What I learned teaching 10,000 devs

Have you ever learned something about yourself that surprised you?

This happened to me a few weeks ago.

Because for several years, I've been teaching advanced Python to software engineers part-time. And I actually really enjoy it, because it gets me connected with so many different Python devs in every diverse setting you can think of.

Anyway, my team added up how many different students I've taught... And guess what it was:

Over ten thousand!

Whoa! How did that happen?!?

But it's true: I've taught intermediate and advanced Python to over 10,000 Python developers, from engineering teams all around the globe.

It made me pause and ponder. Because I feel the experience has given me some insights into our profession, and our community.

And one thing I've noticed among professional programmers, in dozens of (over fifty?) nations around the globe...

Is that we're a resourceful bunch.

All I have to do is give you a few tools you don't yet have, then stand back. Get out of the way. Because you'll always amaze me with what you come up with.

That's why in my classes, I always focused on the deep principles. The essence.

I don't want to just give you some code you can copy without understanding it. That's no fun, anyway.

What works better for everyone is to get the key concepts and understandings... the essential, principles and ideas... that let YOU come up with whatever code structures you need. Quickly, easily, powerfully, and fitting whatever new coding situation you face.

These fundamentals aren't always sexy...

But what you can *do* with them is sexy as hell.

Some of the sexiest fundamentals relate to object-oriented programming.

Which we're all supposed to know everything about... except - and I have data from 10**4 engineers worldwide on this - we don't.

And that's actually great news. Because when you DO learn...

It's like taking off a pair of dinky roller skates... And strapping on a futuristic jet-pack.

And I'm here to give you as many jet-packs as I can.