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James Powell: So you want to be a Python expert? | PyData Seattle 2017

PyData · 507.7K views · 2017-07-24 · 1:54:11

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Overview

James Powell's nearly two-hour PyData talk builds up Python's data model, decorators, generators and context managers, coding live in Vim. It aims to take intermediate programmers toward real Python expertise.

On Hacker News

HN calls it one of the best technical talks and the clearest explanation of decorators, generators and context managers.

Recommended by 6 HN people across 6 months · HN mentions 2020–2026

Topics

Python, Ruby & scripting languagesSoftware architecture & design
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pythondecoratorsgeneratorscontext managerspydata

What people said

charlysl · 2023-07 · Strong recommendation

Another good (and entertaining) resource is James Powell's talk "So you want to be a Python expert" [1], the best explanation I've seen of decorators, generators and context managers. Good intro to the Python data (object) model too. [1] [VIDEO]

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ransom1538 · 2020-09 · Strong recommendation

I don't even use python. But this python expert video was absolutely amazing done by a true pro. James Powell [VIDEO]

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mattst88 · 2020-05 · Strong recommendation

I work professionally in C/C++ and the instances I needed to use Python I always felt like I was missing the core understanding of the language and was writing C in a different syntax. I found James Powell's PyData 2017 talk "So you want to be a Python expert?" ( [VIDEO] ) to be incredible at helping me to gain that core understanding of the language. It's legitimately the best technical talk I think I've seen and I can't recommend it highly enough.

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Sources

Video by PyData, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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