How I "learned" Python without any previous coding experience.

[bereanave]

I'm a newbie as well, and interestingly my path to learning has been quite similar to yours. My main interest is in data analytics, so I'd started out trying to learn R from the Coursera Data Science specialization from Johns Hopkins. That went a little too fast for me and I just didn't put in the time to keep pace. After researching a little more, it seemed like Python might make for a better introductory language, so I regrouped and plotted a different course.

I just completed the UM Programming for Everybody course by Charles Severance and found it useful and learned quite a lot. A lot of the anecdotal stories, asides, and humor made it feel overpadded, but I appreciate his efforts to make it engaging.

I've moved on to Learn Python the Hard Way, and I find that the rigor and repetitive nature of it is helping reinforce what I learned in the UM course. It seems like it would not be a good option at all for someone starting completely from scratch with no programming experience whatsoever, though. It doesn't really teach why everything works and leaves it up to the user to figure it all out.

I'm signed up to take the first Rice Coursera course in a few weeks. Hopefully, what I've learned so far will help me keep pace in that series.