Pybites Podcast

In this episode we talk about shipping your code and why it is important to get code out there fast, because it's where part of the learning / feedback loop happens. We hope the main takeaway from this episode will be that you shouldn't sit on code. Get it out there, and make it better in conjunction with the real world and people using your software. This iterative process is also one of the things that is fascinating about the development process!We take a recent feature we built and some of the issues we faced, a nice real world example.Here is our mentioned PyBites Books app. You can try out the Goodreads import feature here.And please help us grow our PyBites YouTube channel, check it out here - thanks!Books mentioned:Julian: Coraline Bob: s/read/code/g :)Shout-out to Roller and Mike for getting us on EffortlessJoin our Slack Community here.Book your free Python career assessment call here.To work with us 1:1 joining our amazing PDM community, check out our coaching program.Thanks for listening and we're back next week!

This week we have a very special guest on the podcast, our mate, Anthony Shaw.There are so many things we discuss in this episode but we essentially discuss his career path, his switch from a managerial to a software dev / advocate role at Microsoft and, his process for writing his book, CPython Internals. Most importantly though, we dive into the mindset involved with every one of these endeavours.Thanks so much to Anthony for joining us and having such a deep and raw chat about his experiences. We couldn't be more grateful!Some of the valuable takeaways:Getting a tech job? Make sure you interview them too!You can actually wear many hats (more than you might think) in a big company.How to keep your tech skills up if your main role is not that of a developer?Finding the balance between individual contributor and manager, is there even one?Sometimes you have to take chances to find out what you really like doing the most.How getting out there / sharing knowledge is one of the best things you can do in your career.Dealing with impostor syndrome, especially if you're up to a massive technical endeavour with little prior reference materials.How do you break down such a big endeavour, where to even start? How to approach it?We talk about how to effectively learn a programming language / technical topics (no more tutorial paralysis / embrace reinforcement learning).Specific methodologies Anthony used to really learn the CPython internals.How to overcome decision fatigue.And more...As you can see this episode is jam-packed with things that are dear to us developers.You can reach out to Anthony here:https://twitter.com/anthonypjshawhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonypshaw/https://pybit.es/community (our Slack channel)Every serious Python developer should get a copy of his book:https://realpython.com/products/cpython-internals-book/

In this special Bonus episode, Julian dives into the story Ryan Austin tells in Episode #037. Not being part of the episode himself, he was so inspired listening to it he had to break down the lessons he took away from it and share them with you all.It's quick and packed full of inspiration. Enjoy!

Grab a coffee and sit down for this week's episode and guest!Ryan Austin is a client in our PDM Coaching Program and always brings a wealth of knowledge to our conversations.This week he joins Bob for a deep and inspirational conversation about Entrepreneurialism and the Mindset it takes to follow your dreams.Having done what many of us only dream of doing, Ryan shares some deep and personal details on how he quit his 9-5 job and is now living his dream as a business owner and giving back by helping kids learn Python.We hope Ryan's story inspires you to take your leap and chase your dreams down too!Book mentioned: Skin in the GameYou can find Ryan on Twitter and in our PyBites Community.

In today's episode I interview Julian about one of his favorite topics: communication skills.We talk about why those skills are so important and beneficial, challenges in current COVID-19 and lockdown times, and communication tips for the increasingly remote and virtual ways of working.Mentioned quote: "Communication - the human connection - is the key to personal and career success." - Paul J. MeyerMentioned books we're reading:- The Whole-Brain Child- The Self-Driven Child(You can track your reading (even be gamified) using our books app.)More from PyBites:- Join our Slack Community.- Get weekly valuable Python, career and mindset content via our Friends List.- Code more Python on our platform.- Need some more intensive help building apps 1:1 with us? Check out our coaching.

