Learning Python The Hard Way (Because There is No Other Way)

Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with learning how to code.

Actually, most of the time it’s hard.

Especially when life gets busy. Which is unavoidable. Over this weekend I had some stuff to do that prevented me from really sitting down for a long period of time and learning Python.

Weekend Recap

On Friday I met with a woman in my area who is putting together a tech camp for the summer. Which is awesome and I’m so happy I connected with her. But that took up some time. Plus, I had a few other ends to meet on other projects on Friday.

And then yesterday (Saturday) I attended an event with Girl Develop It in Philadelphia about SEO. Which was also amazing. I learned so much. I mean, I already had a decent SEO foundation. But, for example, I had no idea there were keyword tools in Google Webmaster. Or I never knew all the pages and posts I deleted on my main website were still crawled by Google and show up as 404 errors. Let me tell you, I have deleted a lot of old posts. 18 to be exact. All of which could be negatively impacting my ranking. Or not, because who knows what the heck the Google algorithms are.

Anyways, and today is Mother’s Day. So these past few days haven’t exactly been ideal for me hunkering down and focusing on my newest book – Learn Python the Hard Way: A Very Simple Introduction to the Terrifyingly Beautiful World of Computers and Code. 

(Oh hey, look it’s me! I love how Google will automatically put together a GIF form of similar images. Kind of scary it knows which to choose… But still cool.)

I’ll be honest … I barely even got into the book so far. The author (Zed Shaw) starts off by just going over the command line. So I haven’t even reached the Python section yet. Meaning I haven’t been working on Python for the last several days.

Finding Balance

I know one of the most difficult things for me will be finding balance and a rhythm. For me, every week is completely different as far as work loads go. Sometimes I feel swamped. Other weeks, I am almost bored out of my mind. And learning Python and falling into the rabbit hole that is my computer  is a nice way to escape.

I Am Learning Python The Hard Way

There is no easy way to learn how to code. It takes repetition and dedication. Learning how to actually program isn’t like learning HTML or SEO.

With things like HTML and SEO,or heck even building a WordPress site, it’s easy to grasp.

But with programming—whether Python or C or Ruby or what have you—there are some serious walls. Confusion. Frustration. All it takes is one little misspelling to mess everything up.

Looking Ahead

Despite some recent fallbacks, I am excited to work through this new book. And of course give feedback along the way.

All and all, I know it will take some time. My goal was to become fluent in Python by the end of the summer. However, it may even take longer.

Still, I can’t wait for the moment where it all clicks.

Image – fikrirasyid.com