
Ask HN: How do you decide what to learn next? - vijayr
Let&#x27;s say you have very limited time to learn and that you are not doing much learning in your day job. How do you decide what to learn? What is your process for picking up topics to learn (other than &quot;this is interesting&quot;)?
======
tedmiston
Something I've always wanted is "a Netflix queue for tech I want to learn"

Ideal features would include:

\- a regular review of the things you've listed to see if they're still
relevant and to help you prioritize

\- a way to see what's trending amongst everything you've listed (ex. I have
three front end web frameworks on my list but React is collectively popular,
so perhaps I should start there)

\- it could notify you if a new (good) book / blog post is published on a
topic you're interested in

\- you could compare with your friends to see if someone you know has learned
it recently or to sit down and hack together

\- it could share a common list of subtasks across users -- for example,
starting with Django Rest Framework might consist of: (1) doing the python
tutorial + (2) doing the Django tutorial + (3) doing the DRF tutorial

~~~
visakanv
I want this for everything. Music to listen to, books to read, guitar skills
to learn next, etc

~~~
NhanH
Why wouldn't multiple TODO lists work for you? Just a UI/UX issue or is there
any reason?

~~~
visakanv
I do currently have multiple todo lists, but the experience of going through
all of them can be kinda tedious. I'd be curious to try something more
intuitive, if it existed.

~~~
stakent
Orgmode for Emacs?

------
shekhargulati
I am doing a series called 52-technologies-in-2016
[https://github.com/shekhargulati/52-technologies-
in-2016](https://github.com/shekhargulati/52-technologies-in-2016) where in I
learn a new technology, build a small app, and blog about it every week. I
maintain an Evernote where I write down all the interesting topics or projects
I find. I go through the list and randomly pick any topic that excites me that
day and then work over the weekend to publish something. This helps me keep in
continuous learning loop.

~~~
fbr
Sounds cool, how much time do you spend every week?

~~~
shekhargulati
It depends from 5 hours to 15 hours depending on the topic. On Saturday I
learn a topic by reading documentation or watching videos tutorials by their
creators(if I can find) or if I have a book then I read first few chapters.
Sunday, I start with building something and then documenting the process in
the blog by end of Sunday.

------
voltagex_
Don't underestimate "this is interesting". Couple it with a goal (like
building a personal site, doing some home automation, building a NAS) and make
sure you take notes (if not a blog). You'll learn heaps in no time.

~~~
mhurron
> Don't underestimate "this is interesting".

That's pretty much me. Someone will say something, or I will see something
somewhere and a little bit of looking it up to find out what was being talked
about might pique some interest and off we go.

~~~
vijayr
This doesn't work at all for me. Something seems interesting to me (and my
problem is, _a lot of things_ interest me) and I start reading up on it,
somewhere along the way there is something else that is referenced, which also
seems interesting, so I read up on that...and so on. Pretty soon I've deviated
far from where I started.

Interestingly, this doesn't happen in my day job :(

~~~
altern8tif
Also known as the "cool-new-framework rabbit hole" or also the more common
"Wikipedia rabbit hole".

------
heartsucker
I pick a project I want to complete or a cause I want to contribute to. Then I
look at the smallest step I can take to work toward that (learn the basis of a
new language, protocol). Then I iterate (learn a framework, tool). Then I try
to close a bug or release the project to the wild. This usually leads to
comments on a PR or someone opening bugs with the project, and then I have to
learn something new to fix it.

I think it's much easier to learn things when you have a goal because you have
to learn tiny nuggets of knowledge that are useful. I find learning something
without the context of how to apply it to the real world is very difficult, so
I generally don't just go out and learn things (tech-wise) without a
legitimate usage in mind.

------
crispyambulance
I am surprised that no one has mentioned consultation with a MENTOR.

Really, if you "don't know what you don't know", you need some type of trusted
guide who understands your aptitudes and motivations and can recommend a path
of study or provide some clarity of thought.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with fumbling around in the dark and
discovering stuff on your own, but if you're asking this question, it means
you're resource-constrained and need some clear goals to work towards. This is
where a mentor or at least a colleague can help out a lot. In addition to
providing guidance, a mentor can critique and analyze the direction you're
taking.

"Todo" lists are perfectly fine tools for mastering some narrow focused topic
or for achieving completion of a small project, but they're not a strategic
tool. Deciding what to learn next is very much a STRATEGIC question, and those
kinds of decisions benefit greatly from dialog with an expert who cares about
your success.

