There are a number of reasons. I find refactoring is way, way simpler. Refactoring in Python feels painful enough that I always put it off until it gets absolutely necessary. With Go, I find it takes way less time, and also less mental energy.
The static typing and strict compiler (enforcement of imports and lvalues, etc.) works well for my writing style. I write what's in my head, without worrying about the small details (only the high level logic), and I can be confident that it'll be easy to fix the small details (syntax, typos) afterwards.
It's kind of like how writers often work - they dump words on a page, focusing on getting the main points across, and it's the editor's job to make sure they fix the grammar and style. I end up having a conversation with the compiler and when it stops telling me anything, the code usually does what I want it to.
YMMV.
What I don't understand is all these people claiming that the language is slowing them down by massive factors. I guess I'm either incredibly stupid or people on HN are incredibly smart (probably both) but I just can't even think fast enough for the syntax of the modern languages to really slow me down (ignoring copy n' paste exceptions and build time issues). For example to create the mental model of a dumb video game I'm making is taking more time than the actual coding.
In fact I would say if anything slows me down its bugs and/or features missing in immature open source libraries, crappy tooling, and lack of documentation and most importantly not fully understanding the problem (or what to create in terms of video game). And I can say this definitively about Rust... the language is awesome but I'm slow as crap in the language because of random stuff breaking and lack of good libraries.
I'm not saying Go has the above issues (on the contrary it now is rather mature) but I have hard time believing the 100x (and that is my opinion :) ) of going from problem to fully coded solution.
It seems you more enjoy just "Not Python" than Go itself.
Go is still pretty awful and designed without really consulting what would help users. It's just designed for what the creators want, but now millions of people are trying to use it—not just 8 people inside the Nation of Google. It's getting worse for the average developer as time goes on. But, one thing developers love doing is understanding broken things, so in a away, the more difficult a system, the more nerds like it because it gives them accomplishment and the ability to exclude non-understanders. (Plus, Tabs? Tabs? In 2015? Is the Go development process run by monkeys living in Antarctica?)
Good review: http://www.evanmiller.org/four-days-of-go.html
No, I have experience with lots of languages. I'm comparing to Python here because that's what OP asked for.
I don't think Go is "just designed for what the creators want", but even if it were, I don't care, because that's what I want as well.
I'm talking about my personal experience of Go based on my own experience writing Go full-time for over three years, which is as long as the language has had a stable release. With all due respect, it's highly unlikely that a review from someone using it for four days is somehow going to change how productive I've already found the language makes me.
So, 100x would mean you are now writing 20,000 lines of code per day.
But in any case, if a person says he is "100x more productive" in one language than another, then I expect he can complete in 1 to 7 days what would take 100 to 700 days (i.e., 3 months to 2 years) in the other language.
Strange that I have to even highlight the obvious, but anyone who says they're 100x more productive in Go than Python is exaggerating to an extent that I find it hard to trust anything they say.
There are dumb measure, smart measures, and dumb ways of applying smart measures. We could consider a little intellectual generosity, that intentions were well-met, and not that a 50 year old used car salesperson turned programing manager was irrationally demanding X lines of code per day.
