the-journey-from-mediocrity-victoria-mothersill.json

{
  "description": "You read the docs, you did the learn to code exercises, you spent time in production. How do you know when you\u2019re good at this? We\u2019re programmers, so let\u2019s break it up into parts. Let\u2019s look at how we see ourselves, how our code performs, and how others see our code. Okay, now add, commit, push.\n\nIntro (1 minute):\n\nThe python community is filled with many people from many disciplines that learned python for all kinds of different reasons. Not all of us took computer science in university, not all of us learned to code when we were 8.\n\nI work in post-production for film, I\u2019ve been writing python every day at my job for two years now. When I started I was pretty rusty. I\u2019d taken a few courses in university, but hadn\u2019t written anything substantive for a couple of years. Getting good creeps up slowly. Your first day on the job you\u2019re not good, your second day, your third. But I look at myself now and I\u2019m writing full stack plugins. How did I get here? Am I good yet? How many grains of sand make a heap?\n\nThe Aha moments, from veteran pythonistas (3 minutes):\n\nFeaturing quotes from my interviews with veteran coders:\n\nTell me a story about when you sucked.\nWhat was the moment you knew you were getting kinda good at this thing?\nWhat do you look for in others when gaging their python competence?\nThe answers to these three questions will frame the rest of the talk. Question 1: talks about how you see yourself. Coding is hard and we all start out sucking, we keep seeing ourselves as beginner programmers long after our skills outstripe this. Question 2: how our code actually performs. When does your curiosity/excitement get stronger than your fear or uncertainty, when do you start seeing efficiencies outside the scope of what your instructed to do. Question 3: how others see your code. Make your code reader friendly and your code reviews will be nicer, your coffee will taste sweeter, your coworkers will stop hissing when they see you. Do future you a solid.\n\nHow you see yourself (1 minute):\n\nWorking with your impostor syndrome\n\nSome of it\u2019s in your head, some of it isn\u2019t\nMake smart friends. If you\u2019re the smartest person in the room, you\u2019re doing something wrong.\nEmbrace feeling dumb. Being wrong now is an opportunity to be right later. * Be wrong early, be wrong often, learn from mistakes.\nThe psychologist Carol Dweck talks about something called growth mindset. Don\u2019t be smart, do smart. Look for opportunities to grow yourself rather than being ego protective about your coding skills\nHow your code performs (2 minutes)\n\nAutomate your little tasks! Then automate more! (this will include a short example from production)\nWrite your own mandate! If something isn\u2019t strictly in your job description, but it will make your life easier, your team\u2019s life easier? Well just write that sucker. Psychologist Amy Wrzesniewski writes about how individuals with higher job satisfaction engage in what she calls \u201cjob crafting\u201d.\nHow others see your code (3 minutes):\n\nthree habits for leveling up, each of these will have short examples\n\nWrite documentation!\n\nDocstrings and descriptive variables. When you come back to something you wrote a year ago you\u2019re going to be happy your variables aren\u2019t called: var1, var2, var3.\nUse sphinx to auto-create documentation out of your docstrings! Get in the habit of this and you\u2019ll feel like a wizard!\nTesting! * I\u2019ll have a short example using PyTest\n\nPep-8!\n\nSure, formatting isn\u2019t the sexiest part of coding, but when you look back at your clean, pretty code, it can make you feel polished in a way nothing else can. Also, I mean, other people can read your work and stuff\u2026\n",
  "duration": 607,
  "language": "eng",
  "recorded": "2018-11-11",
  "relatd_urls": [
    {
      "label": "Talk page",
      "url": "https://2018.pycon.ca/talks/talk-PC-55513/"
    },
    {
      "label": "Author website",
      "url": "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6099613/"
    }
  ],
  "speakers": [
    "Victoria Mothersill"
  ],
  "thumbnail_url": "http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/krGwiTCPo4g/hqdefault.jpg",
  "title": "The Journey from Mediocrity: How to Stop Feeling Like a Beginner",
  "videos": [
    {
      "type": "youtube",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krGwiTCPo4g"
    }
  ]
}