[Journey] Learning Python Programming as a Lawyer

Ever since I was first exposed to the internet, around the era of Symbian phones, I’ve had a quiet but persistent curiosity for technology.

My first internet-enabled device was the Nokia 6600, followed by the Nokia E63 and later the Nokia E75, which felt massive at the time. This was between 2009 and 2012, during my first degree. Back then, I was already tinkering with technical concepts, albeit informally. I was one of those guys in my immediate community who knew how to configure cheat codes to bypass ISP subscriptions. I wasn’t doing it for profit, pure curiosity drove me.

Fast forward to my second degree, and my interest in technology deepened. I became more intentional about learning, spending time on platforms like W3Schools and participating in HNG 7, where I was exposed to mainstream programming, particularly C#.

However, learning to code was tough.

Understanding what was really happening behind the syntax felt like rocket science. At the time, platforms like Stack Overflow, the go-to place for programmers to ask questions, weren’t immediate or interactive enough to support my learning style. I’d hit a wall, get frustrated, and abandon programming altogether without fully realizing why.

This cycle repeated itself for years.

I’d return to programming, struggle, get discouraged, and disappear again. Yet, beneath all of that was a genuine passion. The idea of earning a living without being tied to a physical office, working from anywhere, even while on vacation with family and friends, kept pulling me back. That freedom has always been my strongest motivation for wanting to become a programmer.

Today, things are different.

With the emergence of AI tools that can guide learning in real time, I’ve decided to invest a significant amount of my time into finally closing this chapter I’ve left open for years. This time, though, I’m being intentional about direction. I want to niche down and learn programming specifically to meet the needs of law firms and lawyers.

I’m already thinking ahead about how to market this skill, either by teaching lawyers or by leveraging it to secure a high-paying role in a tech-forward law firm, potentially earning seven figures monthly. Still, I don’t want to fantasize too much about the rewards just yet. My focus is on acquiring the right skills, measuring my growth, understanding how it happens, what triggers it, and which areas are genuinely developing.

One thing I’ve learned about myself is this: my knowledge increases fastest when I apply concepts to real-world situations. That realization led me to start building my programming knowledge through pseudocode. I didn’t come up with this idea originally, I stumbled on it while browsing, possibly on LinkedIn, but it has made a noticeable difference.

I’m currently experimenting with different learning optimization methods. One approach I’m testing is repetition. My goal is to see whether, through consistent repetition, I’ll be able to independently write code by the end of January. I’ve also made a personal rule: no day should pass without reading about programming or writing some form of code. Lessons will be repeated as many times as necessary.

That said, repetition comes with its own challenge for me, I tend to lose enthusiasm quickly. I’m actively tweaking this method to find ways to sustain my morale and make the process more enjoyable.

I believe that once I can genuinely enjoy repetitive learning and consistently apply my knowledge to real-world scenarios through pseudocode, I’ll reach my goal in less than six months.

I’ll be updating this thread as I progress. It’s meant to serve as both a growth tracker and a personal journal, documenting my journey from zero to hero.

Once you have mastered programming , you can use thise skills to combine with current skills of law. May be a platform to offer law services .

Nice journey, man. Good luck on the grind!

Day 2

I spent most of the night thinking deeply about the smartest way to learn Python.

When I asked AI to suggest a learning path, I noticed something immediately: the outline was a long, seemingly endless list of topics. It felt overwhelming. So I pushed back and asked a different question, whether I could start by building my intended solution right away, using pseudocode for clarity, instead of following a rigid curriculum.

The answer was yes.

That decision opened up a completely new layer of insight. The AI began exposing me to ideas around product design, intellectual property, externalizing the implicit behavior of existing solutions for inspiration, and splitting knowledge domains to protect IP, among other things.

Then came the aha moment.

The AI would first express ideas in pseudocode and later translate them into Python. Almost immediately, things started to make sense. I realized that to build the kind of solution I have in mind, I need to break it down into distinct components, implement each as a function, and then call those functions where necessary in the main program.

More importantly, I saw how the “constitution,” rules, and client-facing logic of the system can remain entirely within my private domain. No external engineer needs access to those parts because they constitute my intellectual property, elements that can potentially be protected or even patented.

Once the idea and purpose behind each component became clear, I could finally understand what was happening “under the hood” of the code. The syntax stopped feeling mysterious. The logic started to feel intentional.

At the moment, I’m still handling a cross-border intellectual property dispute for a client, which requires urgent attention. Once that’s settled, I plan to start writing the actual code and testing each component individually.

I won’t share too much detail about what I’m building just yet, but broadly, it falls within the space of legal document management

Wish you all the best for your target!

And if you learn. dont use ai to learn programming, look for sources like you said. w3school for example.

another think is you learn only by doing, dont watch to much youtube videos. do project based learning.

Just a small heads up universal rule that'll hopefully help you develop an intuition for python.

Everything is an object in Python.

To interact with anything (be it a text file, a datasheet, an image, a video) you'll have to turn that thing into a python compatible object on which you can use methods and functions.

To interact with files you have to transform that file into a python compatible filetype object.
For CSV files you'll need to turn it into Data frame object, and so on.


Remember this, and python becomes a smooth learning curve. Rest is all dependant on how good you're at reading python library and module documentations.

really interesting don't give up