It depends what "using python" means though. Cython is pretty good at optimizing basic code. Numpy will process your matrices and vectors using specialised libraries faster than most manual C approaches. Shedskin will give you a nice code framework which you can optimise in parts that matter. (insert other specialised examples)
CPython is slow as an interpreter, true. "Programming in Python" may or may not be many times slower than compiling the comparable code in other language. Depends what you're doing and how you're doing it.
Also, I care about performance in any language to some extent. If I can write a backup bash script that takes 2h, or write one that takes 20min, I do care about performance and will choose the second one. Why shouldn't I?
CPython is slow as an interpreter, true. "Programming in Python" may or may not be many times slower than compiling the comparable code in other language. Depends what you're doing and how you're doing it.
Also, I care about performance in any language to some extent. If I can write a backup bash script that takes 2h, or write one that takes 20min, I do care about performance and will choose the second one. Why shouldn't I?