I launched a weekly Python skill-building service earlier this year called Python Morsels. This week I’m running my first sale, which will also likely be the biggest sale that I run on Python Morsels for the foreseeable future (I don’t want to say forever, but probably forever).
If you’re an experienced programmer and you feel like your Python code could be more Pythonic, Python Morsels is for you.
Before I jump into details, let me explain what Python Morsels is.
The inspiration
I do on-site Python training for teams, which means I work with a lot of developers at a lot of companies. One question I hear all the time is “how can I make my code more Pythonic”?
Most of the folks I teach are not new to programming and they’re usually not new to Python either, but they also aren’t experienced at leveraging the features and idioms that make Python unique. Being a skilled programmer isn’t the same as being a skilled Python programmer
Late last year this conundrum inspired me to create Python Morsels.
Learning by doing
My training courses and workshops are exercise-driven and I find an exercise-heavy style of teaching very effective.
You don’t learn by putting information into your head, you learn by trying to retrieve information from your head. You can watch talks and read books and read code, but you’ll absorb very little unless you apply what you’ve learned. You learn by doing, which means writing Python code.
That’s why Python Morsels is entirely about writing code and reflecting on the code you’ve written.
Python Morsels: exercise-driven learning
After you sign up for Python Morsels I’ll send you one exercise every week. Not an interview questions: a realistic Python exercise inspired by the interesting problems I’ve had to solve in the past. The purpose of these exercises is to inspire you to learn something new about Python each week.
Each exercise includes a number of bonuses so you can choose your own difficulty level. All exercises also include automated tests so you can test your code quickly. After you’ve solved the exercise I’ll send you a number of different solutions to the problem with a discussion about why we might choose one solution over another. These solutions are meant to help you reconsider the way you write your code.
While solving the bonuses is important, the more important thing is that you get into the habit of time-boxed weekly learning. You want to spend your time effectively and the best way to do that is to form a learning habit and time box that habit. I suggest that you dedicate 30 minutes every week to solving the exercise, regardless of the difficulty level you choose, as well as 30 minutes to reflecting on the solutions email I send you.
So how much is this sale for?
Python Morsels normally costs $16/month (or $160/year on the annual plan).
From now until Monday I’m offering a 40% discount off the annual plan, which means you’ll get 52 weeks of Python skill-building for $96. That’s effectively $8/month or a 50% discount when compared to the monthly subscription.
I say “52 weeks” instead of 1 year because Python Morsels subscriptions can be “paused” at any time, which allows for breaks during vacations and busy periods and ensures you’ll get all of the 52 weeks you signed up for.
To take advantage of this discount you’ll need to sign up for Python Morsels, verify your email address, go to the Account page, and click the Subscribe button for the 52 Week Plan. The BLACKFRIDAY discount code should be automatically applied from now until the end of the sale on Monday.
Money back guarantee
This is the first sale I’ve ever held so I’m not sure whether it’s common to offer a guarantee on sales, but I’m going to do it for this one because I’m pretty confident in what I’m offering.
If you contact me with concerns but I can’t find something that works for your needs, I’ll send you a full refund. I want you to improve your Python skills, but I don’t want you signing up for something that isn’t for you. If you end up signing up for Python Morsels and you don’t improve your Python skills because of it, you deserve a refund because I’ve wasted your time.
What do the first 52 weeks of Python Morsels exercises cover?
Python Morsels starts small, but the exercises increase in difficulty over time. The first 52 weeks of Python exercises will wander into a lot of interesting topics.
Within one year we’ll:
- work with and create our own iterators (both generators and iterator classes)
- make text-parsing programs and command-line programs
- talk a lot about readability and code style
- dive into a number of the built-ins and standard library modules
- use operator overloading to make classes that support arithmetic
- create our context managers
- create our own decorators
- use properties and descriptors and even make our own descriptor
- create custom collections (mappings, sequences, strings, sets, etc.)
Haven’t made a descriptor before? By this time next year you will have!
The sale ends on Monday
This sale will ends on Monday November 26, end of day.
To get an effective 50% discount on Python Morsels over the next 52 weeks, sign up to Python Morsels, verify your email, go to the Account page, and subscribe to the 52 Week Plan.
Share this sale with friends and family
If you have a friend or colleague who might benefit from weekly Python practice, let them know about this sale! The BLACKFRIDAY coupon expires on Monday, but there’s no limit on the number of signups, so there’s no reason to keep this sale a secret.
So please share this email or the discount code with anyone you know who might find value in 52 weeks of Python skill-building.
Frequently Asked Questions
These are questions that I’ve been asked at least once (that’s apparently what “frequently” means now).
Is this for someone who is brand new to programming?
No, it isn’t. Python Morsels is for someone who has been using Python for a while and wants to improve their Python coding practices. Many of the folks currently signed up write primarily Python code, but have a background in at least one other programming language. However, there are a handful of folks who are signed up who would call Python their first and only programming language and I do try to accommodate folks in that camp as much as I can.
In general, I recommend Python Morsels for folks who are currently writing Python code regularly.
How is Python Morsels different from a Python course?
During my on-site trainings I’m present as a live instructor and coach. That’s something you won’t get from Python Morsels. During online courses there are videos explaining each topic before it’s practiced. Python Morsels also doesn’t have that.
The focus of Python Morsels is a bit different than a course or a training. If you think of Python course as like taking a tennis class, Python Morsels is more like weekly tennis practice. A Python Morsels subscriber described it to me as like Hannon’s finger exercises for piano or Kreutzer’s études for violin. Python Morsels is guided deliberate practice in the domain of writing readable and maintainable Python code.
How much time does this require each week?
I expect that you’ll spend about an hour each week on Python Morsels in total.
You’re a busy person who has production code to write and I don’t want to waste your time. The exercise includes bonuses, but I don’t expect you to solve them all each week: instead I want you to time box yourself. I recommend that you set aside 30 minutes to solve the problem each week, including running the tests and solving as many bonuses as you can. I’d also like you to set aside 30 minutes to reflect on your code while reading the solution email I send each week. I often link to related resources to read/watch, but I’d like you to bookmark those for later.
If you have more than one hour to devote each week, you could sit on the solutions for a couple days and then resolve the exercise without looking at the solutions email. I don’t expect this though.
What if the exercises are too easy for me and I don’t learn anything new?
If you find the exercises are too easy, email me and I’ll see what I can do. I’ve developed quite a few exercises over the last year and I may be able to work with you to ensure the exercises you get are a good fit for your experience level. If it turns out that Python Morsels simply isn’t for you, I’ll refund you.
What if the exercises suddenly get too hard for me?
If the exercises turn out to be too challenging for you, either immediately or eventually, email me. I plan to create some easier tracks for Python Morsels eventually (there’s certainly demand for this) and I may have some suitable exercises to send to you. If Python Morsels doesn’t suit your needs and I can’t easily fix the problem, I’ll send you a refund.
Ready to start a weekly skill-building habit?
Are you ready to start 52 weeks of Python skill-building for $96 (normally $192)? That’s less than $2/week and about one hour of your time each week (which really is the bigger cost here).
If you have questions that I didn’t address above, please email me and say what you’re thinking/feeling.
If you’re interested in seeing the opinion of someone who has worked through Python Morsels exercises, see the testimonials on the homepage or take a look at what some of my Python Morsels friends have said about it on Twitter (Andrew Pinkham, Pavel Anni, Jason Wattier, Ben Jones).
Ready to sign up? Click here to get 52 weeks of Python Morsels at 50% off.
