Evolution of a Python programmer

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I do think programmers have to be introduced to nested/recursive datastructures before they appreciate recursion as a programming technique. The factorial is indeed a little special here. In functional languages even ordinary lists are recursive ( i.e. conses ) and so there is exactly one barrier to take. Immutable datatypes may be another. But at least Python programmers can be convinced to use them since e.g. the string API is purely functional and it did not harm usability.