PyBites: Applying the Hedgehog Concept to Learning Python

In this post we’ll look at how to apply the hedgehog concept to get more meaningful work done using Python and in your career.

The other day I posted on Twitter:

Don’t get stuck in tutorial paralysis, start building. 

Yes, it’s uncomfortable but you will learn so much more by deliberately applying what you learn to your specific needs.

Then use books, videos, etc in tandem to cement your learning.

To which Yerman responded: 

Any recommendations on what to build?

It was a great question and reminded me of the book Good to Great I read a while back.

In this book Jim Collins talks about The Hedgehog Concept which explains how “good-to-great” companies operate in the intersection of three circles:

1) What you are deeply passionate about.

2) What you can be the best in the world at.

3) What best drives your economic or resource engine.

This rings true when applied to the method of learning and growth we often talk about:

Build something you are passionate about, leverages your existing skills (domain knowledge) and that has the potential of earning you some economic benefit over time.

An example of my own career: 

Back in the day when I was a support engineer I developed diagnostic tools which combined:

1) My passion for automating things, in this case server diagnostics data.

2) My coding skills and domain knowledge of server hardware diagnostics (I did years of server fault troubleshooting before eventually writing code to help us do this work).

3) And lastly, this had economic potential because the skills I learned through that work paved the way for a lot of new opportunities in my career.

Another example is one of our clients who built an image labelling pipeline with us:

1) She is passionate about the problem it addresses.

2) She has specific domain knowledge she combined with coding.

3) Her solution has the potential to become a product one day.

I hope this inspires you to think about how you could use Python in new and creative ways while also thinking about your longer term career aspirations.

If you want to brainstorm your app idea, hit us up on our Slack or book a free assessment call below. We’re passionate about helping people grow their career using Python!

— Bob

from Planet Python
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