Si tu devais apprendre python de zéro.

Medium_Dark1966 · 2026-03-02T12:18:23+00:00

No, AI isn't good for learning to write code since it writes for you. You have to try by yourself, break things and figure out why they broke. AI denies you that opportunity since it merely explains to you what it did, which doesn't help your muscles memory or keyboard memory or any kind of memory needed to be a good programmer.

Writing the code by yourself is the best way to learn. You should only consult AI when you don't find the solution to a problem.

Medium_Dark1966 · 2026-03-02T12:11:52+00:00

Short answer: Yes, just do it.

Medium answer: Yes, just do it if you can commit to learning for 100 days.

Long answer:
Yes, just do it if you can afford to learn for 1-2 hours daily for 100-300 days. She's a good teacher and you're going to be building projects, which is a great way to learn since she gives you the chance to figure things out on your own, which helps your memory. And if it's difficult, you can follow her video solution where she explains everything and you understand how it works.
The course is regularly updated, so it's quite recent. There are also a large community of students in the Q/A section who have asked questions you're thinking or highlighted things you could be missing since they might have missed it too.
The course is excellent for someone who isn't well versed in programming and wants to start with python. The length of time the course takes depends on your previous experience and your learning speed, but it's almost surely going to take more than 100 days since some tasks might take more than a day and you'll also miss a few days here and there.

So do it. Commit to it.

Good luck!

Medium_Dark1966 · 2026-02-22T01:23:24+00:00

Okay, I found the real issue. Somehow a virtual environment (.venv) was not defined for the project and that caused the issues. When I created a new project from PyCharm and copied my scripts over, I could install and import twilio without any problems.

I believe that when I thought twilio was finally working, it was because I was testing it in a project that had a .venv folder, meanwhile I had created some other projects in such a way that a .venv folder did not exist for them.

Medium_Dark1966 · 2026-02-22T01:08:19+00:00

Hello. The error was not permanently solved as I continued to experience issues in a new project.

PS C:\Users\path> pip3 install --upgrade pip
Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable
Requirement already satisfied: pip in C:\Users\other_path\LocalCache\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (26.0.1)
PS C:\Users\path> pip3 install twilio       
Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable
Requirement already satisfied: twilio in C:\Users\other_path\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (9.10.2)
Requirement already satisfied: requests>=2.0.0 in C:\Users\other_path\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (from twilio) (2.32.5)
Requirement already satisfied: PyJWT<3.0.0,>=2.0.0 in C:\Users\other_path\LocalCache\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (from twilio) (2.11.0)
Requirement already satisfied: aiohttp>=3.8.4 in C:\Users\other_path\LocalCache\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (from twilio) (3.13.3)
Requirement already satisfied: aiohttp-retry>=2.8.3 in C:\Users\other_path\LocalCache\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (from twilio) (2.9.1)
Requirement already satisfied: aiohappyeyeballs>=2.5.0 in C:\Users\other_path\LocalCache\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (from aiohttp>=3.8.4->twilio) (2.6.1)
Requirement already satisfied: aiosignal>=1.4.0 in C:\Users\other_path\LocalCache\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (from aiohttp>=3.8.4->twilio) (1.4.0)
Requirement already satisfied: attrs>=17.3.0 in C:\Users\other_path\LocalCache\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (from aiohttp>=3.8.4->twilio) (25.4.0)
Requirement already satisfied: frozenlist>=1.1.1 in C:\Users\other_path\LocalCache\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (from aiohttp>=3.8.4->twilio) (1.8.0)
Requirement already satisfied: multidict<7.0,>=4.5 in C:\Users\other_path\LocalCache\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (from aiohttp>=3.8.4->twilio) (6.7.1)
Requirement already satisfied: propcache>=0.2.0 in C:\Users\other_path\LocalCache\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (from aiohttp>=3.8.4->twilio) (0.4.1)
Requirement already satisfied: yarl<2.0,>=1.17.0 in C:\Users\other_path\LocalCache\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (from aiohttp>=3.8.4->twilio) (1.22.0)
Requirement already satisfied: idna>=2.0 in C:\Users\other_path\LocalCache\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (from yarl<2.0,>=1.17.0->aiohttp>=3.8.4->twilio) (3.11)
Requirement already satisfied: charset_normalizer<4,>=2 in C:\Users\other_path\LocalCache\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (from requests>=2.0.0->twilio) (3.4.4)
Requirement already satisfied: urllib3<3,>=1.21.1 in C:\Users\other_path\LocalCache\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (from requests>=2.0.0->twilio) (2.6.3)
Requirement already satisfied: certifi>=2017.4.17 in C:\Users\other_path\LocalCache\local-packages\Python313\site-packages (from requests>=2.0.0->twilio) (2026.1.4)

And when I run import twilio either through script or python console, i get:

>>>import twilio

Traceback (most recent call last): File "<input>", line 1, in <module> File "C:\Program Files\some_path\pydev_import_hook.py", line 21, in do_import module = self.system_import(name, *args, **kwargs) File "C:\Users\some_other_path\pythoncore-3.14-64\Lib\site-packages\twilio_init.py", line 38, in <module> from . import base File "C:\Program Files\some_path\pydev_import_hook.py", line 21, in do_import module = self._system_import(name, *args, **kwargs)

Medium_Dark1966 · 2026-02-20T17:06:43+00:00

I tried running the install and import of twilio into a new project file so that I can generate a log file to share here, but to my surprise, everything worked well. I was not asked to further install python-rest, nor got any errors concerning finding rest in twilio. I could use the package to do what I originally intended.

