I’ve been studying Python for the past months (and documenting my journey on Twitter with the hashtag #LukeLearnsPython). Another blerd who has taken up the programming language is self-taught front end developer, content creator and speaker, Tae’lur Alexis.
While I’m not a dev, I saw some parallels in our respective coding/tech journey. Last month, Tae’lur wrote an article on her website about how she got her first dev job without a formal qualification. She discussed her background, having grown up on the west coast of America:
Without diving too deep into my background, I am 23 years old and was born and raised in Southern California. I’m the first in my family to graduate high school. I dropped out of college my freshman year and ended up without direction or a sense of purpose. I started working as a cashier at places like Macys and Kohls. I felt like an embarrassment, not because I was working retail but because people around me had set expectations for me to be an overachieving college student. I didn’t have a passion for years.
An excerpt from Tae’lur’s post, How I Landed My First Web Developer Role Without A Degree or Bootcamp: Lessons Learned, Resources & Tips
Now, Tae’lur is a freelance web developer with specialisms in HTML, CSS, Git, and JavaScript. But rather than rest on her laurels, she decided to learn Python and do so live on Twitch. But why Python?
I am seeking to better myself as an engineer, the languages I choose to explore and learn aren’t really important. What I do like about Python is that the syntax is very human-like and simplistic which makes learning a bit more enjoyable.
An excerpt from Tae’lur’s Twitch bio
I wholeheartedly agree about Python’s logical and simplistic syntax and that helped me get into the language too.
Tae’lur learns using one of Codecademy’s many Python courses and livestreams her coding exercises. Her reason for this is so viewers can “ultimately see her struggle as she understands concepts and sees how her brain works and how she is able to process information, as that may help others as well.”
What I like the most about her Twitch streams is they feel like community gatherings. She learns out loud, which can be a scary thing to do for most people, and viewers (including myself) chip in with help where necessary, without making the learning process about them. It’s also very comforting to listen to thanks to the most relaxing beats she plays in the background, and for the fact that it’s a black female developer, a demographic often overlooked.
But her coding journey doesn’t end there. Tae’lur also plans to learn Go and C/C++ in the future, both important and interesting languages for the present and future of tech. I look forward to watching those livestreams when they happen.
In the meantime, I encourage you to follow and subscribe to Tae’lur Alexis’s Twitch channel, follow her on Twitter and learn Python along with her. Black coders unite!
Tae’lur’s Twitch schedule
- Sunday: Off
- Monday: 3pm EST – 7pm
- Tuesday: 3pm EST – 7pm
- Wednesday: Off
- Thursday: 3pm EST – 7 pm
- Friday: 3pm EST – 7pm
- Saturday: 3pm EST – 7pm