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Comment by companyhen | Hacker News Reader

I started a job as a web designer in Dec 2011 only knowning HTML/CSS. I picked up a little PHP and JS knowledge.. not much, but working with WordPress it kind of just happens.

I tried Learn Python the Hard Way, but when I finished the book I didn't feel like I had the skills to start a project, so I read the Django Book. I am more of a designer than a developer, I really want to get over the hump and start writing code that can do the things I envision.

I've tried codecademy, which is helpful, but I still don't feel I'm there yet. I have started a "web app", but I got stuck on a few features I want to add, so I'm stalling on those.

I'd really appreciate any guidance! No formal education, all self taught. I have grown immensely as a web designer over the past year, but my programming skills aren't growing nearly as fast...or at all anymore.

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I guess you're talking about only Python. Well, as I said its one of the easiest language to pick up. Python's own documentation is a very good start. "Introduction to python" and "Dive into python" are good start. Huge list - http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonBooks.

If you're talking of django/web-frameworks, well it'll be a little more effort since it involves some stuff (concepts of MVC, etc) other than python per se. So you could start by understanding of web development in general. But django docs tutorials are also pretty good.

I learned Python because I wanted to make stuff fun little scripts in Blender. Tutorials helped. So did reading source code and drawing inspiration from it. Ultimately, it was just one project inspiring another inspiring another.

In your case, I guess the thing to do would be to google an open-source django app. Find something you like from the templates director. Copy what you like and build out from there.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have ideas I just don't know if I should start with those, or work on open-source projects beforehand. I think I'm going to go with the ladder.

You need to take a computer science course , which will teach you how to think.

The Python exercises on codeacademy are there to strengthen your grasp of python syntax and practice for loops.

I recommend Udacity CS101 and/or edx 6.00x. Both are Intro to CS courses which use Python.

Thanks. I have heard of Udacity, just never looked into it.

How are you seeking help when you get stuck? It's really important to have someone that can help you go over the big hurdles. It doesn't have to be a specific person in particular. You can go on irc.freenode.org #python and ask questions there. People are helpful most of the time.

Thanks. I've just been checking StackOverflow, and I hang out on IRC from time to time.. I had a programming mentor who I met via Reddit, but he went MIA on helping me out after a few months payment. :[

Find programming projects that you want to work on, and just start programming. Sometimes you will need to look up how to do X every line and sometimes every 5 lines, but the way to learn to program is by getting started and getting used to structures and control.

I would help you, but I don't know how much free time I'll have in the future. You can e-mail me your questions and I'll answer when I can. If I think that some of the answers can be found by googling, I'll tell you so, and I'll give you explanations where I think they're needed.

This makes me think that a program that connects mentors and students would be very useful. I'm not necessarily thinking of it as a money-making endeavour, but some resources need to be found to make the project self-sustainable.

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