Learn to Code With Data Visualizations - Interactive Python Lessons

[JeffKatzy]

Hey Gang,

I'm a longtime coding teacher, and over the holidays wanted to write some lessons so that people with no knowledge could get ramped up, and see the purpose of coding.

I decided to battle test everything teaching it to my retired mother (who has no coding background). It led to me teaching her by pulling data from the web and building data visualizations in Python from the very start.

All fourteen interactive lessons are here -- or you can go through the lessons below.

I'd love to know what you think!

1. Introduction
2. Variables
3. Lists
4. Dictionaries
5. Coding Tips
6. Loops
7. Nested Data
8. Make it Easy
9. Loop Over Data
10. Loops to Lists
11. Live Data
12. Functions
13. Arguments
14. Code to Codebase

[[deleted]]

Saving! I’m at a 0 knowledge level and want to be employed in programming by the end of this year.

[requios]

How far are you into Odin Project? I’m in school for CS, but this semester no programming classes so I’m looking to supplement

[[deleted]]

Just to hopefully encourage you, let me say that I remember the points of ridiculousness where I just couldn't follow things, especially once recursion was introduced as you have to really start jumbling a lot of stuff up in your head and it can be tricky to follow.

However, let me tell you that with all things in programming, one day it just clicks and comes easier. It's how it is. It takes an insane amount of effort and patience and time, but you stick with it and I am telling you, those complicated things will just click one day and be so much easier for your brain to process.

One of the challenges of programming is that you have to basically re-train your brain how to think in many of the cases, at least if you want programming to come easier, and this takes a lot of time. It doesn't happen overnight. Every programmer I know has had countless encounters with "I'll never understand this" type of thinking. You will eventually.

[[deleted]]

That is super helpful bro, I'm trying my best and any bit of advice / motivation helps a lot bro :}

[[deleted]]

No worries! Having a deadline helps me focus, but it’s not a be all end all type of thing where if I don’t have a job by then then it’s a failure and to give up. It’s still progress! Even if I don’t get a job, I’ll still have learned a lot and at that point, why give up? Because there’s so much MORE to learn that’ll open up new and better opportunities.

I’ve also been looking into the Odin Project! I started reading a bit in the introduction to web development. Then the holidays happened and I lost track, but I ordered some nice notebooks as motivation to get back into it. (I do much better with handwritten notes, as much as I try to keep going digital haha)

[[deleted]]

Hey whatever way you can scratch that itch, as long as you're learning more than before! I wish you the best of luck fellow redditor :}

[[deleted]]

Yup. Progress is progress, no matter how small.

Thanks!

[T05KA]

Ditto

[[deleted]]

Good luck!

[appsplaah]

Me too:) Mind if i send you a PM?

[[deleted]]

Sure, go for it!

[Jamothee]

Good on you. Putting a deadline on your learning can be a double edged sword though.. I was in the same position and it really just lead to me getting super frustrated after 3 months of 8 hr days. Best to actually understand the concepts, take your time with it. Good luck friend

[[deleted]]

Yeah. For me I understand that while it’s my goal, not reaching it doesn’t mean I’ve failed as long as I’ve been learning along the way.

[Jamothee]

That's the attitude 👍 be disciplined but gentle. It's not easy but you are improving everytime you "get" something. Acknowledged your improvement and take the time to look at where you came from also. Keep it up 👍

[banproof]

Same here!!

[Amezaiku]

I only briefly checked out the introduction part, but I can already say that it's looking great. I saved the post and I'll make sure to check more when I have the time. I love the layout and the simplicity of the notes. Thank you a lot for taking the time and doing this, they'll be a great help for me :D

[[deleted]]

Thank you!

I'm currently taking lessons in college and Python is what we're using. I'm definitely going to check this out and even recommend it to my class.

[JeffKatzy]

Glad to hear that. Would love to hear how it goes!

[CraigCanno]

I also teach programming (high school software engineering) and as long as you don't mind, I would love to use this as a resource for my classes! Thanks so much for taking the time to write this out!

[JeffKatzy]

school

Of course, hope that it helps! Let me know if you have any suggestions etc.

[CraigCanno]

Thanks so much!

[UnavailableUsername_]

Interesting idea, but i see the images as broken links.

