Shoutouts of Gratitude to the teachers who I learnt programming from over the past couple of years …
Kushal Das, for bringing me in, teaching me the ropes and assuring me there was a place for me here
Reuven Lerner, who unravelled Python for me and made me realise that languages were small, and the reason I was struggling was not Python, but because I wanted to understand all of computer science in too short a time frame.1
David Malan and Brian Yu for the grounding that is CS50.
Dr. Chuck (Charles Severance) for opening my eyes to the wonder that is web programming.
And databases, and Postgresql.
And Django.
And so much more!
You taught me how the pieces fit.
Julia Evans for showing me that being good at sharing knowledge, is not magic, just a lot of hard work and dedication.
And for teaching me oh so much, with your magical zines.
Mark Lutz for his exhaustive, thorough books on Python.
Damian Conway for making regexes make sense.2
Barbara Oakley, for teaching an old dog how to learn.
Cal Newport and Scott Young for helping me put it into practice (deliberately 😂)
Brad Traversy, while he may not have melted my mind, he is the embodiment of everything i learnt from the teachers above. Patient, humble, transparent, persistent, all round hero.
And last, but certainly not least, my young friend and mentee, Priyanka Saggu, for teaching me dogged persistence and for being an unabashed cheerleader on my journey.
All of this to say, good teachers are hard to find, and are worth their weight in gold. For every teacher on the list above, I failed with at least 5 more.
If you ever feel dumb, despite doing your best, like I constantly did, maybe it’s just the fact that the teacher and you are not compatible. The way they teach, might not be the way you understand
Which is why, if you are privileged enough to do so (or are willing to put in the time and the effort), there is no shame in looking for a ‘better’ teacher. No worries in doing the work of finding that someone who can make stuff go ‘click’ in your mind; who can make the world make better sense to you
My experience has been that such folk are hard to find, and when you do luck across gems (like the people above) make sure they know it.
Be grateful that life has brought you to them.
And make sure you learn all you can, to the best of your ability.
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