Ask HN: What will you learn this year?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=416432

by Anon84 • 18 years ago

36 88 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Every year, I pick a topic I want to learn more about. Not just by professional imperatives but mostly by sheer curiosity. At one point, it was C++, Japanese, Monte-Carlo, Business, Politics, Economics, etc... This year, it's investing and finance in general and the financial crisis in particular (for obvious reasons).

With the new year still wet behind the ears, what have you decided to learn about?

vaksel• 18 years ago

Keeping costs as low as possible long term.

mikeyur• 18 years ago

I want to learn more about marketing and SEO. I have the basics, but I want to take it a step further.

zitterbewegung• 18 years ago

Lots of mathematics, abstract algebra, computability, topology, linear algebra. Also, I want to understand more about theoretical computer science.

raju• 18 years ago

Go back to the basics - This year, there is only book that I want to read - SICP. I get through that, and I know I will be a better developer for the rest of my days...

Of course I am currently reading Real World Haskell (just took a break to read HN), so its not quite the start I wanted, but hopefully learning Haskell will bring me to a closer understanding of the math behind programming

Less multi-tasking - I started this a week ago, when I was working I switched off the twitter client, the email, and the phone. And I got so much more done with so less effort.

Finding myself - More time meditating, and writing (like a journal). Time over the last 2 years has flown by and I feel like I have nothing to show for it. Meditating had always helped me compose myself, not to mention it will help with finding the "zone" (Along the lines of less multi-tasking)

More hacking, actually putting what I learn to metal. I tend to be academic in nature, but deep inside I know I that its when I put it to use that it really resonates with me

Finally, just being happy. Fretting over every new technology that I feel I just have to know about gives me the satisfaction of knowing about it, without getting enough depth to "know" it.

Anon842• 18 years ago

       Go back to the basics - This year, there is only book that I want to read - SICP.

I actually started going over it (along with the videos of the lectures) a couple of weeks ago.

davidw2• 18 years ago

The raising of my daughter.

qqq14• 18 years ago

http://www.takingchildrenseriously.com/

tptacek15• 18 years ago

Homeschooling?

tptacek15• 18 years ago

You'll do great. How old is she?

davidw2• 18 years ago

8 months old in a few days!

mtw• 18 years ago

be serious about javascript, re-learn C, re-learn stats, master user interface design

motoko• 18 years ago

I strongly recommend: - jQuery (all the documentation you'll need is online) - O'Reilly JavaScript: The Definitive Guide - Firebug Javascript Debugger for Firefox. - Emacs Javascript Mode - Some virtual machine environment for IE6 testing (IE6 testing will be your biggest chore, but it's essential for any public website)

Also, read the source code of sites you like or to see how novel effects work.

This should be (almost) everything that you'll need.

qqq14• 18 years ago

I'm going to learn more philosophy and maybe some physics.

Anon842• 18 years ago

I always thought that physics is the mother of all philosophy (at least the of "natural" kind)... then again, I am a physicist. :D

qqq14• 18 years ago

No, no, it's the other way around :)

Physics is "natural philosophy", one branch of philosophy. There is also philosophy of knowledge, existence, morals, political philosophy, etc.

shimon• 18 years ago

I'm going to learn about making money via subscription payments. I've launched a few apps, some that I'm very proud of, but nothing that attempts to make money in the most straightforward way: charging for use. Consequently I've never felt like I really understood this simple thing, or how easy it would be to deploy it on a new or existing app.

More broadly, my goal is to learn about bringing a business to life. Having quit my day job and switched to consulting in the last year, I'd really like to start exploring new opportunities that could make money while I sleep.

jfornear• 18 years ago

I'm in the same boat. I want to learn to think of ideas for apps that would create real value that either consumers or businesses would be willing to pay for.

sidmitra• 18 years ago

1. Statistics: Hate the way it was taught in college.

2. And maybe the Guitar. I'll start by learning to tune it first, which was the reason it's gathering dust in the first place.

dag• 18 years ago

Guitar string frequencies are 82 Hz, 110 Hz, 147 Hz, 196 Hz, 247 Hz, and 330 Hz. Generate each frequency and twist the knobs until you can no longer hear a beat frequency. Or buy a tuner.

If the strings are hard to keep in tune you will want to replace them. In that case google "change guitar strings".

Then you search "smoke on the water tab", and you should be good from there.

chett• 18 years ago

Good advice. When buying a tuner look for a "chromatic" meaning it can tune ALL frequencies (within a certain range) no more than $40. This will give you more flexibility down the road. String names from high (the skinny one) to low are E B G D A E. And your first string change will probably be awful. Leave extra room and try to keep the winds even. Good Luck!

tokenadult3• 18 years ago

"Statistics: Hate the way it was taught in college."

I don't know how statistics was taught to you in college, but I find

http://statland.org/MAAFIXED.PDF

a very inspiring article about how statistics ought to be taught, and it includes recommendations of better textbooks, some of which are quite readable for self-study.

Here's another good critique of how college statistics courses are usually taught:

http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=10...

nonrecursive• 18 years ago

If you have a mac search for "tuna pitch", it's a decent free guitar tuner

effektz• 18 years ago

Ruby!

tptacek15• 18 years ago

Ok, and then what are you going to learn on January 3rd?

juliend2• 18 years ago

I want to learn Ruby too! Especially with Rails. I just want to get rid of PHP. Maybe it's not going to happen this year completely, but at least i will try. I find it's a fantastic framework. I worked with CakePHP and CodeIgniter before, but any PHP framework is just far behind the ruby syntax.

