Pybites Podcast

Every time you go up you're inevitably going to hit more challenging problems which takes a lot of mindset.

Today we talk about 3 occasions where we entered new levels, met new devils and how we dealt with it:

1. Getting our first coding role:

• How you have to dive straight in.
• Step back a bit, setting expectations with the team (see also episode #021).
• Try to gain a quick win to boost your confidence.

2. Working out:

• To make gains lift heavier which takes mindset (as well as the discipline of going to the gym every single day).
• However be nice for yourself, adjust to your situation (80% on a bad day is better than nothing).

3. PyBites / getting out there:

• We wrote last week that every developer needs to build up their body of content.
• We started doing this with our blog and doing the #100DaysOfCode challenge, then building courses / our platform and ultimately becoming coaches.
• Every step there were new problems and things we needed to learn (and it never stops).
• Lot of fear, imposter syndrome we had to conquer along the way.
• For example getting over hearing your own recorded voice, getting on camera, these are now new "normals" which we could not foresee when we started.

So the main takeaway: look for new levels, take things head-on, remember that the pain is temporary and you'll look back realizing there was not that much magic. Then repeat.

We hope this inspires you to keep challenging yourself continuously, because it's one of the best feelings in life.

What we're reading:

• Bob: Jake VanderPlas' Python Data Science Handbook which you can read online (thanks Jake!)
• Julian: The Memory Booster Workbook.

If you want to be challenged in order to grow as a Python developer, pursuing better career opportunities, come talk to us. We have helped many people achieve those goals and we would love to see you be our next success story.

Book a call here: https://pybit.es/apply 

Thanks for listening and see you in the next episode.

This week we have Drew Kerr on the show, consultant / web developer and like us, big on self development and mindset.

We talk about the importance of mindset as a developer and lessons learned from The Last Dance, an amazing documentary about the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan:

1. Fail your way forward, often not taught at school (and important to conquer rejections with interviewing).
2. Being present, not to worry about what might go wrong, not to allow failure to even enter your mind.
3. MJ’s “My game is my biggest endorsement” which is closely related to Gary Keller’s The One Thing; it’s easy to get distracted, you should focus on one thing though and do it extraordinarily well.
4. Expect criticism to happen at higher levels, it takes mental strength to block out the negative / distractions and focus on the essentials.
5. Have a relentless work ethic which will have a compound effect over time (“the slide edge”). Adopt the Seinfeld principle, code every day, deliberate practice is key (see also episode #015).

This and much more in our new episode.

Enjoy and if you like the show please leave us a review.

Get in touch with Drew on PyBites Slack or LinkedIn.

Books mentioned:

• Carol Dweck’s Mindset
• Shad Helmstetter’s What to say when you talk to to yourself
• Cal Newport’s Deep work and Digital minimalism
• Gary Keller’s The one thing
• James Clear’s Atomic habits
• Jeff Olson’s Slide Edge (not sure if we mention it but definitely useful for number 5.)

In this episode I have a chat with long time PyBites Community Member, Rhys Powell, about the skills programmers should have when coming into a coding role or opportunity.

As someone who mentors and trains graduates in Python development for success in the industry Rhys has some great insights into what's really needed, what works and what doesn't.

One of the takeaways here is that many of the points that lead to success are more around the mindset people bring over the pure technical skill.

Some points we raise and discuss in our conversation:

• What we really need from engineers is a willingness to learn.
• Problem solving skills are huge. Being able to break down problems is super important.
• Understanding how you as a person learn.
• "I don't necessarily require a successful outcome, I'd rather know about how you got to your solution."
• Passion and the enthusiasm to learn and grow weigh more than "just" technical skill.
• Technical skills can be taught. The enthusiasm cannot.
• People should ignore the "brand" of the company and think more about what can this company provide me to help me move forward while I'm providing value to them. "Win-Win".
• The Fear of failure is something that holds a lot of people back.
• Failure is not a bad thing. Embrace the fact that sometimes you're going to get things "not quite right".
• We all make decisions with the best of our knowledge at the time and that takes us a step forward.
• Aim to understand what your customers and clients actually want. Much of the time they don't know what they want.
• Being able to communicate is incredibly important as a developer.
• Not documenting is a common pitfall of new developers.
• Not writing tests is another pitfall. Writing tests makes your life so much easier as a developer.
• Self-confidence is a big deal. We shouldn't be full of ourselves but we should be confident in our abilities. Imposter Syndrome in the industry is real!
• You don't need to know the mountain of technology that's out there to come into a dev role. It's your ability to learn the things you need to know when you need to know them that counts.

If you want to see more of Rhys, please, please check out his Twitch channel or reach out to him on the PyBites Slack.

Twitch: https://twitch.tv/bleachin74
PyBites Slack Username: "Rhys"
Github: https://github.com/rhyspowell
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Bleachin

Today we talk with Paul Nnaoji, software engineer and co-founder of AskAGuru.

We talk about how he got into Python and used it to build out his passion project into a startup! 

AskAGuru solves a real world problem: how to make music sharing more social. 

Paul used Flask and Vue.js, a decoupled architecture that makes it easier to scale.

We also talk about the business and marketing side of things, how to grow an audience and some important leadership and mindset lessons Paul learned along the way.

