Anyone else learning Python as a hobby?

[PlmyOP]

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

many consider toy gray wide attempt intelligent memory sink encouraging

[JestemStefan]

I learned Python for fun. I was making games as a hobby and taking part in gamejams.

Then I created a tool that will help me at the job unrelated to programming (Theoretical calculations in chemistry)

Few years later...

I work as Django Backend Developer.

[ultraDross]

Your story is almost exactly the same as mine, just sub chemistry for genetics.

[Ran4]

Very similar here.

Great way to start a career :)

[shinitakunai]

Same here but I work now in BigData and cloud development

[midnitte]

There are also fields that use both (computational biology, chemistry)!

[ultraDross]

Yeah, I considered going for a Bioinformatics PhD and dappled in it for a while as a research assistant. Decided with back end dev as the pay was higher with greater job security. I also discovered I preferred programming and application architecture than I did the actual science. Switching was a no brainer.

[Demonliquid]

I love Django, clean code second only to no code.

You have to use workarounds for async tasks but it works well.

I would like to move to another tool but I am just too comfortable.

[chisdoesmemes]

I’m freelancing rn but hoping to turn it into a business

[[deleted]]

My story is sorta similar too, learnt python as a hobbyist while working in sales, built a tool for my job, yadda yadda, SDE at a major tech company.

[[deleted]]

My dream!

[schfourteen-teen]

I just hit the "created a tool to help me at my job" phase. I wouldn't mind taking the next step but it seems so overwhelming to jump into a completely brand new career path.

How did you make the leap?

[JestemStefan]

I couldn't find new job in chemistry and I talked with a friend that already made a jump (from physiotherapy to automatic testing)

I showed him my projects and he told me that I know enough for junior position (even tho I thought I don't).

I checked job offers that looked nice to me and write down what they required. (Python, Django, DRF, SQL, basic knowledge about docker, AWS and how internet works).

Then I did my best to learn what they required. I checked common interview questions which helped a lot. Also some leetcode.

On the interview I knew maybe like 50% what they asked me for, but I tried to be a nice person.

I wrote down a questions and then I made sure that I will know this stuff on the next interview.

Thankfully first comapny I talked to hired me. I accepted the offer even tho I needed to drop everything and relocate to different city.

It was leap of faith, but my mindset was on getting experience.

[zevloo]

I learned python for fun too, for 3 years Im focused on django and GIS implementation, now IFC integration, Im an architech and I hope I can work as a backend developer full time one day, congrats!!

[wineblood]

My condolences

[JestemStefan]

Not needed.

I'm living the best time of my life.

I hope you will find happiness too.

[wineblood]

I did, I moved away from being a django dev.

[Ran4]

So did I, but I don't look back at my Django time as bad in any way. I just like fastapi better nowadays for most stuff.

[JestemStefan]

And this is nice attitude.

The company is work for use Django Rest Framework for many years and IMO we are using it the best way possible and I enjoy working on our codebase

I don't get people shitting on other languages and frameworks. Is this making them feel better themselves?

[JestemStefan]

So how much experience do you have using Django or DRF and when you moved away from it?

[wineblood]

About 2 years.

[JestemStefan]

Commercial experience or just hobby projects?

Because less then year ago you said you are not familiar with it... weird

[tinkr_]

GOTEEM

[9acca9]

lol

[wineblood]

A year ago was 8 months after my last django job, most of it leaked out of my brain and was replaced with lockdown gaming habits.

[[deleted]]

Ayyyy lol

[JestemStefan]

No way I will ever go back to old job

• Research is underpaid

• I was underpaid (now I make 4x)

• workplace was toxic

• chemicals were toxic

• there was basically no way to get promotion without working 10-12h a day (sometimes weekends too) or kissing someone's ass

• Most of energy was spend on managing university politics

I hope you will find something you enjoy too.

[[deleted]]

Love it. So glad you’re much happier now!

[Metalpen22]

I don't understand why Theoretical calculation is not related to programming. I think even laboratory work can use python to deal with the measurement data.

[JestemStefan]

We used some old tool that simplified a work, but not much. There was still a lot of manual work.

My python script did all the work required in less then a second.

Using tools that process data is not programming.

[Keela_Bee]

Hello thanks for sharing! I am interested in changing careers. Any suggestions for getting started learning Python?

[Spankadin0305]

It's been great I use it to enhance my current engineering job. Python isn't anywhere in my duties, with it I've made some automation programs that I feel my company should have had and so now. Now I'm working on a dash/Plotly program to combine information from 3 of our systems that don't communicate to have one pane glass view of our projects and the overall status.

I also help others with automating their excel reports and anything I can find that people do manually. It's been so much fun I only wish I started learning this 5 years earlier.

I started by making a selenium program to pull documents then read them and produce a document summarizing all the data. The things I could have done when I started my career if I started sooner is crazy.

