Learning Python for no reason

[Mensanator]

On May 12, 12:27 pm, "John Salerno" <johnj... at NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote:
> Just something that crosses my mind every time I delve into "Learning
> Python" each night. Does anyone see any value in learning Python when you
> don't need to for school, work, or any other reason? I mean, sure, there's
> value in learning anything at any time, but for something like a programming
> language, I can't help but feel that I will be mostly unable to use what I
> learn simply because I have no reason to use it.
>
> The *process* of learning is enough fun for me, and every now and then I do
> find a small use for Python that really pays off, but for the most part I'm
> wondering what people's thoughts are as far as simply learning it for the
> sake of learning. Does it seem like a silly endeavor to most people? Did
> anyone here learn a programming language when you didn't need to? If so, how
> much and in what capacity did you use it after you learned it?
>
> Hopefully this question even makes sense!

Seems silly to learn a programming language for it's own sake.
Why would you want to learn something you aren't going to use?

My attitude is I may not have an immediate use planned, but such
uses should become apparent as I learn more. For example, I collect
movie ticket sales stats from The Internet Movie Database. That meant
going to their site, finding the page that has the stats for a certain
week, copy the page, fix it up a bit and then import it into Access.

And since I only got around to updating once or twice a year, it was
a labor intensive process. But in the course of learning Python, it
became apparent that I could

- have Python scrape the web pages
- process the raw data
- do the database inserts

I never thought of those things when I started Python, but if you pay
attention to what you're "learning", these kind of things should
jump out at you.