Links:

• Check out AskAGuru here.
• Book Paul mentioned: Gilgamesh by Stephen Mitchell.
• Talk with Paul on PyBites Slack, LinkedIN or IG.
  
  

Protect your calendar

In this episode we wanted to address another productivity issue.

We talk about the concerning trend of having an open calendar and how detrimental this can be for getting stuff done.

We talk about how we balance meetings vs deep work via time boxing.
Related essay: http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html

Mentioned meeting quote: "Meetings are a symptom of bad organization. The fewer meetings the better." - Peter Drucker

We talk about the culture of "now vs when" and how Slack (ironically) gets this down! They seem to have embraced the "when you work, work, when you play, play".

We hope that after listening you take control of your calendar and tell us all about it:
https://twitter.com/pybites
https://pybit.es/community

Finally, at the start of the episode we mention our new, free 6 day training course:
The 6 Key Ingredients of a Successful Pythonista

You can get it here:
https://www.buildpythonapps.com/

Extra Resources:

Julian's Reading: 

• Pine Gap: The Inside Story of the NSA in Australia - David Rosenberg

Bob's Reading: 

• Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success - Phil Jackson
• Serious Python: Black-Belt Advice on Deployment, Scalability, Testing, and More - Julien Danjou

Today we tackle the ugly monster of distraction.

We give you some valuable pointers that can reduce the amount of stress that distractions cause:

- Work on the 80/20, the stuff that matters and have goals so you know what to aim at.

- Time-box your time, including social media.

- Airplane mode is your new best friend.

- Watch your bio (= willpower).

- Social media vicious cycle (story time!)

- Go async with online reading, batch articles with Pocket.

- Tab galore is bad (unclosed loops!), go minimal, less is more.

- An accountability partner increases your focus and therefore reduces distractions.

- Disable desktop notifications and uninstall distracting phone apps.

- When you work work, when you play play (again, control your phone use).

To seriously boost your productivity, gaining valuable hours back every single week, check out our dedicated course: https://pybitesproductivity.com

This week we talk with Patrick Groß, long time PyBites community member and lead developer of Karmabot, the bot that handles karma points and other tasks in the PyBites Slack Community.

We talk about how Patrick got into Python and how he really learned it, his switch from a university to a data analytics job and ... his overhaul of our early Karmabot prototype, turning it into the mature open source project it is today (thanks!)

You'll learn about the improvements Patrick made to Karmabot, integrating "Hypermodern Python" concepts, and some of the lessons he learned from contributing to open source overall (hint: both tech and soft skills were important!)

We hope this episode will inspire you to start (or continue) contributing to open source, it's a beautiful thing.

Karmabot project and Hypermodern Python series:
https://github.com/PyBites-Open-Source/karmabot
https://cjolowicz.github.io/posts/hypermodern-python-01-setup/

To reach out to Patrick:
https://twitter.com/patrick_grs
https://pybit.es/community 
(DM or #karmabot_dev channel ... actually while there let's give him some Karma, just type "@Patrick +++")

In this episode we have a chat about how setting realistic expectations in your day-to-day can make all the difference when it comes to frustration and stress.

We share a bunch of stories and situations to drive the point home.

Links to mentioned content:

- Podcast: Chris Voss on Negotiation
- Book: Indistractible by Nir Eyal
- Book: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates
- Book: Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown

Join our Community: https://pybit.es/community

This week we talk with another member of our PyBites community: Robin Beer.

He shares his coding journey, going from physicist to cloud software architect and co-founder of an energy startup.

Some takeaways from our conversation:

- Learning core Python and having a constant curious mindset gets you really far.

- You have to become comfortable stepping outside of your comfort zone, specially in a high-paced startup environment.

- How  his perception of Pythonic / quality code changed going from a coding physicist to a professional software architect.

- How Python gave him more fulfilment in life, even to the point of becoming a digital nomad :)

Reach out to Robin:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/R_E_Beer
- Our community: https://pybit.es/community

Stress comes from everywhere these days. It's become such a constant part of all of our lives and if we don't know how to acknowledge and deal with it, it can lead to all sorts of problems.

In this episode we share 5 Tips on how we deal with stress:

1. Take a step back and remove yourself from the situation. This is a tip we learned from the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
2. Use gratefulness to better handle "negative" feedback.
3. Learn to say no to protect your time and ensure you don't get overloaded with busy work. More on this in PyBites Podcast Episode 12.
4. "Take Weekends Off". Whatever your schedule happens to be, find dedicated time to take off. Guilt free relaxation time is 100% necessary for dealing with and reducing stress levels.
5. Analyse your situation and find something you can control. We give an example here of how we took control of our health with calorie counting. The same rule applies to finances - you control the budget!

What it all comes down to is mindset and productivity. We've distilled all of this and much more in our very own "Practical Productivity with PyBites" course. 

The framework and practical examples we have in place will get you back on track to achieving your goals and reduce your stress in the process.

Links:

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

PyBites Podcast Episode on "Saying No": https://www.pybitespodcast.com/1501156/7783030-012-how-to-say-no

Practical Productivity with PyBites course: https://pybit.es/productivity

Books we're reading:
Julian: Contagious
Bob: The Pragmatic Programmer and The Laws of Human Nature