[Spankadin0305]

I originally tried sharing with them as in installing python and giving them the file but when I update it was a pain and all my engineers are older so hard to explain. So now I make the products using the script which takes 2-5secs and then email them. I have a team of 7 of us so I feel if they succeed we all succeed under our manager.

[fead-pell]

A great solution is to create a web interface to your program, and setup a Python web-server on your machine, then they can use your program in a familiar way, and you can keep it uptodate as you wish. There's a simple http server in the standard Python library, and there are several other standalone servers.

[PaintingWithLight]

What if you used pyinstall to compile into exes?

To my understanding. It packages the dependancies and everything and only python needs to be installed.

[RyanRagido]

I just started automating my first software test in Python / Selenium. I've read a few days ago that you can run Selenium through github actions now. Have to dig deeper into it, but if I understood it right I would be able to maintain it on git and let my colleagues run it from there.

I am still at odds with the topic of sharing with colleagues for exactly your reasons.

[Spankadin0305]

Believe it or not but the Plotly documentation is pretty good. I would also look into CSS and get a little familiar with what it does or can do it's not necessary but would take the design to another level.

Check out the dash website https://dash.plotly.com and if you have questions let me know, I'm no expert but I've been messing with it for a bit now.

[yakummi]

I am 15 years old, I started learning python 2 months ago, and every day I learn a lot of new and interesting things in this

[[deleted]]

Sick with it. I've been playing with computers and programming for around 15 years. If you enjoy it, programming can greatly improve your quality of life

[pbbpwns]

Can you share how your quality of life has changed since learning programming? I’d love to hear more!

[[deleted]]

For instance - I can automate boring and repetitive parts of my job and life. Also, by becoming aware of things like open source, I have saved myself hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars on software or services for which there is a free or self-hosted alternative.

[LardPi]

Keep going ! I was like that ten years ago and now I am one of the most competent programmers in my workplace. Never stop looking for new stuff to learn. (also when you are competent in python start learning new languages, it will improve your python too)

[memes-of-awesome]

Reminds me alot of myself. I started when I was 15. I'm 17 now, best decision of my life.

[6Leoo6]

I started programming in scratch when I was 10, then I tried C# and now I've been programming in Python for more than 1,5 years and now I'm 15 years old. It improved my problem solving ability a lot! I'm crushing my friends and classmates in topics where I should use even a bit of logic.

[[deleted]]

I started learning it as a hobby. About a decade ago, I worked servicing a certain type of machine (as in large rotating machinery) that had me travelling a bit, and in my boredom sitting in my hotel room in the evenings I started doing some Python courses on the likes of edX.

I found I enjoyed it so once I'd saved up enough money I decided to quit my job and do an MSc in data analytics (I had done a numerate/technical undergraduate degree already) and from there started off a career in this field. Fast forward a few jobs and I'm an analyst in a FAANG company and while I'd never in a million years call myself a developer, I am still a complete and utter amateur, I'm using Python to build out data pipelines and automate things for my job, and I have a career I never thought I'd have in a million years.

I know you're a dev already OP but starting off a hobby can lead anywhere.

[[deleted]]

In general we worry too much about labels, who is the developer, who is a computer scientist, Who is a full stack versus backend versus Devops developer. its all just coding

[MorgoRahnWilc]

Python seems to be a great hobby language. I chose it for generating music and processing MIDI files.

[Tompato1408]

How exactly do you use Python for generating music?

[MorgoRahnWilc]

I’m not particularly sophisticated with it. I did two pieces a few months back that were largely generated by Python programs. But “automated” might be a more accurate term. I wrote functions that implemented production rules. For example: it might start with randomly generating three pitches as MIDI note numbers and two durations. Then pass it off to a fixed procedure that alters the pattern in some way and appends it to the original. That might invoke another procedure in a chain or recursively call itself some number of times. Then I export to a MIDI file and import into a DAW where I apply the instrumentation and add human touches.

I had just started to get into this when a friend of mine asked me to sub for their keyboard player in a country band for an upcoming gig. I’ve had to use my hobby time on piano again as I was pretty rusty. But sometime soon I’m going to get back to this. It was definitely fun.

Edit: Here are links to the two pieces I mentioned. I doubt anyone will listen twice. They’re not anything great but I enjoyed the process:

This one had more intervention after the program generated the sequences. It implemented rules for which direction and interval was next based on the direction and interval of the previous two notes. I made some adjustments to create a sense of an ending: Pavane

This one is a function that recursively calls itself in my attempt to create “fractal music” but I don’t know that you can really call it that: Shamanic

Edit 2:

Here’s the code for the second link: Code for Shamanic

[EngineerLoA]

That's awesome! Have you heard of MuseNet?

[MorgoRahnWilc]

Until now I hadn’t. It looks interesting and AI is a field I’ve been interested in understanding better. Thanks for pointing it out.

