Ask HN: What are you learning? - mezod
======
reckoner2
Sailing: You don't need a boat. Most cities near the water will have some sort
of sailing club where for $300 a year you can join and use their fleet of
boats. My end goal is to do some sort of week long solo trip.

Rock Climbing: Lots of fun and a great work out.

Meditation: Just getting started with this, but have already seen improvements
in concentration and a decrease in anxiety.

Introductory Deep Learning: [http://course.fast.ai/](http://course.fast.ai/)
This is probably my favorite course I've ever taken online.

~~~
setrofim_
>have already seen improvements in concentration and a decrease in anxiety.

Interesting to hear. Meditation is something I have considered looking into
for a similar purpose. Do you have any recommendations on a good place to
start?

~~~
reckoner2
First, I did a few random 'guided meditations' off youtube (Sam Harris has a
popular one) and discovered that I enjoyed it.

After that, I've been enjoying The Mind Illuminated, by John Yates, and I
think others on hackernews will as well. It doesn't bother with a lot of the
eastern spirituality aspects, but instead focuses on how to become good at
meditating and find the most benefits from it.

------
saosebastiao
I've been doing this for a few years now, so not new, but I've always been
interested in anything that could be considered a science of optimized
decision making. This has included Control Theory, Systems Theory, Operations
Research, Economics, Statistics, and Machine Learning.

Most recently it has been Integer and Constraint Programming, which is a
typical modeling tool employed by the first three mentioned. I find them
interesting because of how much progress solvers have made in the last two
decades. It's amazing how often someone finds an NP-Complete problem and
doesn't even attempt to try and solve it. Yet with some practical modeling
best practices and modern solvers you can get extremely close to extact
solutions...and sometimes perfectly exact solutions.

~~~
dbatten
> It's amazing how often someone finds an NP-Complete problem and doesn't even
> attempt to try and solve it.

Just out of curiosity, how are you coming across these? I've dabbled in
integer programming with both Gurobi and SAS (once for hobby purposes, and
twice to solve some pretty major problems for work). For some reason, I've
found it to be some of the most enjoyable work I've done to date - perhaps
because of the satisfaction of being able to say "this is (one of) the best
possible solution(s) to this problem."

I'm constantly looking for new problems to play around with (particularly
those with business applications), but I don't find too many. In fact, just
yesterday, I was commuting home running through business models and trying to
imagine likely unsolved problems where you'd be minimizing/maximizing
something subject to constraints...

~~~
saosebastiao
I run into them seemingly all the time. My background is supply chain
management, and I could fill books with just the problems I've worked on for
Amazon alone.

As an example, a particularly prestigious problem to work on there was
optimization of order fulfillment across warehouses with different inventory
to reduce costs for split shipments (order two things and get two boxes?
That's a split shipment). It's a very difficult problem to solve, considering
that there is optimization within an order but also across different orders
from the same customer that are yet unfulfilled, and even across completely
unrelated orders competing for the same inventory. And with hundreds of
thousands of fulfillment options for even a two unit order, it can get
extremely complex very quickly. That problem, by the way, is one that was
worked on by a founder of instacart when he was still at Amazon.

If you're really interested in IP/LP/MILP/CP with business applications, start
picking up literature within the Operations Research discipline. There are
plenty of great books to go around. I'd recommend Model Building in
Mathematical Programming...its mostly an intro to LP techniques, but the it
was the book that made things click for me in terms of identifying and
translating real world problems into mathematical models.

------
sktrdie
Learning Functional Reactive Programming (FRP) paradigms. Combining pure
functions with reactive concepts (where variables change as their values
change) is something that sparks my interest. Also the idea of chaining
functions together to create composable pipelines of functions without any
local state:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfWR3dKnFIo&feature=youtu.be](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfWR3dKnFIo&feature=youtu.be)

------
rrherr
How to read research papers & math notation
[http://blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/keshav/home/Papers/data/07/p...](http://blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/keshav/home/Papers/data/07/paper-
reading.pdf)
[http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/gowers/gowers_I_2.pdf](http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/gowers/gowers_I_2.pdf)
[http://www.math.cornell.edu/~hubbard/readingmath.pdf](http://www.math.cornell.edu/~hubbard/readingmath.pdf)

Fourier transform [https://betterexplained.com/articles/an-interactive-guide-
to...](https://betterexplained.com/articles/an-interactive-guide-to-the-
fourier-transform/) [http://jackschaedler.github.io/circles-sines-
signals/](http://jackschaedler.github.io/circles-sines-signals/)
[https://books.google.com/books/about/Who_is_Fourier.html?id=...](https://books.google.com/books/about/Who_is_Fourier.html?id=89UpAQAAMAAJ)

Music information retrieval
[http://musicinformationretrieval.com/](http://musicinformationretrieval.com/)
[https://www.audiolabs-
erlangen.de/fau/professor/mueller/book...](https://www.audiolabs-
erlangen.de/fau/professor/mueller/bookFMP)

------
zaque1213
Improv. I've been taking classes at a local improv theater in Houston and it
has been the most enjoyment I've gotten out of an activity in many years. For
two hours a week I am encouraged to say, do, be anything that comes into my
head, and react to situations without the filters I have to abide by at work
and at home. I'm almost done with Level 1, and have our "graduation show" next
weekend. After that comes level 2 and a few more advanced topics and methods.

