Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderThe single most reason why a language X (it's python for me today) wins my heart is not because it's extra fancy or anything but the times when it gets out of my way to let me think about the problem and then everything else seems clearer. I write a lot in both Python and Ruby, but the days when I have to dig into my old code, Python readability trumps over Ruby's (or anything else for that matter).
It was right then, but it's kind of dated and misses an evolutionary lesson: beautiful code isn't enough, it has to be safe, beautiful, maintainable, productive, understandable, and resource efficient. Ruby is still great for throwing something together fast and maintaining it until it runs into scale problems. It added gradual typing with sorbet and RBS. Crystal is a neat typed, compiled Ruby-alike but it's buggy. Rust hits more of these but it's ugly. Uglier than Python and approaches C++-level…
Interesting, I think it's worth noting that PG seems to be describing "engineers who learned Python after already working in Java (or similar language)". This is very different from the current bulk of engineering applicants, who know python and no other languages. Python is now the entry point for new developers and I wonder what languages have taken over Python's old role (I might guess Rust, Elixir, Nim). The current "Python Paradox", in my opinion, is the opposite of what…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 326
- Total comments
- 349
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-01-09 | The Python ParadoxFirst breakout · Best thread | tswicegood | 161 | 78 |
| 2013-04-18 | The Python Paradox (2004) | shawndumas | 1 | 0 |
| 2018-10-24 | The Python Paradox (2004) | EduardoBautista | 2 | 0 |
| 2018-12-18 | The Python Paradox (2004) | dcu | 3 | 0 |
| 2022-02-25 | The Python Paradox (2004) | vincent_s | 10 | 2 |
| 2022-12-03 | The Python Paradox (2004) | yamrzou | 1 | 0 |
| 2023-01-27 | The Python ParadoxHall induction · Latest 20+ point return | ryan-duve | 148 | 269 |