Doing a masters degree in physiology, while not completely unrelated to programming, my research lab isn't one of those technical/quantitative ones. I am learning R for my statistics course, but I am interested in learning Python too.<p>I am wondering if it is feasible to learn Python (~1-2 hours a day) during grad school? My intentions in wanting to learn Python stem from my dreams of starting a startup. Is it unreasonable to have these startup intentions if I am busy with unrelated work?<p>Just want to get some opinion from the HN community, is it worth the effort to learn Python, or would my time be better spent sticking with R and using it for basic statistics for research?
Well I "learned programming" in 1992 in the age of 12 with nothing else than a Microsoft Visual Basic book that came with my uncle's PC. So I think you are more than capable to learn any programming language in grad school.<p>About python: It's feasible to learn it in a month with some effort, every time on the toilet. That's how did it with this course <a href="https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/python-fundamentals/9780135917411/" rel="nofollow">https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/python-fundamentals/978...</a><p>For both of these examples I'd say the definition of "learn a language" and "learn programming" is important. For me it means learning to the point where you have a good overview about ideomatics and ecosystem and enough understanding to get done what you professionally oneedr as a hobbyist needs with the help of available documentation.<p>For example I work with C++ for at least a decade, but I always feel there is something new to learn or make better. Also there are endless framework specializations like Qt or similar that you could invest time on.<p>To sum up. Define your goal and then start learning. But I recommend not setting a goal like "know everything about the standard lib, humpy and pandas" - because everything is not required. Just enough to dig deeper while doing projects, the rest will come by itself (but never everything).<p>About your question weather it's worth, I would say yes. You will even become a better R programmer by looking beyond the edge of the plate, even if you will never use it. But I bet you will like it very much and start scalping Twitter for statistical research on a weekend 3 weeks from now with python.