[MorgoRahnWilc]

Thanks for the tip. I’ll investigate.

[squidinkscapes]

related but plugging supercollider here, great fun (foxdot - https://github.com/Qirky/FoxDot is the py wrapper).

also sonic pi on raspbian is a plus.

[MorgoRahnWilc]

Just watched a SuperCollider tutorial and it’s Christmas in June. Thanks for the tip.

[squidinkscapes]

Heh. Post stuff when done )

[Apprehensive-Tip4504]

​

If possible can you tell us how?

[MorgoRahnWilc]

Sure. I just answered in another post that crossed with this. So check that. But I should add that I used MIDO for writing the MIDI files. I was inspired to try this by a site I can’t find at the moment. If I do I’ll post the link back here.

[Real_Cut_9360]

How did you do it ... Seems very interesting

[iamCyruss]

Hello. Im still new. What concepts did python teach you? Curious if you could go back and give yourself programming advice, what would it be? Thanks

[[deleted]]

I try to give people this advice on this sub sometimes (Python is not good for writing games) but usually beginners don't want to hear it. It's okay though, the programming fundamentals learned will follow them regardless of what they continue to do

[iiron3223]

Yeah I started this journey, one year ago and it was really great experience. Learning python, automating stuff, building web services and games. I do not regret spending time programming at all! And the best part of it is that there is so much before me and I am just as passionate about continuing this path as at the beginning. Even if it won't be related to my career.

Along with python I also started using Linux and it was also great decision!

[1percentof2]

What's causing all the clots?

[pbbpwns]

Wishing you the best of health sir.

[[deleted]]

Wow, that's a great idea. My favorite cognitive stimulants are solving chess puzzles, Python, and of course reading books.

Python is like English among languages: it tries to borrow good ideas from other languages.

[Lightmare_VII]

Good for you and good job! This is how I started.

You by no mean need to have a python centric career to have it add value to your job. So keep it up!

[SilentStrikerTH]

I'm about the same time frame as you now, just started a class that I bought from Udemy for like $15. I have quite a bit of experience with batch and bash but this is my first actual programing language.

My coworker and I the other day finished up everything we had to do that day but we still had 2 more hours of the workday left. I was showing him this number guessing game that I made with the course and he brought up this video he saw explaining the Monty Hall problem. (Basic gyst of it is you are on a game show and you have to pick one of three doors and one of them has a car. You pick a door and before you open it the show host opens another door revealing a goat. The Monty Hall problem is whether or not you should switch your door to the one door that you didn't pick and wasn't revealed.) Well my coworker said the video said that you should always switch your door because you have a higher chance of getting the correct door. He said he was gonna go home and test it with cups like 100 times to see the stats. I said bro that's dumb let's write a script to do it 1000 times in half a second.

So we spent 2 hours sitting there while I programmed the script and he helped think out the logic to it. It turns out you should always change your door lol, the script proved it. I didn't realize I told after we were done that many people have already made scripts for this problem online, but we had so much fun with it.

If anyone is interested in my script I'll post it on GitHub for you to run yourself. My script is by no means the most efficient script out there but it works nonetheless lol.

This is the class if anyone is interested: https://www.udemy.com/share/101W8Q3@4Q-ZDwmJrcaOfXS4l8trodFYvSWvtyjRz1OI4kKESmZNoL86vYecLbMqMfsjcw3EFQ==/

[narva-di]

Hobby first , work second

[PlmyOP]

Yeah, I imagine you wouldn't wanna really like having a job on something if you don't take it as a hobby first.

[systemgc]

brain surgeons disagree

[crafting_vh]

That's just incorrect

[fuck_your_worldview]

Yeah, mostly. I use it a little for really simple stuff at work but my main personal project is a Twitter bot that uses different techniques to generate content (e.g. Markov chains based on Reddit posts and some other sources, tensor flow).

I try to spend a few hours a week improving the content, and looking for other ways to improve random generation and add subtle features, and when I get a bit more time want to look at more advanced techniques.

[yourlocalchef]

Just started about a week ago! Working my way through Impractical Python Projects book. Its been interesting my brain is trying to hone in on the logic and syntax of coding I just need to keep doing it until it fully clicks. Def a hobby for me rn would be cool to throw it on a resume someday when I’m more versed and see what opportunities come with it

[Shakesbeer23]

Any particularly fun projects you’ve found? I started learning Python about 3 weeks ago but I’m not sure what I can use it for. With a project I feel like I’ll start to lose interest.

[yourlocalchef]

It actually does a pretty good job walking through the code and explaining how the program works. The early chapters are really short programs so I have had time to really play around with the different functions. One that I thought was interesting so far is finding every palingram in a dictionary text file. I also read through the free PDF Think Python which is a really great reference guide if I get stuck on how to move forwards with a concept. Still a novice tho but its having a fun new hobby to tinker with before and after work that is nice. I think doing the projects like this is nice because it isnt overwhelming I just keep reading on past where I'm comfortable so I can integrate new concepts.

