I really enjoyed watching Python: The Documentary (from CultRepo, formerly Honeypot, same makers as the TypeScript documentary).
Personally, I don’t write much Python and am not involved in the broader Python community. That said, I love how this documentary covers a lot of the human problems in tech and not just the technical history of Python as language. For example:
- How do you handle succession from a pivotal creator?
- How do you deal with poor representation?
- How do you fund and steer open projects?
- How do you build community?
- How do you handle the fallout of major version changes?
And honestly, all the stories around these topics as told from the perspective of Python feel like lessons to learn from.
Here are a few things that stood out to me.
Guido van Rossum, Creator of Python, Sounds Cool
The film interviews Drew Houston, Founder/CEO at Dropbox, because he hired Python’s creator Guido van Rossum for a stint.
This is what Drew had to say about his time working with Guido:
It’s hard for me to think of someone who has had more impact with lower ego [than Guido]
For tech, that’s saying something! Now that is a legacy if you ask me.
Brett Cannon famously gave a talk at a Python conference where he said he “came for the language, but stayed for the community”. In the documentary they interview him and he adds:
The community is the true strength of Pyhon. It’s not just the language, it’s the people.
❤️
This flies in the face of the current era we’re in, where it’s the technology that matters. How it disrupts or displaces people is insignificant next to the fantastic capabilities it purports to wield.
But here’s this language surrounded by people who acknowledge that the community around the language is its true strength.
People are the true strength.
Let me call this out again, in case it’s not sinking in: Here’s a piece of technology where the people around it seem to acknowledge that the technology itself is only secondary to the people it was designed to serve.
How incongruous is that belief with so many other pieces of technology we’ve seen through the years?
What else do we have, if not each other? That’s something worth amplifying.
Mariatta, Python Core Developer, Sounds Cool
I absolutely loved the story of @mariatta@fosstodon.org. If you’re not gonna watch the documentary, at least watch the ~8 minutes of her story.
Watched it? Ok, here’s my quick summary:
- She loves to program, but everywhere she looks it’s men. At work. At conferences. On core teams.
- She hears about pyladies and wants to go to Pycon where she can meet them.
- She goes to Pycon and sees Guido van Rossum stand up and say he wants 2 core contributors to Python that are female.
- She thinks, “Oh that’s cool! I’m not good enough for that, but I bet they’ll find someone awesome.”
- The next year she goes to the conference and finds out they’re still looking for those 2 core contributors.
- She thinks “Why not me?” and fires off an email to Guido.
Here’s her recollection on composing that email:
I felt really scared. I didn’t feel like I deserved mentorship from Guido van Rossum. I really hesitated to send this email to him, but in the end I realized I want to try. This was a great opportunity for me. I hit the send button.
And later, her feelings on becoming the first female core contributor to Python:
When you don’t have role models you can relate to, you don’t believe you can do it.
❤️ Mad respect. I love her story. As Jessica McKellar says in the film, Mariatta’s is an inspiring story and “a vision of what is possible in other communities”.
Python Is Refreshing
I’ve spent years in “webdev” circles — and there are some great ones — but this Python documentary was, to me, a tall, refreshing glass of humanity.
Go Python!
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