Newbie to Python

[Shihab]

I disagree. For beginners it's gonna be working against them. Same for any technical topic. Many of my friends and clients tend to rely on ChatGPT so much, that even after a couple of years of working with something (be it 3d printers or embedded stuff, or whatever) they did not progress a single bit, and basically learned to use ChatGPT for everything, and not whatever they wanted to learn in the first place. One of my friends by some miracle even got a job in a rapid prototyping company that does defense stuff, and all it took is a GPT Pro subscription Though there is a catch - now he has to do the job, and learning technical stuff "on the fly" is much harder and waaay more stressful.

I agree with this disagreement.
We tend to forget that research and experimentation are themselves parts of the learning process. Chatbots don't just rob people off these benefits, they are also addictive. People nearly always get addicted to convenience, but every convenience comes at some cost, and chatbots' cost is primarily cognitive.

 

[r.h.p]

There are some good courses and tutorials on YT, but if you want to take it a step further - go to EDX.org and just sign up for a few free Python courses that may interest you(haven't browsed it in awhile, but there were a bunch when I was on the self-learning spree, and I'm sure by now they have a ton on data analysis and ML). On-schedule courses give you a bit more motivation to do things, unlike scrolling vids on your own, plus you'll have access to forums where you can discuss stuff with other students like you, and some even run live Q&A sessions with teachers.
Though, I would highly recommend some general programming courses first, preferably in C++ or C#.

It depends. Python is just a tool, and you need to pick some direction in how you want to apply that tool. Just like with any other language - you can do many things with python.
Personally I don't like Python to put it mildly, but I do get the appeal of it and why many people use it. Today it's probably the most popular, the easiest, and the most accessible, and variations of it can run on pretty much anything.


I disagree. For beginners it's gonna be working against them. Same for any technical topic. Many of my friends and clients tend to rely on ChatGPT so much, that even after a couple of years of working with something (be it 3d printers or embedded stuff, or whatever) they did not progress a single bit, and basically learned to use ChatGPT for everything, and not whatever they wanted to learn in the first place. One of my friends by some miracle even got a job in a rapid prototyping company that does defense stuff, and all it took is a GPT Pro subscription Though there is a catch - now he has to do the job, and learning technical stuff "on the fly" is much harder and waaay more stressful.

Depends. I think today Rust or Golang is about as good of a place to to get the basics instead of C++. Python is also a kind of thing that you can learn first, get the basics, and after stumbling into performance or technical issues (or other limitations, which there are many) - seek enlightenment in a strongly-typed compiled language. Realistically the good-ole days where your journey into programming started with reading all 5 tomes of Donald Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming" are long gone (sadly).

Thanks man, you've answered some Very Important and Controversial questions I've Put up (not just this Thread ..lol) and To be, Honest have put into practice....no need to get into that..

 

[unwind-protect]

Just add your own tests.

If you use vibe coding (chatbots) it becomes even more important. Sometimes the chatbot can spit out tests, too.

 

[InVasMani]

Making backup copies is nice way to adapt or integrate new functions into whatever code you've got too.

 

[ty_ger]

my experience is that you learn the best from small utility programs that you build yourself that solve some of your own problems.

Agreed!

Guides rarely teach you much, because they always show you a working result, not all their failed attempts. Failed attempts are where you learn the most. There is always more than one way to do something, but actually doing it lets you see why one way may be better than another. A guide shows you their chosen end result, but doesn't teach you why you would use one way vs another, and doesn't teach you how to troubleshoot and solve an unexpected result.

 

[InVasMani]

I just vibe jam out idea's with co-pilot. I'm no expert or anything, but I've learned a bit about code languages I knew literally zero about prior. I feel like I've done some pretty interesting stuff too. For someone without a coding background I came up with some stuff that surprised me that it worked at all or as well as it did. Each success in a new area of code just kind of makes you want to push further with it though.

I agree that learning thru trial and error can teach a lot in terms of critical thinking and problem solving. A guide is simply going to give you a pathway to follow, but learning how to fail in different ways is important to learning how to succeed in new useful ways you might not have thought of previously and just general inspiration. I tend to shift around on stuff to work on periodically. Which is challenging at times since I've got heaps of idea's and not enough time to put integrate them together properly. I like to use co-pilot to summarize my idea's periodically so I can at least try to reference the general idea later pick up on where I left off.

One nice thing about bouncing around from one idea over to something kind of in a different direction is sometimes things you were working on inspire you with whatever you end up working with next which is great. The more stuff you figure out can hopefully help with whatever you're aiming to try next though. Keep trying things until you succeed at more and more stuff.

 

[r.h.p]

I agree with this disagreement.
We tend to forget that research and experimentation are themselves parts of the learning process. Chatbots don't just rob people off these benefits, they are also addictive. People nearly always get addicted to convenience, but every convenience comes at some cost, and chatbots' cost is primarily cognitive.

ive enlisted into this as a project and am not integrating ChatGPT or any other Ai helpers , IMO i think we need to think it through for
ourselves ...