Google’s Python Lessons are Awesome by Hartley Brody.
From the post:
Whether you’re just starting to learn Python, or you’ve been working with it for awhile, take note.
The lovably geeky Nick Parlante — a Google employee and CS lecturer at Stanford — has written some awesomely succinct tutorials that not only tell you how you can use Python, but also how you should use Python. This makes them a fantastic resource, regardless of whether you’re just starting, or you’ve been working with Python for awhile.
The course also features six YouTube videos of Nick giving a lesson in front of some new Google employees. These make it feel like he’s actually there teaching you every feature and trick, and I’d highly recommend watching all of them as you go through the lessons. Some of the videos are longish (~50m) so this is something you want to do when you’re sitting down and focused.
And to really get your feet wet, there are also downloadable samples puzzles and challenges that go along with the lessons, so you can actually practice coding along with the Googlers in his class. They’re all pretty basic — most took me less than 5m — but they’re a great chance to practice what you’ve learned. Plus you get the satisfaction that comes with solving puzzles and successfully moving through the class.
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I am studying the NLTK to get ready for a text analysis project. At least to be able to read along. This looks like a great resource to know about.
I also like the idea of samples, puzzles and challenges.
Not that samples, puzzles and challenges would put topic maps over the top but it would make instruction/self-learning more enjoyable.