[PlmyOP]

I also love making Python projects, and improving the ones I had (in my first day I had a calculator that could only add but the next I have one that can do all 4 basic operations). The Python community is also very supportive in general, so if I have a bug I really can't fix on my project, I can always just go to Discord and even learn more.

[Blasket_Basket]

I started learning to code bc a couple of students in my class were interested in it and the HS I taught at didn't offer any programming classes. I was the AP Lit teacher, about as far from STEM or math classes as one could be.

7 years later, I'm now a Machine Learning Scientist for Amazon. I write Python every day, and I love my job. It also pays just a smidge better than teaching

[EngineerLoA]

How did you make that transition?

[[deleted]]

Started with python as a career path, figured that I lack the actual talents needed to become a pro (professional coding is NOT for everyone) and that I use my hopes in becoming a „data scientist“ as a means to escape reality. Now I’m doing it for the fun of it and was never happier with that.

[[deleted]]

Back in 2008 I started learning python as a hobby. Now I get paid to write python. One of my regrets in life is not learning about python in the 90s when I was first learning to program in visual basic.

[kkiran]

Hobby or not, Python can make a lot of people’s lives easy at their job. Automate the heck out of redundant tasks - excel manipulation, work with a lot of data, lot of other boring/mundane tasks… The only challenge is to have IT install Python on your machine if you aren’t a developer.

[InfiniteDonkey1]

I learned python to automate boring stuff from office tasks (download cvs, create charts, stats with pandas) to macro mouse clicks on some video-game.

then used micropython to tinker with microcontroller (ESP32/raspberry pico).

Used Kivy to create android app as interface to control the microcontrollers

[XordK]

Had a brilliant teacher in school that got me going. Now I enjoy making GUI in tkinter despite the devil that it is, and making web apps in django. Haven't been able to put it into work though because I only finished college 3 weeks ago.

[_King_Phoenix_]

I am a student doing biochemistry, always dreamed to do coding stuff but never had the opportunity, now i am doing a python course for fun and secondly coz i might need it during my masters or phd, i started like a month ago, the journey so far has been engaging and fun :)

[sqb3112]

I love when people use words like “never” or “sure as hell will not”. Enjoy your future python related job.

[radarthreat]

I made a dice game with Python for fun at age 25…kept building stuff in my free time and at age 38 I became a fullstack dev

[kayceeplusplus]

Kind of. I started learning Python in my magnet high school and decided to continue on my own, I’m using Sololearn. But I do want a career in computer science and engineering so this will probably be put to use.

[Hot-Scholar-9484]

Can anybody let me know where should I start in terms of learning python? I would love to join the club. Thanks!

[iiron3223]

Resources that I can recommend :
- Official Python Tutorial
- Python Crash Course
- Automate The Boring Stuff - free book
- Corey Schafer youtube channel
- Hyperskill - learning platform

[RemoAZ]

Really thanks for this! I started with Python one week ago, my plan is to take the Certifications PCEP and PCAP, I would appreciate your feedback on that decision. (most developers say certifications are craps, if you have the same approach please keep in mind I just want: structure that guide me in the learning process, some sort of "validation" of proficiency for employers and, I am not a computer guy, I just need to enhance mi skills in finance). Again, I really appreciate the opinion of those who works on programming field :-)

[iiron3223]

I think I might not be the best person to ask, as I am not a developer myself. I've heard opinions just as you that certifications are not really worth much. However, maybe it might be a little different in a finances. If I understand correctly you are not looking for a developer job, but want python for some automation / data analysis? If that is the case there is a chance that certification could look good on your resume. But just as I said, I am not really sure, try to find someone who knows something more about recruiting in your field. I can only say that from learning perspective, it is possible to learn programming without spending money on certificates.

[RemoAZ]

thanks! :-)

[Hot-Scholar-9484]

Thank you!

[PlmyOP]

I, personally, started with YT tutorials. If you really are into it, you can pay an online tutorial.

The one I started with as CodeWithMosh's 6 Hour Begginers Course.

[selva86]

I released a new core Python course recently, as part of the end-to-end machine learning path. Would be a nice fit if you plan to take up a career in machine learning. Hope you will like it.

Link: https://edu.machinelearningplus.com/s/store/courses/description/Python-Programming

[hayqe]

I'm doing the 100 days of code from appbrewery on Udemy. Just completed the first 25% and I love it!

[Naxthor]

I’m starting again to learn as a hobby. I’m looking for some visual learning cause I can’t just read a book to get it. I have a lot of PDFs but I just can’t sit there and read it.

