&quot;...and so a true implementation in C with the right compiler optimizations would for sure be faster than the python code.&quot;<p>True. But this assumes that time is not a constraint.<p>I think you need to think of it this way (as a thought experiment): you start two programmers off, one in C and one in Python, both with a vague understanding of how to solve the problem and approximately the same skill level. Then after X hours, you stop both and see how far they&#x27;ve gotten.<p>I think the argument then is that you might find that the C programmer hasn&#x27;t yet solved the problem, whereas the Python programmer might have a solution + a deeper understanding of where the slow parts are, and started optimizing those.<p>So in the end the C programmer may win, but perhaps it&#x27;s not about winning in this sense but more about how fast you can get to a point where you can move on to the next thing.