> it just seems to make things even worse for me because now even 'which python' doesn't tell me anything because it directs to some shell script shims that I can't parse or understand.

I understand it’s another layer and for someone not working in it daily, it’s hard.

Some info, the command

    which python

Wouldn’t tell you much anyway. It would just return something like

    /usr/bin/python

Reading a binary wouldn’t lead to much either. If you’re trying to get the version of python, this still works,

    python --version

Pyenv also has this command,

    pyenv version

That also works with pyenv virtualenv (if you’re using it)

If you want all versions installed,

    pyenv versions