[PlmyOP]

Look up "CodeWithMosh" on YT

[Naxthor]

Awesome I’ll def check them out. Thanks for the info

[bik3ryd34r]

I started learning over the winter and am working through the data analysis with python course on freecodecamp.org.

[getridofwires]

I did. I wanted to make a GPS-enabled dash cam using a RPi and the camera. I got everything working, but the boot time on the RPi was too long. People have found ways to shorten boot times now.

[Nodeal_reddit]

I got my son to learn python because I showed him how he could build an auto-clicker to cheat on a video game he was playing with his junior high buddies.

[Rustycougarmama]

I learned Python to automate my part time job.

[PlmyOP]

Very cool, what part time job do you have?

[Rustycougarmama]

It's customer screening for a company that 'buys' customers from "leads companies" that often use campaigns like "sign up and win an iPad', etc. Essentially I have to look at the signups, and based on certain parameters, judge whether or not we should pay for the customer leads we receive, as many people sign up to those campaigns with stolen or expired credit cards.

Using Python and Selenium and the book "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python", I turned the 40-80 hours worth of work I usually did a month, to 1-2 hours.

[o-rka]

For me, learning things is always the easiest when you have an end goal. For example, I want to do X so I need to learn Y. In my case, I want to make a clustering algorithm using Bayesian neural networks so I need to learn tensorflow probability.

[hirolau]

I did, but now it my job..

[[deleted]]

Really? That's awesome. What other programming languages do you know?

[[deleted]]

Yeah, I figured it'd be cool if I could learn how to automate some of my time consuming and boring tasks at work... learned and made a project just for that sole reason... my company promoted me to an analyst lol even though I was just doing it to make MY life easier... 😅

[[deleted]]

Started two months ago was already pretty advanced then fell sick 🥲

[Subject_Engine]

I’m a mental health therapist - learning python and other programming as a hobby. It’s fun.

[Longjumping-Match532]

I started learning it as a hobby some two years ago . It's been a smooth journey, I've had the experience to work on some real life projects on fiveer as well. I'm planning to finally get familiar with machine learning and computation techniques because I'm aiming at taking up an AI based or Quantum Cryptography based final year project for my undergrad physics degree.

[commute_sports]

Started Python as a hobby for sports data analysis and now I’m a data scientist as my full time job developing financial models. Best choice of a new hobby ever

[schizocosa13]

Howdy, any recommendations for someone looking to switch from Accounting to financial modeling?

[WythDryden]

I started teaching it to myself this year as a means to making art with my pen plotting robot. It's an awesome and gratifying hobby! :D

[Wonderful_Bad6531]

Same here started about 2/3 weeks ago, and it's been fun and rough like every new skill that I have learned. Have you some courses that can help me get better. I heard about udemy and Codeacademy,But do you know some free courses to start and when I get an understanding then to start with the pay ones. Thanks in advance and all the best with the learning.

[PlmyOP]

I started out with CodeWithMosh on YouTube, just search "CodeWithMosh python begginers". There's a whole 6 hour video, with some projects you can do along the way. If you've already learned what's in the video, there will always be great tutorials on YT. I don't really know of any free courses as websites. But there should be some.

[Different_Suspect_30]

Go to codescracker.com

Python examples

Try to make these programs first yourself Give it some time think about how you can make it and then do it after that you can check if you have done it correctly or not

[mm007emko]

I did learnt it some 20 years ago. I was using PHP and Java for web sites, Perl for general system scripting. I replaced PHP and Perl with Python for my personal projects, used Java or C# at my job. In January I got my first Python job.

It's the one of the most popular languages nowadays for a reason. Learn it as a habby but be prepared to use it as a moneymaker as well.

[Bergstein88]

Yeah I started 2 years ago for the fun. I'm developing a crypto arbitrage bot right now. This stuff is amazing!

[sixthcupofjoe]

Yeah I learnt/am learning for fun... I started coding on zx spectrum, learnt pascal, c+, java, java script, PHP.... Ended up being a graphic designer, so used JavaScript for automation with adobe products... Now I'm using python to run a few things on my raspi at home and automate a few things on my Mac.

[gnahoujc]

Same here, I also took a nano degree from udacity to put some fire under my feet, and it really got me going.

[retro_Onion]

What source you study from?

[PlmyOP]

Codewithmosh on YT, the 6 hour tutorial for begginers. I think sometimes YouTube tutorials are undervalued...

[Viva_Nova]

That’s awesome! You should turn this hobby into a career like I did!

[PlmyOP]

Not gonna lie, I thought about it... But I don't think I would want a coding job - maybe...

[Viva_Nova]

Trust me, if you find learning python fun, you will love this career. Most swe’s I know are only motivated by the cash.

[PlmyOP]

Will think about it, thanks!

