I am already working on some software in Python but I'm having one of those days where I step back and reflect just to make sure I'm not spinning my wheels. I know that Twitter launched with RoR because it was fast to build. Then they almost moved into another language in 2008 because of scalability issues. This has caused me to step back and introspect for a moment to make sure I'm heading down the right path. I've read in some tutorials and other places that Python is "a great first language" or a "nice beginner language" as though it's not capable of larger tasks. I look at it as Python can do what Java or ASP can but with about 1/4th of the code, not to mention I don't have to build or compile, etc. I've read that Java runs quite a few times faster than Python which is important of course, but then I read everywhere that hardware keeps getting cheaper and there are projects like Unladen Swallow by Google to make Python faster. Should I be concerned or is this just the remnants of Java developers?