[Edu-sig] [python-advocacy] education as Python killer app

[kirby urner]

> But that may be its own rub.  'Beginner' is a stage which one goes through
> on the way to something else, while I think that Jeff is looking for
> something that could well be permanent -- what Anna Martelli Ravenscroft
> called (calls?) 'for the rest of us'.  She too was stuck on the 'but
> what would I do with it' question.
>

I use the word "tourist" a lot, and I think computer world is so huge
that we're all tourists in big parts of it, when we wander far afield
(to be encouraged -- changes are we bring back new insights, or
maybe even move the home office).

A tourist in Python Nation might be a high mucky muck in the
Republic of Perl (they actually have their own names for these
things).

Probably another reason I like "tourist" is that one generally
treats them well, offers guidebooks, guides, opportunities for
recreation and entertainment.  We know that tourists are
somewhat out of their depth and don't hold it against 'em.

However, I also use "gnubee" (aka "newbie") because of the
"gnu" inflection mixed with the "busy bee" connotation -- plus
bees are cross-pollinators, wanderers, another big meme
with me...

Science would be ruined if it were to withdraw entirely into
narrowly defined specialties. The rare scholars who are
wanderers-by-choice are essential to the intellectual welfare
of the settled disciplines

-- Benoit Mandelbrot

You can maybe see the "wanderer = tourist" equation lurking
in the above.

And when you're not a tourist anymore, what are you?  Maybe
a neighbor, a local, or "on staff" in some way -- different terms
apply, depending on the namespace.  I've you're a master of
Python, you might be a snake charmer in my book.

Kirby