🔒 Learning python

[astral dagger]

hello, i am a newbie in cs, i havent learnt or mastered anything yet ive just explored js, java, c and python.
explored in the sense did basic projects or wrote simple scripts
i want to become a python developer. should i take a python course?
i havent been able to master a single thing coz i dont understand what is relevant now(in the age of ai). how should i learn python? and should i even learn to write the code by hand?
thank you.

[narrow swan]

@astral dagger

Python help channel opened

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[umbral scroll]

!learn recommended resources below

[narrow swan]

Go-to beginner resources

Here are the top free resources we recommend for people who are new to programming:

• Automate the Boring Stuff — an online book (also available to purchase as a physical book)
• Harvard’s CS50P course — video lectures (slides and notes provided) with exercises
• Python Programming MOOC 2026 course — text-based lessons with exercises
• Corey Schafer's YouTube playlist

For a full, curated list of educational resources we recommend, please see our resources page!

[astral dagger]

i have seen these resources before, can you please read my message once it was not about where to learn from , it was what and how

[umbral scroll]

The recommended resources already answered both. "What" to learn is in the syllabus/course. So you know what topics to cover. "How" to learn is not to only watch or read the material, but to actually practice them. Each of the recommended resource will instruct you to build something after learning the topic.

[astral dagger]

do i need to learn to write code on my own anymore?

[umbral scroll]

You can write code on your own after you've learn the basics

[astral dagger]

but is it needed now? ai can write code

for example, learning to wrte html is a waste of time now

[umbral scroll]

Yes its needed now. AI still writes garbage every now and then. Its your job to make sure its not

[astral dagger]

i wanna know what is not needed to spend time on while learning python

[umbral scroll]

Its not. Its still relevant

[umbral scroll]

The recommended courses covers everything that is needed. There's no wasting time with any of them. Its curated for that reason.

[astral dagger]

really? havent you used claude code once? senior devs are doing their entire jobs with it

[astral dagger]

it was curated and i dont doubt these resources but things have changed now it was the best way earlier ig

[umbral scroll]

And? Is it always correct? How do you ensure it doesn't output a lot of AI slop? How do you guarantee that it is always correct?

[astral dagger]

that is what i'm asking. what should i learn in order to do my part coz writing code from scratch isnt the job of humans anymore

[umbral scroll]

Writing code from scratch is important. Its how you know and understand how the code works in the first place. If AI generates these sloppy codes, how do you know what it wrote is structured or written correctly? The answer: You write one yourself.

[astral dagger]

so you're saying that there is no change in the learning process now and 5 years back?

[umbral scroll]

💯

The only diff is that you can use AI to accelerate your development

[astral dagger]

okay ty but its quite contrary to what im hearing from everywhere and everyone

[astral dagger]

how and when should i do that

[umbral scroll]

But it doesn't mean you forsake learning coding altogether

[umbral scroll]

After learning the fundamentals of programming

Basics is important

no matter what

[astral dagger]

you mean the basics..loops, if else stuff?

[umbral scroll]

💯

[astral dagger]

i already know that as i said i did coding in c and wrote some python scripts

what should i do after this

[umbral scroll]

we learn to recognize letters of ABC, and phonetically make sounds of each letter, then learn to form words from it. Then learn the tricky rules of reading specific words are not phonetically correct like "one" or "two".

Then audiobooks, movies, tv series came along that tells the story for us. Does that mean we don't need to learn how to read anymore?

[astral dagger]

@umbral scroll i really wanna do open source contributions and yk get my hands dirty, i dont want to be in trenches anymore like ive been doing basic stuff since a year. how can i accelerate to the next stage now.... if i do my own projects i take help from ai and i feel like i wont be able to do it on my own, if i dont take help from ai i feel slow and stuck

[umbral scroll]

What part of your own skill do you feel that your stuck?

[astral dagger]

i get it but many videos and people say that learning process must change with the coming of ai which confused me

[astral dagger]

im sorry i didnt get what you're askin

[umbral scroll]

idk what those videos are about. Learning process can change but never about skipping the basics. Basics is always important no matter what.

[astral dagger]

can i paste a link here?

[umbral scroll]

You said you were doing your own project. And then you're stuck. Can you tell me more about this project and where did you get stuck at before you asked AI?

