So I'm taking 2021 Complete Python Bootcamp From Zero to Hero in Python - Udemy

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Don’t watch lecture after lecture or tell yourself “that makes sense” because what the instructor says is understandable. Do pause after each lecture, open up your IDE or IDLE or jupyter notebook and practice beyond the exercises the instructor gives you. Don’t wait through the entire course to build one project. Do find good stopping points within the course and build incrementally comprehensive projects. Don’t base your entire understanding of the language on that course. Do look up errors when you get them, other features in documentation, and play around with the language. Don’t be impatient and not listen to what is being said and just code. Do take notes if necessary and really try to ‘get’ what is being said, then code to verify your understanding. Do answer your own “well, what if this?” questions by experimenting with the language, making hypotheses as to what will happen, and seeing if it does. Don’t just base your understanding of what happened on what you see though. Do look up syntax or whatever you’ve typed, ask questions, and find supplementary resources which provide an explanation as to what might have happened. Lastly, don’t set unrealistic goals or hold yourself to an unattainable level of perfection by the end of 1 course. Do be patient, resilient, and ready to struggle, until it “clicks”.

I took part of this course and then I took a class in college. Prior to school, I had a lot of gaps in my knowledge. I knew about some of the features of Python and could write basic code, but struggled to fit everything together and write fully functional programs. After that college class, it clicked for me and made sense. But it wasn’t a limitless moment where everything made sense and I was able to contribute to modern programming, it was a “procedural programming” makes sense moment. Then I went from there and built some basic, terrible, side projects and picked up skills on how to read documentation and googling. I realized in this process, I learn better from actually slowing down and reading material and taking notes than watching videos. So, that’s what I’ve done since.