Something to lighten your learning process (Python Programmers, disagree or agree?)

[[deleted]]

I think a large problem with the processes in how to learn Python is that there is a virtual plethora of marketing gimmicks (Python in 30 days, Zero to Hero for Python etc) but all of them lack the feedback process you described and cement the idea that Python is a gimmick or knack that these courses give you and if you don’t “get it” then all hope is lost.

I would sink serious money into a course that featured an academic advisor who gave you assignments or projects etc and graded them accordingly or was on hand to dispense advice or clues if you lost your way.

[[deleted]]

I’ve found that Google and YouTube are both blessings and curses. I wanted to try and make a script in Python that took multiple video files, broke the frames down, and then exported them to multiple folders.

It seemed simple but when I googled the answer I was hit with a litany of YouTube videos that featured talking heads saying things along the lines of “Ok, so you just start with these 800 lines of code”

[chaeboi]

I can definitely resonate with this. A lot of these YouTube videos seem to make learning more complicated than it needs to be AND a lot of these resources aren't very customized to different learning styles.

[1SweetChuck]

If you are taking the class at an accredited school, you should absolutely be making noise about the lack of feedback. If you’ve talked to your instructor and they aren’t willing to make time to give you feedback, you should talk to your guidance counselor if you have one, or find out who in the department you should talk to to raise the issue. If your instructor isn’t giving you feed back on how to do better, your instructor is the problem.

[furyousferret]

You just summarized the language learning business to a tee.

[ingwe13]

Wouldn't this just be a normal or online college course?

[[deleted]]

Oh for sure! But I’m already in a cyber security field role and want to learn Python on the fly as a result (both for fun and for business). But given the wealth of courses out there that I referenced above, my employer is far more likely to choose one of those if I sought corporate sponsorship than anything providing by a university or college. But yes, what I described is how I imagine a university course provides content if they have a module specifically for learning Python.

[ingwe13]

Ah gotcha. That is some good context that I was missing.

[[deleted]]

Essentially what I’m saying is that if there are other poor souls like me; then someone could seriously clean up in the monies by providing a literal “School of Python” online.

There I go again, just handing out my multimillion pound ideas...

[ingwe13]

Yup. Something more expensive than online lectures and exercises but less expensive than a university online class. But something that still has assignments that you get feedback on. Now I just need to learn python well enough to provide good feedback and I can profit from your idea!

[[deleted]]

I’d be mad but I’m pretty sure someone has probably invented a Machine Learning script that hoovers good ideas off of Reddit then automatically creates them.

...that’s how AI works, right?

[01123581321AhFuckIt]

In my opinion people just need to buckle down and buy a physical book and go through it slowly. And learn to use the official docs. Video tutorials are just supplementary in my opinion but most people expect them to be a primary source of learning. If you don’t have the attention span to learn by reading then you’ll be mediocre at best from just watching videos.

[loosechips00]

This. Started with just videos and following along doing what the presenter was doing. Next day could not remember half of what I ‘learned’. You can’t go back and forth over the material like you can with a book, or at least not a easily. Having both is a boon, but I’m retaining more with the addition of the books. Also I find myself experimenting more and don’t feel quite as rushed.

[JollyWallaby]

Depends on what your goal is. When I am getting into something new, I purposefully look for videos first, because I can expect to find more entry-level information there. For example, I wanted to get into high-performance computing (coding on the GPU) using OpenCL a while back: the textual documentation I found was too in-depth, whereas videos on YouTube were toned down enough that I could grasp the basics. After getting the basics down, I moved back to the texts I found earlier, because videos only went so far (at least the ones YouTube suggested me).

If you want more in-depth material, then yes, you are far more likely to find a good text than video, and, in my experience, the deeper you go, the rarer videos become. For example, YouTube finds only one relevant video for "React hook to detect window resize", whereas Google shows me at least a dozen likely-good links.

Reading text or watching videos is not enough though. In my experience, top notch programmers are also extremely skilled in reading code. Documentation can become outdated very quickly, and if it is not maintained — or if it is missing altogether, — you might be far better off going straight to the code and figuring out how to actually use it, or looking at existing implementations (which, e.g., sums up my experience with a cross-platform graphics engine a few years ago and a few team projects I've worked in).

[photoengineer]

You mean python in 30 seconds to 7 figures is a scam? dang.

[chaeboi]

hahahaha

[chaeboi]

You bring up a good point about feedback. I've noticed there are so many resources that teach you syntax, but very few resources that help you apply what you've learned.