# #531: Talk Python in Prod with Michael Kennedy

## A little “tell us about yourself” bit, like you do with your guests

## What prompted you to write it?

## Made by humans

You’re a big AI proponent, yet you’ve got a “Made by Humans” logo, what made you decide to do this the old fashioned way?

## The book has some neat non-standard features

The Audio Reader’s Briefs and the Galleries, gives a quick run down on what they are and why you included them.

## Talk Python’s technical journey

- One of the things I like about the book is that it covers Talk Python’s technical journey. A lot of content like this is very opinionated “this is best”, whereas you’ve shown how your approach has changed over time. You started out in Pyramid, right?

## Why build it yourself?

## Why not just use the cloud?

## Chapter 4 is titled, “Docker, Docker, Docker”

- What’s that one about?
- Originally I wasn't for it, but then "one big server"
- That needs more isolation for the long haul
- Not into docker compose? Consider **Coolify for a Heroku-like self hosted experience**. https://coolify.io

## Docker + uv

This would be fun to dive into a bit. It's really a game changer for speed and flexibility.

## Heavy-weight docker?

A lot of people try to make their docker instances absolutely as minimal as possible. I kind of promote the alternative, adding all the tools that make your life easier. It might be fun to debate this.

## The allure of self hosting

One of the reasons you picked Docker is all the third party apps you can just plug in. In the book you mention btop, glances, and others. How is this a game changer? Any one that sticks out you couldn’t live without?

## Static sites

- Can you have one for a real app?
- Is it either / or?
- Combining static sites + python based ones

## CDNs

- Web apps on easy mode

## Picking a Python Web Framework

I think my favourite chapter was 13, titled “Picking a Python Web Framework”. I liked the nuance of it. We often don’t get to see people’s reasoning behind things. I think there is real value in this chapter even if you’re not planning on using the tech outline elsewhere. Understanding trade-offs is important.

## Similarly Chapter 15: Hetzner

- Where you do a retrospective on choosing Hetzner your host provider.

## Links

- [Talk Python in Production Book](https://talkpython.fm/books/python-in-production)
- [glances](https://github.com/nicolargo/glances)
- [btop](https://github.com/aristocratos/btop)
- [Uptimekuma](https://uptimekuma.org)
- [Coolify](https://coolify.io)
- [Talk Python Blog](https://talkpython.fm/blog/)
- [Hetzner](https://hetzner.cloud/?ref=UQMdSwUenwRE)
- [OpalStack](https://www.opalstack.com/)
- [Bunny.net CDN](https://bunny.net/cdn/)
- [Galleries from the book](https://github.com/mikeckennedy/talk-python-in-production-devops-book/tree/main/galleries)
- [Pandoc](https://pandoc.org)
- [Docker](https://www.docker.com)