Python Monthly 💻🐍 December 2019
Tags: news, python, productivity, machinelearning
Published: 2020-01-04 23:41:26

**1st issue! That's right, you're right at the beginning of this journey! If there is enough interest, I will keep doing these every month so please sign up for my newsletter [here](https://zerotomastery.io/blog/python-monthly-december-2019/?utm_source=devto&utm_medium=PM)!**

### If it’s your first time here… (otherwise skip this part)

Being a Python developer is a fantastic career option. Python is now the most popular language with lots of growing job demand (especially in Web, Data Science and Machine Learning field). You have many job opportunities, you can work around the world, and you get to solve hard problems. One thing that is hard, however, is staying up to date with the constantly evolving ecosystem. You want to be a top performing python developer, coder, programmer, software developer, but you don’t have time to select from hundreds of articles, videos and podcasts each day.

This monthly newsletter is focused on keeping you up to date with the industry, keeping your skills sharp, without wasting your valuable time. I will be sharing the most important articles, podcasts and videos of the month. Think [Tim Ferriss](https://medium.com/u/56d3bc91794f) and [the Pareto Principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle) (80/20 rule) meeting the Software Development world. What’s the 20% that will get you 80% of the results?

### What you missed in December as a Python Developer…

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### Python 3 Features You Should Use 🐍
The new year (and decade!) is now upon us. So that means you get with the times which is Python 3! We know that Python 2 will be sunset in 2020 so the best thing you can do is to familiarize yourself with some Python 3 best practices and tricks. Start by [reading this](https://datawhatnow.com/things-you-are-probably-not-using-in-python-3-but-should/). 

Ps [Python 3.8.1 is officially out](https://docs.python.org/3.8/whatsnew/changelog.html)!


### Advanced Python Topics  🧬
Sure, this link refers to "intermediate" python topics, but the idea is that this resource introduces you to some non-beginner topics that are important for you to learn if you want to go beyond the basics. [Bookmark this excellent resource](http://book.pythontips.com/en/latest/index.html).

### The Best Talks of the Year 🎬
I was planning on releasing these for my *Python Developer Year in Review*  in a few days (subscribe below to get notified when that is out), but I can't keep secrets. So here are my favourite tech talks from the year that I think everyone should watch. Some of them are long, but trust me on this: You will come out of it, a lot smarter than you started: 
* [Preventing the Collapse of Civilization](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW-SOdj4Kkk). Software is getting better... or is it?
* [Python Bytecode. What is it?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE0oR9NQefw) This will blow your mind.

### Poetry 1.0.0 Is Here! 🎈
A popular Python tool that makes Python packaging and dependency management easy. [Their version 1](https://python-poetry.org/blog/announcing-poetry-1-0-0.html) is officially out and I really recommend this tool for your next project.

### Python Tips/Tricks 🧩
There are a lot of these articles out there, but [this one](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/an-a-z-of-useful-python-tricks-b467524ee747/) does a great job on keeping things short and concise. Inversely, this one tells you what [NOT to do in Python](https://docs.quantifiedcode.com/python-anti-patterns/index.html).

And here is a nice roundup of more obscure(rare) [python tricks you may have not seen before](https://martinheinz.dev/blog/1).

Finally, here is a completely confusing list of tricks that you probably will never encounter in your day to day but still will [blow your mind](https://github.com/satwikkansal/wtfpython/blob/master/README.md).


### Django 3.0 Is Out 🍾
The popular web framework Django got a new makeover with the [latest 3.0 release](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.0/releases/3.0/). Followed by a [quick security fix](https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2019/dec/18/security-releases/).   

If you want a quick recap of what has changed, you can watch this [excellent video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BBNVFirvTY).

### Bye Bye Guido 🎺

**… wait where is the rest? Well, the full version of the post can be found on our blog [here](https://zerotomastery.io/blog/python-monthly-december-2019/?utm_source=devto&utm_medium=PM). If there is enough interest, I will keep doing these every month so please sign up to our newsletter while you're there!**