Pybites Podcast

In this podcast episode, Julian interviews Isaac Smit, a former member of the US Navy and current program manager at Amazon.

He discusses the challenges faced by veterans in the workplace and how we can support them better.

Isaac highlights two main difficulties veterans encounter: dealing with ambiguity and managing invisible disabilities like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The transition from a highly structured military environment to a more ambiguous corporate setting can be challenging for veterans.

Additionally, the invisible disabilities that many veterans have may affect their cognitive abilities, including memory, and it's important for us as colleagues and managers to provide understanding and support.

Throughout the podcast, it becomes apparent that building trust with veterans and understanding them is crucial. It's important to offer assistance, be patient, and create an inclusive environment where veterans feel comfortable.

As employers and colleagues, we can be more supportive by acknowledging the sacrifices veterans have made, expressing gratitude for their service, and being open to conversations about their experiences (although not triggering them explicitly).

Moreover, as managers, we should be aware of the potential performance challenges veterans may face due to their disabilities and provide necessary support while respecting their privacy.

Expect a special, thought provoking episode and we are grateful for Isaac sharing openly about his experience and giving valuable tips.

As always there are wins and interesting books as well ...

Connect with Isaac on LinkedIn.

Books mentioned:
- The Untethered Soul
- The Art of War

Chapters:
00:00 Intro episode
02:44 Intro guest + topic
03:22 Wins
05:10 Isaac's background + leadership development work
09:00 Veterans moving into the corporate world
14:00 Effects of PTSD
17:40 Challenges for veteran family members
22:00 Civil job interview challenges for veterans
24:22 Tips for supporting veterans in the workplace
25:10 Provide structure for the work
26:20 Have empathy (e.g. for veterans with PTSD)
29:33 How can managers help?
32:34 Patience and acknowledgement of sacrifice
38:00 Watch out for triggers
41:10 Books (The Untethered Soul / The Art of War)
45:30 Wrap up and thanks
47:17 Outro

Thanks for listening and we'll be back next week.

Welcome back to the Pybites podcast! Today we hone in on the concept of "Enough", which we read about in the book "Psychology of Money" - chapter 3, titled "Never Enough".

We discuss what this means and relate it back to the Python developer journey and life in general, giving tips how to find the balance (which can be challenging).

As usual we also share Pybites wins + books we are reading.

Enjoy and reach out if you have feedback or want to hear us talk about any topic specifically.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:16 The compound effect / podcast backstory
02:24 Wins
06:47 What's enough? (Psychology of Money book)
09:12 Is it a moving target?
10:55 Quotes from the book
12:53 Don't compare yourself to others
13:50 Focus on internals / "enough" in fitness
14:50 Linking it to the developer journey / wins file
15:30 Give yourself space to make decisions
15:50 How does this rhyme with our "what's next?"
17:40 Extra Fabulous Comics (linked) 🤣
18:19 Books
22:50 Share your reading on our Slack or Pybites Books 💡
23:16 Teasers upcoming episodes
23:50 Thank you! 🙏
24:09 Outro

Extra Fabulous Comics regarding "enough" in fitness / bodybuilding (this sums it up pretty well lol)

Pybites Podcast reading list

Thank for listening!

In this insightful conversation with software developer, PDM-er, and entrepreneur Charles Carriere, we delve into his journey of launching personal projects, overcoming imposter syndrome, and mastering Python.

He shares his experience of creating a Django app in our PDM program around fusion energy, aggregating and summarizing (using AI!) articles, and his future plan of creating a job board on the site as well. Super cool!

He emphasizes the importance of launching projects, big or small, to truly understand what you're doing and to learn from each challenge.

He also discusses his experience with ChatGPT and how it has proved to be a beneficial tool in his coding process.

Finally, the conversation also covers the significance of working with a coach for accountability and key insights. It provided Charles with crucial guidance, focus, and structure to bring his project to completion and properly develop software.

Last but not least we talk about the invaluable mindset side of things.

We hope you enjoy this rich conversation with Charles.

