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David Beazley – Programming Courses

dabeaz.com

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Re: David Beazley – Programming Courses

#21

Post by zelphirkalt »

globular-toast wrote: post #20
santiagobasulto wrote: post #14

David's talks at PyCon are all amazing. My favorite is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCs5OvhV9S4 Funny enough, a few months ago we decided to start a new project and we chose async Python. I had no clue how'd work so I decided to read the PEP and learn a bit more. Big was my surprise when I realized I "knew" all the fundamentals just by understanding how coroutines and generators worked low level, thanks…

My favourite is lambda calculus in Python. It's something to save for a rainy day and follow along with. Great fun and really enlightening.

Sounds like one of the things where Python's broken/stunted lambdas would really hurt.

Re: David Beazley – Programming Courses

#22

Post by pjmlp »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #21
globular-toast wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favourite is lambda calculus in Python. It's something to save for a rainy day and follow along with. Great fun and really enlightening.

Sounds like one of the things where Python's broken/stunted lambdas would really hurt.

Agreed, although expressions and intertools can be a workaround.

Re: David Beazley – Programming Courses

#23

Post by potro »

Very sad. I never took his courses, for various reasons, but having something like this as an option available was quite inspiring in my never ending quest to become a better software engineer.

I wish David the best with his new teaching direction. And I hope David will find a practical way to make these courses available for self-study.

Re: David Beazley – Programming Courses

#24

Post by jdw64 »

rossant wrote: post #16
g42gregory wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not think this is actually AI: currently, there is a narrative (gradually dying out) that AI will replace software engineers and you don't need CS/Software Engineering education as a result. It's the "leaders" who listen to this. Will change back in 12 - 24 months.

That's one way to see it. Can't we also imagine that more and more people now rely on AI rather than humans to learn programming (or more accurately learn vibe-coding)?

Your perspective is valid, but personally, I think humans will do better in this area.

The reason is simple: AI only gives you the information it deems necessary and semantically related to your prompt. But humans don't just dig into local details—they give you a broader map. That's what a curriculum does, in a sense.

In that regard, I think human education will shift toward cultivating macro-level insight and perspective.

p.s I'm really amazed that you're the author of the IPython Cookbook. I found that book incredibly useful. The fact that I was able to work as an assistant to data scientists was also based on what I learned from that book. I'm personally a fan of yours, so it's surprising to see you here

Re: David Beazley – Programming Courses

#25

Post by adrianh »

I took Dave’s “Write a compiler” course several years ago, and it was mind-blowing in the absolute best sense of the term. What a great teacher and person.

Programmers are worse off for his retirement, but (given his career change) Chicago-area high school kids are in for a real treat.

Re: David Beazley – Programming Courses

#26

Post by agumonkey »

santiagobasulto wrote: post #14

David's talks at PyCon are all amazing. My favorite is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCs5OvhV9S4 Funny enough, a few months ago we decided to start a new project and we chose async Python. I had no clue how'd work so I decided to read the PEP and learn a bit more. Big was my surprise when I realized I "knew" all the fundamentals just by understanding how coroutines and generators worked low level, thanks…

he has a way to make it lean and engaging that is very sweet

Re: David Beazley – Programming Courses

#27

Post by cantdutchthis »

Noticed a similar thing with calmcode.io, the numbers don't lie. At the same time though, the setup of that site is so light/cheap that it remains zero effort to just keep the tutorials up.

In hindsight, I am _very_ happy that I never made that project into a main source of income.

Re: David Beazley – Programming Courses

#29

Post by i_am_proteus »

pokstad wrote: post #12
Exoristos wrote: post #5

"It's sad, but true. The courses that I used to offer here have to come to end. ... Honestly, I thought I might be teaching these courses into my retirement, but the enrollment numbers don't lie. Since 2023, there has been a complete collapse in the market for continuing education." Personally, I'm finding this kind of story lately shocking and heartbreaking.

I kept coming back to his course listing to find some that were on site, but they were all online. I wanted to take my current team to the same onsite experience I had with Dave over 15 years ago. Classes taught in person are so much better.

Why not write him and ask? He stopped teaching because of a drop in demand. He clearly loves teaching. If you have a team to educate and a budget to pay him for his time and expertise, he might be willing to run a class for your team.

Re: David Beazley – Programming Courses

#30

Post by giant_fern »

I took dabeaz's course on the Raft algorithm a few years ago.

It was engaging, challenging, and all the other students were there specifically because they wanted to be there. I've never experienced anything like that in school, it was uniquely motivating.

I always thought I'd get to try his compilers course one day, but I waited too long!

All the best to him on his next adventure.

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