Learning to programme as a Product Manager (part 2)

I'm learning Python - a programming language - to build my technical skills. I chose Python because it's often considered one of the easier languages to learn and is a little more readable then JavaScript along with being multi-purpose. We also have Python in our tech stack at work.

I've now completed CS50's Introduction to Programming with Python course and wanted to share my final thoughts.

CS50P's 2nd half #

The course went deeper into Python, and programming, introducing topics such as:

• Testing
• File Input/Output (Read/Write)
• Regular Expressions (regex)
• Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
• Et Cetera

The problems were challenging but once again do-able for a total beginner like me. A bit like libraries I can see the benefit of writing files, and OOP introduces a different paradigm of programming not just a python language feature, so the course goes from procedural to OOP by introducing Classes - a mould for types of data simulating a real object. Testing is arguably the most important topic covered here (every developers favourite 😄) and with regex the most practical to me in a work context.

Final project #

The course wraps up with the final project. This is a much larger problem where you have more license to make your own programme within certain constraints.

I've now added a link from my Side Projects area to a page with all the details of my final project including a video demo.

The Elephant in the room #

Why learn to programme when AI can build it

Gen AI is only just getting started, it's already letting people like me build stuff, which is cool. But unless you're a developer using AI there's a lot of trust you've got to place in the code if you don't know what's it's doing. I'm an inquisitive person who likes to understand how things work, this doesn't mean I need to be a tech lead, but I want to know enough to make me question if something isn't right.

In my experience, Gen AI can't yet make a product without developers, no matter how many prompts. It can give you a quick prototype but to scale you need experts. Prompt engineering will be a skill, there's skill in thinking logically (back to the Steve Jobs quote from part 1), even a no / low code tool such as Bubble requires logical thinking - it's visual programming.

Gen AI will get better, and maybe folk like me who want to understand the how will get left behind. On the flip side, Gen AI is a useful companion to support hobbyist developers who can't ping a DM to a dev. AI has masterful recall of languages and is getting better at explaining things. Where AI adds most value to me is it saves me time trawling the internet for answers to my problems (check sources!).

Wrap up #

That's my full time report into learning programming with Python. I ended part 1 by saying:

If you're reading this and still aren't sure if you should learn a programming language, just do it, you've got nothing to lose and skills to gain!

Learning new skills gets harder when you get older and life gets in the way, but after finishing the course I'd echo it even more strongly, I'm better at my job, I can teach my daughter when she's older, and it teaches you how to think 🧠

Thanks for reading 🤙