Links:
- Charles' Twitter
- Aggregator site / project: Fusion Chronicles
- He is also in our Pybites community Slack
- Check out our PDM program

Mentioned books:
- Influence
- Agency
- Ryan Holiday's books, for example Obstacle is the Way
Neal Stephenson books:
- Termination shock
- Snow crash
- Cryptonomicon
- Walter Isaacson bios (Elon Musk bio is coming out ...)

Thanks for listening / watching and we'll be back next week ...

In this podcast episode, Peter Lynch, a software developer, discusses his journey into web development and his entrepreneurial interests.

He shares his experience of transitioning from a corporate job to pursuing his passion for building his own projects.

Peter emphasizes the importance of networking and building connections in finding job opportunities.

He also highlights the need to embrace discomfort and continuously challenge oneself for personal and professional growth.

Additionally, Peter talks about his side projects and the motivation behind them, including his iOS app that generates Apple Watch faces using AI.

He encourages others to take action, follow their dreams, and not be afraid to try different ideas, iterating and learning along the way.

Overall, Peter's story serves as an inspiration for aspiring developers and entrepreneurs to pursue their goals and find fulfilment in their work.

Apps:
- Watch Face App
- Domain Name Smash

Learn more about Peter
- Peter's website

Book Peter is reading:
- The Mom Test

Previous episode with Peter:
- #018 - High Risk Mindset: Going From Marketer to Developer

Pybites Coaching
- The PDM program

In this podcast episode we discuss 9 tips to build confidence as a developer, drawing from our own experience + coaching 100+ (aspiring) Python developers.

We cover the importance of starting with small, achievable projects, breaking down complex problems into smaller tasks, and practicing regularly.

Additionally, we emphasize the need for a strong mindset and learning from mistakes, as well as celebrating small victories and reflecting on personal progress.

To further improve, we suggest contributing to open source, building a portfolio, and seeking guidance and support through coaching.

As usual, we also discuss our wins and books we're reading 😍

Links:
- Our coding platform
- Our PDM coaching program
- Hop on a 15 minute strategy call with us
- Pybites search tool
- Pybites Open Source org
- Article + dedicated podcast episode about the comparison game
- Join our Pybites Community
- Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Books:
- The Psychology of Money
- Dead Simple Python
- The Brothers Karamazov

Thanks for listening and we'll be back next week ...

He's back! Django by Example book author Antonio Melé 😍

Not only that, we did this interview in person at a cafeteria on the beach 🏖

In this episode he shares his 10 favorite Django plugins 💪 💡

1. Django Debug Toolbar

2. Django REST Framework

3. Django Channels

4. Django Celery

5. Django Extensions

6. Django allauth and social-auth

7. Django Import Export

8. Django Sentry

9. Django Easy Thumbnails / Imagekit

10. Django-parler

Of course we also asked him what he's reading at the moment:

- Nudge

Connect with Antonio:
- LinkedIn
- Pybites Slack

Antonio's previous Pybites podcast episode is number 89

And last but not least, get Antonio's epic Django book, you won't regret it!

Welcome back to our podcast. In today's episode we go fully "data driven". We held our first annual survey a month ago and we got some amazing feedback.

We summarize it in this episode and share some exciting projects we're planning in and working on (we also like to ask ourselves and our clients, "What's next?").

Thank you everybody for the great feedback and stay tuned for some cool new stuff soon ...

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:05 Pybites survey 2023
02:10 Participation
02:45 How do people find us?
03:23 How often do people use our website
04:00 Our Slack Community
05:22 Main Python resources for people
06:55 Coaching in the Python space
08:10 Satisfaction rate (Bob singing)
09:50 Pushing more tech content / YouTube
12:00 Other feedback to highlight
12:38 Percentage people recommending us 🙏
13:28 How can we improve?
15:00 Balancing tutorial paralysis vs short practical content 💪
15:40 Beginner (PDM bridging) coaching product
17:08 Diversity @ Pybites
18:00 ML coach joining us 🎉
19:15 We'll be doing AMA sessions
20:38 Coding platform feature request + upgrading exercises to 3.10
22:48 Books (not planned but we did!)
24:50 Thanks for all your feedback 🙏
25:37 Outro

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Links:
- Join our community
- Check out our coaching
- Pybites reading list
- Is PDM a bit overwhelming for you? Let us know if you're interested in mentioned beginner coaching product we're building.

