Why you are not learning Python!
And how I am trying to help!
Do you want to learn Python?
Have you been meaning to learn Python for a while now but your attempts have been short-lived and sporadic?
Do you think it’s not for you?
I want to help.
When I was a young engineer I didn’t have much time for coding.
Then I met Python and my outlook transformed completely!
But I wasn’t, and am not, content with just using Python and keeping it to myself; I’m evangelical about this!
I have been the annoying colleague trying to persuade my fellow engineers on the benefits of Python for almost ten years.
In that time I have heard all sorts of excuses about why people don’t, won’t and can’t learn Python.
Here are the most common.
No time ⏰
Of course we’re all busy. I get it.
In a hectic schedule it can be incredibly difficult to find the time to dedicate to learning Python.
What’s more, looking at a lot of the resources out there for learning Python it can seem daunting when you see an introduction video of two or three hours.
Now there’s nothing wrong with those videos! They’re great and for many people they will be perfect.
But that doesn’t change the fact that they represent a significant time investment upfront to even dip your toe in the water!
If you have commitments; family, kids, friends, general life stuff) that investment can simply be unaffordable.
It’s too difficult 😣
Coding has a reputation for being difficult.
Check out the results of a Google search starting with “is coding …”
Two of the top three results are negative: “is coding hard” and “is coding difficult”!
When I was an undergraduate, using MATLAB was a living nightmare for me. I would sit in programming labs, staring at the blinking cursor with not a clue about what I was doing.
The lecturer would give us a task like “write a program to blur an image”. For me, he might as well have been asking us to write the navigation software for a Mars Rover!
It can be overwhelming and it can turn people off for a very long time. I’m a living example!
It’s irrelevant 🙅♀️
If you’re looking at introductory material for Python they quite rightly focus first on the fundamentals; variables, conditional statements, data structures and so on. The examples are also often generic and simplified in an attempt to make it accessible.
While correct and proper, if you are a busy engineer with a time-deficiency and existing scepticism, it’s going to be oh too easy to say “hmm, this doesn’t look very relevant to my job”.
That makes it very easy to put it off until some later date that will certainly never come!
What to do 🤷♀️
How can we get more engineers to not only see the power of Python but also start learning it?
I believe the answer is in resources and material that complement what's already out there and is geared towards engineers.
But to help as many engineers as possible with their coding journey (starting with Python of course) this material will need three things:
Brevity: bitesize chunks that can be picked up and read/viewed whenever someone has a spare five or ten minutes. It needs to fit into people’s busy lives!
Relevance: engineers need to see how what they’re learning can be used in their day-to-day lives.
Accessible: the content must be accessible to engineers without being too easy or oversimplified. Getting decent, useful things up and running quickly is the aim!
Reach Out 📣
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Have you been meaning to learn Python or coding for what seems like forever? What’s been stopping you?
Share below in the comments or through Twitter.
All the best!
TL;DR 🥱
Whether it’s lack of time, fear of difficulty or scepticism of its relevance (maybe all three!), too many engineers are turning away from programming and Python.
To address this the articles on this blog (and videos) will present focussed, snappy and relevant material to help you on your Python journey!