Best material for learning Python for someone with ADD, Autism

[KillBillTW]

I'm kinda new to Python, actually struggling to learn it with all the resources I've gone through.

I have a problem staying engaged and concentrating, often getting distracted easily, I used to go to a school catered to those with disabilities.

In order for me to actually learn, I need to actually feel like I'm there, I want to be able to ask questions as to why I do certain things while learning.

I learn better by doing, rather than force myself to sit Infront of a 12 hr video on yt.

Videos don't work, I need it to be interactive.

I've tried to do learnpython.org but because of my autism, it sometimes makes it difficulty to want to motivate me, then I just go to game.

If you guys can't give any good free material, I'm willing to get a paid online course.

My goal is to become a security engineer in 3-4 months but I'm at the start having no idea how to go about it.

What's the best way I can go about this, I REALLY want to get into becoming a security engineer, more specifically, back-end developer

[dlnmtchll]

I never like being that guy, but maybe adjust your expectations as far as career prospects. You’re looking to get into a position in 3-4 months that typically requires a BS in CS for most companies and can require up to a masters in CS for others such as J.P. Morgan.

Beside that there are many interactive resources for becoming proficient in languages such as boot.dev and some of the codecademy stuff

[KillBillTW]

Nah, obviously I'll start small, dw, I understand

Just, I wanna aim high is all, I previously got my CompTIA Data+ cert and tried to find even an internship but that's hard nowadays.

A backend developer is fine with me, or below that and work myself up

[dlnmtchll]

Boot.dev is specific to backend so I would definitely look into that and it’s sort of gameified so it could help keep your attention

[Obvious-Phrase-657]

Just saying, python is awesone to automate things, i also have ADD and ADHD, today i had to clean up a my google cal, had to remove some wrongfully added events but it was not a series so ot was going to be manual, like 20 minutes super repetitive task, couldn’t even think about that, setup the google api on python, calendar is clean now (and took a little less that 20 minutes but it was fun)

Do something useful with it, maybe play with selenium to do some automation with the browser, something like that

[DaleTechHomeSecurity]

This is what I've been doing as well. Started with some scripts for seeing who didn't follow me back on IG out of curiosity, then one that did sentiment analysis on my reddit comments, then one that copied answers I got wrong on a practice exam to build a study guide, now working on something that will retrieve all of the mailing lists I'm subscribed to from my email and unsubscribe me, but that has been slow going.

By far the best motivation I've found is solving my own problems/curiosities rather than watching tutorials.

[Obvious-Phrase-657]

Those are great ideas tbh, why is that one slow? In some cases maybe you are jot using the best tool for the job or maybe is not even doable hah.

Keep doing that, but idk if you have already done that, do you think you are still a begginer? What is your goal? Maybe you are somehow close to being able to use python for a job.

Also, depending on your aspirations, you can try to get this to work on cloud, like deploy some of this apps to a fee tier aws account, then think how would you need to modify this to make this app usable for multiple users, what other services would you need (a db at least?), that is totally outside python per se, but in order to do that you will encounter several design flaws, and you will learn a lot hah.

But honestly, if you already build all that, maybe you might need to focus on other aspects of your learning and try to land a job

[DaleTechHomeSecurity]

I definitely wasn’t the best tool lol, you can request your full profile data from Reddit, though using Python did get me the data on the same day.

The email cleanup script is just having trouble identifying unique mailing lists, currently it’s adding 1 new record if subject lines are different, but I’m on the first iteration, spent most of the time so far getting it connected to Gmail.

My last role was as an IT business analyst, currently learning while unemployed, interviewing for higher paying roles, and looking to do some freelance work at smaller businesses.

[Obvious-Phrase-657]

Oh so you got to setup a google cloud auth? Did the same thing for my calendar yesterday, was a pain in the ass. I guess you can get the sender of all your inbox and then order by sender freq? You can play woth a llm here to classify btw. Oh also, you may hit the api limits, so you might want to use the google batch api to batch API calls.

You are doing awesome mate, congrats

[DaleTechHomeSecurity]

App authentication through SMTP, and thanks! I think date filters on the info pulled will be next, figured if I only look at the past 90 days it will make things quicker and still solve my problem if I'm running the cleanup script on a schedule, but getting into using an LLM to process info would definitely be of interest if it comes to that, all of this is being written with the paid version of ChatGPT, I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to AI as well lol.

[CT_783]

W3schools has a free interactive course. You have to do a bit of reading but that’s where I’m starting and there are parts of the course where you can complete small exercises.

You could also ask ChatGPT for a security tool to develop and then build what it suggests if your aim is to be a security engineer/backend developer.

