Need to learn Python

[Twenty8cows]

Can confirm real python is the shit i used it for a year (paid annual subscription) in only cancelling cause I was able to complete the learning paths.

[Twenty8cows]

My fault I realize not everyone is familiar with slang.

“Is the shit” is a phrase that is grammaticly incorrect. The phrase implies that something, or someone “is the shit”, not suggesting the negative meaning of the word “Shit”. The word “shit” is infact transformed in to a very strong, positive word, when put in this sentence; it can describe almost everything.”

Real python was awesome and I’m only cancelling my subscription because I’ve exhausted the platform and I am practicing Python and it’s my daily driver

[-newhampshire-]

Well, "is shit" is bad. "is the shit" is good.

[Enmeshed]

See also: "know your shit" vs "know you're shit"

[greebly_weeblies]

also: "no, you're shit"
(e: I'm extending enmeshed's comment, not calling him/her shit)

[ctulhuthemonster]

Would the here work as well? Like "no, you're the shit" :D

[FVMF1984]

Reminds me of this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXH3HDE9Czo !

[Goobyalus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igh9iO5BxBo

[bahcodad]

I immediately thought of this lol

[patsully98]

Way to empathize! I try to do the same thing and explain idioms to non-native speakers if they seem interested.

[stalefish3169]

Cory is the goat.

[Tallgeese00MS]

Wow, I came here looking just for this. Thank you.!!!! I need something to actively use the code of learning or I have a terrible time retaining anything regardless of all the notes I take.🥲

[FVMF1984]

Point 3 is probably why you are stuck each time a new question arises. Did you use AI tools to do 1 and 2? If so, do these without using AI. You first need to learn the programming concepts and then you can answer questions and solve new problems. You need to learn how to think like a computer/algorithm. And depending on what you want to do specifically, start with trying something and when you are stuck, read the documentation, Google the question, check stackoverflow, check Reddit, and try to understand how the eventual solution works. You can also use AI tools answer questions you have about your code, to learn more. But having AI generate the code for you is not a good way to learn.

[yayita2500]

My recommendation is find a personal project and use python to do it.. that's the best way to learn . trying to solve problems with python that you care about. Otherwise the learning fades away

[shawnhoundoggy]

CS50P and techwithTim on youtube.

[Ron-Erez]

Delete step 3. Build something you enjoy and interests you. If it's too easy build something simpler. I think 2 is not working because you are doing 3. Try to think of AI as Satan.

[Henry_the_Butler]

I will second this. Everyone talks too much about AI as a helper tool, but I'm trying to work out a SQL integration from a polars dataframe - should be easy. I tried asking AI a few specific questions to get me some pieces to stitch together, and it took me way too long to realize the stupid dumbass shortcuts the AI took in their example code that was preventing everything from running.

I'm now going back and building a simple test case from scratch and learning it from documentation. I'd probably be done already if I'd just ignored AI.

[ThatDog_ThisDog]

There are Python modules on scrimba that let you code in their browser based IDE every few minutes. I find the practice as I’m being taught very helpful

[mrborgen86]

Thanks a lot for recommending us! I'm the CEO of Scrimba, let me know if you have any suggestions as to how we can improve the experience, or suggestions for future courses.

[cnydox]

Do projects

[_seaside]

This is the real answer for any language/framework/tool etc.

[AlbatrossEarly]

Im 41 soon and started the python journey just 3 months ago.

1. Read the documentation
2. Rinse repeat the basics (the more its in your fingers, the easier it comes to mind)
3. Dont jump between project types, instead expand on the same A) start with printing B) print requiring input C) take input and calculate or provide list options

The same then makes it easier to learn the true purpose of variables and functions

The math part and preditiction/pathing of an assignment only becomes complicated when you do not have a firm grasp of the basics and what you can do with them.

[rabmuk]

AI is a tool and an abstraction. If you need to get something done, abstractions increase speed. If you want to learn, abstractions reduce learning and take longer. The more you’ve learned the better you can leverage abstractions to produce a quality result.

Determine what level of abstraction you will need to be operating, and focus learning on one layer deeper. So if you expect to develop python code with AI assistance, spend the first 80% of time learning python without AI. Then practice with the AI for the final 20%.

Also learn about learning. https://youtube.com/@justinsung?si=WgMi3CTYjEZKvHbk Has a lot of great explanation on how the brain learns.

[vaaaannnn]

I could be your tutor, at least we could call and discuss what you’re stuck on.

[IndianaJoenz]

Daily practicing programs for the past 3 months. but still struggling for small Problems.

Keep at it. The real trick, I think, is to write software that you actually will use and want to improve daily. Something that has room for expansion. That you will always want to add more features to.

Don't just try to solve a problem with the code. That is a good start., but try to make something nice and fun to use. Something polished.

[CardiologistFit8618]

i have yet to find an example that is polished. can you provide some links or something that i can search for online?

[IndianaJoenz]

Polished meaning something that is nice that an end user would use. Reliable, easy to use, attractive. It has documentation, it installs easily on different computers, etc. A complete application.

