In this part of the course we’ll go over some tips so you can make the most of your Real Python subscription and learn effectively.
Tip #1 is to go deep and immerse yourself in a topic you’re interested in.
Important Links:
Immerse Yourself
00:00 In this section, I want to talk about How to Learn Effectively or, in other words, how to make the most of your Real Python subscription. Let’s jump right in. The first point I want to talk about is it is very, very important that you immerse yourself. Go deep, you know, do a deep-dive on one topic, stick to that one particular topic, and then combine all different types of content—for example, videos, written tutorials, and our interactive quizzes. So for example, if you wanted to do a deep-dive on Python decorators, you would simply type “decorators” into the Real Python search box and then work
00:37 your way through all the stuff that shows up. So, we’ve got a full-blown course here for you that you can watch on Python decorators specifically. It’s pretty long and really, really in-depth, so maybe you want to take your time with this and take it slowly.
00:51 But at the same time, when you have some, let’s say, downtime while you’re commuting or traveling, you could also work your way through our written tutorial on Python decorators. Again, here, you can take it section by section, so you don’t overwhelm yourself, but you can also really immerse yourself in this concept of Python decorators and really, really go deep.
01:13 We’ve got other courses here that touch on this subject that I would also recommend you watch because decorators and inner functions are closely related—we’re also surfacing that here—so this is another tutorial that I would encourage you to read if you’re looking at Python decorators.
01:28 This is a really good way to really immerse yourself into a specific topic and to really go deep on one topic so that, whatever you do, you’re always thinking about this one thing.
01:42 Now, this maybe sounds a little bit intense, but it really works. If you can do it and you’re interested in that type of immersion learning, I would highly encourage you to make the most of all of our different types of content here on the website and to really leverage the different types of media that we have available for you.
Ricky White RP Team on April 15, 2020
Can you share your code @infi9chg2?
infi9chg2 on April 16, 2020
i didn’t record the previous code line. i don’t know y it doesn’t show error yet file didn’t open.. here’s the latest i got f = open(“c:/users/asus/desktop/Igloo/c.xlxs”,”w”,”cp1252”) i m pretty new in python. not sure it’s the the right format to open..?
Ricky White RP Team on April 17, 2020
Thanks. There could be a few reasons why it’s not working. But I couldn’t narrow it down without seeing the rest of your code and how you are using the variable you used f. The most common way to open a file is with a with statement. I would recommend you check you out this tutorial on working with files - realpython.com/working-with-files-in-python/
infi9chg2 on April 18, 2020
thanks for that..
Arif Zuhairi on May 14, 2020
Thank you, that’s really a good tip. I always being too broad on what I want to learn because everything seems great to learn that causes me to lose focus on what I should learn and learn it deeply
kaiaiak on Sept. 11, 2021
Dan loves python decorators! I don’t know what that is, but now I want to!
Corentin Breton on Feb. 18, 2025
Sadly this is not in the video possibly because the video is old.
But for some people it can be useful to read the transcript at the same time.
While one can scroll down to see them, they will be highlight in yellow while talking, one can also click on the button who look like a page and a magnifier at the bottom of the video player, 2nd icon starting from the right.
ManPuppy on Aug. 27, 2025
One thing that may be encouraging for students who are trying to decide whether to immerse themselves and go on a deep dive on one topic is this:
I’ve spent my life obsessively learning new things, always, all the time, every day, because I enjoy it. But one thing I’ve observed during all this learning is that, if you deep dive on one topic, then move onto another and deep dive into that one, and another, and another… eventually, the conceptual “gaps” between those topics start to close, blur, and fade. You’ll find that going really in-depth on multiple skills, hobbies, topics, etc. will cause them to kind of merge in some ways that make understanding them easier and more intuitive, no matter the new topic you learn.
A great example is audio engineering and photography. They might seem like separate topics, but when you start to learn how wave forms and frequencies are processed and analyzed, on a mathematical level, it becomes apparent that many of the same practices and tools for audio can be adapted to photography, and photography to audio as well. Even higher level, artistic concepts are shared between both in the realms of composition, contrast and suspense, form and proportion, blending, and all sorts of things. Eventually you begin to realize both arts share similar effects on humans psychologically, and if you know how to prod the brain with one type of art, you can more easily do it with another.
As you go in-depth on several Python topics that seem unrelated, they may start to become more and more related. After all, it all falls under the Python and computer science umbrella.
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infi9chg2 on April 15, 2020
hi dan, i try a very simple code to open a file but failed. it doesn’t show error or exception. just a line but fail. any idea why this happened