Web App Development and Computer Science. I don't plan on making it a career
but I started learning to program a few years ago after reading The Innovators
by Walter Isaacson and it turned into a healthy addiction. Right now I'm
throwing together a video library, actually for my improv theater, with Django
to search for videos by improv troupe. I'm also doing Harvard's online CS50
course because I want to dive a little deeper into the science of it all.

------
lubonay
Doing Coursera's Machine Learning course (the one with Andrew Ng).

Started some Blender beginner tutorials. Currently working on a glazed donut.

Also doing a Hacker News client for Android as a side project for some
practice. That's how I found this thread.

------
kj01a
I learning software engineering! Right now I'm using python to learn about
OOP, because I've never really understood the paradigm. I figured it's high
time I buckled down and figured it out. But to be honest, I think I'd like to
try my hand at systems engineering if I get the chance to program
professionally.

I am also learning Norwegian, because I want to talk like a viking.

And I am learning Go (Baduk). It is the type of game I will be learning for
the rest of my life. Which is why it is my favorite :)

~~~
exDM69
Word of warning about OOP: it's _just_ a programming paradigm. It's not the
best or the only way to do things, but some 1990s era educational material
might tell you so.

~~~
kj01a
Yes! I am quickly learning that. It's not very intuitive for me anyway.

------
jetti
Currently learning Elixir/Phoenix as well as web development in general. I've
done desktop and a small intranet site throughout my career so this is new to
me.

~~~
spyspy
I keep coming back to the idea of learning erlang/elixir. Can you point out
the resources you've been using? Functional programming is still a little
foreign to me.

~~~
agd
For Elixir you can work your way through the exercises on Exercism here:
[http://exercism.io/languages/elixir/about](http://exercism.io/languages/elixir/about)

~~~
jetti
I also suggest trying to create an application and then work through the docs
when you run into issues. I learned more from creating a mix task and reading
the Elixir docs (which are amazing) than from the books I purchased

------
artimaeis
Just started the Coursera Nand2Tetris course. I don't have a comp sci
background so it's pretty fascinating stuff to learn from the gate-logic
level.

On the job I'm still learning best practices of enterprise software
architecture. There's so many opinions about the 'right' way to do things that
I've focused on trying to get a better understanding of the organization I'm
working in so I can suggest better directions to take.

------
partisan
To take a few minutes for myself every day.

------
medell
Learning How to Learn, one of Coursera's most popular courses (and free!).
[https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-
learn](https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn)

------
blabla_blublu
Been trying to ship an Alexa skill over this last couple of weeks - so far,
the progress has been few and far. But hoping to get there.

It's been a great learning experience just to see what AWS has to offer and
the alexa SDK is very well thought out.

------
sshine
* Crossfit advanced lifts - been doing it for a year, but going slow to build base strength and technique to avoid injuries. (At 300lbs 1RM DL, 255lbs 1RM squat, 230lbs 1RM front squat.)

* Amateur taxidermy - been reading a lot about it and applied for some taxidermy internships in my self-chosen period of unemployment. Mostly I'm interested in the skeletons of rodents and will probably stop when I can assemble a full skeleton.

* Sewing - just an oversize badger onesie this time.

* Machine Learning (obviously!) - pet project is calculating the probability of getting through the queue at the crossfit gym. And yes, current and predicted weather will be factors! :)

------
kk3399
Concurrent Programming in ERLANG - [http://erlang.org/download/erlang-book-
part1.pdf](http://erlang.org/download/erlang-book-part1.pdf)

------
tikandak
Currently learning how to transform ideas into business...

~~~
tuomeyp
How do you learn that ?

------
vonbrownie
MITx Introduction to Computer Science using Python:
[https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-
mit...](https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-
mitx-6-00-1x-9)

Neovim: I want to dig deeper into a small subset of tools I use a lot and a
text editor sees a lot of use. Especially as I learn programming. So good
place to start!

------
slantaclaus
Just got my sport pilot license, which is pretty sweet considering I was told
for over a decade I'd never fly as a type 1 diabetic

------
EduardoBautista
I signed up for 3 months of
[https://linuxacademy.com](https://linuxacademy.com), dedicating at least 2
hours a day during the week and more on the weekends. System administration
has been my weakness when it comes from delivering a product from development
to production. I hope to be able to become a RHCE by April.

~~~
superquest
Did this for a few months when I first learned to code and could never figure
out how to get something from my laptop to a "real server" ...

Great material!

------
Jtsummers
Physical Improvement:

    
    
      BJJ - fun, keeps me active
      Dancing - ballroom, tango
    

Personal Impromevment:

    
    
      Drawing - because I can't draw a stick figure
      Spanish - relationship, travel
    

Intellectual Improvement:

    
    
      Calculus - because I've forgotten so much, and it's
        actually relevant at work now.
    

Professional:

    
    
      Rust

------
evo_9
Oil painting. I often like to learn completely new, unrelated skills like this
because it allows me to draw from unusual, and wide sources when working on
solutions. People often wonder how I am able to 'think outside the box' and I
believe it's because I have a wider, more varied set of skills to draw from.

------
bluedevil2k
Spanish - I feel like it's easier to learn now instead of in 8th grade when I
had 7 other classes to study as well. Plus, I feel it's like learning a new
programming language in some ways, which I've spent the past X years doing. As
a concrete skill, I can use it every day (Austin), and on many vacations.

