Python By Night

And Day

It feels completely ineffective to try to put into words what's been going on the last week or two. Within a whirlwind of changes happening all about, I also find myself at the start of a new chapter.

Python By Night

Over the last few years, the title of this blog has also become a bit of an identity for me.

I've used it as a handle in online spaces and have used it as a shorthand way to explain to people how I learned Python.

You see, I entered the Python space several years ago while learning how to code in the evenings.

My day jobs has had no need for my Pythoning ways, so I carried on in my spare time.

Meanwhile...

As a business analyst for the past five years, I tried to find opportunities to squeeze a little bit of Python into some of my auditing tasks.

But in order to push me even more than any internal motivation I could muster, I decided to throw my hat in the ring to a few Python-related conferences here and there, and fortunately, I was selected to present at several of these.

The gamble paid off in two ways.

For one, it truly did motivate me to learn more than I would have otherwise. Sure, you can read a book, follow a tutorial, or even build a project from scratch.

But that pales in comparison to the internalizing I had to do in order to be able to teach or present something to strangers.

Another thing that happened, however, is that I met a lot of people I never would have met otherwise. And my interests in Python began to intersect with like-minded people.

During my time at PyCon 2024, I had the opportunity to present a tutorial on using Python and htmx. I also had the chance to open up the Awesome Python htmx repo during a sprint session. Through that process, I met several individuals who were just as excited as I was about the role of hypermedia in Python's future.

Fast forward to May of this year when I received a text message from one of those individuals asking if I'd be interested in a job involving Python and htmx.

By Day

Which brings me to this post.

You see, today was the first day of my all new engineering career.

Yup, that's right. My beloved moniker of Python By Night is now only slightly outdated. (And I do mean slightly.)

During the day, I'll be using Python and htmx in service of building an awesome web application! I am so excited to take all the things I've learned in theory and apply them into a "real world" project.

It is both exciting and terrifying to make a career at this point in my life. I was a good business analyst and had quite the command of my business domain.

But I am certain this is the natural progression of where I've been heading.

But Also By Night

Thing is, even though I'm now going to get paid to work on Python during the day, I still plan to stay plugged in, particularly to open source and other fun projects.

There's always a risk when you start getting paid for something you otherwise liked to do as a hobby.

On the other hand, the best feature of Python is the community, and I don't plan to give that up!

So, at least for the time being... it's going to be Python by day... and night.