After reading the Intro and first chapter - is this a joke?
> Sometimes people who already know a programming language will read this book and feel I'm insulting them.
Especially as the GP has already referred to the intro, which you have supposedly already read.
So let me point it out for you again: http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/intro.html
He goes into great detail arguing why he thinks this is one of the best ways to learn something completely new quickly and efficiently.
How is this a useful way to approach things? He compares it to learning to play guitar - if my first guitar lesson consisted of "Open your guitar case. Take out the guitar. Put it back.", I'd ask for my money back!
If the first lesson in an introductory guitar book was how to properly handle a guitar, I would not be surprised at all. In fact, I know from experience with other instruments that that would be entirely normal.
And this tutorial is not meant for snotty CS program graduates, which again is explained in the introduction, which you to this time refuse to read and understand.
If you have a teacher worth his salt, he will have you open the guitar case and teach you about what the instrument is, what its parts are, how you are supposed to handle it and take care of it. At least that is what my trumpet teacher taught me when I started out.
This is for beginners, and it helped me a lot when I was starting out. It's not perfect, but it's a great way to get started.
No, just written by Zed Shaw. Honest mistake though.