The reason I picked PHP, is that so many open source web stuff seems to be written in PHP and I want to be able to customize these apps (ex: joomla, wordpress, etc). But ultimately I just want to code without thinking and if python or ruby takes me there faster, so be it.
I've been a PHP developer for 6 years and I'm a ZCE. When possible I choose Python over PHP for web related things.
I think the main thing to accept is that if you're going to be coding then you're going to be thinking a lot. If you're not thinking and going on auto pilot then you don't know enough...
