Looking back over some the items I have been trying to learn, I have decided to narrow my focus. It has been getting waaaaay too broad. Primarily, I am cutting out data analytics and Docker for now. I need to figure out how to use the current tools well before jumping in to specialty items using those tools that require a whole new skillset.

With that in mind, it is with almost a great honor, I can say I have finished the Complete Python & PostgreSQL Developer Course on Udemy! I say “almost” because I intentionally skipped over a section, but we’ll get to that in a minute. First, let’s highlight the positives.

This course covered a lot – list comprehension, PyCharm, reading and writing to files, JSON, Postgres, API access, Connection Pool, Flask, Git and more… Most of which I understood as I progressed. The more I learn development, understanding and the ability to manipulate and apply is more important than sheer memorization.

At times, the instructor does seem to move too fast. Pausing and rewinding the video to catch what just happened on screen is a common occurrence. Even after being done, I will have to go back and revisit some concepts to make sure they stick, and figure out/modify some things that I feel will be more practical.

Now to explain why I skipped some items… They were in the “Data Structures and Algorithms” section. He is trying to teach us about Linked Lists, Queues, Stacks, and Binary Trees. I understand the concepts, but could not wrap my head around the usefulness… Especially since this (queue at least…) already exists in Python… (I did not check for the existence of the others. I “created” something like a linked list in Swift for practice, but the implementation was a bit different, and was not reliant on actual linkage.) I comprehend introducing the concept and understanding how it works. But for a beginner class, I think redesigning the wheel might be a little much instead of learning HOW to use the wheel. (I will probably look back on this in a few months and want to slap myself silly.)