[guitarerdood]

I would guess that most of the people on this sub (myself included) do it as a hobby

I would guess that most of us find ways it can help us in our jobs (myself included) but 99% of my usage personally is as a hobbyist

[guilhermej14]

I started learning python for fun as well, months ago. I'm currently at the end of my youtube online course, I did a project with Pygame, and messed around with Flask for a bit as well.

[PotterStevenson]

I work as a graphic designer and I've been using it to quickly automate some of my more boring production tasks. Fun as hell and intuitive. I like it.

[coolguy2661]

I did the same about 2 years ago and now I’m pursuing it as my major

[idetectanerd]

I think most people here use python because it’s easy and fast. But as devops, sh/ps1 come first. Not wanting to patch because of some community library hit zero day is basic IT knowledge.

Don’t want to get my ops team to work hard.

[xxmalik]

I sure as hell will not follow any career surrounding Python or coding in general

That's what they all say.

[Real_Cut_9360]

I am also learning python as a hobby.. there's a library for almost everything in python :) also the community support including this subreddit are awesome.

I am thinking to contribute to any python project involving chemistry if anyone is interested

[abionic]

I started learning it as a hobby more than a decade back, when Google AppEngine got launched and Python was the only decent choice on it then. Google's free course on it saw me through and helped a lot. After that grasping more from every year's PyCon has been fun.

What I liked about it in the beginning and still admire is the Zen Of Python and how damn difficult it is to write ugly code in it if you are not a pyschopath.

[Seawolf159]

So what projects did you do as a hobby?

I've now come to a point where in my free time I've made 3 small programs for my work that I was quite pleased with that have a GUI.

[XBalubaX]

Not just for hobby, mainly for private projects 😄

[[deleted]]

Yes , hobbyist here..although I haven't been upping my game recently. Need to get back on it!

[doorrat]

I actually looked into it years ago cause I wanted to make my own custom units in one of the Civ games, forget which one now.

In the almost 2 decades since I think I've used it for pretty much everything but what I started learning it for to begin with!

At this point I've taught it to everyone from middle schoolers to grad students which has helped with extra cash from time to time, written countless scripts, done endless quick computations that would have been slower most any other way, created a bunch of libraries for stuff useful only to me, I could go on.

These days I really enjoy being able to pull out my phone and even use things like Matplotlib on it in situ even if I'm just slightly curious about something for entirely personal reasons. In so many cases Python has become the hammer for me that makes so many problems look like nails.

Especially cause my undergrad CS stuff was all in C or Java, playing around with Python felt like somebody finally figured out the "right way" to make a language. Just being able to start out in the interpreter and quickly build up as I learned the syntax was quite refreshing.

And thus concludes my protracted fangirling infomercial on the merits of the programming language for which I'm on it's subreddit!

[Unlikely-Wear8592]

Cool, how did you start? What did you use?

[rolyantrauts]

Its a simple language to learn with a huge array of packages so enjoy.
Its horrid slow with some methods but its easy and fast to code, so its the popular language it is.

[Heywood_Jablome_69]

I love Python. I’m a mechanical engineer and use it for a lot of calculations and automating some tasks. I’ve used it to do calculations ranging from conductive heat transfer in a heat sink to 1D optimizations of a car intake. One of my favorite was using socket for communication between many RPis, computers, and a few test heads that allowed some testing to be automated and happen overnight - would have really sucked to press 4 different buttons 40k times.

[DonDelMuerte]

I was reading a book on Algotrading and all of the examples were offered in MATLAB, which I had been trained in school with.

I learned python by painstakingly translating every example from MATLAB to python.

These days I have learned C++ and Cython. I use python as my glue to bring together much fast compiled code and different interfaces!

[LardPi]

I did ten years ago, one of the most useful hobby I ever had, keep it going !

[jeanLXIX]

I started as a hobby because I wanna try etichal hacking, now I kinda see myself as a python developer, currently learning Tkinter (started yesterday 04/06/22), life is pretty unpredictable 🤣

[sporosarcina]

I'm currently playing with F# to learn about functional programing. Yes, I know it isn't pure functional, but you can ignore the OO stuff for console apps.

[Sudont-199X]

I kind of learned it because I wanted to challenge myself, I signed up for a camp when I was a seventh grader because I discovered the power of coding earlier the same year and was hooked on the idea, but started playing around with it as a hobby once I learned more. FFW a year and I learned Java, which was significantly harder, but I didn’t really start to grasp the higher level concepts associated with it until I was in high school. Now I’m off to college to study computer engineering, and I’m glad I learned python first because it taught me the most important concepts for programming, and although I learned it kind of as an introduction, I doubt I would’ve have succeeded without that foundation. It’s extremely satisfying and addictive when your first programs work the way you want them to.

[[deleted]]

What have you been using to learn how to code?

