What I find interesting is that is we move slightly beyond BASIC, we get to a somewhat middle ground, where things like Python live. The question then becomes, at what point in the learning cycle do Python's choices in accessibility become liabilities, if ever? Does optimizing your code for legibility of novices end up hurting you at some point? What about if society shifts, and the majority of people have some programming experience? What if the journeyman of today is tomorrow's novice? Does Python end up being tomorrow's BASIC?

This is of course focusing on specific aspects of Python, and not Python as a whole, which I think is a very capable language (if not my cup of tea).