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Not to be mean, but TBH I rolled my eyes a bit because awkwardly dancing with the interpreter until something appears to work is kind of exactly like throwing s

Not to be mean, but TBH I rolled my eyes a bit because awkwardly dancing with the interpreter until something appears to work is kind of exactly like throwing spaghetti at the wall. And as others have pointed out, a quick jaunt to Stack Overflow might have revealed to OP that leaning on the DB is what any seasoned engineer would do, which is probably a better engineering lesson than how to implement a reduce by hand. AFAIK Stack Overflow's mission statement isn't "Be Rip-Offable for Devs Everywhere." Obviously I know about "copy-paste engineers" but that's a character trait, not the result of their tools. I've always treated SO more like a knowledgeable coworker to help when I get stuck.

masklinn 5y ago
> I've always treated SO more like a knowledgeable coworker to help when I get stuck. Not too knowledgeable though, in my experience if you are the knowledgeable colleague in a domain, SO will not help you unless you're in one of the domains with a legendary SO contributor (e.g. C# because of Jon Skeet if you manage to get their attention), and unlike a knowledgeable colleague it won't assist you in looking for a clarification or solution either.
- tonyedgecombe 5y ago
  Even in C# there are plenty of dodgy answers and stuff that is plain wrong yet accepted and upvoted.
usrbinbash 5y ago
The difference: SO provides solutions to problems. Experimenting, playing around and "throwing spaghetti at the wall" can lead to an understanding of the problem. SO will tell me to use DISTINCT, and that is correct. But why? Why is this the better? Is it really? Why is the home-brewed reduce slower? How could it be improved? Oh hey, but if I did this to the data upstream I could prevent non.distinct records from being in the DB in the first place, etc. etc. Software Engineering is, among many other things, a craft. Just like carpenting or stone carving or smithing, it must be honed, and mastery can only be achieved if one plays, trys and experiments. ---- Of course, reading about the solutions to a problem can also help in its understanding. For me personally, if I do not understand a problem, I like to do both: Experiment, and read what the "canonical" way to solve it is.
- DangitBobby 5y ago
  In my experience, really good SO answers will provide both solutions and understanding. Answer guidelines do ask you to explain your answers.
phkahler 5y ago
>> awkwardly dancing with the interpreter until something appears to work is kind of exactly like throwing spaghetti at the wall. But awkwardly dancing with the interpreter until something clicks in your head is highly valuable learning. In this case I kept waiting for the author to have a revelation or two - one about tuples, and one about proper use of dictionaries - but that never happened. I think it will in part 2, and then idiomatic python will fall out with the authors complete understanding of new concepts.

masklinn 5y ago

> I've always treated SO more like a knowledgeable coworker to help when I get stuck. Not too knowledgeable though, in my experience if you are the knowledgeable colleague in a domain, SO will not help you unless you're in one of the domains with a legendary SO contributor (e.g. C# because of Jon Skeet if you manage to get their attention), and unlike a knowledgeable colleague it won't assist you in looking for a clarification or solution either.

tonyedgecombe 5y ago
Even in C# there are plenty of dodgy answers and stuff that is plain wrong yet accepted and upvoted.

usrbinbash 5y ago

The difference: SO provides solutions to problems. Experimenting, playing around and "throwing spaghetti at the wall" can lead to an understanding of the problem. SO will tell me to use DISTINCT, and that is correct. But why? Why is this the better? Is it really? Why is the home-brewed reduce slower? How could it be improved? Oh hey, but if I did this to the data upstream I could prevent non.distinct records from being in the DB in the first place, etc. etc. Software Engineering is, among many other things, a craft. Just like carpenting or stone carving or smithing, it must be honed, and mastery can only be achieved if one plays, trys and experiments. ---- Of course, reading about the solutions to a problem can also help in its understanding. For me personally, if I do not understand a problem, I like to do both: Experiment, and read what the "canonical" way to solve it is.

DangitBobby 5y ago
In my experience, really good SO answers will provide both solutions and understanding. Answer guidelines do ask you to explain your answers.

phkahler 5y ago

>> awkwardly dancing with the interpreter until something appears to work is kind of exactly like throwing spaghetti at the wall. But awkwardly dancing with the interpreter until something clicks in your head is highly valuable learning. In this case I kept waiting for the author to have a revelation or two - one about tuples, and one about proper use of dictionaries - but that never happened. I think it will in part 2, and then idiomatic python will fall out with the authors complete understanding of new concepts.