~~~
twistedanimator
I too am learning Spanish this year. It has been very interesting learning the
differences between English and Spanish. For instance, there is a formal and
informal way of speaking to people. It blew my mind a little to learn that my
girlfriend (whose native language is Spanish) only speaks to her brother using
the formal way. Also, she uses the informal way with some of her friends but
not others. It's like a weird extra dimension of language that I never knew
existed.

------
marktangotango
Microsoft DHTML Behaviors, this is the IE5-6 stuff that was deprecated with
IE7. I'm on a legacy modernization project. I never worked with that stuff
before so it's all new to me. I kind of enjoy this type of work so if you or
anyone you know needs help with such a project, ping me (email in profile).

------
stevekemp
Hardware development, via arduino.

I'm having lots of fun putting together simple circuits, and programming in
Lisp, FORTH, & C.

I've got a couple of projects on the go at the moment, and more planned. At
the moment I'm mostly stalled on waiting for parts to be shipped from China.

It feels like an interesting change from purely writing code.

------
proaralyst
Swedish & Erlang. I'm also eyeing stone carving and hopefully starting roller
derby.

------
exDM69
Orbital mechanics because I take Kerbal Space Program way too seriously. If
anyone wants to geek out about this and take a look at my code, get in touch.

Woodworking because it's a nice balance to working with computers. I work
almost exclusively with hand tools.

~~~
haikkonen
I love KSP also, when do you take OM course?

~~~
exDM69
I took a few courses of astronomy at Helsinki university, but mostly I've
studied on my own. I did watch Leonard Susskind's lectures on classical
mechanics but did not any online courses.

Check out my related project, it contains all the orbital mechanics you need
to write your own Kerbal Space Program clone (look around in the branches):
[https://github.com/rikusalminen/twobody](https://github.com/rikusalminen/twobody)

------
jmstfv
Linear Algebra. It's fun!

~~~
samuraixp
me 2 hahahah Go Sal!

~~~
jmstfv
check out this playlist[0]. This guy provides intuition behind major LA
concepts. Have fun! :) [0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjBOesZCoqc&list=PLZHQObOWTQ...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjBOesZCoqc&list=PLZHQObOWTQDPD3MizzM2xVFitgF8hE_ab&index=1)

------
ramxtr
Going through Coursera's "Functional Program Design in Scala" (second scala
class in the series).. looking to finish the specialization which eventually
touches on Spark.

Also, linear algebra refreshers ..

------
_spoonman
Topics for the Oracle Certified Master exam. We don't use a lot of the
technology in it at work, so just knowing it even if I don't take / pass the
exam might help me in my job search.

------
superquest
* Chinese language. Was conversational a few years back but am extremely rusty now.

* Discipline & routine.

* www.deeplearningbook.org

* Pedagogy. In particular, teaching languages.

* Crossfit ... lol

* I want to take some dance classes, but haven't pulled the trigger yet ...

------
zbarnes757
Personal: \- Portuguese for my relationship Professional: \- OTP with Elixir
\- React (been slacking on my front end skills) Physical: \- nutrition \- more
time doing CrossFit

------
crgwbr
Technical: predominately Typescript, beginning to dabble in Rust, and reading
a lot about the architecture of Postgres.

Non-technical: Vietnamese language.

------
koolba
Work </> life balance.

It's been a recurring New Year's resolution for a while now and 2017 is the
year it will be mastered!

------
Pandabob
Vue.js and particle transport equations.

------
JimTheriot
Array programming languages: J, K, Q, and more recently, APL; using
RosettaCode to assess my progress.

------
JimTheriot
Array programming languages: APL, J, K, and Q, using RosettaCode tasks to
assess my progress.

------
cris-ward
Crystal lang - it's awesome

------
kim0
Clojurescript and reagent .. very cleanly designed, and one ring to rule them
all

------
dawnbreez
Taking the 3rd part of a Cisco CCNT course so I can have a decent income for
once.

------
olalonde
I've been reading "Distributed Algorithms" by Nancy Lynch lately.

------
awesomebob
JavaScript testing, TDD, BDD.

------
urahara
Ruby and RoR

------
akirayamaoka
Ruby & RoR. It's something new & fresh after several years of Java & Scala
development.

------
mixedCase
Digital audio processing.

It sucks.

~~~
mezod
how come?

~~~
exDM69
Not GP but: bugs in audio processing code will produce some very nasty sounds.
Can't use headphones because if you fuck up, you're deaf but can't use
speakers because wife and cats complain.

This is why audio programming sucks and my software synthesizer project is on
hold until I can get a house with a noise proof basement.

------
bayofpigs
Scala and Kubernetes