[umbral scroll]

Sure

[astral dagger]

https://youtu.be/oshQg1uSRvg?si=jWhEGrLMz5VCUp5h

[umbral scroll]

Literally, the first lesson, says to learn the basics of coding. NOT TO SKIP IT

[astral dagger]

i did projects but it was ai who wrote the code, ai helped in each and every step coz i was trying to learn by making projects so ai was telling me what to do for example i wrote a python script for clearning up my file manager using beautiful soup but i wont be able to write it on my own without using ai. so am i doing it wrong?

[umbral scroll]

Did you understand what the AI wrote?

[astral dagger]

okay but what after that? those basics are too basic, after that they ask to skip to system design and security stuff.. is that what is supposed to be done? the courses and books that we normally follow dont do this, they move to frameworks and projects

[astral dagger]

yeah i did

but i didnt come up with it on my own, nor can i re write the code on my own if im given an empty code editor and no access to ai

[umbral scroll]

then its fine. As long as you can read, understand and know what it wrote, and you can make changes or fixes to them anytime, then it should be fine.

[umbral scroll]

Then thats a problem

You need to understand how it came up with that code

Did it use proper reference? Is there a doc it referred to? What function/API did it use? etc

By understanding the code well enough, you can get by without AI after that

[astral dagger]

i understand it well, and it does explain it well, but when i try to write it on my own it feels like im writing from my memory rather than intuition

ughh idk i just feel stupid

[umbral scroll]

You don't have to write from memory. Docs exists for a reason.

Its never a closed book

You are always welcome to refer to the official docs whenever

[astral dagger]

so what exactly do programmers do when they write code by themselves

[umbral scroll]

Let me share you an experience I had. I was working on a project in Flutter. The code review AI agent checked that the color references my AI coder used was wrong and should be using something else. Cross-referencing and cross-checking this against the official docs, the code reviewer AI agent was wrong as its knowledge base is referring to an older doc.

[astral dagger]

btw as i said i really want to contribute to open source using python, so when will i be able to do so? i know the basics and syntax but what else do i need to know?

[umbral scroll]

You can contribute whenever but maintainers hate when AI slop gets passed in and its a whole lot of mess to review.

So make code changes carefully and with intent. Not let AI takeover

[astral dagger]

okay so this just means ai can be wrong and i know that

[umbral scroll]

💯

Never forget. AI can be so wrong

And because of that, we cannot let AI code everything. Always cross-check and triple check its work

[astral dagger]

i mean what are the things that i must know? just knowing the syntax is enough?

[umbral scroll]

Its like a dumb intern

[umbral scroll]

Out of all the projects that you were working on, did you make a very basic project without any help?

[astral dagger]

okay a bit off-topic but given the exponential growth of ai we have seen in the past few months, do you think it will keep getting smarter and wont be a dumb intern 2 years down the line?

[umbral scroll]

idk

[astral dagger]

no unfortunately i didnt

[umbral scroll]

Then thats where you're missing

[astral dagger]

aah okay

[umbral scroll]

Build a basic project from start to finish, without anyone and any AI help

Disable copilot, claude code, etc

You are free to Google or check the docs

[astral dagger]

i learnt about beautiful soup through that script and i only know that much about it so i thought i wont be able to do smth else using it on my own, but i think i shouldve used the docs as you said

[umbral scroll]

But don't ask for help. Try and solve problems on your own

[astral dagger]

okay i will do that

[umbral scroll]

Once you have built a few basic projects, you will then understand how an actual app is supposed to work on open source projects

[astral dagger]

should i take angela yu's 100 days of code course for python?

[astral dagger]

these projects should be web/app development stuff?

[umbral scroll]

idk. You can if you want. The recommended resources I shared above is what I preferred

[astral dagger]

okay

[umbral scroll]

It depends™

What kind of projects do you look forward to building? Do you wanna do web projects?

Do you wanna do app projects?

What about data science?

Game dev?

Its totally up to you. But get the basics of which projects interests you

[astral dagger]

i dont wanna do web/app dev but what else is there for a beginner like i saw cloud computing but the certs are very expensive and cyber security is difficult to get into as a fresher

so i ended up writing python scripts but i dont think writing just automation scripts count as projects

[umbral scroll]

those still count

Python doesn't need to be full blown interface kind of project

They can be small integration kind of projects

[astral dagger]

can you please recommend me some open source projects for a beginner like myself

[umbral scroll]

what are your interests again?

