Emily Morehouse: Becoming a CPython Core Dev, the Walrus Operator and Chairing PyCon
In this episode, I'm chatting with Emily Morehouse — CPython core developer, former Python Steering Council member, PSF Fellow, and co-founder and director of engineering at Cuttlesoft. She holds three degrees in theater, computer science, and criminology, and picked up Python in college simply because it was more fun than C++. After Guido van Rossum announced at a Python conference that he wanted more women in CPython core development, she emailed Guido. He said yes and personally mentored her. She went on to implement the walrus operator (:=), one of the most controversial features in Python's history and one of the things that ultimately led Guido to step down as BDFL. She also chaired PyCon US for three years, two of which went fully online during the pandemic. Outline 0:00 Episode highlights 0:26 Introduction 1:02 "If someone told you 10 years ago you'd be a core developer…" 1:47 Three degrees: theater, CS, and criminology 1:54 Journey into core development 2:43 Guido's call for female core developers 3:08 "My husband was elbowing me in the side" 3:20 What were you afraid of? 3:57 She emailed Guido — and he said yes 4:34 First language summit: realizing experts are human 5:08 What it's actually like to be mentored by Guido 5:43 The async Friday ritual with Guido and Eric Snow 6:22 Why there's no low-hanging fruit in CPython 7:10 Implementing the Walrus operator (:=) 8:27 Support from the core developer community 8:32 How to inspire more people into core development 9:38 People still reach out years later 10:04 Chairing PyCon US through a pandemic 11:05 What community work teaches you about leadership 12:54 How parenthood changed her relationship with open source 13:59 Practical first steps to contribute to CPython 14:56 Outro Episode links – CPython dev guide: https://devguide.python.org – Cuttlesoft: https://cuttlesoft.com – Emily on GitHub: https://github.com/emilyemorehouse
