daodejing for pythonistas I

A value is a value
Verily it is a value
A reference is a reference
Verily it is a reference

道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。

A value’s existence is eternal¹
But we can’t handle it until a reference is created²

无名天地之始。有名万物之母。

Break out of the python interpreter,
one will grok values actually are.
But running in the interpreter,
one can never know what the true value is³

故常无欲以观其妙。常有欲以观其徼。

But a value and a reference are of the same essense⁴
of the strange machine we exist in⁵

此两者同出而异名，同谓之玄。

As mysterious a language like C is,
it’s the gateway to understanding how python works.

玄之又玄，众妙之门。

Reference: Here’s a good English interpretation of Tao Te Ching

¹Particular for some integers, which are already initialized in the interpreter, or until garbage collected (but only the interpreter knows that)
²Not strictly true:

>>> import dis; dis.dis(lambda: 1+1)
          0 LOAD_CONST               1 (1)
          3 LOAD_CONST               1 (1)
          6 BINARY_ADD
          7 RETURN_VALUE

³The is operator and the id() function come pretty close, but you aren’t inspecting memory here.
⁴both exists in the heap of the Python VM
⁵Python virtual machine