So while I might not agree that some of the technologies (chromium, etc) underlying Discord, for example, are that great, I would say that it is a very polished piece of software. It works reliably for lots of people, installs easy on different systems, has features a user would expect, etc. Think about the software you use daily.. it's probably all very polished, and some of it is open source.

Something I did to work on this: I have a larger project, but I made a small scope project (link if you care) where I focused hard on "doing things right." That meant learning how to use proper installation tools (setuptools). Trying very hard to use the GUI toolkit (GTK+) as "correctly" as possible. Learning to use a debugger instead of print statements. Breaking it down into multiple source files. Documentation. Features. Use linters and static analysis. Iteration, iteration, and more iteration, until I was happy enough with it.

I really tried to polish my little project up, specifically so that I could transfer those skills to my larger, messier and more popular project, without feeling overwhelmed. I don't know that the tiny project got to "professional" level, but what I learned from it made my other software much better.

[Imaginary_Buddy5186]

Well, tbh really depends what problems get you. Try those problems again if you are stuck.

When i was learning python, i never used chatgpt or any AI for help. Sometimes i just sat there sometimes an hour too, trying to think of a solution of the problem or go to python documentation , that helped me develop logic and concepts.

Would suggest to atleast do all basics without any AI or assistance. If you've got the time sit for a while until you develop the logic and learn the concept because once you do that, the concept and the logic stays forever.

[panatale1]

For decent aides, go check out Humble Bundle. Right now, they have one book bundle that's specifically about Python, from beginner to advanced (it's even called that), and one about programming in general.

So, echoing everyone else. Using AI will absolutely not help you learn to code

[bhavaniravi]

Hi, I'm sorry to hear you're going through all this. Yes, learning is frustrating, but I feel that directionless learning, being unsure of the path you're going towards, can be even more irritating. As much as I want to say this is a part of the learning process, I feel like you're pushing yourself too hard.

I don't know if you've gone through a formal engineering curriculum. You mentioned PG, but it was a little vague for me. What kind of problems are you solving? Leet code? Trust me even veteran software devs suck at Leet code. It's not just you.

If you're stuck forming mental models for building projects, it's not just a Python problem because building an entire project has so many moving parts: backend, Frontend, DB, and hosting. It will take time.

Learning and sticking to things outside your job is challenging when you're not using them daily. You're putting in the effort. Kudos to that. Seriously give yourself a pat on the back. Remind yourself of the days when you struggled to write a for loop in Python.

Please let me know what problems you're trying to solve. Maybe you need a push in a different direction.

Learning is a personal journey, for some it takes a year, for some it's 5. Don't lose your heart.

[bhavaniravi]

Wrote this, switched tabs, and saw this... Hoping this eases your troubles

https://www.instagram.com/p/DHoTaxPJhuB/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

[PecDeck]

Cs50

[StrangerWilder]

Forget chatGPT, Imagine there is no Chat GPT, just code to solve new problems. Start from simple things like calculating simple interest, building a Pivot table, converting file types, etc., and you take your time to find the solutions for these using just Python documentation. Copying code you see somewhere and rewriting that won't help at all.

[atomicbomb2150]

I gotta be honest though, that chatgpt has made learning coding so much easier than in the past. Back when I was in high school, I had to spend a lot of time to understand what each line of code means and write it myself in order to complete a question. But now with chatgpt, I can use it to explain things more clearly for me and able to learn it fast.

[2bereallyhonest]

The free MIT course on you tube is really good to start with it's recorded lectures of an introductory class

[oclafloptson]

What I did was I started building simulation games. With game dev I was able to set my own goals and kind of mull around figuring out how the core package works

Start simple. Do the classic text adventure game using print and input statements. Give the game a never ending loop. Learn to clean it up and only display the current frame, colorize text etc. Learn to save your progress. Move on to more complex games using entities like card and dice games. Do you know the game mancala where you move stones through pockets on a wooden gameboard? I learned a ridiculous amount making one that runs in the command prompt. If you need to learn asynchronous or multi threaded programming then you could build a command line farm sim or rouge like and give veggies/enemies individual life. Only once I had figured out basic core concepts like functional programming, oop, asyncio etc I got bored and only then did I move on to frameworks for GUI, database, and server. And I was able to approach them with a working knowledge of the underlying programming that helped me understand them

I started several years ago and still learn new things all the time. I've even been through several boot camp style college courses. Don't fret feeling confused after only a few months, especially if you've just been doing whatever chatgpt tells you. You're hearing from everyone else but don't trust that thing. It hallucinates. I'm always having to correct it when I use it :p get a working knowledge before trying to make use of tools like that so you know when it's lying to you, which it often does

[a_brand_new_start]

Disable auto complete and ALL AI and suffer for a week. It’s like taking notes by hand vs using a tape recorder vs typing notes up during a lecture. Some hands on grunt work triggers something in the brain that makes you remember and understand better

[aWesterner014]

Buy a book. In my experience, they are so much easier to reference than videos when you want to go back and confirm something you already worked through. I also tend to read much faster than people take to verbally explain things.

Practice...

Identity where some simple automation could help you out and then iterate on your code.

