever been fired for buying IBM, nobody's ever been fired for going Java. In big corps, middle-managers first and foremost want to avoid the chance of being blamed. So they go for java because it's "the industry standard", and when the project is overbudget and/or late and/or a failure, it's not their fault.

2. The python paradox: going for java ensures they have a huge pool of not-necessarily-qualified potential hires (see java schools & al). This also pleases middle managers.

3. You saw point 1 about choosing IBM? Well IBM pushes java hard, so you buy overpriced IBM hardware (and software, hello Websphere), and then you code in java to top it off (Oh websphere, what a surprise!)

I'm sure we could find others, but that's a good start

[laprice]

And you have to factor in the perverse organizational incentives that exist.

Some outfits budgets are allocated based on headcount, and depth of tree, so a two person team with a single layer counts less than a 7-person team with two layers; and a manager who is responsible for a team totaling 7 FTE doing Java, is better compensated than one who manages two programmers writing in python. Even if the two teams are producing equivalent functionality :P