
Ask HN: Novice looking for an overview of different areas of programming - LeicesterCity
Complete beginner here. I&#x27;m wondering if someone can give me an overview of different areas of programming. I know there is mobile development and web development. That is the extent to my knowledge. I want to venture into a field that will be ripe for innovation in the years to come. I&#x27;m not necessarily looking for employable skills, but that won&#x27;t hurt either. Initially, I was looking into iOS development, but the success rates for indie developers don&#x27;t look promising.<p>Essentially, I&#x27;m looking for an overview of different fields and my interest is from an entrepreneurial standpoint. Thanks.
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kqia040
Perhaps you can look at optimization or machine learning. Optimization of
processes and algorithms can be applied to almost anything out there and
Obviously machine learning is new and hot and will continue to be a hot topic
in the near future.

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LeicesterCity
How would I go about the learning path. Would it be something along the lines
of: 1) Learn programming language X, 2) Learn Multivariable Calc, Linear
Algebra, Probablity & Statistics, 3) Learn machine learning?

Also, what do you think of iOS development in terms of entrepreneurial
ventures?

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kqia040
If you have no technical background then you should start by learning a
programming language such as python. If you do hav a technical background
learning optimisation and machine learning has two paths. 1) theory 2)
practical. Most of the time in these two fields to start off as a beginner in
depth theory knowledge is not required so you can play around with some open
source libraries and get started that way.

In terms of iOS and entrepreneurial ventures my opinion is that you shouldn't
focus on say "iOS" as you have framed it. Startups is about finding a problem
and building a product that people will use. iOS is a tool that will help you
to do so. Likewise the product could be a website (so you'd use a different
tool to build, such as ruby on rails) so it ultimately comes down to what you
want to do. If you don't have a technical background, even to do a business
role in the tech world, it won't hurt to learn one programming language as
from there you will have your foot in the door.

