MI6 chief: We'll be as fluent in Python as we are in Russian
Posted by maxloh 14 hours ago
Comments
Comment by yawpitch 13 hours ago
Kind of horrifying to think that the head of an intelligence agency thinks Russian and Python are the ones the tip of the spear needs to be fluent in.
Comment by manfromchina1 13 hours ago
What are some other really useful skills? AI/ML frameworks, data skills, cloud basics, embedded programming, PCB design, sensor integration, front-end, back-end/API, version control? That would just be a start. After that an MI6 hopeful would have to pick up some physics, materials science and basics of precision instrumentation so they can get a job at a Chinese foundry...for reasons. Oh, and they would have to be good at Mandarin, too. Nobody said spying was easy :)
Comment by yawpitch 12 hours ago
No, but shouldn’t the bar for “well-compensated disposable mole” be higher?
Comment by noodlebird 13 hours ago
that would be horrifying if that was what was said. in the speech itself not mastery in python or russian is named, but mastery in every domain.
Comment by yawpitch 12 hours ago
The quote in the article is "as fluent in Python as we are in multiple other languages”… Russian is mentioned elsewhere, so gets incorporated by reference rather than directly here, but Python is still the exemplar she used for computerese.
Mastery in every domain is great, but part of that is knowing that mastering Python isn’t mastering any CS domain.
Comment by winstonwinston 1 hour ago
It kind of is relevant, Python seems to be a go-to language for “hacking”, isn’t it? When you look at computer or software vulnerability POCs, it is usually Python.