Episode 104: What We're Reading

Teaching Python

In episode 104 of the Teaching Python podcast, Kelly and Sean discuss their wins of the week and announce they are co-chairing the PyCon US Education Summit in April 2023. The episode features a segment on book recommendations, where Kelly and Sean share some of their recent reads that they found particularly useful for Python programmers.

One of the recommended books is "The Missing ReadMe" which is a guide for new engineers to understand and navigate open-source projects. Another book recommended is "Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence" which is a comprehensive introduction to the field of artificial intelligence and its underlying algorithms and techniques. They also recommend "Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps" which is a practical guide with industry data about the benefits of DevOps. "Fluent Python" is another book they recommend which is a guide to writing better and more idiomatic Python code. Finally, they recommend the new edition of "Python Crash Course" by Eric Matthes which is a fast-paced, thorough introduction to Python programming for beginners.

It's a great episode for anyone who is interested in learning more about the Python programming language, and the PyCon Education Summit, as well as reading some great books on the topic. The episode is available on the Teaching Python podcast website, and the links to the books can also be found there.

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Links:

• Amazon.com: Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals eBook : Knaflic, Cole Nussbaumer: Kindle Store — Storytelling with Data teaches you the fundamentals of data visualization and how to communicate effectively with data. You'll discover the power of storytelling and the way to make data a pivotal point in your story.
• How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter about Visual Information , Cairo, Alberto - Amazon.com — Today, public conversations are increasingly driven by numbers. While charts, infographics, and diagrams can make us smarter, they can also deceive—intentionally or unintentionally. To be informed citizens, we must all be able to decode and use the visual information that politicians, journalists, and even our employers present us with each day. Demystifying an essential new literacy for our data-driven world, How Charts Lie examines contemporary examples ranging from election result infographics to global GDP maps and box office record charts, as well as an updated afterword on the graphics of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Amazon.com: Truthful Art, The: Data, Charts, and Maps for Communication (Voices That Matter) eBook : Cairo, Alberto: Books — Every day, at work, home, and school, we are bombarded with vast amounts of free data collected and shared by everyone and everything from our co-workers to our calorie counters. In this highly anticipated follow-up to The Functional Art—Alberto Cairo’s foundational guide to understanding information graphics and visualization—the respected data visualization professor explains in clear terms how to work with data, discover the stories hidden within, and share those stories with the world in the form of charts, maps, and infographics.
• Functional Art, The: An introduction to information graphics and visualization (Voices That Matter) 1, Cairo, Alberto, eBook - Amazon.com — Unlike any time before in our lives, we have access to vast amounts of free information. With the right tools, we can start to make sense of all this data to see patterns and trends that would otherwise be invisible to us. By transforming numbers into graphical shapes, we allow readers to understand the stories those numbers hide. In this practical introduction to understanding and using information graphics, you’ll learn how to use data visualizations as tools to see beyond lists of numbers and variables and achieve new insights into the complex world around us.
• The Missing README: A Guide for the New Software Engineer , Riccomini, Chris, Ryaboy, Dmitriy, eBook - Amazon.com — Key concepts and best practices for new software engineers — stuff critical to your workplace success that you weren’t taught in school.
• Amazon.com: Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence: Volume 1 (Introduction to Artificial Intelligence) eBook : Talagala, Nisha, Ghanta, Sindhu: Kindle Store — This book is for K12 students who want to learn AI, for teachers who want to teach AI and bring AI into the classroom, and for any individual who wants to understand AI in a simple and effective way.
• Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations 1, Forsgren PhD, Nicole, Humble, Jez, Kim, Gene, eBook - Amazon.com — How can we apply technology to drive business value? For years, we've been told that the performance of software delivery teams doesn't matter―that it can't provide a competitive advantage to our companies. Through four years of groundbreaking research to include data collected from the State of DevOps reports conducted with Puppet, Dr. Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim set out to find a way to measure software delivery performance―and what drives it―using rigorous statistical methods. This book presents both the findings and the science behind that research, making the information accessible for readers to apply in their own organizations.
• Amazon.com: Leading with AI and Analytics: Build Your Data Science IQ to Drive Business Value eBook : Anderson, Eric, Zettelmeyer, Florian: Kindle Store — Data. It’s the benchmark that informs corporate projections, decision-making, and analysis. But, why do many organizations that see themselves as data-driven fail to thrive? In Leading with AI and Analytics, two renowned experts from the Kellogg School of Management show business leaders how to transform their organization to become evidence-driven, which leads to real, measurable changes that can help propel their companies to the top of their industries.
• Fluent Python 2, Ramalho, Luciano, eBook - Amazon.com — Don't waste time bending Python to fit patterns you've learned in other languages. Python's simplicity lets you become productive quickly, but often this means you aren't using everything the language has to offer. With the updated edition of this hands-on guide, you'll learn how to write effective, modern Python 3 code by leveraging its best ideas.
• Amazon.com: Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life eBook : Kwik, Jim: Kindle Store — JIM KWIK, the world's #1 brain coach, has written the owner's manual for mental expansion and brain fitness. Limitless gives people the ability to accomplish more--more productivity, more transformation, more personal success, and business achievement, by changing their Mindset, Motivation, and Methods.
• Python Crash Course, 3rd Edition: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming , Matthes, Eric, eBook - Amazon.com — Python Crash Course is the world’s best-selling guide to the Python programming language. This fast-paced, thorough introduction will have you writing programs, solving problems, and developing functioning applications in no time.
• The Book of Dash: Build Dashboards with Python and Plotly , Schroeder, Adam, Mayer, Christian, Ward, Ann Marie, eBook - Amazon.com — A swift and practical introduction to building interactive data visualization apps in Python, known as dashboards. You’ve seen dashboards before; think election result visualizations you can update in real time, or population maps you can filter by demographic. With the Python Dash library you’ll create analytic dashboards that present data in effective, usable, elegant ways in just a few lines of code.