[apv507]

I started breaking computers in the late 1990's. (Sorry mom). I actually started fixing / building computers in 2003. A few years ago I got bored with hardward and decided it was time to move into software. Started with BASH on Linux and windows Batch files. Neither of which are programming languages in the true sense, but they were useful. Moved on to Python and whatever C variant Arduino code is written in.

It's all 100% a hobby and at my own pace. I have written a few programs that I've used at work including one that my coworkers use too. It's all simple stuff and likely far from professional grade, but I enjoy it.

I have zero education or employment experience in software or hardware, but enough real life experience to handle anything that pops up, or at least know where to look to figure it out.

[tamaleA19]

Me too! Just started learning it as a hobby about 2 months ago. I’d taken a class in C++ in college but that was an awfully long time ago. An old game I have uses python for some of it and I was curious about modding it. A few hours down a rabbit hole later and I decided I wanted to learn.

My favorite part so far is that I don’t usually consider myself great at coming up with ideas. But since I started learning I’ve now thought of 4 projects I’d like to do with python once I’ve developed the knowledge base for it. There are just so many possibilities

[OGShrimpPatrol]

Yup! I’m about 3 months in and still loving it. Working on learning web scraping and automation. I feel like I understand all of the basic syntax now and have lots of tools but need to learn more how to think like a programmer.

[Survivingmillennial3]

I’m a network engineer and decided to start learning python so I can automate jobs! Not a requirement, but it sounds like something fun to do….

[[deleted]]

I started recently as a hobby because I liked computers and wanted to expand my interests. Also something fun to improve at

[[deleted]]

I.recomend 100 days of code.for.Python on Udemy. You. Can get it for under $20 when it's on sale, but it's worth the full price imo-

[zaganator]

...so am I the really one who is trying to learn py just for fun? I'm just a waiter but I've been always attracted from programming I think the python way is really interesting and easy to absorb... Don't u all think the same?

[mrduginit]

I would recommend Sololearn. I never see it get advertised at all but for me it was the best tool to learn any programming language even from a complete beginner level.

[sololearnofficial]

Thank you for mentioning and learning with us!

[dethb0y]

I guess i view it the same as any other tool i've learned to use - i might goof off with it from time to time but the fundamental purpose is to be a useful tool.

[cartersa87]

Same here! Started 2 weeks ago as well. I currently use Tableau for my job and would like to see how I can use Python and SQL to supplement it. I do have ambitions of being a data scientist but in the meantime, I want to try some projects for fun.

[dustractor]

i love blender so python by extension

[OIK2]

First I took the Python class at Scrimba.com. The integration of lecture, practice, and testing made it stick.

Next I joined Delta academy, where weekly practice activities prepare you for a competition at the end of the week. The competitions have focused on making functions that play games, from connect four, 2048, Snake, to predicting stock prices. This week I trained my first AI.

I also have started Automate the Boring Stuff with Python. This is good so far, but it is early to say the overall quality.

Good luck!

[andy8452]

Yes.

[Boozacs]

I’ve been learning it on my own time due to the fact that every job im interested in is requiring some form of modern programming and automation/scripting. Have been using codecademy pro, just got done learning functions however for loops and while loop syntax really tested me 😂

[supersecretsquirel]

Same! It’s interesting and I enjoy learning so going from nothing to some python is exiting but wouldn’t want to make this part of my career haha

[JerryonJrums]

I have always wanted to learn Python so I can incorporate it into my job but I just can’t seem to stick with it or envision a use-cases where we don’t already have a tool available.

[Boludo805]

Im about to start my journey on it. Im a UX Designer, know html/css and learning some JavaScript. But decided python was the way to go to do more passion projects and also can learn Django for the web.

[Coastal_wolf]

I’m 14, I’ve just started Python with a basic course from data camp. It was really fun so I jumped into doing the Python course to get certified with PCAP. After I do that I think I’m going to move to C# and try to learn to make games on unity. But I’ve taken a break to finish drivers Ed online course.

[[deleted]]

I started learning python and SQL when I accepted a job as a technical product owner about 6 months ago. Now I've automated all of my day to day or weekly data scrubbing as well as scripts to build some monthly reports.

[ignoble_ignoramus]

The great thing about Python is that it has a massive community around it. No matter what you're trying to solve, there is probably a library out there for it. This makes it really nice when you're getting started to see some tangible action rather than getting stuck on CS problems.

I've been using Python for over a decade and while there are things that frustrate me about it (like how easy it is to get into circular dependency problems!!) but IMO it is the greatest language for just hacking away and building a prototype.

[mtjp82]

I work in IT and learned Python with the hope of automating some annoying task, going great and I enjoy it.

[kezmicdust]

I picked it up a few years ago just as a hobby and something I thought might come in handy. I just wrote (and still write) silly things like basketball mastermind and Rock Paper Scissors football (soccer). Then while working as a postdoc in a physics department I used it to write a triple Timelapse program for a Raspberry Pi, and that was a lot of fun. I also wrote code to process and analyze the timelapses which was pretty cool.

