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by everythingswan 1813 days ago
I'm a marketer tinkering with Python. Since Python is so versatile, lots of uses for a marketer like me. I started off with a few Coursera courses going over the basics (Programming 4 Everybody) and read the book with it.

Then I tinkered with some basic functions: how to strip a list of URLs for a specific Product ASIN, automating some Photoshop image creation, and searching a 10k row Excel doc for specific phrases. All were bad at first, but they worked eventually.

I then did the Automate the Boring Stuff course on Udemy, super fun and deepened my knowledge. Helped me improve some of the programs and start working on others. I started to work with the Facebook Ads API and Pandas to automate reporting. So fun. That program is just getting to the Excel/Sheets automation part which will save me a ton of time every week. I spend a solid amount of time manually analyzing data each week. If I can cut that down, it'll get me quicker insights so better for my clients.

Again, nothing works incredibly well but it all works. And all of them save me time going forward. Automating image files will save a team member 3-6 hours/month and reduced errors by probably 90% (And their stress. We've already used it for 2 months so that's reduced their stress level from the errors they made manually doing it).

I'm basically just carving out an hour a week at this point after shooting for 5+/week for the first 6 months. I might increase it if I slow down on client work or hit a blocker that needs more time.

I subscribe to Always Be Learning, since that is a cornerstone of my own well being, so there is no real goal. I figure if I have a system for it then I'll make progress. And everything I learn is really a bonus for myself, my clients, or any developers I work with.

There's no shortage of interesting ideas to pursue with it so that won't be a problem anytime soon.

2 comments

You’re probably in a good position to figure out a business idea.
Have you run into any challenges in learning Python?
I've had to relearn concepts 2-3x and deal with silly mistakes I made, rewriting some programs.

I know a little bit about databases so that gave me a good foundation to work with. If I was 18 and starting from scratch, some of those concepts may have taken longer to learn.

Other than that, pretty awesome. I went in thinking that I would need a few hundred hours of work before I would feel comfortable and I think that was about right. So I just enjoyed it along the way!