Understanding Python Decorators and Dunder Methods

In this ep, we chat with Rodrigo Girão Serrão about his journey from mathematician to Pythonista. What started as a colleague’s tip turned into 11 years of Python exploration. Rodrigo shares how his background in APL reshaped the way he writes Python, helping him embrace list comprehensions and functional patterns more intuitively.

We dig into his latest side project—a bytecode compiler written in Python—and what that reveals about how Python really works under the hood. Rodrigo unpacks dunder methods, decorators, and how Python’s consistent design makes building elegant, expressive code a joy.

He also shares great advice on giving talks: from deep diving into topics to letting ideas evolve before structuring a presentation. His love for community and clarity in coding is contagious.

Whether you're new to Python or a seasoned dev, this conversation will give you a deeper appreciation for the language we all love.

Connect with Rodrigo on socials:

Github: https://github.com/rodrigogiraoserrao

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodrigo-gir%C3%A3o-serr%C3%A3o/

Check our these links for some further reading/viewing:

RP podcast: https://realpython.com/podcasts/rpp/252/

The categorisation of the module itertools: https://mathspp.com/blog/module-itertools-overview

A tutorial on decorators: https://mathspp.com/blog/pydonts/decorators

An article about dunder methods: https://mathspp.com/blog/pydonts/dunder-methods

Why APL is a language worth knowing (article): https://mathspp.com/blog/why-apl-is-a-language-worth-knowing

How APL made me a better Python developer (talk/video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDy-to9fgaw

The series of articles with the compiler/interpreter: https://mathspp.com/blog/tags/bpci

A tutorial is not a long talk: https://mathspp.com/blog/a-tutorial-is-not-a-long-talk

How I prepare a technical talk: https://mathspp.com/blog/how-i-prepare-a-technical-talk 

Structural pattern matching: https://peps.python.org/pep-0636/ 

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