[PythonistaCafe] What's in PythonistaCafe for you?

Hey there,

A couple of years ago I'd become quite interested in martial arts.

Hours upon hours of watching "The Karate Kid" growing up must've taken their toll on me...

And so, I found myself at this smelly little gym, joining my first couple of karate practice sessions.

(By the way, my "Mr. Miyagi" wasn't the fatherly philosopher from the Karate Kid movies—our sensei was a complete geek, working a day job as a Borland Delphi programmer somewhere. I liked him.)

So anyway, here I was at this dingy gym, working hard to learn how to count in Japanese and getting my hand-eye coordination under control...

(You know, karate practice actually feels more like learning to dance than learning how to fight. At least when you're a beginner.)

Moments later my friend kicks me in the face because I turned left when I should've turned right—

My interested in karate waned quickly after that.

Yeah...I'm a lover, not a fighter.

Why am I telling you this? Well, the question came up in a recent email exchange: "How does one MASTER the skill of programming Python?"

I like to think mastering programming as a skill is quite similar to mastering a physical skill like karate. (Although I've had more success with the former.)

Here, let me explain.

With both, it takes a long time to build up the right foundation. But once "muscle memory" starts kicking in, your progress can skyrocket. It's all about making it through that first rough patch of slow learning progress without losing your motivation.

Mastering a programming language means lifelong learning. The topic is fractal—there's always a way to expand your knowledge in some obscure way. One can hit critical mass in terms of knowledge and be called an expert, but it's unlikely a single person will "know it all".

A seasoned programmer acts deliberately and with an economy of movement that a beginner can't yet understand. Biological differences like age, "IQ", play less of a role. The more experienced dev still codes circles around the eager newcomer.

There's road maps but no "one true path" to mastery. Learning progress will depend highly on the motivation and drive of the individual, and the peers they surround themselves with.

Mentorship and community play the biggest role in becoming successful in the long run.

That's the most valuable benefit you can get from joining PythonistaCafe.

Mastering Python is *not* just about getting the books and courses to study—you also need a way to stay motivated and grow in the long run.

And the sad truth is:

It's a lot less fun to build your Python skills completely alone.

Many Pythonistas are struggling with this—

Some have a non-technical day job or are self-taught. And with no coders in their personal peer group, they have nobody to encourage or support them in their endeavor of becoming a better developer.

Some are already working as developers, but no one else at their company shares their love for Python. They can't share their learning progress or ask for advice when they feel stuck.

In both cases, what holds these developers back is their limited access to the Python coding community.

Existing online communities and social media don't do a great job at providing that support network either:

Stack Overflow is for asking focused, one-off questions. It's hard to make a human connection with fellow commenters on Stack Overflow. It's about the facts, not the people. (e.g. moderators freely edit other people's questions and answers etc. It's more like a wiki than a forum.)

Twitter is like a virtual water cooler and great for "hanging out" but it's limited to 140 character messages at a time. Not great for discussing anything substantial. (I feel similarly about Slack chat groups.)

Hacker News is for discussing and commenting on tech news. It doesn't foster long-term relationships between commenters. It's also one of the most aggressive communities in tech right now. Completely open, little moderation, and with a borderline toxic culture.

Reddit takes a broader stance and encourages more "human" discussions than Stack Overflow's one-off Q&A format. But it's a huge public forum (millions of users) and has all of the associated problems: toxic behavior, overbearing negativity, people lashing out at each other, jealousy, … all the best parts of the human behavior spectrum.

When I looked critically at my own Python training offerings I also noticed a gap:

These days I'm often getting 80+ emails every week asking me Python questions. I really try to reply to every single email but it's gotten to the point where that's not really sustainable anymore.

I do offer private coaching over Skype at the higher end, but I know that due to the price that's not accessible to everyone either.

Both of these are based on 1-to-1 communication. Which means they don't really "scale" all that well.

Also, they don't provide the long-term support and sense of community important for sustained growth.

That's why I started PythonistaCafe.

PythonistaCafe is an invite-only, online community of Python and software development enthusiasts helping each other succeed and grow in a friendly and supportive setting.

We're a diverse group of Pythonistas from all walks of life, living and working across the globe.