~~~
DenisM
It's fairly difficult to find someone who cares enough to mentor you. They
can't buy stock in your person, they are busy with things in their life, they
don't have much power over you so they can't quite be sure to get even a
short-term payoff.

It might work if the pupil is willing to just do the bidding of the master to
relief him from his chores, so that the master has incentive to spend effort
on pupil's education. I surmise so few students want to play this role that
there is no cultural norm to draw from, the concept is too alien.

It's a pity, too. There ought to be a way to transfer knowledge and skill from
one generation to another.

~~~
crispyambulance
It is difficult and most people will have only one or two mentors in their
life IF they're lucky.

But I think you'll find that those who mentor others don't see their efforts
as directly "transactional". They mentor others because they're expressly
passing on the knowledge they've gained to the next generation. It is an
altruistic act.

------
fbr
I've recently started this method:

\- create a list of all the tools/products/whatever you use at work

\- rate them from 1 to 5 (5 you are an expert on this topic)

\- then pick the most important one for your job and try to increase your
grade

The grade is totally subjective, but still it helps.

For the "next big thing" I take a look regularly to the thoughtworks radar
[1]. That's a nice overview.

[1] [https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar](https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar)

------
beilabs
I'm someone who has decided not to learn new language or framework that comes
my way.

If there is something that can speed up my workflow, I learn it. If it
improves my applications speed without much time to implement / learn then I
work on that.

For new shiny Javascript libraries I really have held back to see what the
winner will be; backbone used to be the go-to lib, ember (tried to learn but
it changed a lot in the early days), angular (decided not to invest any time
into it).

There are 24 hours in a day, don't try and learn everything, just try and be
productive with the tools you have and the ones that will get the job done for
you.

My time these days are spent learning Nepalese, React and trying to build a
business in Nepal....keeps me busy.

~~~
S4M
What made you decide to learn React and not any other framework you mentioned?

------
brightball
Usually if something is interesting it's because you're thinking about it in
the context of a problem that you need to solve. Basically, it's interesting
because you see the potential value.

That generally is what drives what I learn. I'm about to start getting deep
into BPM2 and Activiti because it looks like it will solve an organizational
problem that I'm currently observing, just as an example. Otherwise it's not
really connected to anything I would be doing otherwise (although there are a
few potential use cases if I understand the system the way I think I do).

------
noir_lord
Generally I look at the stuff I do day to day and then honestly critique
myself for where I'm weakest and then learn from that.

Since I'm the only dev and I have to do back end and front end I realised that
I was weakest on the front end (particularly JavaScript) so I made a concerted
effort to learn JavaScript properly since apart from picking it up organically
for years I'd never really _studied_ it.

The funny part (to me at least) is that while I'm never going to like
JavaScript I dislike it a lot less than I used to once I understood the
underlying structure better.

~~~
lalwanivikas
What resources are you using to learn JavaScript? Any advice for people just
starting on this path?

~~~
noir_lord
[https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS](https://github.com/getify/You-
Dont-Know-JS) and the associated videos where excellent.

Javascript: The Good Parts (though this is a bit full on if you are really
just getting started).

Reading the source of popular libraries as well in a good IDE so you can jump
around and get to where stuff is defined/created.

