It’s been a month since I wrote about what I want my blog to focus on: learning, writing and building things. Life got in the way of my plans, but in good ways. I finished my freelance Product Management mission, took three weeks off (including two weeks traveling in Japan), and started a new full-time job.
As I mentioned in that previous post, I want to focus on one tech topic and one “life” topic to learn about and build around.
For the next three months, I’m decided to learn Python and expand my knowledge about women’s health and longevity. I’ll write about the health topic in a different post, but for this blog post, I’ll focus on my Python journey.
My goal isn’t to become a Python developer or a data scientist. It’s simply to learn enough so I can work on a personal project using Python.
I’m giving myself three months, though it’s not a strict deadline. I still have a full-time job and other hobbies that add to my workload. But having a timeline will help me stay focused on one tech topic; otherwise, I’d keep switching every week. I also don’t want to set myself up for failure. I know there will be days of progress and days when I won’t get much done. If I don’t finish studying before the end of the 3rd month, it’s okay. The most important for me is to giving up.
I’m a bit of a course freak. I love buying or starting new courses, though I rarely finish them. But as I’ve been told many times, the best way to learn a skill is not by just following courses, but with deliberate practice. While I’ve included FreeCodeCamp courses below to learn the basics of Python, my main focus will be on coding challenges and projects. I need to accept that it’s okay not to complete 100% of a course, as long as I’m learning the practical side of it.
Lastly, I’d rather not invest in new materials. I’ll use resources I’ve already started but never finished.
Books:
- “Get Programming. Learning to code with Python” by Ana Bell.
- “Grokking Algorithms” by Aditya Y.Bhargava.
- “Automate the boring stuff with Python” by Al Sweigart
The first two books were gifted to me a few years ago on my birthday. Weird choice of gifts, but I loved it! I started reading both several times, but never finished them.
The third book, recommended to me by the same friend, has a free version online. It will be helpful when I reach the stage of building real-life Python projects.
Courses:
I already started both courses but never finished them. But I kept giving up when it was getting too hard, mostly the algorithm projects.
Projects:
- “Automate the boring stuff with Python” by Al Sweigart has some cool projects I want to try.
- Roadmap.sh, recommended by another friend, has some cool Python projects I can test my learnings with. And also a roadmap to check on my progress.
- CodeWars algorithm projects.
- FreeCodeCamp Python projects.
- Find and achieve a personal Python projects, I will update this line once I find an idea.
This is not far off. Time spent has more effect when it's spent working on your own projects. pic.twitter.com/lsNyRzPzsb
— Paul Graham (@paulg) May 3, 2024
Study Plan overview
I asked ChatGPT to create for me a study plan with the criteria:
- Having a full-time job, 9am–6pm.
- Waking up at 7 am and going to bed at 10pm.
- Since I am a morning person, I told ChatGPT that I can work on courses in the morning and read the books’ material in the evenings.
This is a typical week schedule ChatGPT recommended to me:
- Morning Sessions (7:30-8:30 am): Focus on FreeCodeCamp certifications and real projects.
- Evening Sessions (8:00-9:00 pm): Focus on reading and finishing books starting with “Get Programming, Learn to Code with Python”.
- Weekend: Combine certifications, projects, and further book learning.
These are the monthly objectives.
- Month 1: Focus on mastering Python fundamentals through the first certification and reading “Get Programming, Learn to Code with Python.”
- Month 2: Complete the first FreeCodeCamp certification, start the second, and work on small projects. Begin reading “Automate the Boring Stuff” and start learning algorithms with “Grokking Algorithms.”
- Month 3: Focus on real-world projects, finish certifications, and continue learning advanced algorithms.
ChatGPT also gave me a detailed month-by-month schedule, but I’m saving that for my future monthly updates. In those posts, I’ll share my progress and struggles, and I’ll also compare whether I was able to stick to ChatGPT’s schedule.
I sincerely hope that learning and building in public will give me the motivation to keep going. Achieving personal challenges has always been tough for me, as I’m easily distracted and prone to self-doubt.
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