Welcome back to our podcast. In this episode Julian interviews Bob about his recent adoption of ChatGpt in his daily work.

A bit hesitant at first he has fully embraced the tool and already noticed a significant increase in his productivity as a developer.

We also highlight some possible concerns and how experience still matters a lot.

As always we also discuss some wins and books / resources we're consuming.

Enjoy and hit us up on our Slack if you have any feedback.

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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:28 Wins
07:05 Julian interviews Bob about his ChatGpt use
12:08 Julian doing a British accent lol
12:30 Bob gives another practical example of using ChatGpt
14:26 Julian on the fear of these tools and becoming obsolete
16:39 Books + Cassandra - "Make work suck less" - shoutout
20:50 Next episode and outro
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Prompt engineering resource

Mentioned Pybites Search command line tool

Check out our YouTube Channel 🐍 🔥 

Join our Slack Community 💪 😍 

Reading:

• Rule of the Robots
• Who moved my Cheese
• Harvard Business Review
• Cassandra's newsletter about making work suck less (she was also on episode 104).

In this week’s episode we talk with Dane about packaging and the rich ecosystem of Python tooling.

Dane is the author of Publishing Python Packages, a new Manning book that just came out. In our conversation we dive into some of the specific challenges and opportunities that come with packaging Python code.

One of the things that we discuss is the backstory behind Dane’s book on packaging. Dane talks about how he scratched his own itch by open sourcing some packaging code that he had developed at work. He then began to explore some of the patterns and practices around packaging that worked really well. His passion for helping other people distribute their code was also a strong motivator.

We also talk about where people struggle with packaging, and how some of the perceptions around packaging come from the history and diversity of tooling in the Python ecosystem. However, Dane points out that there is a more extensible architecture now, which has turned into more of a plugin-like architecture.

Dane then dives into some specific topics from his book, including the debate between using a src vs flat directory structure, the benefits of using a pyproject.toml file as a unified way of specifying dependencies and tooling, and how a tool like tox (or nox) is invaluable for orchestrating all the tooling around Python package management.

We also discuss some of the challenges around dependency hell, and some tips for managing this more effectively. Dane talks about the importance of using Github Actions as a way of automating CI/CD workflows, and how this can be a big time saver, particularly when the amount of projects you’re maintaining adds up.

Finally, we touch on the community aspect of packaging, and some tips for open source maintainers and contributors. Dane shares some of the unexpected things he learned from writing his book, as well as some advice for keeping up with the Python ecosystem and trends in the tech space.

Overall, we really enjoyed producing this episode. It offers a wealth of insights into the world of packaging in Python and we’re grateful for Dane sharing all these practical tips + advice with our audience and we’re sure it will help you improve your packaging workflows.

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You can get 35% off on ALL Manning products in all formats using this code: podpybites23
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Links:

• Dane’s new book
• Tox and Nox
• Should You Use Upper Bound Version Constraints?
• What Is ChatGPT Doing … and Why Does It Work?

Reach out to Dane:

• Twitter
• Mastodon
• LinkedIn

Books mentioned:

• Trustworthy Online Controlled Experiments
• Reinventing the Wheel

Related packaging Pybites podcast:

• #108 – Teaching packaging by building a Python package

Welcome back to the Pybites Podcast. This week we have a follow up to episode 101 in which we spoke about being in control in these difficult times of corporate layoffs.

In this episode we talk about the importance of the people around you, because remember, you are the “average of the 5 people with whom you hang out the most”. Leverage these 5 important people in your life, especially now!

Next we move onto the concept of having a “personal board” or “circle of advisors”, a second group of people that might not be necessarily be part of the “big 5”, but who you go to for specific advice / areas of life.

A great resource that can help you with building this circle of advisors is this Harvard Business Review article: Forget Mentors — You Should Build a Circle of Advisers

Lastly on this topic, we give some networking tips on how to find these kind of people that can positively influence your life.

We also share some cool wins and books we’re enjoying.

Links:
- Join our Slack community
- Pybites career 15 min chat

Books of the week:
- A Brief History of Time
- Montaigne’s Essays

Enjoy and next week we'll be back with another episode.