March 5, 2024

New Video: uv & Python Packaging – And How It Came to Be

Greetings, friend!

I bet you didn’t expect to hear from me so soon – neither did I! And I beg you not to get used to it, for better and worse.

In my last email I told you that after spending two months on Loose Coupling & Dependency Injection the EASY Way!, I’ve challenged myself to produce a video as fast as I can.

And I’ve succeeded! I’ve managed to push it out in exactly two weeks:

Is uv the Future of Python Packaging? 🐍📦

I don’t think two weeks of sacrificed free time is particularly impressive, but it gives me hope!

Behind the Scenes

I’d recommend watching the video first.

I didn’t plan on creating Python packaging content so soon, but the release of uv was a great opportunity to take a stab at a) trying to create a time-sensitive video in a short time and b) clarifying things that seriously annoy me in the Python packaging discussion. Of course, this is how I got my first downvote on a video. 🤪

The real joke is, though, that I started out with a yes/no question to keep it short, but as I was adding context to answer it, I ended up with another 18-minute video – only a few seconds shorter than my longest one.

Ultimately, I think the lesson is that context is the value I’m adding. Even a dumb, low-token LLM can summarize a text or video and wrap it into a nice video. Earned experience is what I’m looking for in the content I consume – I assume you, dear friend and reader, too. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here!

Homer 💔

The video marks the end of the era as I use my beloved Homer Simpson coffee cup to indicate the passage of time. I got it for my birthday more than 20 years ago, and it has been my faithful companion through college, internships, jobs, one divorce, and much more.

A few days after recording the video, I dropped it in the sink from not even 30cm/1 foot, and it broke immediately. So, I’m very glad I’ve immortalized it in the video. RIP, role model. 😢

Microphone Punching – An Apology

Many have expressed their disappointment in the lack of microphone punching.

I hear you, I’m sorry, and while I realize it’s not a real substitute, I’d like to guide your attention to the beautiful microphone wobbling caused by a wobbly IKEA standing desk combined with a microphone boom! Whenever I touch the table, I look like I’m in a hurricane.

Editing

Currently, I spend the most time and energy on editing. You’d be surprised how manual and laborious it is if you don’t want to just flash a bunch of slides! And even that is kinda annoying because I create them Keynote, export them as PNG images, save them into the project folder, don’t forget to rename them, drag-drop into the app, drag-drop into the timeline, crop the edges, … oops, there’s a typo… back to Keynote! That’s kinda also the explanation for the low-contrast purple in the top left… I’m sorry, I’ll do better. I’m all ears if anyone has a more straightforward solution to getting slides into videos!

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The last two videos were produced with the free version of DaVinci Resolve¹, which is an incredible gift to the world. Anybody can start producing professional videos right away. Unfortunately, it doesn’t fit my brain too well, so I’ve switched to the trial version of Final Cut Pro in the hopes that my Keynote-adjusted brain works with it better – and it does!

I’m still very much in the learning phase with FCP, which leads to some trippy transitions between cuts. I'm sorry about that! You’ll also notice how the style changes throughout the video, where I learned/found new approaches but didn’t have the energy to go back and re-do everything. Still working on publishing things I’m not happy with, but I’m getting better at it. 🧘‍♂️

Assuming I’ll stick to video creation, I’m looking at a 350 € bill in two months tho, so thanks again to all my GitHub Sponsors and Tidelift subscribers. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to justify such expenses. ❤️❤️❤️

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I don’t want to get too self-indulgent here, especially given I’ve only published three videos! If y’all are interested, I can share more in the future, but I didn’t plan on making this a video production newsletter. :)

For anyone who wants to get started with video but doesn’t know how: I’ve found Ali Abdaal²’s Part-Time YouTuber Foundations very useful. It’s just $1, and you can get it refunded once you publish your first video.

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Anyhow, that’s all for this time! Thanks for being subscribed, and don’t expect another email anytime soon. 😅

Cheers,
—h