Reuven’s 2025 in review

December 23, 2025 . By Reuven

Can you believe that 2025 is almost over? It was full of big events for me, and yet it also whizzed past at breakneck speed.

And so, before we start 2026, I want to share a whole bunch of updates on what I’ve done over the last 12 months — and where I plan to go in 2026, as well.

LernerPython

The biggest thing for me this year was the new LernerPython site. This site supports functionality that was previously impossible — and because it’s mine, it also allows me to fix problems and customize things more easily. I look forward to extending and customizing it even more in the coming months. Thanks to everyone who sent me bug reports about the site and course content during this transition period.

Among other things, the site automatically integrates with our private Discord server, which is our hub for not only questions and discussions, but also calendar invites to live Zoom sessions. It’s also where I save recordings from our Zoom meetings.

The site is also integrated with Bamboo Weekly, ensuring that LernerPython+data members get a complimentary subscription without the need for manual intervention.

In 2025, I held live office hours on Zoom nearly every month for Python subscribers, and separate office hours nearly every month for Pandas subscribers. I really enjoy those sessions! Keep bringing your questions, thoughts, and stories.

I also held special, members-only lectures just about every month. These ranged in topic from the Unix shell to Marimo to dataclasses to concurrency. Thanks to those of you who attended, and especially those who suggested lecture topics. Recordings from these sessions are in the “meeting recordings” channels on Discord.

This year marked my start as a preferred partner with the Python Institute, a certification agency for Python. Members of LernerPython get discounts on their exams, making it easier (I hope!) to get good jobs in the Python world. In 2026, I plan to start a special monthly session of office hours to help you prepare for these exams.

With the new LernerPython.com now ready, I’ll record some new courses in 2026, as well as re-record some of the older, existing ones.

I’ll also bump up visibility of my Personal Python Coaching program, for people who just want an hour of my time for strategy, code review, or a clearer understanding of Python, Git, and Pandas topics.

Intensive training — PythonDAB and HOPPy

My best, longest, and most intensive course is PythonDAB, the Python Data Analytics Bootcamp. Over four months, participants learn Python, Git, and Pandas, meeting twice each week, solving exercises, and digging into the nuts and bolts of Python and Pandas. Cohort 8 started earlier this month, and the sessions are (as always) full of insightful questions and comments. I expect to open PythonDAB 9 in late May or early June of 2026 — and if you think it’s a good fit for you, I hope that you’ll apply, or at least ask me about it!

This year marked the start of a new class: HOPPy, Hands-on Projects in Python. HOPPy is about learning through doing, building a project that’s meaningful to you — but within the general theme of that specific HOPPy cohort. People created some amazing applications, from a communications system for heatlh clinics to a personal blood-pressure monitor to a bank status summarizer.

HOPPy is open (for an additional fee) to LernerPython members, and is included in the price for PythonDAB participants. I will be running 4-5 HOPPy cohorts in 2026, including one in January about data dashboards. More info is coming soon — but if you’ve always wanted to learn more in a mentored environment, and as a bonus add a new product to your personal portfolio, then HOPPy is just what you’re looking for.

Corporate training

I gave a good deal of training classes at companies in 2025, including at Apple, Arm, Cisco, Intel, and Sandisk. (I also gave a number of online classes for O’Reilly’s platform.) These range from “Python for non-programmers” to intro and advanced Python, to intro Pandas, to my “Python Practice Workshop” and “Pandas Practice Workshop” one-day courses.

If your team wants to level up its Python skills, let’s chat! I’d love to hear more about your team’s needs, and what kind of custom class would work best for you.

A number of companies also joined LernerPython using my team membership feature, allowing a manager to control the allocation of seats.

Conferences

I can’t get enough of Python conferences, which combine serious learning with friendly people. This year, I attended a number of conferences in person:

• At PyCon US in Pittsburgh, I had a booth advertising my training programs, gave a tutorial on comprehensions, and also gave a talk about PyArrow’s future in the Pandas library. I also gave a talk about AI and learning at PyCon’s education summit.
• At Euro Python in Prague, I gave a tutorial called, “Let’s write a dictionary,” which dug into how Python’s dictionaries work by creating one. My talk, “What = does in Python,” was fun to both research and talk. I also volunteered for the second year in a row, introducing speakers at several sessions.
• I attended PyCon Taiwan for the second time, giving both a tutorial and a talk (“What does = do?”) there, as well. I can’t say enough positive things about Taiwan, and the Python community there is really delightful. I sponsored PyCon TW as well, and brought my two daughters with me to staff the booth and help me there. (Also, we got a chance to tour Taiwan together, which I highly recommend!)
• I was invited to give a keynote address at PyCon India in Bangalore. This was my second time in India, and both the country and the conference lived up to all of my expectations. In addition to my talk, about the future of coding and learning in an AI-dominated world, I also attended many interesting talks, ate delicious food, and had some business meetings that I hope will give me many reasons to return to India in the future.
• I sponsored PyData Tel Aviv in November, and also gave a talk about Marimo notebooks. Not only was this conference fun and interesting, but the organizers required that every speaker give a practice run of their talk two weeks before the conference took place. This was a huge boost to the quality of the talks, and I encourage every conference organizer to adopt this practice.

I also spoke at a number of online user groups, meetups, and regional conferences, including Python Ho (in Ghana) and the Marimo user community.

