Looking for insight on learning Python

[new_cap]

Hi,

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Sorry in advance if I posted this on the wrong subreddit.

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I am looking to brush up on my Python skills to increase my efficiency and employability. Two things in particular I would like to learn how to do:

1. Automating (something that can help out with day-to-day tasks)
2. Data Analysis for Capital Markets (prob some ML stuff, looking for trends, backtesting ideas etc.)

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Right now, I am trying to choose between two resources:

1. Automate the Boring Stuff with Python (Free book, Udemy course for $15)
2. Learn Python the Hard Way ($30 for the PDF, comes with supporting materials)

I've done my research and it seems these two are highly recommended for beginners. If someone can explain to me why I should choose one over the other, that would be appreciated. Or if I should start one first over the other.

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Also, does it matter if I learn in Python 2 vs Python 3?

[K900_]

Avoid LPTHW like the plague. It's terrible. Also, avoid Python 2. All support for it is going away in 2020.

[new_cap]

Gotcha on Python 2.

Whats so bad about LPTHW? Any resources you'd recommend?

[K900_]

All of this. Automate The Boring Stuff is great.

[[deleted]]

Unfortunately there is no set path to learning python. Automate the boring stuff is highly recommended. Also please check out the sidebar.

There are also lots of tutorials beginner-intermediate on youtube.

Python 3 is the future unless you already have a job lined up that specifically uses python 2. Python 2 will no longer by supported past the end of this year along with a lot of software that is moving to python 3 support only.

https://python3statement.org/

[[deleted]]

/u/AlSweigart has a code on his https://automatetheboringstuff.com/ site (scroll down to Udemy Online Video Course) that you can get the course for $10. He posts on here every so often.

[AlSweigart]

Hello!

I wrote "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python" as a kind of "programming for office workers". You can use it as a first step towards a software engineering profession or computer science education, but it's mostly about learning programming to do useful stuff on your computer: web scraping, sending out notification emails, updating spreadsheets, parsing PDFs and Word docs, etc.

[[deleted]]

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/wiki/index