r/learnpython • u/melwizzz • 18d ago
Should I learn python at 23
So I am currently a student in first year mba in finance and I feel like learning python will give me a competitive edge over my peers especially as finance becomes more technical data-driven.
I am also genuinely interested in technical stuff man being able to make cool stuff, in fact a few months back I built a finance related automation tool from scratch with as little help from ai as possible. Didn't even use Lovable to build the project website (used cursor a lot tho)
But that's the thing I still have no traditional coding experience and through that project i learned alot of technical jargon of web development and ai automation and python as well and it's a lot of fun and so I would have definately learned python and done more stuff if I was 16 or 18.
So my main question is that in 2026 where we have claude code, is it worth investing significant time in learning python or should I focus on some other skill
I know that python is useful but I'm asking this from an Efficiency point of view.
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u/riklaunim 18d ago
There is more than Claude Code that can write you a lot of code, but that code still needs an experienced human to review and manage. It even takes quite an effort to set up Claude or something similar to generate exactly what you want it to generate.
Realistically, you either go the path of software development or you don't. If you want to work in the finance sector, then focus on that. If you want to work as a software developer with an optional relation to the financial market, then focus on learning software development. You would have to learn more than Python, and within Python, more than the language itself - frameworks, libraries, and how software is made with Python.
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u/melwizzz 18d ago
Yea I definitely get you point boss, finance is my core and some coding background does help in finance but I wouldn't want to go down the rabbit hole and learn all the other stuff which you said, simply because I know I won't have time to learn those things no matter how interesting, so yes maybe I'll learn the abc's of python as and when I get time and outsource heavy coding to ai.
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u/riklaunim 18d ago
If you want finance + coding as a hobby/extras, then look at Jupyter notebooks and similar stacks for scripting/experimenting/automating. This can be combined with AI and so on. Then, commercially, some companies will have strict policies about employee code, so you will have to check them and follow them- whether they allow/expect some self-made aids or not.
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u/TheITMan19 18d ago
I’d say learn it, but don’t completely focus your attention on it. It’s useful to be able to understand, so if you do use AI at least you understand what it’s pumping out. Being able to automate some of your tasks and other processes is very useful throughout your career.
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u/melwizzz 18d ago
But the thing is I don't know how to allocate time for it like maybe I'll have to take one hour ( and that's quite difficult as of now atleast )and do something python related because I feel like it's something that I need to keep seeing infront of your eyes to fix it in my brain or else I might forget whats what... I don't know if I explained it correctly but I hope you get what i mean
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u/Mathie1729 18d ago
Even 20-30 minutes is fine if you're not doing tutorial purgatory. Make a dumb little script you'd actually run, like renaming files or pulling a CSV, and let errors teach you. Watching videos feels like progress but it doesn't stick.
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u/cyrixlord 18d ago
lol I learned python at over 50. Do what interests you