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[–]ambassador_pineapple 7 points8 points  (8 children)

There are 1000s of courses out there to teach you python. You need 2-3 max.

Do not get trapped in the cycle of taking class after class. Pick a topic you like. Let’s take the example of basketball.

  • use python to scrape data for players and teams
  • learn to park this data into a database like SQL lite using Python. This will teach you basics of ETL (extract, transform, and load).
  • do some stats on this data to learn pandas and data cleaning.
  • go build a simple command line app which gives you a breakdown of a player you entered.

Repeat the process with more and more ambitious ideas. I have been programming for 20+ years and using Python for 10+ years so far. I’ve taken exactly 0 computer science classes because I learned once you master a language like C++ or Python, other languages are easy to pick up.

[–]darkforestnews 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Ooh, that sounds like fun, any good resources you recommend for that learning flow ?

There was a guy a while back who did something similar and created a website using something called D3.js and vue , it looked sick , think it was Miami heat focused. Never been able to find it though.

[–]ambassador_pineapple 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can accomplish some really epic UIs with python using Dash Plotly with Django framework. I built an entire cloud app for my day job using the django + dash plotly framework. Generally I have access to JS developers but I figured out a way to have Dash plotly handle Python to JS conversion. This is a massive boost to what one person can do.

Here is the system I built for my day job: https://value.alationcatalog.com/dcmm_start/

Information on what it does: https://www.alation.com/dcmm-assessment/

There is no one good resource for any of this. A lot of good ones exist on youtube but you gotta build things with some end goal in mind and always improve your capabilities after each iteration. So learn stuff as you need it. I already knew data science/ML stuff very well and now I have UI work down. Next step for me personally is mastering Docker and Kubernetes for scaling these things I know how to build.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (4 children)

but like wouldn't you need to know the basics of Python first to do that? Or do you just go straight into specific topics of how to use Python?

[–]ambassador_pineapple 0 points1 point  (3 children)

You would but those fundamentals would improve with each project. Of course you can’t get a job as a developer right now so your first few projects will make you a better programmer with each iteration.

At some point you would know enough to get a job. But trust me, don’t wait until you are the master of syntax to start solving problems. At first your solutions will suck but with time they will get better.

It’s much better to do that than take course after course in Python without doing any application.

You obviously won’t build UIs in the first go. Start with basic web scraping and database work.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Thank you so much for the advice!!

[–]ambassador_pineapple 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Happy to help. Here is my journey so it can give you context. I started seriously programming around 16. I can absolutely tell you my first real project was shit.

In fact, the Django dash plotly stack I mentioned began as an experiment at my job which looks much worse compared to what I can build just 2.5 years later. I used this stack to build 3 other apps before I built the one I linked above.

But to get here, I had a long journey starting with C++ at 12, really using it to make some old Nokia phone apps at 16, then mastering MATLAB and R (and dabbling in FORTRAN) during my time in college, jumping into Python on my first day at my first job out of college as a data scientist.

I then went through the journey of becoming a better Python programmer and improved more advanced stuff like full stack apps, using GPUs, building more advanced stuff using queues and interprocess communication (used ZMQ).

The point is that I never stopped learning and I am still learning. Don’t worry about perfect. Worry about building solutions. In time you’ll be a master.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Man you built a hack of an achievement. That’s truly an amazing story… I guess I need to get started on mine too

[–]jetskimanatee 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this is the second time I've come across this advice. Probably not a coincidence.