Ask HN: What's Exciting and Fruitful to Learn?

I'm looking at what might be next for me career-wise, but also as a generally curious person. As someone with technical background (coding from childhood, PhD in theoretical physics, but out of research for years and have been teaching in a non-technical area) what would you recommend for a possible direction?

I love research but on the academic side I know it is nearly impossible to get back in. I love coding but don't want to just churn out code as some small part of a large project to make more money or be a very slightly better mousetrap as it were. Data science is potentially interesting for the right topic, but what's something that can build off of e.g. the math from physics and research problem solving skills?

What are you excited about? What would you tell someone that is young and without experience to look into, and what is different for someone that can draw on some skills and isn't a young university student?

The latest in LLMs like ChatGPT? Areas ripe to bring an outside perspective and develop new tools? Things to read or people to follow for inspiration?

Thanks HN!