Play with Python: A Beginner’s Guide to Programming- Part 0

Why Programming?

Why learn coding when you can learn so many other things like playing a guitar, watching a movie, or just chatting with your friends on Facebook? I am not asking you to stop doing any of those, but just think for a second how cool it would be if you learned a bit of programming and could make your own games, animation, website, or even a guitar tuner that helps you to tune your guitar! If you do any of these, I can guarantee you that it would be one of the most fun things you have ever done. And that’s why I am writing this tutorial to help you learn programming.

If you look around, you will realize that everything is becoming so computer dependent now. From your cellphone to traffic lights on your way to school, everything is run using computers. Do you know who made computers do these amazing jobs? Those are smart people like you, but they know how to write programs to make computers work for us.

From mathematics, economics, physics to political science and history, people are using quantitative methods and computer programs to analyze data and find new theories based on those. So basically no matter what field you are interested in computer programs can be very useful. Plus if you look at the mainstream technology companies, you will see that they are doing really cool works to make our life easier by creating products like facebook, Instagram, or google search! And if you need inspiration from them about why you need to learn coding watch the video made by superstars!

Maybe you are thinking that when you grow up you will do business or become an artist and live in Paris (or maybe you already are a businessman or an artist). You can probably hire someone to do these. That is true, but you still need to know how computer works to even understand what you need. Plus if you can code you can make your own website or understand what you need to add to your website! If you are a business-person, you will understand better how to run your company better. Moreover, at a basic level learning coding teaches you problem solving skills, which are valuable no matter what you do in life. Watch this video by Scientist to learn how learning programming or science in general can rewire your brain! Watch the video by Neil deGrasse Tyson if you need more convincing.

Who can Learn?

You! If you were patient enough to read up to this point, you can learn programming! The approach to teach problem solving and programming python will be similar to story-telling. I will try to tell real life stories and problems that you will solve with your coding skills. And at the end of the course you will work on a final project that will need all the ideas you will learn throughout the course.

This tutorial will not have any advanced math component, so if you know how to count — I mean add, subtract (and sometime multiply and divide!) numbers, you should be fine. In terms of age group, this is most suitable for 12 – 18 years old people (mostly middle to high school students), but I don’t see why people of other age group will not be able to learn from it.

Finally, as I have mentioned the final project, what is the final project, you may ask! Wait for a surprise— you will make a full blown computer game (with nice graphics, animation, and sound) from zero knowledge of programming! And I will help you to go through this journey to be able to do so. Imagine from less than a month from now, you will be able to create your own game and show it to your friends! How cool is that!

Next Part: Part 1: The Magic Behind Computers

All parts: Play with Python