Comment by deckard1
4 years ago
Data science + the return of machine learning.
I suspect this is entirely due to the fact that Python looks like pseudo code and has a claim to be beginner friendly. Beyond that, it's baffling that the data science/ML crowd picked Python of all things. Tearing apart CSV files and hammering fuzzy text data into shape is Perl's forte. So I'm surprised Perl didn't see a revival rather than Python. It's possible the entire field doesn't know there is something better, if all they know is one language I suppose. But I'm sure it's part cargo cult too. Everyone uses React because everyone uses React kind of thing. Same with Rails.
It was pandas, unfortunately. R had the stats/ML crowd for a long time, and data frames are super hard to abandon. Python had a library for them, and was perceived as being simple so it won.
R still has most of the tribal knowledge about stats/modelling though, so many really good DS's end up having to learn python to communicate with software engineers.