On Receiving the Malcolm Tredinnick Award

Malcolm’s Legacy

Malcolm Tredinnick was an active member of the Django community from its early days. He joined as a core developer from the early days of the project, especially focusing on the ORM. He contributed until his sudden death in 2013. The Django Software Foundation founded the prize in his honour later that year.

I don’t believe I ever interacted with Malcolm. I was less than a year into my Django journey when he passed away, before I engaged with the community. But I have encountered his traces on the web, especially in Django’s ticket tracker and the django-developers mailing list.

Malcolm gave many talks about Python, Django, and other programming adventures. I’ve watched a few on YouTube. I particularly enjoyed his DjangoCon 2012 talk “The Dungeon Master's guide to Django's ORM”, which explains the history of the ORM code, relevant to this day.

A Personal Note

I’m very grateful for receiving the prize in 2021. It was a highlight at the end of a bad year, and it lifted my spirits.

In fact, I can say without hesitation that 2021 was the worst year of my life. My partner’s father died in April, after a battle with cancer. Then, in July, our daughter Lily died in the womb, three weeks before her due date.

It was a rare, unpredictable event: a cord accident. One day she was fine, healthy, and kicking. The next day she was not.

The grief has been very heavy. It took the rest of the year to reach normality, of a kind. I feel acceptance for the loss, and grateful for her existence.

Gratitude

The award nominations are anonymous, so I don’t know who recommended me. But whoever you are, thank you very much.

The other nominees have also deserving for their great work for the community. I wish them luck in future years.

Thank you,

—Adam