Why I’m Writing 100 Python Articles (Even If No One Reads Them)

Welcome to Oren Codes.
I’m Oren — a backend engineer with nearly eight years of experience, and I’m finally building the thing I wish I had when I started learning to code.

This site is here to help beginner developers level up faster — with real-world tips, project-ready guidance, and zero fluff.

So why 100 articles? And what about traffic? I go into it below.

Let's dive in!

Who I’m Writing For (and Why They’re Stuck)

This site is for beginner Python developers. Whether you build a backend like I do or use Python for anything else, I can help you.

The problem many beginners face stems from a phenomenon known as Tutorial Paralysis. Have you ever felt like you learn how to do something, but it's gone when you actually need it? Yeah, and then you watch another tutorial. The cycle continues, and you end up consuming more and more tutorials, each one teaching you the same thing in a slightly different way - and you know how to do the thing, but only theoretically.

In practice, you're lost.

That's what I want to avoid. Each article will guide you through the code, with callouts for extra help, clearly marked so you can skip them if you’re already comfortable.

It's Exactly What I Wish I Had When I Started

I earned a degree in computer science in 2018. That degree did not include Python at all. I only started using Python at my day job. Every task at work sent me scouring Stack Overflow for answers. It wasn't easy, but here we are, seven years later.

If I had a site like this and a community that accompanied it, I would have advanced much faster than I did.

Even today, I still discover code I wrote in old repositories and cringe a little. I’ve made my share of mistakes — and over time, I’ve learned to recognize them faster, just like you will.

My goal is to help you advance quickly and communicate effectively when you need help.

Why I Didn't Start Sooner

I have several projects underway. Not all of them have to do with software engineering. For a long time, I wanted to avoid discussing it because I figured any investment of time in something like this website would only benefit me by allowing a future employer to check me out. While that's still true, I don't intend to remain employed my entire life. I want to build something of my own, and all the knowledge I earned in blood, sweat, and tears is a meaningful part of that journey.

I recently read a great book called Snow Leopard by Nicolas Cole. In it, he describes how a single book he published earns him over $5,000 a month — and it only costs $9.99 on Kindle.
Based on Kindle’s 70% royalty rate, that’s over 700 monthly sales from just one book.
That stuck with me.

Something I’ve learned — through years of trial and error — might be just as valuable to a beginner Python dev.

That’s why I’m all in.

What About AI?

AI is handy to software engineers. It can help you write your code faster, test it, and identify edge cases you may not have noticed. That said, there's one thing AI can't do for you, and that's critical thinking.

There's a huge difference between asking AI to write a script for you from scratch and asking it to fill in the blanks for something you've already done the thinking for.

Imagine this scenario:

You have a task at your new beginner developer day job to write a class that performs A, B, and C. When you finish the job, you present the code to your team leader or boss in what we call a Pull Request. That's the process of introducing new code into the main branch of a project.

Your Team Leader asks you questions about the code as part of the PR (Pull Request) Review process. They might ask what the trade-off decision was that led you to implement A in the way you did, rather than implementing it differently. They might ask you to explain what exactly B does. And finally, they might ask you to explain any risks associated with what C does.

None of these questions is what you've been asked in school. Nobody is asking you to check whether the complexity of the code you're writing is more than O(n).

If you did the work yourself, you should be able to answer these questions fairly easily, right? If you did the work with AI, the answers might not come so easily, especially if you have copied and pasted without giving the code a second thought. Do you even know if it works?

By all means, use AI. It will make your life easier. Just don't ask it to think for you. Ask it to help you execute on your thinking.

Why 100 Articles (Not 10 or 30)

This isn't a challenge of sorts. I didn't choose the number 100 because it looks good on paper. I chose 100 because it’s beyond the excitement phase, where consistency, not motivation, drives progress. At some point, I will likely feel less excited about working on this than I do today. During those days, it will be helpful to remember I'm not chasing anyone.

Posting a hundred articles will also help me discover if I want to do this long-term. If this site kicks off and becomes a meaningful part of my everyday life, it needs to be something I enjoy doing. And since software engineering is my day job, it's easy to burn out. Committing to 100 articles will help me provide a clear answer at the end, indicating whether I should continue or not, regardless of how well it performs in terms of traffic and audience.

People might discover this site months after I post something on it, and that's okay. I will continue to do my best to provide accurate and helpful content. Doing so will help me stay consistent and enable search engines to index the site, making it easier for users to find my information. Pairing these articles with YouTube videos also helps increase my YouTube viewership.

What Comes Next?

Thank you for reading and staying with me. If you're here at the beginning and I haven't published 100 articles yet, subscribe to the email list to stay tuned! Every article is written to save you time, help you build confidence, and give you the real-world skills I had to figure out the hard way. It's going to be interesting and jam-packed with goodies as we move forward.

I’m glad you’re here. Let’s build something worth showing up for.

See you soon!