"def,drop,obs,abs-The Words That Broke Me First"

Sanchi — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 12:09:46 +0000

_ Part2 of an honest journey from zoology to code-no one told me where
To start._

I started my Kaggle journey with Python. directly. No steps before it, no one behind me pointing the way.

Everyone I know is from commerce, arts, biology, or math. None of them speak this language. So when I opened my first notebook, there was no one to ask, "Is this normal?" No mentor, no course, no one checking my work. Just me, a notebook, and way too many tabs open.

I didn't know what I was looking at. Didn't know where to start, what to click, or what I was even supposed to be doing. The code just sat there and stared back at me, like it was waiting for me to know something I didn't.

I started with Kaggle's Python course, chapter by chapter: functions, loops, lists, conditionals. And here's the strange part — the tutorial part, I'd read it, understand it, nod along like, yes, this makes sense, I've got this.

Then the exercise notebook would open. empty, blinking cursor. And my mind would go completely blank. Like I hadn't read anything at all. Like the last ten minutes never happened.

Looking back, I think it wasn't just one thing. The logic didn't make sense to me, and neither did the words on the screen. Two problems at once, tangled together, so I couldn't even tell which one was actually stopping me.

'def'. What is that? Define what? Define how? I remember reading it three or four times and still not moving forward. I opened a new tab, googled it, read three different explanations, and still felt stupid. It was late, I was tired, and one word had stopped me completely.

'feature'. I kept seeing it everywhere, like it was obvious, like everyone just knew. Turns out it's just a column. Something I was supposed to look at, question, maybe fix. I felt silly once I figured that out.

'drop'. Drop what, drop where? Eventually I understood — drop a feature from the table, out of the notebook. Such a small word, carrying so much decision behind it.

And then came the short forms. 'obs'. 'abs'. I stared at both like they were in another language — turns out they were just observations and absolute values, hiding behind two lazy letters. Somehow, the shortcuts confused me more than the actual words did.

None of this was hard because it was smart. It was hard because it was foreign. In zoology, I never had to ask what a word meant twice. I knew a language there. Here, I was relearning how to read before I could even try to think.

I'm not writing this because I've figured it out. I'm writing this because I haven't, and some days that's the only honest thing I have to say.

Still confused most days. But a little less lost than I was last week.

And just when I thought I was starting to get somewhere — the errors started. Red text everywhere, messages I couldn't read, code breaking for reasons I still don't fully understand. That's a whole story on its own.

So if you've ever stared at an error message and felt personally attacked by your own laptop, stick around. That one's coming next.

I Don't Know How to Code. I'm Learning Anyway.

Sanchi — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 10:14:20 +0000

A_Zoology postgraduate's honest journey into the world of coding.

**I have a BSc in Life Science and an MSc in Zoology. I know cells.i know organisms.i know how to sit with a research problem and think it through carefully.

But code?not long ago, i couldn't even read a line of it-i didn't know what i was looking at, how it was meant to be read,or how it was meant to be written.

So why did i start?

Honestly-fear. i kept watching the world move faster,technology becoming the language of everything,and i felt something uncomfortable sitting in my chest. a quiet fear. what if i get left behind? not dramatically,not all at once-just slowly,quietly,becoming irrelevant in a world that was speaking a language i never learned.

That fear was the first reason.

The second was something harder to admit—I want to build my name in this field.i want a career here. I don't even fully know what that looks like yet. but the want is there.loud and clear,even when everything else is confusing.

And the third reason-the one that actually gets me through the hard days-is curiosity.a real pull towards this whole world of coding.i don't fully understand it yet, but something about it draws me in.

In the beginning,a missing comma or a stray hyphen made no sense to me. i didn't understand why they mattered,or how something so small could break everything.i'd stare at an error with no idea what i'd done wrong.

Now, slowly,i've started noticing those small mistakes myself-usually after i run the code and it breaks.it's a tiny thing.but it's mine.

So here i am.still at the beginning.learning on kaggle. making mistakes i'll probably write about here.

This blog is not a tutorial. i have nothing to teach you yet.

This is just a story told honestly, from inside the confusion.

I hope you'll read along.

_**

DEV Community: Sanchi

"def,drop,obs,abs-The Words That Broke Me First"

I Don't Know How to Code. I'm Learning Anyway.