RossM• 18 years ago

Erk, exactly (swap CodeIgnitor for ZF) the same position I'm in.

djm• 18 years ago

I want to learn more about social psychology. I've just read Cialdini's book "influence" and have become fascinated with the subject.

As far as technical stuff goes I'd like to go through SICP - I had a small exposure to lisp years ago and would like to try it out again.

I'm also going to be doing some courses with the UK's open university (distance learning) - a math refresher and a course on processors/hardware.

gommm• 18 years ago

Learn to manage my time better and stop procastinating with HN :-)

More seriously, I want to read SICP seriously and play again with Ocaml (I used it quite a bit in university and really liked this language)

On things outside of programming, I'm going to get my chinese back into shape...

yummyfajitas• 18 years ago

Statistics and Eskrima.

tptacek15• 18 years ago

The math behind signal processing; curing and drying ham and salami.

mtrichardson• 18 years ago

Judo. I was so happy when I was doing it previously and I'm disappointed I ever stopped (graduated from college). But, the best dojo in town is right near my house, so there we go.

After that, I want to focus on polish. I too often focus on the end result but I'm bad at getting to the done-done stage - specifically, UI/UX.

tokenadult3• 18 years ago

I'd like to learn more about economics. I'm happy to hear suggestions about what I should read.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=415683

Someone who likes to read a lot elsewhere in cyberspace just recommended to me the Becker-Posner blog.

http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

showerst• 18 years ago

Here are the blogs I'd start with: For behavioral and general economics, my two favorites are Tyler Cowen and The Big Picture

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/

For Development/Macroeconomics two great ones (besides Becker/Posner) are Greg Mankiw & Danny Rodrik

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/

http://rodrik.typepad.com/

Mankiw is a bit more traditional than Rodrik, so they tend to have some great back & forth, and when the discussion jumps above college-level they tend to link/explain things. </econ nerd>

tokenadult3• 18 years ago

Thanks for the suggestions. I see Big Picture just moved to a new URL.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/

swombat• 18 years ago

Public speaking. I'm signing up to some Toastmasters meetings and learning to do that well.

imp• 18 years ago

Cool. I've been doing it for over a year now and it's a lot of fun and very helpful.

yan• 18 years ago

My plans:

  - dedicate an hour a day to nothing but reading
  - ditto for exercise
  - finish the MIT opencourseware course on intro neuroscience (scored the textbook on eBay for $14)
  - start a software project and bring it to being released
  - build an arduinome if finances permit
  - learn to dance
  - finally complete my pilot's license and get a glider certification (again, finances permitting)
  - go climbing outdoors as much as possible, time and weather permitting. 
  - figure out what I want to do professionally for the next few years (current job obligation ending summer)

icey2• 18 years ago

If you build an arduinome, please document the process and put it online somewhere. It looks interesting; the Monome has always been one of those things that is super fascinating to me, but I could never justify buying.

bootload• 18 years ago

"... If you build an arduinome, please document the process and put it online somewhere ..."

and if either of you decide to build one consider building them commercially. there is currently a bit of demand for the Monome & possibly the arduinome ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monome

whacked_new• 18 years ago

I decided to learn about deciding to learn about something.

lionheart• 18 years ago

How to turn a one-man startup into a real company.

jcapote• 18 years ago

Math.

oscardelben• 18 years ago

Time management: I want to become expert at time management. Math and business in general. Regarding programming instead, SICP, Erlang and Closures are what I'm working right now.

notaddicted• 18 years ago

Technical: 1. Chalk up one more for SICP. I got started via the ebook. I'll probably shoot for 80% coverage of the exercises. 2. Also I'm hoping to get through the mathematical preliminaries section in TAOCP. 3. The "Great Algorithms" course that was posted here seems like particularly ripe fruit.

Non-technical: 1. Set better goals. I'm am freaking awful at setting goals. Need to focus on and experiment with setting goals.

ericlavigne• 18 years ago

I'm just starting to learn about web development with Clojure. Even though I'm barely beyond the "hello world" stage, I've put my app on Slicehost at http://ericlavigne.net and I'm documenting the learning process on my blog at http://ericlavigne.wordpress.com

joubert• 18 years ago

Violin. Started 3 weeks ago.

ktharavaad• 18 years ago

1, Get a solid foundation on statistical learning theory and machine learning. I'm currently working my way through the cs229 course online on the stanford site

2, Learn how to network with people and start a company and apply to Ycombinator for the summer 09 cycle.

zandorg• 18 years ago

Back to On Lisp (printed out) this year.

joeyo• 18 years ago

To read (at least phonetically) and write in Armenian.

brl• 18 years ago

The main thing I want to learn more about is cryptology, and in particular cryptanalysis. I've been collecting papers that I want to read but I'm still missing a lot of the mathematical background that I need to understand them.

I'm currently working through a new book called Applied Cryptanalysis - Breaking Ciphers in the Real World and plan to fill in the math as needed from other sources.

Like many other people I also have SICP on my list and it will remain there until I have finished it including most of the exercises.

I have also been learning Haskell over the last year and plan to continue using it as much as possible, especially for mathematical oriented projects such as implementing attacks from the cryptanalysis book.

paraschopra• 18 years ago

I'm definitely going to learn more math this year. And maybe I would want to do something non web based but interesting.

vidioradeo• 18 years ago

Juggle and ride a unicycle at the same time, and be more creative when trying to sneak a tow up hills in traffic on my bike.

symptic• 18 years ago

French.

Ask HN: What will you learn this year?

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