What was your strategy?

[Ben Finney]

Jorge Biquez <jbiquez at icsmx.com> writes:

> I was wondering if you can share what was the strategy you followed to
> master Python (Yes I know I have to work hard study and practice a
> lot). I mean did you use special books, special sites, a plan to learn
> each subject in a special way.

I find that my strategy with learning Python was similar to strategies
for learning a natural language:

* Use it, as often as feasible. Keep practicing.

* Use it, as often as feasible, for real problems. The kind of problems
  that I actually need a solution to will motivate me to learn when a
  contrived exercise would not.

* Additionally, seek out areas of the language I'm not actively using
  and learn them too. This pretty much means I'll need contrived
  exercises, but it guards against staying in a rut of the familiar.

* Use it, as much as feasible, in public. Put my inevitable errors on
  display where they can be discovered and suggestions can be made for
  improvement. This has the not inconsiderable benefit of encouraging
  humility also.

Those all worked well when I learn a natural language, and they work
well for learning a programming language.

After all, a programming language is a constructed language for
human-to-human communication. It happens to have the additional
constraint of communicating with computers as a side goal :-)

-- 
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Ben Finney