Might sound biased since I prefer Python myself, years after PHP development. But Python is used in programming Courses around the World for beginners for a reason. The syntax is much easier to learn rather than the curly-braces driven PHP. Examples: Python print ( 'hello world' ) PHP <?php echo ( 'hello world' ) ?>

Wordpress is slow, but very user friendly. Many customers actually requests Wordpress because they've worked in it before.

Which editor / language?

I voted No as a personal preference, but if I would get a offer to climb the ladder, I'd take it. Would still code on my spare time at work and on my free time at home.

I also code on a 13" laptop, but at 3200x1800. Yet, I still stick to 79/80 character limit.

Mike has done a awesome job since the start. The podcast has over 100 episodes as of today with various important people in the community. Hint: Episode 100 is with Guido himself!

Melodic Death Metal or some heavy base EMD.

pep8 isn't changed, so 79 chars or less in a row is needed.

pep8, all I can think of that matters in the beginning.

Never use 'rm -rf'. Simple as that. Or alternatively do backup more often.