I finished Module 3 of learning Python with the intention of using it with AI. Today's lesson included some steps we missed on floating numbers and tuples. The we moved on to While loops. The big lesson today was importing libraries. Specifically, we imported NumPy and Pandas. These are packages that are built for working with data.
Speed Bumps
The installation process was not smooth. I was not able to install the packages in my remote shell account as I don't have admin privileges. Although I might have been able to install the packages at the user level, it didn't work. So I had to install them locally on my own computer. But even that wasn't straightforward. The installation required setting up a virtual environment to avoid monkeying around with the system's version of Python.
Upcoming Lessons
The upcoming lessons will be actually using NumPy and Pandas. These are core data science libraries. From there, we move to data visualization, which will include another library, Matplotlib. Finally, I'll end up dipping my toes into Machine Learning with the scikit-learn library to build a simple machine learning model. At this level, it's more conceptual. I am still completely unprepared to start any serious programming. But I will know how the pieces fit together so that I could, if necessary, Forrest Gump my way into making something.
Once this little course is over, I will need to fill in the gaps. I mentioned previously that I still don't know how to use git or github. If I'm going to build a project portfolio, these would be essential. And one hurdle ahead of me is the lack of problems to solve with my newfound knowledge. I'm not sufficiently annoyed with anything that could be resolved with Python. I might need to finally sit down to read Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, 2nd Edition: Practical Programming for Total Beginners. (affiliate link) Perhaps there are some ideas in that book.