[astral dagger]

i think i'll go for web development only coz i have some knowledge about it or doing agentic ai stuff

[umbral scroll]

But does that interest you? You said you didn't want to do web dev?

[astral dagger]

i've heard about ml but its very math heavy and no openings for freshers

[umbral scroll]

there are openings for freshers

But seriously, what are your interests?

Sounds like you wanna do everything

[astral dagger]

yeah i did it and i didnt like it but i didnt try doing anything else coz that would mean im doing everything but not knowing a single thing well

[astral dagger]

please tell me how can i know what exactly i like without wasting too much time, i mean i can only think of taking courses or asking ai what that field is about

[umbral scroll]

how old are you?

[astral dagger]

taking courses just to see if i like it would take a lot of time and asking ai about it doesnt lemme know if id like it

[astral dagger]

im 21 yo in 2nd year of college, 1st year was not productive so i cant waste this year

[astral dagger]

not really every ml jd asks for a masters or phd or yoe

[umbral scroll]

yeah thats somewhat a discovery/exploratory age. I didn't know what I like when I was 21 too.

I guess... and you probably dont wanna hear this... you have to try everything

When I was about that age, I thought I liked web dev and web design. I tried real hard to be really good at it. Then I realized I suck at UI/UX. I can build the logic behind a web app tho. Then I found that I can really do well in cloud computing and system administering when I was around 26.

Trial and error

[astral dagger]

in my 1st year i was also trying to do frontend coz most kids in college were doing that and i hated it i've never been the creative kid so i decided to do backend and i chose java for it but again it took forever to understand the basics and i left it in the middle sigh

[umbral scroll]

you should power through. Finish learning Java. Plenty of tech companies are still hiring Java devs (well, more Scala and Kotlin now but thats like the evolution after Java)

[astral dagger]

dayum i was going through cloud computing and cyber security today and the aws certifications looked too expensive and cyber security looked a bit intimidating

[umbral scroll]

I tried CyberSec. It was fun. But a little too much to cover for my own comfort. Just try everything

[astral dagger]

i think you are right i keep jumping to different languages like i said 1st year i did C, js, and java and then now i'm tryna get into python

[astral dagger]

how did you try it? and how long did you keep doing it?

[umbral scroll]

Just finish going through the basics of each. The least you can get out of it is that you literally "know" the language and add it to your resume.

[astral dagger]

you did that through docs?

the poeple in my uni have some weird obsession with web development especially mern stack, i got pushed into it too and i didnt like it tbh.

[umbral scroll]

not only through docs. I did Python through codecademy long way back before they made a lot of changes. I did JS when I was 13 at Neopets.com website. Its like here and there.

[astral dagger]

wow you've been coding since you were 13

i always envy the early starters

[umbral scroll]

Anyways, you were saying you wanted to do web dev, but you said you stopped Java mid way.

I recommend you to do web dev but with Java. Learn Java basics, then learn Spring Boot.

Without AI

[astral dagger]

how did you get your job? did you grind leetcode for it? in my uni, they say to build projects and grind leetcode yet most of them end up jobless

[umbral scroll]

through network referral

[astral dagger]

okay i'll resume java without a second thought and without ai

[umbral scroll]

Get to it

[terse breach]

Are you trying to learn programming and cs for the money or for hobby

[umbral scroll]

can it be both?

[terse breach]

Because they are very different

[astral dagger]

cool i'll talk to you about that some other day thanks for your advice

[astral dagger]

currently im in college with a cs degree somehow and i dont want to end up jobless so its for money

im 21 yo so i cant just do things as i hobby but i wish it becomes a hobby too

[terse breach]

You should maintain a work/life balance. That said, AI is antithetical to your purpose. You must have a solid grasp of the fundamentals first.

[astral dagger]

and ive tried marketing earlier also content creation on twitter and im not the creative kind so i think programming might work for me

[terse breach]

Your best bet is to make something and then show it off.

[astral dagger]

okay i'll learn fundamentals as it should be learnt and it was learnt before ai

[narrow swan]

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