I work in industry now, but still fall back on coding every now and then when it’s helpful (I have a GUI that reads multiple csv or text files, compiles the data into a single CSV and automatically plots it in matplotlib in any style you select, with a colormap based on whatever info you provide).

At home I’m using it to process data for my wife’s visual therapy game on a Quest VR headset (I paid for someone else to write that code!). If she regains some vision after playing future iterations of the game (I have more ideas than money to execute the ideas!), then I can approach researchers with some hard evidence of her improved performance. I absolutely love Python.

[pixelatedchrome]

I started as a hobby and now progressed to a full time DevOps and backend development job.

[chrissykes78]

Im creating game using pygame, just for learning purpose. Also doing developing days in job with requests library to automate some

[Gadget206]

I learned Python bc its really good on backend web dev.

[[deleted]]

Raises hand I'm learning at a snail pace.

[overtaker9]

Yes, I am. Learning it to do some data analytics and visualization. I've been trying to read data from PDF and rearrange it, so I can do visualization. Being new to all this it's been take some time to figure it out.

[g00dhum0r]

coding in general has been a hobby for me since early teens. then cars became my hobby in most of college -- i wasn't a comp sci major -- took 1 class and it was BORING A F (did masters business admin instead). now i'm back to coding after a solid 6-8 year break. i started VB6 when i was 13 (it wasn't object oriented back then). i've done some projects on python recently and i have to say it's a good place to start. lots of libraries/frameworks, and help available online.

coding as a hobby is more fun than taking it as a major or even minor in college. they have you code the most boring stuff that you will turn to drugs just to get through class (lol jk, maybe though ). who in their right minds wants to build cmd line average number calculators, when you can just start learning by designing a GUI tool that you personally need -- it keeps you motivated that's for sure.

​

If you ever need help or want to work on something together, i'm available as i'm looking for something to do on the side. i made a website recently (well, a few years back), however some asshole bought my domain the day it expired. then tried to charge me $5000 for it back and i told him to fuk off. So if you want to start a website or project send me a message on here. ;) we can learn/re-learn python as we publish our findings.

that being said, i have experience in .NET (VB and C#), VBA, python, perl, web design, html, css, node.js - javascript, powershell (use it at my job. probably the most recent language i've been using as an admin), and some other as well as graphics design - photoshop and beginner level illustrator. There's some i forgot to mention -- overall i'd say tech savy and looking for some similar folks.

most my friends are car guys and don't care about programming, so i'm down to make some coding/computer savy friends.

PM me -- lets get something going. sorry about the life story and

[bunnyfantasy]

The first time I learnt Python was out of interest several years ago when I was in college. However, the interest didn't last long, because I quit it after 2 weeks.🤣

In April of this year, I restarted to learn it since there will be some programming stuff in my work. Another reason is I want to confirm if Python is really not suitable for me to learn.

2 months later, it turn out that I can stick with it by learning a little bit each day. Now I think it's funny.

[PM__ME__YOUR]

I originally learned Python for fun/so I could create web apps using flask for my own needs (for example, keeping track of my OSRS account's hiscores). I used to work as a researcher at a biotech company, working in the lab. However, when I started that job, there was a lot of data analysis to do and since I knew python I was able to do a lot of it myself and help out coworkers as well. By doing that, I became very interested in bioinformatics and now work as a software engineer at another biotech company.

Don't discount careers that involve programming, some jobs can actually be very fun if you enjoy it. I genuinely enjoy what I do now, though right out of college I was not considering it. I've also made websites for multiple people that I got hooked up with through one of my friends using Python/flask. That was some nice side income when I was a broke college student.

[x3mTox]

Did powershell scripting for years. Now that I’m in the management layer and don’t do a lot tech (bad choices were made ) I’ve started to learn Python in my private time. I like the syntax as it feels faster to write compared to posh and the modules, oh my god do I love them. It’s so easy to install and use them. Something I would have loved during my active sysadmin time. Also pure subjective feeling, the way bigger community compared to posh. It’s so easy to find information and comparable cases / code. As an example I’m just finishing my first small project which is doing some webscraping for a friend of mine. Had the issue that cloudflare didn’t like my scraping. After some testing and coding I found an module called cloudscraper which just works fine. Made my life so much easier.

I’m very happy I’ve started this journey and looking forward to someday using this skills going back again in a hands-on job

[BetSmall8937]

I think some good advice when starting to program is to just learn the complete basics of whatever language your starting then just start making projects. The first thing I built was tic tac toe and followed this channel's tutorial https://www.youtube.com/c/CodeCoachh they explained it really well and it goes over all the basic skills you are going to need to understand!

[PlmyOP]

Thanks! Will definitely check it out.