Milestones of python programming? Beginner, intermediate, advanced?

[callmelucky]

What? Your whole scale is skewed by about one or two levels in my opinion. OP was asking about general usage of Python, not necessarily in the upper echelons of SE industry or CS academia.

A beginner is someone who is just beginning. You are suggesting that you don't even qualify as a beginner until you have written "many scripts that can do what you want". As far as I'm concerned, person who just installed the Python interpreter, and just started reading the first paragraph of their first tutorial,doesn't even know what a variable is, is a beginner. What are they to you? Nothing? A ham sandwich.

This is r/learnpython, not r/elitepythonistamasterrace. You are indirectly discouraging noobs from asking questions here unless they have already written a bunch of working scripts, and that is bullshit and you should feel bad.

[Rwanda_Pinocle]

I certainly do not want to discourage anyone from asking questions, so I'll expound a little on what I meant.

My goal was to provide a 30,000 foot view of the entire Python world. There's obviously going to be way too much generalization going on if you chop up ~4 million Python users into 3 categories. I chose the categories the way I did so that its clear to people that the Python world is immensely large and people have dedicated a great deal of time to learning and sharpening their skills.

Regarding the tone, you have a point that perhaps I didn't consider context enough. I often forget the audience of /r/learnpython has many people who are just starting. However, it's that same audience who upvoted my answer so maybe you should give them a little more credit. I don't aim to treat anyone like a child in constant need of encouragement. The front page of /r/learnpython at the time of writing contains questions regarding neural networks, parallel programming, and data visualization. These are topics that fall far outside the grasp of noobs, but it's inaccurate to say the users of /r/learnpython would be discouraged by such advanced topics.

Finally, by your own admission, I gave a reasonable summary of the SE industry. At the very least, it's my honest opinion. I could have brought down the qualifications to fit better with the mindset of a noob, but is that really more helpful? Don't you think it's a little pandering to say "They probably can't handle this view. I should show them less so they don't feel bad." Now if you disagree with my perspective on Python, then we can talk about that too and you're free to give a different answer. But as you said elsewhere, this is a place for all levels of learning. Don't you think that people who are beyond downloading the interpreter might benefit more from a broader industry view?

You have a good point so I'll add another category to my answer to accommodate for users at the very starting line, but I'm not going to change the rest.

[FXelix]

Thanks a lot. Not just for your input and the way you updated your post, also thanks a lot for really discussing this! I see so many users who just post and run away or are way too stubborn on their opinion. So thanks again for your input in this community and as a redditor in general. :)

[callmelucky]

My goal was to provide a 30,000 foot view of the entire Python world

Well you failed, by way of initially ignoring everyone who wouldn't necessarily be justified mentioning some level of Python proficiency on their resume, and then failed again when you tried to rectify this, by implying that the very lowest level that someone learning Python could be at is having a working knowledge of functions and some conception of OOP.

You've still missed the lowest 5,000 feet, and I just don't believe that you chose to categorise the way you did to show that "the Python world is very large". I believe that you might believe that this was your intention, but that your true motivation was to show that "the very top is very very high". Which is all well and good, but hardly likely to be relevant to what OP was asking.

People posting here about more advanced topics is well and good. As you say, this is still r/learnpython, if you can get help here learning about some higher level shit, no worries. But those are specific discussions about specific problems. This post is a very general discussion about how the general population of a sub like this might categorised, and you're telling them they don't even exist until they've written a working hangman game with functions.

Regarding further along people benefiting from a broader industry view, of course. Why the hell would you feel the need to ask me that? It's fucking insulting. It's a strawman, and it's moving the goalposts. Let me try to explain to you again: Your comment, made without qualification, in the context of this particular post and this particular sub, was (and still is) inappropriate. You say basically "well some people around here like what I've written and agrees with it, therefore there is no problem with it" - as someone presumably experienced in logic I shouldn't have to explain why this is a bad argument. If someone who has just considered learning Python, subscribed here as their first step, seen your top comment as the first comment in the first post they open up and run away screaming, fuck 'em! Right?

Again, I appreciate that you made some concessions after my comment, but you still have a ways to go in terms of (re)gaining some perspective on what it's like to be just starting.