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[MUSIC]
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Hi, I'm Craig, and I'm a developer.
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This course is going to introduce you to the wonderful programming
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language, Python.
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There are absolutely no prerequisites for this course.
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This is intended to be the beginning of your Python journey.
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It's gonna be awesome.
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I'm excited for you.
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Python is such a wonderful language to start with.
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It's been designed to be clean and easy to read.
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If you're coming from another programming language,
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you'll find the simplicity of this language just delightful.
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If this is your first programming language, you're in for a lot of fun.
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You'll get the opportunity to think in ways that you've most likely
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never thought before.
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You'll challenge yourself to grow, learn, and create in new and fun ways.
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Python is a general purpose language,
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which means it can be used to build just about anything.
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The US government uses Python to do statistical analysis and
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data visualizations.
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Spotify, Evernote, and OkCupid rely on Python for
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personalized recommendations and other artificial intelligence-based tasks.
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Disney, Pixar, Lucasfilm, and
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others use Python to provide more realistic effects in their movies.
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Large familiar websites like YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, Pinterest, and
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even the Onion lean on Python.
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You can use Python for face and speech recognition.
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You can control robots and shoot lasers, send an email when your doorbell rings,
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and just about anything you can imagine.
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So what do you say we get started learning this incredible language.
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Shoot, wait a second.
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Before we get too excited and I go too fast, I'd like to take a moment and
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let you get familiar with your learning environment.
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There's speed controls on the video player.
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You should totally feel free to speed me up or
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slow me down to your heart's content.
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If you miss something I said, please, feel free to scrub the video back and
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make me repeat myself.
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Now, unlike a typical in-person classroom, here at Treehouse,
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you are in complete control of your learning session.
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Attached to each video, there are detailed teacher's notes.
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I'll do my best to point out when there's something in there that you just
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have to see.
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But try to get in the habit of checking that area for
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juicy bits of additional knowledge.
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Another thing I want you to remember is that you aren't taking this course alone.
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Although they probably aren't sitting right next to you,
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many of your fellow students are taking this course right now.
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And chances are they'll be having many of the same emotions that you're bound to be
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experiencing as you pick up this language.
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Please make use of the community.
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It's amazing, and you're part of it.
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It's yours.
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If you have a question, please ask it.
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You'll be surprised how quickly you'll receive a friendly and helpful answer.
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And also, a great way to make your learning stick is to explain a concept or
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a solution that you just learned.
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You'll probably surprise yourself with how quickly you'll sound like a pro.
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I'll bug you more about this as you progress.
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But please make sure to check out the forum and
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hang out with your fellow students answering their questions.
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It's a win-win.
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I'll pop in there too quite a bit.
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And there's also an amazing team of moderators who are here to help.
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We should talk a bit about what learning a programming language
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is most likely going to feel like.
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I'd love for you to approach this journey much like you would when you attempt to
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learn a foreign language.
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There are going to be a lot of new terms and concepts introduced.
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And I want you to not stress about fully understanding everything all at once.
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Just like you wouldn't expect to be fluent after taking your first Spanish class, you
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shouldn't expect to be able to understand all the code you see immediately.
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Learning takes practice, both in Spanish and Python.
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[LAUGH] Spanish speakers are typically more forgiving than computers.
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But just like in your hypothetical Spanish class,
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you can expect it to feel super good when you can actually
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communicate your thoughts in your new language, and we'll get there soon.
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So do this for me.
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I want you to immerse yourself in the language.
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I'll point out exactly what I think you need to focus on
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at this path of your journey.
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But again, please don't worry about knowing everything.
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Remember, this is a journey, and you are just now beginning.
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As you progress,
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you'll start to notice that you're picking up quite a bit just through immersion.
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In this course, we're going to explore the basics of the Python language.
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All of the concepts that you'll learn here are common in just about every programming
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language that I can think of.
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By the end of this course,
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you'll build a ticket purchasing application for an event.
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There will be loops, logic, error handing, and even some math.
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What you're looking at here is called a command line application, and
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this up here is our online code editor called Workspaces.
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In just a short bit, you're gonna be able to write this code from scratch, wow.
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Huge of you, it's pretty amazing, right?
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So what are we waiting for?
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Let's go get you up and running in your very own online code editor, Workspaces.
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