Learning Python — Beginner’s Journey

Polina Gozd
Sep 1, 2018 · 3 min read

Working in an IT industry, one, although originally not a developer, can get interested in learning to code. That’s what happened to me at least.

So our company is a startup that’s developing an AI-based platform, and naturally, they use Python as one of the languages to build the AI itself.
Talking to my colleague, who’s actually is in charge of writing this part of the code, he was very encouraging, suggesting that almost anyone could do it and I should try too.


So in my school, we’ve had to mandatory learn programming (on beginner’s level but none the less programming) in middle school and high school.
We’ve learned how to build simple websites(the front-end mostly), build simple browser-games, etc., but the teacher was actually incompetent. She was originally a math teacher but a year we had to take this class she got replaced and was assigned to teaching a programming class.
Of course, it’s been more than 6 years since I’ve last learned anything about it so I don’t remember even a single line of code except for occasional “0101011100” and “:=” — cause it reminded my friend and me of octopus tentacles.
Also, we’ve learned quite a lot of math in University like matrices, statistics, etc.

So that’s my basic background knowledge in programming. Not outstandingly great, but still I hoped it would come in handy when I started. I wasn’t totally wrong, but there’s not much that pops back in my head even now.


So. How did I start this time?

First, watching the CS Dojo YouTube channel. He has great practical videos for total beginners to start off with simple lines of coding and gradually increasing difficulty. The one thing that kept me from going further with the course is that it was a little too much of a practical approach. I needed some THEORY.

That’s when my colleague recommended me Charles Severance Python course on YouTube. He also has a website and a book he wrote (which is as I understand free) with some good code examples.

That was exactly what I needed. Him being a professor and a seemingly great guy, he has the perfect balance of knowledge, teaching skills, pacing and fun.

I’ve promised myself I’d learn Python ideally by the end of the year. But I haven’t progressed as much as I wanted since I could only dedicate a part of my weekends to actually sit down and learn, repeat after and do some exercises. I hope to keep the pacing up and even increase it, but who knows how it will go down.


I know in my last post I said I’d write somewhat more regular updates, but there’s not much to update on! I know I screwed up with this one, but please stick with me for a while.

As a side note, I think my Korean language journey can be considered as completed as I’ve successfully passed the TOPIK (Korean Language Exam) last month. Congrats to me, yay! From now on doing just some regular studying will be sufficient enough in my opinion so there won’t be any updates on this topic. Maybe I’ll share the books I’ve read or studied by, not sure yet.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it. See you next time!

Thoughts about nothing

It's a blog to express everything that comes to mind.

Polina Gozd

Written by

Not such a recent graduate in Finance; Intern in Marketing Department; Book, fan-fiction and manga lover and not ashamed of it.

Thoughts about nothing

It's a blog to express everything that comes to mind.

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