------
codecurve
Read. And I don't just mean books (although they are a great place to start).
Read technical blogs, read documentation, read other people's code. Seek out
challenging reads that seem overly ambitious and use them to find out what
your unknown-unknowns are, then use that knowledge to steer your learning.

~~~
tedmiston
^ This year I bought the subscription to Safari Books Online
([https://www.safaribooksonline.com](https://www.safaribooksonline.com)),
which offers unlimited access to many books (every O'Reilly book) and some
video courses.

Though it's not cheap, I think it's the best investment I've made in my own
professional development.

~~~
codecurve
Just to add to this, pick up an Amazon Kindle. There's almost no-where you
can't read when your entire library fits in a pocket or a rucksack. I've been
travelling for most of this year and my kindle comes second to only my laptop
on the list of essentials.

~~~
tedmiston
I actually haven't bought one yet because I was under the impression code
rendering was still less than ideal (e.g., lines wrapping to fit the Kindle
screen where they shouldn't in code). Is that still an issue?

~~~
hoodwink
Yes, this is an issue on the Kindle device, but reading textbooks in the
Kindle app on the iPad is gamechanging. The speed with which you make
highlights, leave notes, and bookmark is great for learning. I can then access
the book from my computer for quick reference and/or convert my booknotes to
Anki flashcards.

This being said, I also own a Kindle Paperwhite and use it at least an hour a
day for reading non-technical books. I can't recommend that device enough.

~~~
abustamam
Would you recommend people who already own a tablet (iPad, Galaxy, Fire, etc)
to get a dedicated device to reading?

~~~
bawigga
I have both a tablet and a kindle paperwhite. I like using the tablet for
technical references which are commonly in PDF format. For everything else I
use the Paperwhite. The backlight is much easier on the eyes, especially when
reading in bed.

------
mysticmode
I learn things by setting a purpose. Eg: For a web project, I need to learn
new programming technologies.

I have a very sensitive mind. I can't concentrate on multiple projects at the
same time. For example: If I'm working in a day job, I can't work on a side
project efficiently, I can't concentrate on both my office work and side
projects. If I do, My employer could easily figure that I'm churning out.

So, If I want to work on a project.. I'll make sufficient money then I quit my
job and spend next coming months fully-fledged on my project.

------
haffi112
I keep a list of things that interest me with sublists about interesting
observations I make about each item on the list (I use workflowy for this task
- no affiliation). The observations can be anything from ideas, to blog posts,
books, online courses or articles about the subject.

When I want to learn something new I pick an item from the list and work on it
(usually some idea I came up with). My preliminary research efforts often help
me realise an idea or it gives me a chance to compare two different learning
sources. I also try to create something using what I learned. Through craft I
feel like I draw more from the learning experience. The outcome can also be
that I need to find better references or that I simply want to learn something
else.

The most difficult thing is getting started. I find it useful to be systematic
about it by explicitly devoting time to it. Once you have a system in place
you like it eventually becomes a habit. Also note that it is helpful to break
tasks into small subtasks. Having a feeling of accomplishment leads to a more
positive experience of the learning process which further leads to increased
learning drive.

Note that my process is not much more sophisticated than "this is
interesting". However, instead of acting on some hunch in the moment I act on
observations which I gather over time.

------
StevenForth
Fascinating question. Every year I develop a learning plan covering major
themes (some of these have been going on for more than a decade), specifics
inside the theme, how I think I will learn, whose help I will need (person or
community), how I will pay back this help or pay it forward, what evidence I
will have of the learning ... I also try to make sure that there are at least
a few things each year that cross two or three themes. I have a long-term
theme on pricing and this year I am spending a lot of time studying platform
business models, so I have a set of specific actions that combine the two:
organize a one-day event on platform business models, lead the pricing session
at this event; advise at least one client on a platform pricing model (I still
do some consulting as it help me to learn and share what I am learning); write
some blog posts on pricing in platform business models; stretch goal - build
some tools to help design platform pricing models and share them.

------
exDM69
I've got a TODO list of things I want to learn that's populated enough to keep
me busy for years to come. I just wish I had more time to act on it.

