If I was recruiting Python people were is the best place to go

[Peter Hansen]

Rick Amores wrote:
> 
> Be nice

I can't answer that directly, but my "stock" answer is 
that you really shouldn't waste your time trying to hire 
"Python people", when you could be investing your valuable
energy in hiring excellent programmers who would be
able to *learn* Python in very short order and be productive
quite quickly.  Chances are you'll end up with a better
"Python person" at the end of a week than if you were to
hire people just because they already knew Python.

Python is, by design and evolution, an exceptionally 
easy to learn and use language.  I have hired over ten
people in the last year, not because of their Python
experience (I believe none had any knowledge even of
its existence) but because of their programming 
experience in other areas, and general ability.  As
far as I can tell, none has taken longer than two
working weeks to become as comfortable with Python
as they were with whatever language they had 
previously considered their primary one.  The code
produced is readable, and maintainable (helped along
by a simple coding standard), and pretty much 
works a darn sight more reliably than what I believe
would have been produced with most other languages,
including the current favourites.

So to revisit your question: look around you.  If
you have people already working for you, that's 
a good place to start.  If you're starting from
scratch, don't limit yourself to people who've
heard of Python, just go for real, all-round talent.

If there is a silver bullet, I say it has the 
name Python written on it...