I'll take the better programmer over the one who knows python already, any day and every time.
I think once you've learned enough languages, they become like lenses on a camera. You're as good a photographer as you are, whether you use one lens or a different lens.
The lens doesn't make a bad photographer good, and a good photographer will be just as good using a lens they've never used before, given a short period of time to familiarize themselves with it.
The environment of a particular job you always have to learn, even if you've used the exact tools at a previous job.
After a year, it is the strength of the photographer or programmer that is going to determine how much and how good their work is, not whether they knew the tool before they took the job.
I think once you've learned enough languages, they become like lenses on a camera. You're as good a photographer as you are, whether you use one lens or a different lens.
The lens doesn't make a bad photographer good, and a good photographer will be just as good using a lens they've never used before, given a short period of time to familiarize themselves with it.
The environment of a particular job you always have to learn, even if you've used the exact tools at a previous job.
After a year, it is the strength of the photographer or programmer that is going to determine how much and how good their work is, not whether they knew the tool before they took the job.