Engaging in online data science language wars has tangible benefits.

It's a practice run for the main show, which is where someone tries to challenge your choice of tool in the workplace.

It's useful to hear the basis for common arguments so they don't catch you by surprise. You can keep your cool, and deploy effective counter moves you've observed or already developed.

People using <MAINSTREAM TOOL> won't understand this. Dominant subcultures create a kind of self-reinforcing mythology that disparages the competition in ways so normalised they become causal.

* CASUAL

So as long as a debate remains civil, I don't see why people are so quick label it as pointless.

Yes, people's minds are unlikely to be changed in the online context.

But in the workplace people can definitely be turned. Hear the arguments, arm yourself, and stay scrappy!

PS at my work we've successfully laid Python to rest. The new war is shaping to be Arcgis vs R which personally I am pumped for.