This is a blog series where we're asking each of our PyConUS 2026 keynote speakers about their journey into tech, how excited they are for PyconUS and any tips they can provide for an awesome conference experience!
Thank you Pablo for this interview! You can learn more about Pablo's keynote on the PyConUS Keynote Speakers page and you can also attend Pablo Galindo Salgados meet and greet at the PSF Booth in the Expo Hall on Saturday May 16 after Pablo's keynote.
How did you get started in tech/Python? Did you have a friend or a mentor that helped you?
I got into tech through the back door: as part of my Physics studies, needing to write code to run simulations and process data. The simulations themselves were in Fortran 77 and C++ but for the rest I tried a bunch of languages before landing on Python, but Python had something the others didn't: it was genuinely fun. And then I discovered the community, and that was it. I didn't have a single mentor so much as a whole constellation of generous people in the Python world. The core dev team is full of some of the most talented and kind people I've ever met, and I learn from them every single day.
What do you think the most important work you've ever done is?
Honestly, a tough one. I've done technical work I'm proud of: the PEG parser, better error messages, performance and memory profilers, debuggers, work in the garbage collector, the Steering Council... but if I'm being real, the human contributions matter more to me than the technical ones. The contributors I've mentored who became core developers themselves. The talk that made someone feel like they could contribute too. The code will always be there (or not!) but helping people feel welcome and capable in this community is the work that actually keeps me going.
Have you been to PyCon US before? What are you looking forward to?
This will be my sixth PyCon US! I should probably be blasé about it by now, but I'm genuinely not. Every year I get that same rush walking into a room full of people who care as deeply about this stuff as I do. What I'm most looking forward to is seeing everyone: there are so many people in this community I only get to see once a year, and those reunions mean the world to me. And the conversations. The hallway conversations, the late-night ones, the ones that start at a talk and end up somewhere completely unexpected. That's where the magic happens.
Do you have any advice for first-time conference goers?
Talk to people! The hallway track is real and it's where some of the best things at PyCon happen. Introduce yourself, go to the social events, ask questions after talks: everyone here is friendly and almost everyone remembers what it felt like to be new. And please, go to the Sprints. They are so underrated. You don't need to be an expert, you just need to show up and people will help you find something to work on, and it might just be the start of something big. Finally, be kind to yourself. You won't see everything and that's okay. Pick what excites you, let yourself be surprised, and enjoy being part of something wonderful.
Can you tell us about an open source project not enough people know about?
A twist: CPython itself. Everyone knows about CPython, but I don't think people really know it as a community : a place where real humans show up every day and do imperfect, collaborative, joyful work together. There's a persistent myth that core developers are geniuses in an ivory tower who never make mistakes. I want to bust that completely. We are normal people. We make mistakes, we don't always know the answers, we learn from each other, and we have an enormous amount of fun. How CPython gets built is still a mystery to many Python developers, but it really doesn't need to be. The project is open, the conversations are public, and the door is open to anyone who wants to contribute. Come take a look! You might be surprised at how human it all is.
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