[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

[Sublime + Python Setup] Sublime Text is just a blank canvas…

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Hey there, When I became serious about optimizing Sublime Text with plugins, it was hard for me to separate the wheat from the chaff. Without a real guideline or roadmap I resorted to installing *any*

[PythonistaCafe] Why PythonistaCafe exists

Tuesday, November 1, 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

[Sublime + Python Setup] Grumpy old greybeard with a whitespace problem

Monday, October 31, 2022

One fateful day, the Agile Gods that be decided to “add some firepower” to my little team… And so, developer Paul joined (name changed to protect the guilty). Before I dive into this story, let me ask

[PythonistaCafe] What makes PythonistaCafe different

Monday, October 31, 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

[Sublime + Python Setup] Don’t build “nag screen muscle memory”

Sunday, October 30, 2022

Hey there, Once I worked with a developer who refused to buy a registered copy of Sublime for months on end, even though he *loved* Sublime. He used it as his main code editor every day and was very

You Might Also Like

SBF gets 25 years 

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Sam Bankman-Fried is sentenced View this email online in your browser By Christine Hall Thursday, March 28, 2024 Welcome back to TechCrunch PM! The editorial team spent a chunk of the day discussing

💎 Issue 410 - Being laid off in 2023-2024 as an early-career developer

Thursday, March 28, 2024

This week's Awesome Ruby Newsletter Read this email on the Web The Awesome Ruby Newsletter Issue » 410 Release Date Mar 28, 2024 Your weekly report of the most popular Ruby news, articles and

💻 Issue 403 - Microsoft defends .NET 9 features competing with open source ecosystem

Thursday, March 28, 2024

This week's Awesome .NET Weekly Read this email on the Web The Awesome .NET Weekly Issue » 403 Release Date Mar 28, 2024 Your weekly report of the most popular .NET news, articles and projects

💻 Issue 410 - Node.js TSC Confirms: No Intention to Remove npm from Distribution

Thursday, March 28, 2024

This week's Awesome Node.js Weekly Read this email on the Web The Awesome Node.js Weekly Issue » 410 Release Date Mar 28, 2024 Your weekly report of the most popular Node.js news, articles and

💻 Issue 410 - JSDoc as an alternative TypeScript syntax

Thursday, March 28, 2024

This week's Awesome JavaScript Weekly Read this email on the Web The Awesome JavaScript Weekly Issue » 410 Release Date Mar 28, 2024 Your weekly report of the most popular JavaScript news, articles

📱 Issue 404 - Dependency Injection for Modern Swift Applications Part II

Thursday, March 28, 2024

This week's Awesome iOS Weekly Read this email on the Web The Awesome iOS Weekly Issue » 404 Release Date Mar 28, 2024 Your weekly report of the most popular iOS news, articles and projects Popular

💻 Issue 328 - My new open-source repository to schedule all your content!

Thursday, March 28, 2024

This week's Awesome React Weekly Read this email on the Web The Awesome React Weekly Issue » 328 Release Date Mar 28, 2024 Your weekly report of the most popular React news, articles and projects

📱 Issue 407 - Apple just announced WWDC24. The keynote for WWDC24 will be held on Monday, June 10th.

Thursday, March 28, 2024

This week's Awesome Swift Weekly Read this email on the Web The Awesome Swift Weekly Issue » 407 Release Date Mar 28, 2024 Your weekly report of the most popular Swift news, articles and projects

💻 Issue 405 - 2024 Edition Update

Thursday, March 28, 2024

This week's Awesome Rust Weekly Read this email on the Web The Awesome Rust Weekly Issue » 405 Release Date Mar 28, 2024 Your weekly report of the most popular Rust news, articles and projects

🤖 What to Expect From Google I/O 2024 — How to Stop Apps From Leaking Your Data

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Also: The Best Camera Straps of 2024, and More! How-To Geek Logo March 28, 2024 📩 Get expert reviews, the hottest deals, how-to's, breaking news, and more delivered directly to your inbox by