front matter
We marvel at the modern creations of very experienced software developers. Instagram is a polished and beautiful experience, whereas YouTube dwarfs even the largest television audiences, and it still feels like you’re the only user on the system. Both YouTube and Instagram have Python at their core.
When you first get started in programming, it’s easy to look at the challenge ahead and see a towering mountain. Fortunately, you don’t have to climb a mountain in a single bound, just as you don’t have to become a confident Python developer all at once. Software development does not require you to be a genius. You don’t need to be a mathematical wiz. Becoming a good software developer requires a strong sense of curiosity and a lot of persistence.
You don’t have to take my word for it. Guido van Rossum, the inventor of Python, was interviewed for the Sing for Science podcast:
Guido: That’s correct. Some sort of an inclination towards logical thinking and an attention to details is much more important than math.
So if programming is not centered on math, then what do you need to be successful? You need thousands of small and understandable building blocks. Like climbing a mountain with many small steps and lots of persistence, you build YouTube by solving thousands of small and easily understandable computer problems with a few lines of understandable code.