Chapter 2 Shifting Up with the Standard Library

Intuitive Python — by David Muller (15 / 41)

👈 Wrapping Up | TOC | Using the collections Module for Concise Code 👉

I’ve had one bad bicycling accident in my life. I wasn’t technically on a bike when I got hurt. My four-year-old self was running toward my bike to go for a ride when I tripped and fell directly against the handlebars. My parents took me to the emergency room, where I had to get stitches on my lip. In retrospect, I’m not sure who was more terrified — me or my parents.

In my life since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to ride all manner of bikes without major injury: bikes with disc brakes, bikes fully suspended over front and rear shock absorbers, oversized mountain bikes with 29” diameter tires, and even bikes with electrically assisted pedals. Outside of the early accident, many of my best memories are from spending time on bikes. Summers spent with friends riding in the sun, biking around campus in college, mountain biking in the foothills near my home.

I like to think of Python’s standard library as a sort of bike. It’s a tremendous machine that provides a gateway to a wealth of experience and abilities — along with some requisite danger. The first time you ride a bike or write Python, you might fall or otherwise hurt yourself. But, as you learn to ride you find yourself with the freedom to go anywhere you want and the confidence to go to those places: you have mastered a powerful tool.