The items on my list are half concrete tasks and half topics to learn. The
subjects are very diverse, I have a broad range of interests.

Here's a few from the top:

    
    
        1. Learn enough classical mechanics to do a stable n body simulation
        2. Build a piece of furniture with mortise and tenon joinery
        3. Implement a prototype compiler for that GPGPU/shader programming language I've been dreaming about for years
        4. Get an Indian fighter kite and learn to fly it
        5. Implement a multiple revolution Lambert problem solver to plan the badassest Kerbal Space Program mission ever
        6. Write a simulator for gyroscopic motion and compare the results with my toy gyroscopes.
    

That's enough to occupy my Saturdays for the next five years. Both, the sunny
and the rainy ones.

~~~
hoodwink
This is basically what I do. Whenever a cool idea comes into my head, I put it
into my list app. I have a list for projects (e.g., build a piece of
furniture), skills (e.g., woodworking), topics, and business ideas.

I then review these lists periodically and when the time is right, they
naturally move into my "Active" list in one form or another.

------
DonPellegrino
I pick some technology that has the following characteristics:

\- A complete paradigm shift. I want something that will force me to rethink
how I approach problems. I want to force my brain to develop new pathways, so
to speak.

\- Something will at least a minimum of documentation and community online.
I've had to abandon dreams of learning some really awesome language before
(ATS) because there was simply no resources and that would make my progress
too slow.

\- Something that could be fun to use in a side project. I need to be able to
find occasions to use it. I learn best by _doing_ rather than by only reading.
If I can't think of an application, then I won't be able to become proficient,
so I'd rather learn something else.

\- And finally, it has to be something fun that feels like falling in love
with programming all over again.

EDIT: I usually don't pick more than 1 technology to REALLY LEARN per year, so
I don't make these decisions lightly.

------
narag
Mostly what I anticipate I will need for the job. For my own pleasure I choose
tools whose proponents talk with a reasonable voice. I dismiss any
technonology when I see people that:

* Says that the rest of the world is doing it wrong and they will fix the situation with this "change of paradigm".

* Presents their products as a "social movement" that's "challenging the industry as we know it".

* Promises 10x productivity.

* In general, bases their success on attacking others. Specially if they say things like "everybody knows exceptions are like cancer".

* Uses grandilocuent names to call a two thousand lines library.

* The resulting code looks like gibberish. The most likely a child can understand it, the better. It it's directed at the elite programmers, bad.

* Doesn't put enough care on tooling.

Edit: OK, it's a very negative answer, but it's effective. It quickly discards
99% of shiny new things.

~~~
DenisM
Is Haskell bad on your book?

~~~
narag
"My book" doesn't tell what's bad, but things like how the community
surrounding a tool is. You can't expect a problem will be solved if it's not
even acknoledged.

Also let me insist that these are heuristics I apply to what I use for my own
consumption, usually to create private tools that will make my life easier, or
just to learn something satisfying.

That said, I bet you know Haskell better than me. The fact you singled it out
asking about it makes me suspicious it shows at least one of the red flags :-)

If that's right, I don't care how _good_ it is.

~~~
DenisM
Actually I don't know Haskell beyond the most basic examples. I singled it out
because it was one of the cases where "Promises 10x productivity" may be,
well, the least outlandish. But it does come at the cost of "change of
paradigm".

For me C# is at least twice as productive as Objective-C, so I suspect there
more where that came from. I'm on the lookout for another 2x boost. But the
farther down that road you go, the more isolated you become. It's a bit of a
balancing act between individual productivity and being able to hire and work
in groups, or to find help. Perhaps

------
tedmiston
By whoever's giving away the latest free t-shirt

[https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-
sk...](https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-skills-
kit/content/alexa-developer-skill-promotion)

------
jobigoud
In addition to what others have written, I give an increased priority to
things that will help me learn other things in the future.

If I have two topics on the top of my list, and I expect one of these to
provide new mental tools, or meta insights about learning or cognition, I'll
pick that one.