If you run a user group or conference, and would like to have me speak, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

I’ve already signed the contract to sponsor PyCon US 2026 in Long Beach, and I’ve submitted several talk and tutorial proposals. I hope to see you there!

Books

When I finished Pandas Workout last year, I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to write another book. So of course, I found myself working on two books this year:

• The second edition of Python Workout, with 200 exercises to improve your Python fluency, is now out! It has been updated to include the latest versions of Python, as well as discussion of such tools as “uv”. Plus, I changed a few exercises with better, more appropriate ones. Thanks to everyone at Manning, my publisher, for the support in getting this over the finish line.
• I’m currently writing a totally new book for O’Reilly, “AI-assisted Python for non-programmers.” The book, as the title indicates, introduces Python to people with little or no programming experience. The book doesn’t ask the AI to write code, but instead to provide you with challenges that improve on the exercises in the book. The book will be ready in October of 2026, but you can already see it in early release on the O’Reilly platform.

Newsletters

As you might know, I publish three weekly newsletters:

• Better Developers, with a new Python article each week. I wrote 40 new issues this year, on topics ranging from argparse to uv.
• Bamboo Weekly, with new Pandas puzzles every Wednesday and solutions every Thursday. I’m proud to say that I published BW every single week this year — 52 new sets of questions and solutions! I switched from Jupyter to Marimo for my BW notebooks, and share them with paid subscribers via the collaborative “Molab” system.
• Trainer Weekly, about the career of being an independent trainer. I published 39 new issues this year.

This year, I published a new, free e-mail course about uv, called “uv crash course,” taken from some recent editions of Better Developers. You can check it out at https://uvCrashCourse.com .

If you’re enjoying one or more of my newsletters, please tell others about them and encourage them to subscribe!

And if there are specific topics you would like me to cover? I’m always happy to hear from readers.

YouTube and social media

I’ve been especially active on YouTube this year, at https://YouTube.com/reuvenlerner, with about 60 new videos published about Python, Pandas, Git, Jupyter, and Marimo.

My most recent addition is a new playlist about Pandas 3. I’m adding new videos every day, and hope to get a good collection in place before Pandas 3 is released in the near future.

I also put the entire “Python for non-programmers” course (15 videos) and “Ace Python Interviews” course (50 videos) on my YouTube channel.

I’ve mainly been posting to Bluesky and LinkedIn, but I’ll often mirror postings to X (aka Twitter), Threads, and Fosstodon.

My blog has taken a back seat to other channels over the last few years, but I did find some reasons to post in 2025. Among my more interesting postings:

• A long description of the 11-day trip my wife, daughter, and I took on Iceland’s Ring Road: https://lerner.co.il/2025/01/05/eleven-days-on-icelands-ring-road/
• How to make the most of Python conferences: https://lerner.co.il/2025/07/27/how-to-conference/
• To celebrate 30 years since I opened my business, I shared 30 lessons I’ve learned along the way: https://lerner.co.il/2025/12/08/30-things-ive-learned-from-30-years-in-business/

Podcasts

I believe that I only appeared on two podcasts this year — and both were episodes of Talk Python! I appeared on episode 503 in April, about PyArrow and Pandas (https://talkpython.fm/episodes/show/503/the-pyarrow-revolution), and more recently appeared on a panel discussion reviewing the year in Python news (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfRCbeOrUd8) .

Several personal notes, and a request

The last two years have been difficult in Israel. I’m relieved that the war with Hamas (and related conflicts with Hezbollah, Yemen, and Iran) are largely over. And I hope that we can now work to bring about peace, prosperity, freedom, and coexistence between Israelis and our neighbors, most especially the Palestinians.

The missile alerts and attacks, which regularly woke us up for the better part of two years, and which caused untold death, injury, and destruction, were one of the more terrifying periods I’ve ever lived through. Of course, I know that things were also bad for many Palestinian civilians.

My family donates to Israeli organizations that promote the rule of law, democracy, religious pluralism, and peacemaking with our neighbors — and while it’s easy to give up hope that things will improve, I refuse to do so. We can and should try to make a difference in the world, even if it’s just a small one.

I appreciate the very large, warm outpouring of care and support that I received throughout the last two years from so many of you. It really means a lot.

Beyond Israel, I’ve been watching developments in the US with concern. In particular, it’s quite upsetting to see the wholescale destruction of science, engineering, and medical research in the US. As a regular consumer of US government data (for Bamboo Weekly), the degree to which that data is no longer considered the most reliable and nonpartisan in the world is a grave disappointment — and a professional frustration.

If you’re reading this, then the Trump administration’s policies have affected you, too: The Python Software Foundation recently turned down a $1.5 million grant for increased Python security. That’s because the grant required the PSF give up its efforts to make Python available to everyone, no matter who they are.

If you’ve gotten $100 of value out of Python in the last year, then I ask that you join the PSF as a paid member. If even 5 percent of Python users were to join the PSF, that would reduce or eliminate Python’s dependence on any one government or organization, and allow it to concentrate on its goals. Joining the PSF also give you the right to vote in annual elections, which means choosing the people who will set Python’s priorities over the coming years.

Thanks again for your subscriptions, support, friendly notes, and bug reports. I look forward to a new year of learning even more new things, of meeting more interesting, smart people, serving your learning needs, and to helping make our world just a bit friendlier, closer, and peaceful.

Best wishes for a great 2026!

Reuven

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