Ask HN: I'm looking for a Python mentor

12 pointsOpenAlgorithm14y ago6 comments

I have been learning to program for a couple of months outside school using some great online resources including MIT Open CourseWare and the O'Reilly School's Python course.

I have a ton of ideas for small and large apps and programs that I would like to develop.

While the current courses and tutorials are excellent, I feel that I need more specific and advanced skills for the programs I am creating and I would also like to fast track my Python learning.

Therefore I am looking for a Python expert (it would be nice but not required if they had some knowledge around data retrieval and Django) that could help mentor me and fast-track my learning.

Basically I am looking for somebody who could answer my questions via email/Skype and point me in the right direction from time to time.

The amount of help would of course be down to the individual mentor's time constraints.

While I'm not be any means an advanced programmer yet, I would be willing to work extremely hard at improving my skills and of course also give something back to my mentor.

I'm not sure what as a mentor you would like in return for your time, but I would be willing to program for you (when I am at a sufficiently advanced level), offer some cash, give you equity in individual projects or all projects created over the time you mentor me or SEO services.

I am currently doing part-time work as an SEO for a couple of companies and the main reason for learning to program is to make possible my project to disrupt the SEO industry (see: www.theopenalgorithm.com for basic details).

If this sounds like something you would be interested in please contact me at mark@theopenalgorithm.com or feel free to reply here with any questions you may have.

Thanks in advance for your help.

6 comments

noahc14y ago

Have you considered using stack overflow? It's a great way to have access to mentors and people to help you and if you're working in a particular domain, you will have experts to help you. With one single mentor you're stuck with only what they know.

OpenAlgorithmOP14y ago

Thanks for your advice, yes I have asked questions on Stack Overflow and found the response to be excellent, and I plan to use it in the future.

But with a mentor you can ask more general questions, whereas with SO it tends to be more code/error specific.

projectileboy14y ago

If you're learning to program from scratch, you really need to start with Zed Shaw's "Learn Python the Hard Way" http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/ . This is going to be much better for you than the MIT and the O'Reilly stuff.

OpenAlgorithmOP14y ago

Great, thanks for your advice, it looks like a great book with lots of top exercises.

clojurerocks14y ago

Ive been working with python/django for about 6 months now so i wouldnt call myself an expert but i understand where youre coming from and im willing to help you out. How best to contact you?

OpenAlgorithmOP14y ago

Thanks, mark@theopenalgorithm.com, send your profile links.

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