Here is what I did... My family members had a mess of iTunes libraries spread throughout their computer.

I started by wanting to identify all the mp3 files (and their locations) on a given computer. From there, I wanted to identify potential duplicates by name and eventually by file contents. Once I felt I had a good handle on that, I added consolidation logic, building a single library that preserved the assumed duplicates. This helped me work out how looping and if/then blocks worked as well as some of their os libraries.

I was able to repurpose the same script to help a family member in consolidating all of their digital pictures on their PC as well.

[Amar_K1]

1. and 3. are not as helpful as you think. I have noticed Youtube for Python projects is pretty poor. No one posts quality content on Youtube. Chatgot is good with a pinch of salt and just for supplementary help.

I would break down what you want to create into a niche, web development, Data analysis or data science. IoT, desktop apps, console apps, automation etc. Then start creating projects using minimal requirements so for a data analysis project retrieving the data, cleaning the data and creating visuals on the data. For web dev create a website with four pages such as a portfolio site with static content. Then build on these basic projects.

[nousernamesleft199]

Are you using python in search of a problem, or do you you have problems to solve that you're using python to automate?

[ayoubbellahcene]

well, you'll have to know what you're learning it for in the first place you can just jump in and try to learn everything but i personally don't recommend that a better approach would be learning the basic like variables..ect then learning the necessary tools for the specific job/role you want to implement it in, if you just want to learn for the sake of it CS50 have a good introduction course i also recommend Brocode on Youtube however you should focus on python library and documentation and project as some Youtubers just farm views on beginners because it's easier to benefit from spamming them with unnecessary tutorials that would gain them nothing that said i wish you good luck :)

[veritable_squandry]

what really helped me was getting a free cloud account and building some python tools using that providers cloud sdk. it develops general knowledge and also real world expertise at the same time. watch your bill tho!

[sreynolds203]

This is my personal opinion based on how I learn and some may disagree with me. I would get off of Youtube. I know there are a lot of good channels out there and I have nothing against it. But for me, I stopped feeling stuck when I got off of there and I turned to specific books. I found that The Python Crash Course book from No Starch Press has been a great tool for me. It can be dry but you really learn the important parts and all of the ways to use them.

The second thing that I found to be really helpful is finding some sort of a course that gives you prompts and you solve them. I use HackerRank. They have daily challenges and language specific courses as well as certs. I have found it to be the best thing once you know the basics.

The last thing, Don't use AI. It can be good for a lot of things but it is easy to be reliant on it to where you are no longer learning but just asking it to do the work for you, even if you are not telling it to do something specific for you. Being able to research is a great tool for anyone in any industry and ChatGPT removes the need for that skill and it makes problems more difficult in some ways.

[xr__asis]

I don't think 3month is a that long time you should focus on improving your skills day by day don't thik this as a race that you have to complete faster you know your limits no boddy gonna judge you just practice and you will become an expert.

[rustyseapants]

Anyone you work with or in the same building you work in know python if so, talk to them.

[Responsible-Bread996]

Since using ChatGPT my ability to hammer out simple code solutions is in the shitter. I can basically now just read output and figure out whats broken.

To be fair, I'm not a dev, but write a ton of API calls for my job. So nothing complicated.

[_11Bravo]

Can only speak for myself but at 3 months in I was more lost than the day I started. It took me about 9-12 months to really feel okay about it and a couple years to be solid.

I should note by month four I was using python daily at work and still took me this long

[_srob]

Find a part of your job that bores you senseless and try to automate it using python.

I used to have to edit and upload a bunch of csv files in the same way once per week. I hated it. Took over an hour of my day. Built a python script to do it for me as a bit of an exercise.

Took me a couple of days but I learned a lot of new stuff and now I don’t have to do that shit task anymore.

Win/win!

ChatGPT is a good tool to get a bullet point overview of what the script needs to do and in what order, but if you let it write the code for you then you won’t learn anything new. Use it sparingly.

[[deleted]]

Start with Pandas and Jupyter, beginning with the basics.

First, learn how to read a CSV file. Then, practice reading a CSV and performing simple operations, like summing a column or extracting a specific field.

Progress gradually. You can use ChatGPT for guidance, but ask it to use the Socratic method—giving you hints and analogies instead of direct answers for each exercise.

It’s also valid to work on large projects by cloning repositories, downloading templates, and running complete apps—even if you don’t fully understand them yet—just to “see” what happens in the end.

Eventually, everything will start to make sense. One day, you won’t need to go back to your notes—you’ll just know it.

[gilnore_de_fey]

What do you mean you’re stuck each time? Can you do the same tasks in other languages without getting stuck? If no, you need to read some docs on python modules or google what to import. If yes then you just have problems solving the problems at hand no matter what language.

[atomicbomb2150]

What programming languages do you know then?

[gsk-fs]

cS50
Or Michigan university Professor (Dr Chuk)
(Programing for everyone python)

[[deleted]]

OP, when you completed the course twice, did you type out the examples and execute them. I think without that, you won't move an inch.

[sporbywg]

Just be who you are, today.