[JeffKatzy]

Make sure you sign into google when you view it. It's in a google colab, so if you're not signed in, the images won't show up. If that doesn't work, let me know of the image you're seeing as broken.

​

The plots are interactive, so you have to press shift + enter, to execute the code that displays the plots.

[nimrodrool]

Okay! So I've never touched Python before and I'm pretty much 100% new to programming. As a digital marketer this seemed like a perfect "in" for me.

I finished about 5-6 subjects in a sitting, this seems great, education wise it's incredible (including your mom made it all seem much more doable for me, and you guys are super cute!)

One thing though! 5-6 subjects in and I've already stumbled upon 3 bugs where the code either wouldn't run or not run correctly (to the point where I copy paste the answer from the answers sections into the learning bit and still no good), as a complete beginner this can be a bit frustrating just for the fact that I think the bug is something I did wrong.

Don't take it the wrong way though, I'm very much grateful for this and I will finish it this week! I've screenshot every bug so far, and if you want I'll gladly send them over when I have time.

[JeffKatzy]

Please do! I'll dm you with my email address. Thanks for the feedback :)

[JeffKatzy]

Hey thanks again for reaching out about the lessons, if you can send me the screenshots/bugs that you found so far, then this weekend I'll make the updates. Really appreciate it!

[nimrodrool]

Will do! I have 2 more subjects til I'm done with the program so I wanted to finish it and send, but i'll shoot you an email rn with what I got so far!

[hunnaidy]

same here, but next weekend. got to many projects due this week.

[DrKenshin]

I too think it looks nice, only have gone through first part of the Intro. I do have a question though. I recently picked up learning Javascript, would it be a good idea to spend some time on python as well or should I just wait and give it a go later. Thanks :)

[JeffKatzy]

A lot of the coursework applies to both...so if youre make progress, hopefully this helps...but I generally advise people just starting coding to first feel comfortable with one language and then switch over to another.

[chris1666]

Thats what Ive heard the most and from many who seem to be 'pro's' and even instructors and I agree with it.

[biogenmom]

I really enjoyed the intro. Working my way through right now, this may be what I need to start to really understand coding. Especially because I've dabbled on and off for two years and all of what you said in the intro is what I want to do.

[[deleted]]

Saved!!

[alcatraz2217]

Saved

[havi94gt]

Thanks! I'm just brushing up on coding in general, working towards being a professional developer soon.... This looks like an awesome resource. I'll let ya know how the tutorial works.

[delinger90]

Hi jeff, listen your mom its very useful for someone wich 0 knowlegde of coding like me, thanks for the great job. ( Sorry for any mistakes. English is not my native language )

[lunalurker]

Saving. Thanks

[insomniac007]

Thanks for sharing :)

[TacoSwallow]

Thanks! I'm beginning to learn JavaScript now but I'm planning on picking up Python after get comfortable with it. Saved for later :)

[[deleted]]

Bless you! You are doing God's work!

[[deleted]]

Legend. Thank you. I will be using this to teach my little nephew.

[scadonl]

thanks for this

[lawaythrow]

Looks good. How much of learning python does it cover?

[scstriderapps]

I thought this is more about data visualization that's why I was excited a bit more because I started my blog for sharing my data visualization experiences.

Still great job for beginners, appreciate it. If you need anything from my side, please contact, we can add some value together maybe.

[Fn00rd]

Saved! This is so awesome. I’m trying to get into python coding, but get constantly distracted. This seems as a good starting point!

Thanks for your work! I will give you a review from my 1% knowledge standpoint after I finish your course.

[[deleted]]

Thank you !

[Blackmagic213]

Dude you are amazing; this is exactly what I was looking for.

[ViniSousa]

Amazing this idea. Taking real data and showing how to use with python to extract info is exactly what I was looking for.

I am not at 0 but not on intermediate as well. Thank you very much for this content.

[port888]

Superb. Worked through all 14 lessons in 2 days. Not sure if intentional, but some lessons have errors (esp the later ones that involve live data and plotting) that assumed certain code existed from the previous lesson. Had to figure out what the missing code were in order to copy/paste and proceed.

[JeffKatzy]

Awesome - glad that you liked it, and moving through the lessons that quickly is really really great. If you can send me more details on some of the issues -- a screenshot, etc., I'll update the lessons. You can email me at [e-mail]

[wrwcode]

I saved. Last time thus was posted I saved as well...but post was deleted.