

Ask HN: I'm looking for a Python mentor - OpenAlgorithm

I have been learning to program for a couple of months outside school using some great online resources including MIT Open CourseWare and the O'Reilly School's Python course.<p>I have a ton of ideas for small and large apps and programs that I would like to develop.<p>While the current courses and tutorials are excellent, I feel that I need more specific and advanced skills for the programs I am creating and I would also like to fast track my Python learning.<p>Therefore I am looking for a Python expert (it would be nice but not required if they had some knowledge around data retrieval and Django) that could help mentor me and fast-track my learning.<p>Basically I am looking for somebody who could answer my questions via email/Skype and point me in the right direction from time to time.<p>The amount of help would of course be down to the individual mentor's time constraints.<p>While I'm not be any means an advanced programmer yet, I would be willing to work extremely hard at improving my skills and of course also give something back to my mentor.<p>I'm not sure what as a mentor you would like in return for your time, but I would be willing to program for you (when I am at a sufficiently advanced level), offer some cash, give you equity in individual projects or all projects created over the time you mentor me or SEO services.<p>I am currently doing part-time work as an SEO for a couple of companies and the main reason for learning to program is to make possible my project to disrupt the SEO industry (see: www.theopenalgorithm.com for basic details).<p>If this sounds like something you would be interested in please contact me at mark@theopenalgorithm.com or feel free to reply here with any questions you may have.<p>Thanks in advance for your help.
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noahc
Have you considered using stack overflow? It's a great way to have access to
mentors and people to help you and if you're working in a particular domain,
you will have experts to help you. With one single mentor you're stuck with
only what they know.

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OpenAlgorithm
Thanks for your advice, yes I have asked questions on Stack Overflow and found
the response to be excellent, and I plan to use it in the future.

But with a mentor you can ask more general questions, whereas with SO it tends
to be more code/error specific.

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projectileboy
If you're learning to program from scratch, you really need to start with Zed
Shaw's "Learn Python the Hard Way" <http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/> .
This is going to be much better for you than the MIT and the O'Reilly stuff.

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OpenAlgorithm
Great, thanks for your advice, it looks like a great book with lots of top
exercises.

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clojurerocks
Ive been working with python/django for about 6 months now so i wouldnt call
myself an expert but i understand where youre coming from and im willing to
help you out. How best to contact you?

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OpenAlgorithm
Thanks, mark@theopenalgorithm.com, send your profile links.

