That certainly appears to be the perception they've created with many. I don't see it that way entirely, because it seems like any programmer using Python will have to come face to face with the intricacies of how Python 2 and 3 differ. If they write all their projects in Python 3 they may never feel comfortable approaching legacy codebases, but if they start off in Python 2 they're going to be peer pressured into learning 3 as well, and get experience with what goes into porting from one to the other - I'd consider that an invaluable lesson.