[March 2024] Python Monthly Newsletter 💻🐍

52nd issue! If you missed the previous ones, you can read all the previous issues of my monthly Python newsletter here.

Python Developer Monthly Newsletter

If it’s your first time here, welcome, keep reading. If you're a long time reader, welcome back, you can skip to the next section to dive right into this month's newsletter.

Being a Python developer is a fantastic career option. Python is the most popular programming language with lots of growing job demand (especially in the fields of Web, Data Science, A.I., and Machine Learning). You have many job opportunities, you can work around the world, and you get to solve interesting problems.

One of the hardest parts though? Staying up-to-date with the constantly evolving ecosystem.

You want to be a top-performing python developer, but you don’t have time to select from hundreds of articles, videos and podcasts coming out every day.

That's why I write this every month to help you out.

This is the best Python newsletter for you if you want to keep up-to-date with the industry and keep your skills sharp, without wasting your valuable time.

I curate and share the most important Python articles, news, resources, podcasts and videos of the month.

Think the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) meeting the Python world. What’s the 20% that will get you 80% of the results?

Let's dive in. Here's what you missed in March 2024 as a Python Developer…

Architecture and Python 🏗

For large Python projects, maintaining architectural cleanliness is a significant challenge, primarily reflected in the difficulty of maintaining simple and clear dependency relationships between packages and modules.

Here is 6 ways to improve the architecture of your Python project.

Weekend Project Idea 🍻

Use this article and the trick inside it to help you write Python code this weekend. This is another tool of the trade that will come in handy throughout your coding career!

Monkeying Around with Python 🐒

Imagine modifying a car's engine while it's running. Monkey patching works similarly, allowing you to dynamically alter or extend a class or module's behavior at runtime. It involves changing or adding methods or attributes to existing modules or classes.

Although it doesn't sound like the best idea, it's actually a useful tool in your Python toolbelt.

Here is how to use it.

Whitehouse Recommends Python 🦅

This is just for us Python nerds to shove it in other programmer's faces: Earlier this month the White House published a report recommending the use of memory-safe programming languages to eliminate an entire class of vulnerabilities affecting software.

The report quotes claims from large software producers like Google and Microsoft which estimate that 70% of vulnerabilities affecting software are due to memory-safety issues.

So they say, you should use Python.

Context Manager in Python 📒

A fun little read on how the Context Manager works in Python. Enjoy it!

Asyncio 🍡

API calls are IO blocking. This means that when a service calls the API, it does nothing until it gets a response... but what if we had asyncio?

Memory Footprint in Python 🛼

This article will blow your mind and definitely teach you something.

Learn all about the memory model behind your Python application: How objects are allocated, where they are stored, and how they are eventually cleaned up so you can write clean, performant Python code.

All Dunders Ever 📄

Python includes tons of dunder methods ("double underscore" methods) which allow us to deeply customize how our custom classes interact with Python's many features.

What dunder methods could you add to your class to make it friendly for other Python programmers who use it?

Let's take a look at every dunder method in Python, with a focus on when each method is useful.

News Around the World 🗺

This is an insane story. Some developer just saved A LOT of damage by finding a very complicated backdoor. The story is very interesting so I recommend you read it all here: Inside the failed attempt to backdoor SSH globally — that got caught by chance

Big Tech News 🏢

OpenAI and Elon Musk have beef. And to be honest, it's way too boring for me to read this article, but for those that like this kind of drama, here it is.
A lot of Apple news this month. First up, the fight between Apple and Web Apps (Progressive Web Apps) continues. Second, a great article about the Vision Pro and what it got right over Meta's Oculus. The synopsis: Apple has made a fully realized spatial operating system, while Meta has made an app launcher for immersive Unity/Unreal apps for vanilla Android. But the biggest Apple news of all is that the U.S. Sued Apple, Accusing It of Maintaining an iPhone Monopoly. There's that anti-trust lawsuit everyone was waiting on.
Nvidia had some big announcements this month, including just how much money they make (hint: it's a lot), and the biggest news of all: The Blackwell A.I. Chip. Meanwhile, Intel receives $8.5 Billion in grants to build chip plants in the U.S... must be nice.
YouTube had an announcement: a new tool in Creator Studio requiring creators to disclose to viewers when realistic content – content a viewer could easily mistake for a real person, place, or event – is made with altered or synthetic media, including generative AI.
Databricks released their own open LLM: DBRX. It will compete with Mixtral, LLaMa (Meta), and Grok (Twitter/X).
Rumours say that Microsoft, OpenAI plan $100 billion data-center project.

Completely useless to your career but still great 🙃

How French Artists in 1899 Envisioned What Life Would Look Like in the Year 2000
Ever wanted to throw a server? There's a championship for that.
Infinitely zoomable Game of Life.

Let's Talk Devin 🧝🏻

This month was all about Devin. The new A.I. powered software engineer by Cognition Labs that got all the Junior Devs to have an existential crisis.

Is this something you should be worried about?

Aldo from ZTM did a little breakdown for you 👇.

This leads me to our Best Resource of the Month section next below...

Best Resource of the Month 🥽

Will AI take over your job? At this point, it's getting exhausting hearing people ask this question. Luckily for you, two people this month did some great research to answer your burning question with some SCIENCE:

And in case you forgot, these are my thoughts on A.I. and the future of tech.

Trick of the Month 🎩

Do you use Postman or Insomnia for your API needs? How about you try this new tool that might blow your mind (and not your API).
Difftastic is a CLI diff tool that compares files based on their syntax, not line-by-line... this looks veeeery promising.
CLI tool for saving complete web pages as a single HTML file.
Voice to Text Editor/Code Editor. Keep an eye out on this company.

Thanks for reading!

See you next month everyone... also share this with your friends... pretty please! ❤️

By the way, I teach people how to code and get hired in the most efficient way possible as the Lead Instructor of Zero To Mastery Academy. You can see a few of our courses below or see all ZTM courses here.