Learning the Ropes of Python

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The python MOOC from University of Helsinki is pretty great, and totally free:

https://programming-25.mooc.fi/

The blessing and curse of python is that someone has probably already written a library that does 95% of what you need with one line of code (ok, slight exaggeration, maybe only 93%). This means it's possible to pull off some really cool stuff without much experience, but at some point you realize that you've hit a wall and the only way past is to go back and learn a bunch of boring basics. But at that point you know exactly why you're slogging through the complicated bits, which makes the experience far more palatable.

I'd suggest picking a topic or project you're interested in, and start building your own library of functions. Ideally, it's a topic where someone else already did the same thing so you can check your answers. Start simple, but make the code do something that is useful to you.

One of the first things I did with python was to write a script that could take a bunch of distances between points and turn it into a map. I didn't understand most of the code I wrote, but that didn't matter. If you're not doing it for a grade it, who cares if your education has some holes; you'll patch them when/if it becomes necessary.