Acknowledgments

This book owes its shape to the thousands of business professionals who have tried to learn Python and run into the same walls: examples that don't apply to their work, explanations that assume too much prior knowledge, and a general sense that programming resources were written by and for a different kind of person.

Their frustrations shaped every chapter.

Special acknowledgment to the Python community, whose commitment to openness, documentation, and accessibility has made a language that genuinely democratizes data work. The authors of pandas, matplotlib, scikit-learn, Flask, and the dozens of other libraries used in this book have contributed immeasurably to what business professionals can now accomplish.

To everyone who asked "Can I really learn this?" — the answer, as you're about to find out, is yes.