We're doing it differently this week! Even though Bob was on holidays last week, he jumped on to have a chat... so naturally Julian quizzes him on the benefits of taking a break!The underlying message / takeaway: Take a long break and make sure you actually switch off, unwind and recharge so you come back ready to kick goals.This is a pretty casual chat so grab a coffee (or beer), sit back and enjoy the conversation!Mentioned books:The Laws of Human NatureEmotional IntelligenceArtificial Intelligence (thanks Mirela!)Search Inside Yourself

This week we speak with Gabriel Simões about his career journey, particularly how he worked his way up from chef to support engineer to software test engineer.As usual, mindset played a big part in him succeeding in this journey and in this episode you will get some valuable career advice how you can achieve this too. Enjoy this inspiring story.Gabriel's career article: How I made my move into software test engineeringBooks mentioned:- Introducing Software Testing- The C Programming LanguageReach out to Gabriel: homepage, Twitter, PyBites Community.

This week we have Mirela Tulbure on the show to talk about her work, mindset and books.Mirela is a geospatial scientist using terabytes of satellite data to quantify environmental change, particularly flooding.She is deeply passionate about research that has a societal impact.In this episode Mirela shares with us:- Some of the tech she is using to conduct and automate her research (DS libraries and cloud infrastructure).- Some of the challenges around scalability / portability of the (supervised) ML/ DL models and getting access to labeled image data.- The impact of flooding and how she has grown her career in this field of research.- Practical tips to stay productive and continuously grow every day.- How a growth mindset has really helped her in her career and life.- How to read more and retain more of what you read.- How she motivates her students / fellow researchers adding books + mindset lessons in her teaching / mentoring.- Favorite books.Enjoy this episode, it’s chuck-full of practical tips and advice you can implement today.You can reach out to Mirela on Twitter or the PyBites Slack.Check out Mirela’s favorite books list here.Other links:- PyBites productivity course- PDM coaching program- Coded Bias Netflix documentary

We started reading Dare to Lead which starts with a great quote from Roosevelt:"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."It really pays off to be the person that has been in the trenches, that gets their hands dirty.It makes you an effective leader, it earns you trust and makes you well-rounded (as per our motto: we create well-rounded developers).As usual we share some stories of our own:- Julian had a manager with exceptional technical skills and not shying away from getting his hands dirty, he really formed an inspiration of how to lead by example.- Bob's story revolves around his pivot from software developer into coach (of our clients) and how getting knee deep into the code with them is so valuable for their further progression as developers, their working relation, but also for Bob's own growth.So think about how you can lead by example, get into the arena and be willing to fail because remember: without failure there is no growth!For career advice and in order to take your Python and developer skills to the next level, book us in for a call, we love to help you! Books mentioned:- Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.- Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language- Principles: Life and Work

This week we talk about the Sunk cost bias, also been called the "Concorde fallacy" when the UK and French governments took their past expenses on the costly supersonic jet as a rationale for continuing the project, as opposed to cutting their losses (source: Wikipedia).As you'll see we encounter it in every part of your life including coding and career.We talk about various concrete examples:- Standing in a line for too long making yourself "stand it out" because you already lost too much time. Julian fixed this the other day by setting a deadline when to cut his losses.- Keep investing in a complicated (sub optimal) programming language while there are better ones (e.g. Python!)- Investing more effort in a software solution with a sub optimal design. The Zen of Python offers a good criteria here: "If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea". Sometimes you need to heavily refactor, taking one step back to be able to move two steps forward.- It also happens in one's job, by staying into a comfortable yet underappreciated role knowing you can do better elsewhere, yet you hope one day the situation will (magically) improve.- Another good example of the sunk cost fallacy is "having to finish books", the self imposed pressure of having to read books cover to cover even if you don't like them.- And our last example is around investing, the difficulty of cutting one's losses when money has been already invested. Ego and social pressure make this even harder.Book about cognitive biases: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.CTA: take note of what is going on in your life, where your time / money / effort are going, then ask yourself if you are getting the results you want? Is it time to cut losses and move on?And if you see a sunk cost in your Python career, maybe it's time to hop on a strategy session with us or hit us up on Slack.