I also give a higher priority in general to techs that will cascade into
improving my speed on future projects in the most generic way. For example I
consider that learning how to automate something is never a lost cause, even
if I can do it manually at the same speed, because it increases my knowledge
about automation, which will be useful down the line.

------
moron4hire
I keep my notebooks. I scribble notes in them all the time, and then when I
have downtime I look back through them. It's great for recapturing ideas, but
it's also great for avoiding retrodding the same paths again. I am prone to
forgetting I've done certain small things before and then I lose time on re-
implementing the early parts of it. For example, I've rebooted this one
project 4 times without even realizing it: a solar-system wide cross between
Moon Lander and Asteroids with a simple, multiplayer mining economy.

------
rshetty10
Most of things I want to learn revolve around the things I work on the job. If
you are trying to solve a particular problem, I try to find all the possible
better solutions I could use to solve that problem and learn each of those
things along the way. For ex: If I am working on react and we are using Flux
as the state management library, I try to explore other better alternative
such as Redux, Mobx etc.

I also keep track of various things which come up when learning something and
in-turn learn those topics.

------
extrapickles
I pick a part of a computer I don't know it works and try doing it myself.

Everything from making a cpu from 74 series logic to writing a toy compiler.
If you don't have much free time, just researching how to implement various
parts of a computer works is good as actual implementation takes a large
amount of time (eg: the cpu required learning basic electronic skills). Now
that I've gone through a basic computer stack, I'm doing that bits that
interest me in more detail.

------
ruralocity
I created a Trello board with a backlog of things that might interest me, then
pick things out of it as time allows, opportunities present themselves, etc. I
described the process at [http://aaronsumner.com/posts/2015/12/personal-
research-board...](http://aaronsumner.com/posts/2015/12/personal-research-
board.html)

------
jqm
Back up and ask why you should want to learn. People sometimes assume we
should all be learning everything but the reality is we can't and we won't. So
we need to focus.

I've seen a lot of people that flit around and start this and that or take an
online class but then never build anything with the technology. After a year
or two they are pretty much no better off for the effort than if they had used
the time to drink beer at the beach.

So my philosophy is now to spend a small amount of time investigating. How
useful is this to myself or an employer? How interesting it? How much time and
effort is going to be required to learn this well enough to work it? If it's
more than I'm willing to put out or the thing has limited use or interest then
I don't even bother. I know it's there if I want to come back later. But if
I'm not going to learn it to the point it becomes a useful tool I generally
don't bother starting.

I have found that half efforts are about half the effort of a full effort but
they don't produce half the results. So they are by in large a waste of time
and energy.

------
agentultra
Usually I'm pursuing something. Along the way as I gain experience and
encounter difficulties I put my head up and look for solutions. I don't always
find what I'm looking for but it gives me hunches. When those hunches collide
I get ideas and from there it becomes pretty clear what I know and what I need
to learn in order to progress.

I'm presently learning predicate calculus and formal specifications of
software systems. I came to it by hunches: software engineering should be more
like engineering because companies like Yahoo! Japan are building earthquake
notification systems on OSS infrastructure and the keynotes at Blackhat
suggested it was a requisite for this industry to move forward. It turns out
the math is beautiful and it helps me design better software and I'm only just
getting started.