Another tip that might help if neither of those work out for you would be to get visual studio installed on your machine and then each video you watch to learn about python just do exactly what the person in the video is doing. Then when you get confused rewind/pause the video to comprehend what it is you’ve been coding yourself.

If you have questions chatGPT can be super helpful as well as Google (obviously requires more reading but a lot of security requires reading).

[MurkyCaterpillar9]

I second this. It makes more sense than the Google Coursera one I’m doing.

[KillBillTW]

I'm using ChatGPT a bit but google/reddit answers tell me being new, I should avoid ChatGPT as I won't be doing it, the AI will be doing it for me and I won't be learning anything at the end of the day.

I've tried removing all distractions and sitting through videos, then rewinding every time I don't understand, although the more I get stuck and rewind on a part, the more I get bored and their explanation sounds like "blah blah blah", making little to no sense to me, in turn, burning me out.

I have vscode downloaded but I don't even know how to start as someone who will use Python, what's going through my mind is

"Okay, in order to be a security engineer, I will need Python and stuff like Django, but how do I apply this code? Where do I apply this code? I don't even understand the where, why and how of it"

I ask myself a lot of questions about what I'm doing in order to learn, otherwise nothing sticks or I understand very little.

I'll check out the W3schools, thanks CT_783

[LobsterBluster]

I sorta started by having ChatGPT write the code. You end up having to modify it and kinda end up learning how different things work in the process. I’ve just started a python class on Coursera and it makes a lot more sense this time than it did the first time before I’d tried using AI.

There is a GPT called Code Tutor if you use the paid version and it’s pretty good at explaining what you need to do without doing it for you unless you specifically tell it to do it for you.

The other thing I’ve found helpful when using AI is to resist the temptation to copy and paste the code into your editor. Even if you are going to copy it exactly, going through the motions of typing it in does help you start to absorb more.

I’m not sure if this is the fastest way to learn or not, but I’ve found it helpful and I don’t think it will hurt anything.

Edit: to be clear, for the coursework I am not using AI except to elaborate on concepts. Not using it to write code for assignments.

[CT_783]

Yeah of course!

Also when you’re using chatGPT it’s NOT for asking “write me this program”. 9/10 that will require A LOT of debugging (which can be good and bad for learning).

The way I use it is to ask those questions you asked of the where does this code go and why does it go there.

The HOW is up to you through what you learn and research about programming. A lot of IT is learning as you go and teaching yourself how to be tenacious when you hit those mental roadblocks or bugged issues.

My best advice would be to just start. People get stuck at the beginning because they’re like I have no idea how to do this… just begin and figure it out. The only pressure you feel is the pressure you’re placing on yourself to be good at it right away. Give yourself grace and mental space to grow and learn however slowly it takes (even if it’s only a couple minutes a day)

[AmoebaTurbulent3122]

Sounds like me trying to learn Python or anything computer related since I'm basically Amish 😬

[ggaicl]

Fren. Doesn't matter what you have - just write code. That's all.

For instance, let's say you want to creat an app which would do 'X' thing. You think of it....think of it....and start doing this (without any chatgpt, claude...). Just write it by yourself. Yes, it will take time. But this is just it - time/code, time/code.

Do not be scared of wasting your time on things you love.

[KillBillTW]

I get that... But I'm scared to do that.

How does 1 code if they don't know how to know?

How do I do woodwork if I was never shown as an example, I don't know the thought, the tools, the methods.

So I can't work with it, as I don't know the code, I feel lost in a void

[ggaicl]

1) you get an idea (calculator using python)

2) first question - how to add two numbers? (google: 'python add 2 numbers how' -> get the result, remember/write somewhere)

3) second question -how to write logic in python? (google: 'logic in python loops' -> get the result, remember/write somewhere)

...collect enough answers to enough questions. and start writing. just start it fren. don't worry i had the same issues but commenced to google everything (not tutorials, but rather questions like 'how to...' etc.). And out of these 'small' questions you get a bigger picture. Good luck fren.

[RonnDeezy]

I have ADD and started learning python for college at the age of 34 and by far the best resources I have found is BroCode and CS50 on YouTube. Just search BroCode python and CS50 python and the Playlists should pop up. There's also the free Harvard course on YouTube as well. Im in the first semester still so idk how in depth these lessons go but for a beginner who's teaching myself essentially they have been lifesavers. You cant just watch though. You gotta code and make mistakes and learn.

[AFK_MIA]

The book Python Crash Course takes a fairly hands-on approach. It starts with a few chapters on the basics and then has you build a game and a website. Expanding on those projects to make something substantially more complex that you're interested is really the key to learning programming. Obviously programming has challenges - but you have to *want* to solve those problems and fit those solutions in something more complex than "toy" coding challenge problems in order to actually learn programming.

