Tabs vs Spaces is a definitive example of a case where I intellectually believe X but socially follow Y.

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Well, in the case of word processing, I believe and use tabs. There is *no* excuse for not taking advantage of tab stops in a word processor.

(Related: I also set proper paragraph spacing rather than hit Return twice)

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In code, I believe *tabs* are the "right" thing to do but I do spaces due to social pressure.

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I find intellectually appealing the idea that you use a particular code point (U+0009) to *semantically* indicate indentation level.

The idea that you use some number of spaces to visually approximate this seems silly to me.

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Of course, I've long been passionate about structure vs presentation. Deciding on a certain number of spaces to represent indentation seems like a presentation decision to me.

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And yet, despite all this, I use spaces because I've always identified with groups of developers who, for whatever reason, tend to prefer spaces.

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And in fact, I will strongly argue *for* spaces in any Python project.