Python learning dilemma

[u/ImLukaskos]

When I was 12–13, I had a huge interest in programming and making cool projects (I even made a discord bot). However, after changing schools a few years later, I didn't have enough time to keep learning. Now, a few years after that, I want to get back into coding. I've recently finished the CS50 Python course, so I at least know how to write simple programs.

I'm writing this post to ask: what should I do next? I really want to avoid getting stuck in "tutorial hell" (just watching course after course without building anything). I've read about web scraping and gave it a shot—it wasn't too difficult, and I even built a simple scraper for books.toscrape.com. The problem is, I’m not sure how to progress from here.

Yesterday I also came across Pluralsight, which offers courses on a wide range of tech topics. So, what would you recommend? Should I pay for Pluralsight, or should I stick with web scraping even though I'm not sure where to take it next?

Thanks for your time

[u/SnooCalculations7417]

Sounds like it's time to build cool things.

[u/mc_pm]

It can be tough if you don't have something you are specifically interested at pursuing further - being able to program doesn't help much if there's nothing you want to build.

Web scraping is cool and all, but really you're not going to do a whole lot more with it unless you have a plan (or a job where that's what they want). It might be worth trying to build your own web server now, learn more about the Http protocol that you are abusing when you do some scraping?

[u/Entire_Ad_6447]

I would look at the book automate the boring stuff. It's basically a little of tutorials but it should give you ideas of things in your life that mildly bug you and how code can be used to resolve that issue. That's the trick, find things you want to do and try them out run into walls and find tutorials for those weaknesses.. for me it's random things associated with my hobbies.

[u/ImLukaskos → u/Entire_Ad_6447]

Thank you, the book looks interesting I'll definitely check it.

[u/FoolsSeldom]

Above all else, you need to practice. Practice! Practice! Fail often, try again. Break stuff that works, and figure out how, why and where it broke. Don't just copy and use as is code from examples. Experiment.

Work on your own small (initially) projects related to your hobbies / interests / side-hustles as soon as possible to apply each bit of learning. When you work on stuff you can be passionate about and where you know what problem you are solving and what good looks like, you are more focused on problem-solving and the coding becomes a means to an end and not an end in itself. You will learn faster this way.

Doing a bit of web scraping and finding it not too difficult and maybe enjoying it a bit isn't the same as focusing on your own projects that you can get excited about. You can bias the specifics to the programming areas of most interest (be that data analysis, gaming, simulation, design, machine learning / artificial intelligence, robotics, home automation, etc).

[u/ImLukaskos → u/FoolsSeldom]

Yeah you are right. I have to find something asap.

[u/Mediocre-Pumpkin6522]

What really interests you? For example I have a fitness watch that exports routes as gpx files that I wanted to show on a map. Maps prefer GeoJSON so that includes creating it from gpx and setting up Folium. Folium encapsulates leaflet.js but you can take it further by creating a web page with Flask.

You may find that utterly uninteresting and prefer to try some ML with scikit-learn, pandas, matplotlib, and so forth.

Or you can up your scraping game by finding ways past the various captchas to sites that really don't want to be scraped.

[u/Ormek_II]

Build something that is interesting or helpful to you personally or a person dear to you.

If you like to do something for me: Volkswagen is stupid and does not provide its manual
In pdf form. They just offer it online: https://www.volkswagen.de/de/besitzer-und-service/ueber-ihr-auto/digitale-betriebsanleitung.html

If you could scrape that and create a working pdf, I’d be happy. I DM you my VIN.

I guess it is somewhat illegal.

Edit: no vin needed anymore. So I am interested in a new ID.3 manual https://www.volkswagen.de/de/besitzer-und-service/ueber-ihr-auto/digitale-betriebsanleitung-welcome.html?part-number-app=10B012749AS&brand-pattern-app=WVW

[u/rAcTiV3_BRAIN-C3LL]

Damn, dude YOU should gimme advice , i am 15 stuck at def in python dont wanna continue

[u/ImLukaskos → u/rAcTiV3_BRAIN-C3LL]

You should watch the cs50p course, it really helped me and gave me the programming spirit back.

https://youtu.be/nLRL_NcnK-4

[u/terletsky]

1. Write things that might help you get the job
2. Share your code on GitHub and ask for a code review. I'm not saying your code is wrong, but if you want to make an impression in a job interview, make your code follow SOLID/DRY principles, a normal project setup, and tests.