Learning has always been a pleasure of mine. My favorite day of the year was the first day of school. I have been a podiatrist for over forty years and have found my relationship with my patients and learning new approaches to treatment to be the most rewarding aspects of clinical practice. However, as the years have passed, I have utilized the treatments and surgical approaches that have worked the best for my patients. Finding out about new ones did not mean that they would be utilized since I could achieve resolution of issues utilizing tried and true methods. There have been exceptions. Approximately two months ago a patient came in with a situation that I had never seen before and had to figure out the treatment that was correct. I am still in touch with that patient and she is extremely grateful for the care that I gave her. This type of learning experience though is currently a rare exception.
Several years ago, one of my son’s friends introduced me to the Python programming language and I became hooked, taking multiple courses and even becoming PCEP certified by The Python Institute. My proudest achievement is the creation of supervised learning Keras and ensemble models to predict if a diabetic patient will develop an ulceration. Ultimately, I would like to use my clinical experience in a programming environment.
I have come to realize that my Python experience did not prepare me to find work since companies expect their employees to have specific applicable programming knowledge. Everyone who I have spoken to about this issue recommended that I learn software engineering since that is the basic skill that can be used as a starting point.
Someone once explained to me a fascinating concept. Regarding programming there are two piles, the pile of what you know and the pile of what you don’t know. The pile of what you know becomes larger but the pile of what you do not know does not decrease in size. This concept is so exciting because it means that by being involved in programming, I will be able to be continuously learning while at the same time contributing to society.
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