Thread by @mathsppblog

What's the BEST way to learn Python 🐍?

I've been writing Python for 10 years and taught 100s of people.

Here is a FAQ with actionable advice 👇🧵

But everyone is different, so share your thoughts as well 👇💬 to help as many as possible!

🐍 “How do I start learning Python?”

Well, I think the answer to this question greatly depends on whether you have (considerable) programming experience with another language or not.

That's because “learning Python” can mean ”learn the syntax of the language”, but...

... it can also mean ”learn how to think like a programmer”.

And, in my opinion, this is something very fundamental that you have to understand!

Being a programmer is also about having that programmer mindset.

Worry not, you can learn it 😊

So, 🐍 “How do I start learning Python as a programming newbie?”.

I get asked this question a lot, and often people say “How to learn Python if I want to do X”, and X is usually data science, or machine learning, or web development, web scraping, etc, etc.

Now, I'll be honest:

If you don't know X yet, then here is my answer:

The _very beginning_ is about the foundations of Python and of the mindset, it doesn't matter (YET!) what your final end goal is.

I always recommend @AlSweigart's books that you can read for free at inventwithpython.com

That's what I started with.

Other people might recommend other beginner-friendly books, that's FINE...

AS LONG AS you always write the code!

If you are reading a book, even if the book explicitly doesn't say so, always copy the code BY HAND.

Copy the code, and run it.

After you run the code, fix it.

You'll always make mistakes, that's part of the learning experience 😊.

After the code is working, break it!

The book is teaching you about some concept; let's suppose it's `for` loops.

And you just wrote a `for` loop.

Now, write a different one!

Change the thing you are iterating over!

Make assumptions about what you learnt, and check them by writing more examples!

This is, hands down, the one thing that will boost your learning (or hamper it, if you don't do this).

Do mini-mini-mini-projects after learning a couple of new concepts.

This is to make sure you understand how things work.

Have you learned about variables, the `print` function, the `input` function, and `if` statements?

Make a basic “rock, paper, scissors” game.

Learned about `while` loops?

Modify your game to allow the player to play multiple games.

Keep doing this: learn new concepts, try to come up with a mini-mini-mini-project that uses them.

When you find gaps in your knowledge, google them!

As a programmer, knowing how to google things is a crucial thing.

Googling things is NOT BAD.

It's ok to look things up, the language is too big for you to know everything by heart.

In short, if you are a complete beginner, start with this:

👉 pick a beginner-friendly book (e.g., one from inventwithpython.com);
👉 write all the code by yourself;
👉 break the code, play around with it; and
👉 keep doing mini-mini-mini-projects with what you learnt.

🐍 “I know Python basics, how do I do X?”

Over time, you will start feeling more comfortable with the language and you will start having ideas about things you want to do.

This might be something mainstream, or just a random thing you really want to build.

Both are fine.

For me, this was a maze solver.

I remember it vividly, it was a project that took me all Summer to complete.

I wanted to solve mazes with Python, but I didn't know how to do any of it.

I just knew what I wanted to do: solve mazes.

When you get to this point, then you can start looking up tutorials that tackle the specific task you want to accomplish.

For me, I had to look up how to open images with Python.

I also had to learn an algorithm to solve mazes.

And so on and so forth.

After you are done, celebrate!

Celebrate all the small successes!

Then, write a couple of paragraphs about your project: struggles you went through, resources you consulted, what you did to overcome obstacles.

I did that for my maze solver: mathspp.com/blog/solving-m…

Now, after you have working code, ask for someone to have a look at it, and give pointers about possible improvements.

In short, ask for a small code review.

Ask a friend or a colleague, or someone you know.

If you can't think of anyone, or if you want even more input (more input is better!), put your code on codereview.stackexchange.com up for a review.

When you get the reviews in, leverage the comments to learn more.

Someone mentions a new function, concept, construct? Google it.

In short, if you have working knowledge of Python, here's what to do next:

👉 come up with something you want to build;
👉 look up related tutorials;
👉 build your project incrementally;
👉 try to document your own journey; and
👉 use code reviews to find what to learn next.

Now, 🐍 “What if you have solid programming experience, and just want to get started with Python?”

Whenever I need to learn a programming language's syntax, I check @tutorialspoint first.

So, if you already have the programmer's mindset, you can go to tutorialspoint.com/python/index.h…

Learn the syntax of Python 🐍 and make sure you get it by writing actual code.

Programming is not something you learn by reading.

You learn programming by writing.

Then learn about the distinguishing features of Python 🐍, e.g. through my free book: gum.co/pydonts

In short, if you need to quickstart your Python 🐍 learning,

👉 learn the syntax (e.g., on tutorialspoint.com/python/index.h…); and
👉 learn the distinguishing features (e.g., with gum.co/pydonts).

🐍 “Can I learn Python for free?”

Yes, you can.

There are MANY excellent free resources online.

I got Python jobs without ever paying a cent to learn Python.

Therefore, you don't NEED to pay to learn Python well.

(Of course, there are also AMAZING paid resources!)

🐍 “How can I avoid learning plateaus?”

There are a couple of things you can do to make sure you always keep learning.

1️⃣ The first thing is to get accustomed to the documentation: docs.python.org/3/

Learn how to read it and navigate it.

If you “run out of things to learn”, open the documentation and browse it randomly.

You will find something new to learn about quickly.

2️⃣ Another thing you can do is open the REPL and just type `dir(obj)`, where `obj` is a random Python object you come up with.

`dir` will show you a list with plenty of strings in there, and those strings are names of things related to the object you passed in.

There _ought_ to be a string there that you don't know the meaning of.

Congratulations, you found something new to learn about.

3️⃣ Another thing you can do is go online, to websites like StackOverflow or CodeReview, and read questions/answers about Python.

StackOverflow 🔗: stackoverflow.com
CodeReview 🔗: codereview.stackexchange.com

4️⃣ Another suggestion is to open the Python docs, specifically on the page about the standard library (docs.python.org/3/library/inde…), and start learning about a module you don't know yet.

Read up on the module and write a project using it.

So, if you want to avoid learning plateaus:

👉 Learn your way around the docs;
👉 Do `dir(obj)` on a random object;
👉 Go online read Q&As about Python; and
👉 Learn new modules;

What would you add to this list of suggestions to avoid learning plateaus?

That's it for this FAQ thread, I hope it was valuable!

Want to learn more about Python 🐍?

If so, make sure to follow me (@mathsppblog) as I have a lot of great content in store just for you!

It would also be a HUGE help if you could retweet the first tweet of this thread, as it helps more people learn Python 🐍:

https://twitter.com/mathsppblog/status/1441838298251550720

TL;DR:
🐍 “How do I start learning Python as a programming newbie?”
👉 pick a beginner-friendly book (e.g., one from inventwithpython.com
);
👉 write all the code by yourself;
👉 break the code, play around with it; and
👉 keep doing mini-mini-projects with what you learnt.

🐍 “I know Python basics, how do I do X?”
👉 come up with something you want to build;
👉 look up related tutorials;
👉 build your project incrementally;
👉 try to document your own journey; and
👉 use code reviews to find what to learn next.

🐍 “What if you have solid programming experience, and just want to get started with Python?”
👉 learn the syntax (e.g., on tutorialspoint.com/python/index.h…
); and
👉 learn the distinguishing features (e.g., with gum.co/pydonts).

🐍 “Can I learn Python for free?”
👉 you can; but
👉 you don't have to

🐍 “How can I avoid learning plateaus?”
👉 learn your way around the docs;
👉 do `dir(obj)` on a random object;
👉 go online read Q&As about Python; and
👉 learn new modules;