Technical Community¶

Looking to "level up" your technical skills as you emerge as a proactive programmer? Do you want to engage with a community of experts who can answer your questions and provide support? Do you have some technical wisdom that you want to share with others? The good news is that there are many different online communities that are designed for proactive programmers — the trick is finding the best ones and avoiding those that are toxic!

The following lists offer a starting point for the online programming communities, independent contributors, and audio podcasts that offer communities with top-notch technical resources. As the Changelog Editors in their Changelog Developer Community write "All you have to do is take the first step." So, go ahead and take the first step by checking out these communities, contributing when you can, and reporting back about what you find!

Don't forget, if you have ideas for improving these lists of resources you can share them in the GitHub Issue Tracker or in the GitHub Discussions Forum! Finally, did you notice that each page on this site can be edited through a pull request on GitHub? (Hint: look for the edit icon that displays as a pencil at the top right of every page on the site). This means that you can propose an edit to this page if you have a cool technical community to share!

Programming Communities¶

• Real Python helps people to "learn Python programming, by example" and is useful for learners in courses on this site that require Python programming. The site features up-to-date technical articles with source code examples, diagrams, and illustrations.

• Reddit is a discussion forum that hosts communities that devoted to many different areas. While this platform hosts less-than-stellar content, some communities are welcoming and provide thoughtful assistance for those facing technical challenges.

• Stack Overflow is a question and answer site that hosts communities in many technical and professional areas. After reading a question, evaluate the quality of different answers and then try a solution to see if it solves your technical challenge!

Independent Contributors¶

• Victoria Drake regularly shares blog posts that explore a variety of technical issues. Even if a specific post focuses on a technology that a learner is not currently using, it will likely share beneficial tips, tricks, and ways of thinking.

• Gergely Grosz writes under the name "The Pragmatic Engineer" and shares numerous experiences that will help you to become a better programmer. Even if you are not an engineering manager you will find these posts interesting and thought provoking.

• Ines Montani shares articles and videos that explain how to do natural language processing (NLP) in with the Python programming language. Even if you are not working in NLP, you will find the lessons in these posts informative and helpful.

Audio Podcasts¶

• Changelog offers multiple free podcasts, including "The Changelog" podcast featuring "Conversations with the hackers, leaders, and innovators in the software world".

• Software Engineering Daily features a daily podcast episode that interviews technical leaders and explores "the world through the lens of software".

• Talk Python to Me offers interviews with the innovators in the field of Python programming, now in both an audio and live stream format.