It has also added new things to my list of things to learn such as the
refinement calculus as well as alternative modelling systems like Event-B.

~~~
selmat
Have you list of good resources for these math topics?

------
stonemetal
I use "This is interesting" to give it about three or four days. After the
"this is interesting" stage, things that fall into the "this might be useful"
bucket get a couple of weeks. Then it is either getting used, or it is getting
put on the back burner indefinitely.

------
williamkennedy
I love the answers here. My system is pretty simple. I keep a list on Evernote
every time I find a new resource to learn from. I only consider the resource
(usually an online course/book) is going to help me be better at my job or
help with a current hobby project. Then when I am bored at home later looking
for something to do, I can refer back to this list and pick up from there.
Usually, I find these resources when I am looking through Stackoverflow for
answers. If I find I don't understand something or judge a Stackoverflow
answer, I would find a Lynda.com course or something similar to add to the
list.

------
chris-aeviator
I'm using the Getting Things Done methodology for exactly this. You'll be
entering it as any other goal you want to achive, split it down in smaller
tasks and (most important) regulary review your list and decide what to do
next ( to postpoem it, start with the first task, break it down to smaller
tasks, …). In the end it will be your belly deciding (it will takeover no
matter what system you'll be using) and you have a nice overview of what to do
for your new technology goal.

------
captn3m0
I started reading Passionate Programmer yesterday, and it talks about this.
The idea is to either pick a relatively new technology that you can bet your
career at and to pick a dying tech that might survive for a while (like
COBOL). Picking the first gives you immediate coolness points, but learning
the latter guarantees you won't accidentally become obsolete.

Another categorisation (especially for languages) is to pick a paradigm that
is different from your day job. Picking a functional language is the most
common example.

------
tmaly
I pick a larger long term project, then I start working on it in pieces
learning each aspect I need to complete the larger project.

I do not always know what each piece is going to be, but I find taking this
approach to be worth while.

When I an commuting, I sometimes listen to podcasts from experts in the
subject area I am trying to learn.

At my day job, I have little time to learn, so I have to make a concerted
effort to always be learning outside of work.

------
yankoff
I think the key here is to have long-term goals. I am trying to at least
roughly understand where I wanna be in future (1, 5, 10 years) in terms of my
skillset, abilities and knowledge. Then topics I learn should be aligned with
those goals. There are definitely too much interesting things, but before I
jump into something new I ask if it really helps me to get where I want to be
in the future.

There are sometimes exceptions to this, when I just want to learn something
for fun, do it as a recreational activity.

------
shrugger
I try and learn things bottom-up. I don't know if that's a good way or not,
but that's how I've always done it. It has seemed pretty natural to me to sort
of explode things into pieces and pick it up small bits at a time, gradually
composing all of the knowledge that I need to be able to complete the thing
I'm working on/learning about.

Is there a better way?

------
m0rganic
You need to pick something you can sink your teeth into but unfortunately that
doesn't satisfy your first requirement (limited amounts of time). Learning
things of value normally takes time and lots of dedication.

------
tedmiston
Sometimes I just browse StackShare for what's trending or if there's a more
highly rated competing tool for something I use regularly.

[http://stackshare.io](http://stackshare.io)

------
gd2
I should do better, because I've been random in deciding what to learn But
some combination of: found good teaching materials, people I'm in contact with
are learning it, and this could pay off big.

------
moshiasri
there is no one particular path way or a one size fits all solution, it
depends on your choice and your requirements, instead of asking what to learn
next, you should ask yourself should you really learn a particular thing
today, or is this a scene from a different chapter of the book and should be
done later.

i just have one simple saying about the subject selection which i wish to
learn "when you have removed a subject which is not a immediate requirement ,
what ever remain not matter how difficult it is, must be learned".

------
asimuvPR
I look forward in time and try to imagine myself knowing/doing something new.
Whatever pops in my head us what I go for. Always live in the future and build
towards it.

------
vinitagr
I decide based on what i need to build next, and that came from what i want to
build, at some point in the past.

Also i have "This is interesting" moments, from time to time.

------
pknerd
> How do you decide what to learn?

Work on my own idea.

Another option; work on freelance projects. Earning _could_ be a good
motivation to learn new stuff. At least it is for me.

------
deathtrader666
Metacademy has been made just for something like this.

[https://metacademy.org/](https://metacademy.org/)

------
Bootvis
Other than that: 'This is useful' ;)

I believe something can be useful when I need to know it or when it is a good
basis for other more applied topics.

------
Walkman
I usually learn what I need for my job.

------
lazyant
Intersection of what looks like fun, that I can be good at, and good career or
money-wise.

------
DavidSJ
When in doubt, learn more math.

