Disclaimer: Strong focus on Python.
So, I thought I could share an amazing collection of videos from conferences and engineering blogs from big companies (think Instagram, PayPal, Dropbox, etc…). No secrets or big deal, just a centralized place with some rather nice resources.
There is not a lot of videos on tool “X” or “Y”, but rather a lot of high-level conceptual talks in terms of videos. That’s my particular choice when looking for something to watch. I like to believe that when we understand the deeper roots of a particular issue, all the rest are just tools. In another words, be on the lookout if it’s really a nail, only then, run for the hammer.
However, the engineering blogs usually get a bit more into how they used a specific tool or another. But the important part is always try to understand why they chose something over another thing. It’s funny to realize the mistakes they make sometimes when we could have thought that in those big flashy nice companies, things like that would hardly happen.
A big role is also played in the balance of risk-taking when going for new (although proven) technologies. That can be a real advantage in such competitive times and they know that.
And well, I just thought someone might make good use of all of this. This is knowledge in what I believe is its purest form: community-driven. So I’m trying to pass it along as well.
If you know of something else, let me know in the comments and I’ll update the list.
For the videos, I’ve created a playlist (which I will keep adding stuff as I find/watch).
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm5JiQ4yORZoml627aVKiNa4SO3g9p0l8
And here is the engineering blog list (I use Feedly to keep track of the updates):
http://nerds.airbnb.com/
http://techblog.netflix.com/
https://www.paypal-engineering.com/
http://blog.echen.me/
https://codeascraft.com/
https://blogs.dropbox.com/tech/
http://engineering.tumblr.com/
http://code.flickr.net/
http://engineering.quora.com/
https://blog.twitter.com/
http://engineering.foursquare.com/
http://engineering.heroku.com/
http://highscalability.com/
http://instagram-engineering.tumblr.com/
http://engineering.linkedin.com/blog
http://engineering.pinterest.com/
http://feeds.feedburner.com/soundcloudapiblog
https://corner.squareup.com/
https://github.com/blog
http://engineeringblog.yelp.com/
Here, we have two Planets (blog aggregators), useful for Python dev.
http://planetpython.org/
http://planet.twistedmatrix.com/
A conference video aggregator of Python stuff:
And just in any case, if you don’t know there are a few free (very) good Python books online:
Dive into Python
Think Python
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python
Think Complexity
Think Stats
Guide to Data Mining
Test-Driven Development with Python
Text Processing in Python
BioPython Tutorial and Cookbook
Guide to Python Standard Library
Natural Language Processing with Python
Programming Computer Vision with Python
Python and Algorithms:
Problem Solving with Algorithms and Data Structures
Data Structures and Algorithms with Object-Oriented Design Patterns in Python