MI6 chief: We'll be as fluent in Python as we are in Russian(www.theregister.com)
4 pointsby maxloh4 hours ago1 comment
  • yawpitch4 hours ago
    Kind of horrifying to think that the head of an intelligence agency thinks Russian and Python are the ones the tip of the spear needs to be fluent in.
    • manfromchina14 hours ago
      What are some other really useful skills? AI/ML frameworks, data skills, cloud basics, embedded programming, PCB design, sensor integration, front-end, back-end/API, version control? That would just be a start. After that an MI6 hopeful would have to pick up some physics, materials science and basics of precision instrumentation so they can get a job at a Chinese foundry...for reasons. Oh, and they would have to be good at Mandarin, too. Nobody said spying was easy :)
      • yawpitch3 hours ago
        No, but shouldn’t the bar for “well-compensated disposable mole” be higher?
    • noodlebird3 hours ago
      that would be horrifying if that was what was said. in the speech itself not mastery in python or russian is named, but mastery in every domain.
      • yawpitch3 hours ago
        The quote in the article is "as fluent in Python as we are in multiple other languages”… Russian is mentioned elsewhere, so gets incorporated by reference rather than directly here, but Python is still the exemplar she used for computerese.

        Mastery in every domain is great, but part of that is knowing that mastering Python isn’t mastering any CS domain.