~~~
dominotw
I read 2 college textbooks on linear algebra, abstract algebra last year and
managed to finish most of the exercise questions.

It was never useful to me and I remember zero content from either of those
now.

~~~
m0rganic
Take that knowledge in linear algebra and put it to use by learning how
machine learning algorithms work.

~~~
dominotw
Not really interested in machine learning.

------
sidcool
Thanks for asking, I have been struggling with the same problem for some time
ow.

------
cubano
I'm not really convinced if its even _possible_ for me to learn something that
I'm not interested in.

[edit] By learn, I don't mean simple regurgitation of the facts or some
superficial thing, I'm talking about extended study and efforts.

------
bebopsbraunbaer
ThoughtWorks tech radar

------
mapcars
I just feel it.

------
mdip
I'll bite:

 _Let 's say you have very limited time to learn ..._

I think that is probably the case for all of us. Personally, I recommend you
apply some time to "optimizing learning". I have been improving my ability as
a speed reader for 18 years (not the "read every word faster with eye
exercises/gimmicks but strategic skimming/scanning)[1]. My strategy allows me
to eliminate books that would result in wasted time in a couple of hours and
rip through large volumes (with a very specific method of note-taking) in
anywhere from a weekend to a few weeks (depending on depth of topic/my current
ancillary knowledge level more so than the length of the work). That may not
be the best approach for you, but the nice thing about focusing on optimizing
your learning is that it allows you to focus on a topic _in addition to_
getting better at learning in general.

 _... not doing much learning in your day job._

This is one of those areas worth optimizing as well. If your job is dead-end,
single-focus, and "not brain work", you should start looking elsewhere as soon
as you can. In programming, there's often opportunities to study the corners
around the area you're specializing in. If it's possible with your current
workload, try to increase this as much as possible.

 _What is your proces for picking topics to learn (other than "this is
interesting")?_

You hit the main one, but the list is as follows in priority (which falls well
below the first "this is interesting"):

\- Is it something I can use _right now_ on a problem I want to fix for
myself.

\- Will it give me a greater understanding of the craft that I have chosen as
"my life mission" or "my career".

\- Is it something that is narrowly related to my career, but far enough away
from it that I'm unlikely to encounter it in my day-to-day job.

\- Could learning this reward me financially by using it to create a sale-able
product based on the knowledge I've gained? I put this at the bottom because I
make a good enough living currently and I enjoy my job enough that if I were
to have a side-income that replaced what I currently make, I'd still not want
to leave my current job so the choice would likely be to sell the side-
business, support it in my spare time (a non-starter) or do the side-project
full-time.

The result of the above bullet points led me to get into embedded/IoT-related
devices. There are too many things I'm interested in solving to even list that
relate to the embedded space. It involved researching and learning C++
(again), which I had a long-expired background in, and also served to give me
experience in a language I have occasion to use in my day-job. It's unlikely
(but plausible) that I'd be developing something in the embedded space in my
day-job, but if an opportunity presented itself, I'd be prepared. The
solutions I'm working on could certainly result in a product I could sell. It
hits all points.

[1] "Speed reading" has a bad reputation as of late, though a few articles
have pointed out the idea of skim/scanning as it relates to speed reading.
It's a very useful way of increasing the speed at which one can learn from a
book, allowing multiple "reads" of a text at varying speeds/intensities. It
is, however, something that took me 10 years to get good at and I think that's
one of the reason the gimmicks are getting such a bad reputation. They promise
an unrealistic increase in reading speed using an unrealistic set of
techniques in an unrealistic time frame. Reading is a complicated mental
operation and requires focused practice to increase both speed and
retention/learning and in my case involves a strategy coupled with multiple
reads of a text with a lot of note-taking. It is mentally exhausting for me
when I execute and it was a very long process to get to the speed/retention I
have today, but it works wonderfully.

------
bebopsbraunbaer
ThoughtWorks tech radar

