Ask HN: If you only had 40 hours to learn a new IT based skill what would it be?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6166161

by codinguy • 13 years ago

9 19 13 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

rootj• 13 years ago

Linux servers administration.

codinguy2• 13 years ago

That was definitely on my list :)

rman666• 13 years ago

There are many many IT skills you could learn in 40 hours. Assuming you are not a complete n00b, how about learning Ruby and Sinatra (a "framework" for rapidly creating web applications). You could easily make it through the book, "Jump Start Sinatra," in less than 40 hours, for example.

Is this the type of response you're looking for? If not, please clarify. Good luck!

codinguy2• 13 years ago

My wife and kids are away for a week in the near future, so I thought I would take 40 hours and learn something new. I have no idea yet as to what that will be, so I thought I would ask more intelligent people what they would do :)

Thank you for the suggestion though!

tonyoconnell• 13 years ago

How to build a lean startup with Steve Blank https://www.udacity.com/course/ep245

mknits• 13 years ago

Either Python or Ruby. Photoshop is also a good choice.

junto• 13 years ago

Both Angular and Ember so I can at last make my own mind up on which is better!

wwwwww• 13 years ago

what current skills do you have? I would pick a skill to compliment my current skills.

revorad• 13 years ago

Graphic design.

yulaow• 13 years ago

Mh or ruby and rails (but 40h are not enough for both) or probably GO

bennyg• 13 years ago

State-of-the-art security and crypto.

toutouastro• 13 years ago

node or basic sysadmin or django

dannytatom• 13 years ago

AI (in games, mostly)

bobf• 13 years ago

Metrics measurement and tracking of some sort, depending on your area of interest and existing expertise. That could be Graphite and statsd, or a particular type of web analytics like Google Analytics or MixPanel. It takes roughly 40 hours to get a good basic understanding, implement, test, and start tracking useful things with each of those.

caw• 13 years ago

I'd go with NoSQL (any of them, overview of all of them?) or AWS/cloud stuff, because I'm already familiar with Linux administration and RoR. In the enterprise you don't get to work with that sort of technology, so that's where I'd spend my time.

arms• 13 years ago

Python. IMO, it's so well designed that you can gain a comfortable (albeit still beginner) grasp on it within 40 hours, especially if you have prior programming experience.

AznHisoka• 13 years ago

I'd learn Chef or Puppet.

sachin0235• 13 years ago

java script, node.js or PHP

varunkho• 13 years ago

Web security and attack vectors, seriously. Will be helpful regardless of the technology you'll choose to build web apps.

Ask HN: If you only had 40 hours to learn a new IT based skill what would it be?

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