Hey Pythonista,
Happy Wednesday!
What are you working on this week? Curious to hear...
Here are our 5 nuggets for this week:
1) How to really learn programming
"The only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in it." - Dennis Ritchie
This quote has been on our platform's homepage for years and resonates deeply with our core focus of hands-on learning.
What sets Pybites apart is that we advocate diving straight into code to tackle real problems.
This learn-by-doing (a.k.a. deliberate practice) approach not only accelerates the learning curve but also builds confidence and proficiency in the language.
It's what worked for us, and we see every day how effective this approach is with the people we work with.
By creating projects, you transform theoretical knowledge into practical skills, preparing you for real-world programming challenges. It's a double win: your working understanding of Python will increase rapidly, and you come out with actual work you can show for your efforts.
2) Leveraging API Python example
The other day we needed to transcribe all our podcast episodes (we're working on building our own AI!)
I used Assembly AI and distilled their API docs code into a code tip to give you a head start.
This is an example of getting data from an API, if you're interested in how to push data to an API let us know and we can do a video on that (you can also let us know what Python videos you'd like to see on our channel ...)
3) How to deal with layoffs?
Embracing the right mindset is often easier said than done, and truly understanding its importance typically comes from experience.
We talk about this in this week's podcast episode in the context of being laid off, as Julian had to go through this 1-2 weeks ago.
Even if you're not in this situation, as developers, we face numerous challenges, such as (live) coding interviews, rough code reviews (see some tips for this further down), and the ever-changing landscape of our fast-paced industry requirements.
Dealing with those things teaches us resilience and fosters a deeper understanding of the problems we solve.
As we've often said mindset is THE important thing here, so we hope you tune in every week to listen to our podcast where we give you related tips that will better your career (even if you're not a developer):
4) Code reviewing tips
Code reviewing can be challenging, because there are many variables like the code itself, team standards and dynamics, documentation, deadlines, changing requirements, communication skills, etc.
So, we thought it would be useful to give you 5 tips and mostly from a mindset perspective where we see people struggle the most:
- Don't take feedback personally: remember, the critique is about the code, not the developer. Detaching self-worth from the work you produce is vital.
- Self-review before submitting: take the time to review your code as if you were an outsider. This way you can pre-empt potential critique but also demonstrates
your diligence and commitment to quality.
- Embrace code reviews as a learning and mentoring opportunity: approach each code review with a growth mindset. See it as a chance to learn from others and improve your craft. Feedback is a gift that will drive your development as a programmer, and the (repeated) code reviewing process is a crucial piece of it.
- Offer specific, but also constructive feedback (explicit is better than
implicit). Remember, we were all new to programming once, so as a reviewer provide clear, empathetic, and actionable feedback so the other can learn from it. Find the balance between too generic feedback ("looks good to me") and overly nitpicking. Be concise and keep in mind the big picture and deadlines.
- Understand the code's context: a good developer mindset involves appreciating the broader context in which the code will run. Consider the system's architecture, performance implications, and maintainability. Ask yourself how the changes will affect the system as a whole, not just the immediate functionality. This
holistic understanding can significantly influence the quality and longevity of the codebase (btw this is an important skill outside of code reviewing as well, especially if you want to grow into a senior role or launch your own business!)
Hope these 5 tips help you on both sides of the code review. A good resource I picked up which inspired me is Manning's "Looks Good to Me" (great title haha!), which is now available in their early access program.
5) From the archives
In the article below we share our journey of building our own CMS tool using Django.
Motivated to enhance Julian's understanding of Django some time ago, we decided to create a tool tailored to our specific needs at Pybites.
Our aim was to develop a streamlined, efficient solution to overcome the cumbersome and bloated tools we previously used (btw,
this is a very good question to ask yourself if you're not sure what to build with your programming language of choice!)
Remarkably, we developed a minimum viable product (MVP) in just four weeks through weekly pair programming sessions.
This rapid development not only boosted Julian's Django skills exponentially but also led to substantial savings by eliminating our need for external software subscriptions like Asana, saving us ~1K annually.
This project not only reinforced our belief in the "learn by building" approach (as detailed in 1.), but also proved the value of creating customized tools that cater directly to our requirements.
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Hope all this inspires you to code a lot of Python this week!
Best,
Bob & Julian