What are you planning to learn in 2023?
Based on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34192647 I'd love to know what HN'ers are planning to learn / pick-up in 2023!
I noticed a Reddit thread talking about how our smartphones became the ultimate dopamine delivery system with making sure that you would look every X time at your phone and creating an addiction by making sure the phone would become your primary dopamine source and while they gave zero scientific research about this I must say... in my particular situation it felt very real and could attribute to my lack of focus.
So I now started to put the phone away at an inconvenient location at 21:00 and start to read, make a puzzle,... again.
I have a period of time in the morning when I'm usually catching up on emails, drinking my coffee, browsing HN, etc and a period after dinner but before bed where my notifications are on. Any other time, call me twice and I'll answer.
I think learning how to focus and work more hours without distractions is far more important than any tech thing I could possibly learn, and it works for University as well.
I noticed that after several days studying more or less heavily for college, suddenly youtube or twitter don't look that interesting anymore, but you have to keep being consistent, else you will relapse.
Read the Sam Altman vision of the future. It's brilliant and highly utopian. Corporations and wealthy will not accept high taxation over property and assets. But AI will reduce jobs dramatically.
So, I will work using my current skill set and happily move away from this madness.
Incorporating AI into workflow? No.
In this rate of innovation and adaptation, the short products' lifecycle will diminish any long term effect.
The bottom line is: Those who have more labeled data to train on, will win.
I don't have data. I don't have access to capital. The only capital I have is the knowledge and experience.
Joke aside, woodworking and gardening is real. I plan to learn C and C ++. The market for supporting old systems is big. Huge.
I've also been considering adding C/C++ to my skillset out of a desire to have better foundational knowledge of legacy tech, and I can see a world where the pressure to learn the newest X results in a generation gap where no one can keep the lights on for existing systems.
Already rolling on this year's garden. :)
It is only logical. C++ is basically everywhere. And it is not "cool" or "hype":)
I'd also like to learn some basics of piano so I can goof around with this little synth I have some more.
I've taken hundreds of videos on my phone over the years, and I want to organise the memories into watchable clips. I signed up for a 11.5 hour Udemy course which I'm 35% of the way through. And I've started creating a film of my 2022 summer vacation.
1. Build a website using Hunchentoot 2. Edit a running CL image
I would like to learn Java and Spring Boot better which is what we use at my job.
Learn the tooling better, IntelliJ, etc, again so I can do my job better
Microsoft Azure -- work related
What were you thinking of building with it?
Currently it is limited in terms of features like just one input file, no stdin, etc. I also want to add multiple choice questions, navigation to select a particular chapter/section and so on.
Reading a bunch of books. Wrapping up the Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook right now, then moving to some eng org structuring and probably wrapping back around to devops over the next month or two.
Doing an AWS cert early next month that should be a breeze. Not sure if I'd do another though, since the rest get very proprietary focused.
My work started a $2k education stipend that covers this stuff, which I've very grateful for.
Personal:
Cooking more different foods. I always fallback on the same few boring and easy to cook meals, so I want to branch out a bit and do some more interesting recipes.
Python GUI frameworks are mostly terrible and deploying them is worse. Flutter looks great but I don’t want to learn dart just to use it.
Longer answer: I think it's good to journal your attempts with the understanding that it is okay to not accomplish them this year, but at least give it a try. There is always next year. So Just before the year started I got myself a book at Flying Tiger called "100 Things I want to Accomplish, Create, Learn, Share, improve, See, Fight for, Experience, Organise, and Dream of doing"
Each section is a list of 10 and then has a corresponding chapter with one page per thing divided in to "What, Why, How" with checkboxes for "I did it", "I tried", and "I changed my mind".
I've always had a problem with committing and making routines, which is essential should you want to learn something. For me I feel like having a physical book to keep track and to slowly fill out as the year goes by helps me focus on what is important and not get distracted. It also gives me a sense of fulfilment when I can look back at a page and say I did this, this is my accomplishment.
- ux design
- Getting better at reading typescript definition files
- trpc
* zig
* K8S in the deep
* Improving my basic Mandarin
I've been using Duolingo for a while, but I think effective learning needs more than just that daily practice to really get lasting results.
Try and get out of Duolingo mode(law of diminishing returns!) and move to native audio(radio, podcasts, movies, songs) in your target language. Get used to being uncomfortable and not understanding anything at first. If you can make a game/habit out of this, you will make progress in due time(think a few years, not months/days). Search around for "immersion learning". I went into the rabbit hole a while back and learnt spanish but eventually being immersed in the language is the only way that seems to work.
Been working on my French for a few years (~B1) and found Wesley's approach to be a really nice framework. I'm not using it 100%, but in general a combo of Duo, podcasts, Italki/tutoring, and a cahier/workbook works wonders.
Certainly enough to be able to wander into r/Quebec or r/France and follow conversations, collaborate with French coworkers (productively, but with errors), etc.
Side note: IMO the old Duolingo tree was better, particularly if you already knew -how- to learn languages (even if you've never retained one). If you put in the raw hours and know what you're looking for, it does stick.
New Duolingo...I think might work well for folks starting from the beginning. The changeover absolutely burned how I was using it, so while it was an important pillar early on, now it's much less so for me.
Using desktop+keyboard, reading it aloud, etc. is a must.
- Docker