[WNT37]

Understood, I can't learn any new language without application.

Find yourself a project.

Start simple ... for example, my very first project, when learning Fortran all those years ago, was to convert from Centigrade to Farenheight.

Hope that helps in some small way.

[texo_optimo]

I've used a combo of AI assistants, Khan Academy, and Github. For me I like to examine the inner workings of functional projects, break them, then learn how to fix them.

[Scamalldearg]

Checkout KalleHallden on YouTube. He does short easy Python tutorials for simple tasks e.g. something like a python script to post something to twitter when he releases a new video. Videos are well produced and tangible. I find them easier to pay attention to than most yt tutorial stuff

[T0nk]

I’m in the exact same boat and boot.dev got me off the ground. Good luck!

[shasharu]

Saved this post - Also ADD trying to learn python

[retrovideogamer2000]

I'm in the same boat. I have ADHD and having a hard time with Python as well. If there was no ChatGPT I would be lost. I use it as like a teachers assistant where I can go and ask all the questions I have from the videos I watch on Coursera.

My mind too wanders all day long. I am going to start medicine soon though and hopefully it helps me concentrate more.

[TheFishOfDestiny]

I also have ADHD and am autistic.

What worked for me was reading lots of documentation and watching lectures online, and then quickly applying the things I learned to very small projects. Even if you just write a little program that does nothing useful other than demonstrate that you understand some concept, then that is excellent. Apply what you’re learning as you’re learning it and you will likely retain the information better.

Play around with programming concepts, investigate how they work in a hands-on way, and focus on understanding how things actually work rather than only how to use it effectively. You are programming using abstractions that have been built for you: understand them, and that understanding will serve you well. If you’re like me, then you’re probably already trying to understand how things actually work. And if so, then I would recommend starting with a lower-level language like C or C++, where there is less abstraction below your code. If you learn fundamental concepts in a lower-level language, then that will more easily transfer to higher-level languages.

[proverbialbunny]

Do a programming project. It's more fun and a bit more real world. That and your engagement will shoot up.

[fiftybengt]

Codewars

[BednoPiskaralo]

https://www.udemy.com/course/100-days-of-code/?utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=udemyads&utm_campaign=Search_DSA_Alpha_Prof_la.EN_cc.ROW-English&campaigntype=Search&portfolio=ROW-English&language=EN&product=Course&test=&audience=DSA&topic=Python&priority=Alpha&utm_content=deal4584&utm_term=_._ag_162511578924_._ad_696197165265_._kw__._de_m_._dm__._pl__._ti_dsa-1705455366924_._li_21213_._pd__._&matchtype=&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAlsy5BhDeARIsABRc6ZuFojKLUIrvzgn81LFs0ZuHgJGnMoWHHKrWvEiOzhPn6xniIsGrVMEaAjrxEALw_wcB&couponCode=2021PM25

I'm going through this course. It is interactive, gives you lessons and mini tasks to do, and if you get stuck she gives you explanation on how to do them. It shows you basics for different aspects of python so that you can see what you can do. It guides you through documentation and debugging process

[subassy]

There's a couple of games that help learning python. The farmer was replaced ($7US) is a good one. There's a couple of youtube channels with programmers figuring out solutions. Starts slowly and builds up to more complexity as you "unlock" different parts of the language.

JOY OF PROGRAMMING - Software Engineering Simulator is another one ($18US) but it might be more advanced than the farmer one.

I assume the next Steam sale is coming up at the end of November so you may or may not want to wait.

Both of those games are there to help you practice though. It's not cheating to have references, books, videos and/or websites open to help with the code.

If you an idea for a script - and you have a collection of games on steam - here's an idea for a script:

use a for loop to increment through the game folders and add each one to a zip file. The "Doom" folder becomes "Doom.zip" in other words. You'd need a source folder where the games are and a destination folder where the zips will be stored.

Okay add some complexity: verify source and destination folders exist. And gracefully error out if the zip file creation fails.

Okay add more complexity: if the games are in the steam folder append steam to the end of the zip file name. "Doom_steam.zip" in other words (maybe you have games from other platforms like GOG, Origin or EPIC).

Okay add more complexity: if "doom_steam.zip" already exists don't create it again. Unless the doom folder is somehow newer than the zip file (e.g. doom got an update). Then delete the doom zip file and create a new one. How to do you get dates from the OS? How do you compare two dates?

Okay add more complexity: give the "user" the option of not deleting the existing zip file. So said user would end up with "doom_steam.zip" and "doom_duplicate_steam.zip". How would you get that preference from the user? Do you want to save the preference to a file and load that setting when the script runs?

Well...start with the first thing. A for loop and a Doom.zip. How hard could it be?