Actually Write Code

The danger with this textbook, and the associated videos, is that you could read and/or watch the material without ever actually typing code yourself. This would be a waste of your time.

The only way to learn to code is to write it. You will not learn coding, or how to actually do data science, if you don’t write code yourself. That’s why this is considered a lab course. It will be frustrating, and you will make mistakes. But that’s how you learn.

As described in the first Python lesson, the chapters in this textbook are intended primarily as a reference. You should read them (or watch the videos, which follow each chapter exactly), but you should also write code as you read or watch. Pause the video as necessary to give yourself time to do the work, and fix any mistakes you make. Coding, like language, is a procedural skill, which means you learn by doing. Passive watching, or cutting and pasting code from the textbook into your Juptyer notebook, will not help you learn.