This a thousand times. It especially resonates with a geek outside of the field, as it explains all the mysterious science that is completely overstepped by every other source.
Cookbooks on the other hand are prescriptive - they direct you to do this, don't ask why. Don't deviate ... unless you can get away with it, in which case go ahead.
Not even Geylang. It has more character than the rest of Singaporean neighbourhoods for sure but hardly qualifies as dodgy. It's tame compared to even the best parts of Johor for example which is just across the water.
From what I know, python is usually the first language that newbies get pointed to when they ask where to start. It's easy to read, understand, and has a ton of libraries.
Plus python is older, and I think gained more popularity than ruby (before rails came along).
They are about the same age, Python was more popular in the US/Europe prior to Rails catching on (which I guess contributes to it still being more used outside of web dev).