Some of us are self-employed freelance Python developers. Others are senior developers with years of experience that just switched to Python from another language. Others again are hobbyists and Python beginners that are just getting started on their learning journey.

What connects us is a shared love for Python and the goal to improve our skills as software developers, business owners, and employees.

And we all benefit from being a part of the PythonistaCafe "virtual village" and the sense of community it gives us.

To become a PythonistaCafe member, start the application process at the link below:

-> https://www.pythonistacafe.com/apply

— Dan Bader

Key phrases

Older messages

[Python Mastery] The secret to "ethical self-promotion"?

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Hey there, Here's some food for thought: There's a difference between *doing* a great job as a Python developer, and *to be seen doing* a great job. Being a skilled developer among peers—and

[Python Dependency Pitfalls] How to set the world on fire

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Hey there, #1 on my list of dependency management pitfalls is there for a good reason: It lead to a single developer causing mayhem and breaking thousands of open-source projects around the world in

[PythonistaCafe] Why PythonistaCafe exists

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Hey there, In one of my last emails I talked about how some online communities in the tech space devolve over time and turn into cesspools of negativity. This relates directly to how and why I started

[Python Dependency Pitfalls] A total mess?

Monday, June 20, 2022

Hey there, Recently I watched a Pythonista ask for advice on setting up a Python project on his work machine. This new developer had some prior experience with NodeJS and had just started to get his

[PythonistaCafe] What makes PythonistaCafe different

Monday, June 20, 2022

Hey there, Mastering Python is *not* just about getting the books and courses to study—to be successful you also need a way to stay motivated and to grow your abilities in the long run. Many

You Might Also Like

SWLW #592: Advice that I can't get out of my head, The Compass vs. Map method, and more

Friday, March 29, 2024

Weekly articles & videos about people, culture and leadership: everything you need to design the org that makes the product. A weekly newsletter by Oren Ellenbogen with the best content I found

ASP.NET Core News - 03/29/2024

Friday, March 29, 2024

View this email in your browser Get ready for this weeks best blog posts about ASP.NET Core! This newsletter is sponsored by elmah.io - the most advanced, yet so simple to set up, error logging and

New Linux Bug Could Lead to User Password Leaks and Clipboard Hijacking

Friday, March 29, 2024

THN Daily Updates Newsletter cover Refactoring in Java ($36.99 Value) FREE for a Limited Time Refactoring in Java serves as an indispensable guide to enhancing your codebase's quality and

Post from Syncfusion Blogs on 03/29/2024

Friday, March 29, 2024

New blogs from Syncfusion Introducing the New .NET MAUI Chat Control By Piruthiviraj Malaimelraj This blog explains the features of the new Syncfusion .NET MAUI Chat control added in the 2024 Volume 1

Re: Last Chance

Friday, March 29, 2024

Dear there, By this time tomorrow, your exclusive new subscriber discount will be gone and you'll have to pay twice as much to join Insider and master everything your iPhone has to offer. If, like

Hacker Newsletter #694

Friday, March 29, 2024

Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much. //Oscar Wilde hackernewsletter Issue #694 // 2024-03-29 // View in your browser Happy Easter if you celebrate it! Heads up - we're taking

Apple RCS 📱, SBF's 25 year sentence 👮, Linux Foundation's Redis fork 👨‍💻

Friday, March 29, 2024

RCS is coming to the iPhone in the fall of 2024 Sign Up|Advertise|View Online TLDR Together With Veracode TLDR 2024-03-29 Build fast, build secure (Sponsor) Software is drowning in security debt.

Data Science Weekly - Issue 540

Friday, March 29, 2024

Curated news, articles and jobs related to Data Science, AI, & Machine Learning ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

This Week in Rust #540

Friday, March 29, 2024

Email isn't displaying correctly? Read this e-mail on the Web This Week in Rust issue 540 — 27 MAR 2024 Hello and welcome to another issue of This Week in Rust! Rust is a programming language

The Value Of A Promise 🤞

Friday, March 29, 2024

How much is a promise from a tech company really worth, anyway? Here's a version for your browser. Hunting for the end of the long tail • March 28, 2024 The Value Of A Promise When you hear a