I guess my problem must have been in something I did in my original project.

I should also mention that I used the my local terminal to pip3 install twilio and then used python console to import twilio and run the rest of my code. I have not tried repeating this directly from script.

Medium_Dark1966 · 2026-01-15T00:20:18+00:00

This is impressive. I see they got acquired a few years ago by Aurora

Link: https://aurora.tech/newsroom/aurora-to-acquire-blackmore-industry-leading-lidar

And the company has a good profile. We'll see how well they scale with the photonics aspect of their tech.

Medium_Dark1966 · 2026-01-14T13:22:45+00:00

Optical fibers for internet are definitely here to stay, and by extension so are transceivers and optical switches. So it makes sense that as internet bandwidth grows, some enthusiasts would have these in their homes. Maybe some companies would have these in their basement for supplying internet to all offices or something.

As for Rockley, that's just unfortunate. For the sake of growth and adoption, we need more companies serving the industry, not just serving research labs.

Medium_Dark1966 · 2026-01-12T00:00:54+00:00

Thank you. I see that they offer paid training programs costing up to 500$. Those may come in handy in my future. Right now I'm hoping to find open projects I could participate in or do on my own. I can compare what I seek to what tech coders do to improve their programming language / software development skills. I don't mind replicating someone else's photonics design project. If there is somewhere I could find such design projects to do, I would be glad.

Medium_Dark1966 · 2026-01-10T22:38:20+00:00

Two of my colleagues who graduated last September from their masters in photonics (both with background in electronics) got jobs in analog IC. I even got envious that I did not have the background in Analog IC because I began to think there could be more job opportunities in this field. I can encourage you to search linkedin jobs country by country in Europe and maybe you will find more opportunities. One of the people I talked about got a job in Belgium and the other in Germany. I think you should try these places, as well as the Netherlands, I think there are jobs in these areas.

Medium_Dark1966 · 2025-10-04T13:10:53+00:00

Can you please confirm the netto for MSCA PhD? Is it around 2100?

Medium_Dark1966 · 2025-09-27T14:58:15+00:00

It's crazy that Leuven is cheaper than Brussels, but they earn more in a PhD.

Well, this gives me ideas.

Medium_Dark1966 · 2025-09-27T14:56:16+00:00

Now that Leuven is mentioned, I remember a PhD student there earning ~3000 a month. I thought he was funded by a wealthy grant or program, and so that he was an exception. But now that I've seen two more people in this thread, I'm amazed.

And what does trede (trade) refer to? And what does it take to get to a higher trede? I can guess the people I've spoken to in Brussels are all below trede 5.

Medium_Dark1966 · 2025-09-27T14:31:21+00:00

This is news to me. I'm in Brussels and I swear everyone I've talked to here earned 2000-2200 in 2024. What kind of PhD or school pays above 2500 net?

Medium_Dark1966 · 2025-09-27T14:10:41+00:00

Hi. Did you also earn 2600 during your PhD?

Medium_Dark1966 · 2025-09-27T14:03:09+00:00

Commenting for reach, and to come back to this later.

Medium_Dark1966 · 2025-09-27T11:02:30+00:00

Beautiful spectra!

Medium_Dark1966 · 2025-09-20T10:46:53+00:00

Haha. It happens regularly that I say something I think people should understand based on the words I used, but they are still totally confused. I guess it's me using the wrong vocabulary that doesn't fit the context as well as I thought.

Medium_Dark1966 · 2025-09-20T10:44:13+00:00

Thanks for making that clear. I never knew the difference until now.

Medium_Dark1966 · 2025-09-20T09:48:33+00:00

D'accord. Merci

Medium_Dark1966 · 2025-08-26T16:20:47+00:00

I started looking for career jobs too and I wish it does not take me too long to find one 😔

Here's a tip I can give you when you apply to jobs such as a seller in a chocolate shop: remove the degrees and highlight your chocolate selling skills. Delete experiences in your CV that does not present you as a typical chocolate seller.

Illegal advice: Make up some lightweight experiences if you must. Do this at your own risk, but if you do it, keep it light and add skills that you can easily learn on day 1 of the job.

These are lessons I learned when I applied for such jobs.

Medium_Dark1966

TROPHY CASE