An interview with Felienne Hermans
31 Aug 2025We’re delighted to share an interview with one of our keynote speakers for PyCon UK 2025, Felienne Hermans. Felienne kindly took the time to let us pick her brains about her first steps into programming, her career, the projects that inspire her today, and what she’s most looking forward to when she joins us in Manchester this September. Let’s dive in!
1. What first got you interested in programming, and how did your journey with Python begin?
I learned programming, like a lot of people my age, by copying BASIC listings from books and magazines in the early 90s. There was little else to do, there was no internet yet, and no Steam or YouTube to distract me ☺. In my studies and early career I learned Pascal, VB(.NET) and C#.
I only started to learn Python when I started to teach a course on Python at the university! At first I found it really hard because it is so different from C#, but as I mastered it, I saw its elegant design and now I could not imagine writing code in a different language. Sometimes I do a little bit of JavaScript but then I miss Python and it’s lack of curlies!
2. What have been some of the most rewarding or surprising moments in your career so far?
When people tell me “I used to think programming was not for me — and now I enjoy it!” is a highlight. That’s what I want to teach programming for, to get people excited that thought they could not do it!
Building my programming language Hedy of course was a big contributor to that.
3. Could you tell us about a current project or idea you’re excited about — professionally or personally?
Through Hedy I got exposed to Arabic because it is one of the 70ish languages that we support and I am learning that now. It is such a beautiful language and so hard! I really enjoy learning, because learning hard things makes you better at teaching too.
4. How has the Python language and community shaped or supported your work over the years?
Hedy is a direct cousin of Python, I sometimes call it “baby Python” because we make the syntax even easier in the beginning.
5. What are some of the challenges you see the Python ecosystem facing today — and what gives you hope for the future?
One challenge is definitely that there no longer is one Python. Python is used everywhere now, from primary schools to research to production systems, and that means we need to support many levels of learners and users.
6. This year, you’re joining PyCon UK as a keynote speaker! What are you most looking forward to about the event?
It is always great to get an opportunity to present your work, and I have found the Python community to be one of the friendliest and easiest to get excited! Because Hedy is so closely aligned to Python and its community, it is always fun.
7. Without giving too much away, what’s something you hope the audience will come away thinking about after hearing your talk?
When I present work on programming in languages other than English (English native speaking), people are often baffled when they learn how many varieties of natural languages there are, and how much Python and other programming languages lean on English and its conventions and oddities.
8. Have you spent much time in Manchester before? Are there any places you’re hoping to explore while you’re here?
I’ve only visited briefly a decade and a half ago! So I’m really hoping to explore a bit more this time! I hope to have time to visit the John Rylands Library (I’m a huge fan of libraries!), and on Sunday morning I will surely go out for a long run to get some marathon training in!
9. If you could invent a new Python standard library module for any task (serious or silly), what would it do?
My dream would be a library that would allow people to program Python in their own native language, and a system that would seamlessly convert languages. Technically this is not superhard, we have done a lot of the work in Hedy, but culturally… people resist this idea with great force.
10. What’s one thing you wish more people in tech would talk about?
I will cheat and reverse the question. We should really talk about fun a whole lot less. I know that sounds weird and contra-intuitive, but the emphasis on fun, and doing stuff for the sheer joy of us, has driven us away from value-based software. From building stuff that is important, but boring, that is, in principle, easy but a lot of work.
And that’s a wrap!
Thank you very much Felienne, for taking the time to participate. We look forward to seeing you on stage in September 🚀
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