Ask HN: What are topics that you want to learn but haven't gotten around to? - greenm2
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openfuture
Haskell. I can only do simple things and need to understand more jargon.

Category Theory. I'm actually fixing this right now doing an online course.

3d modelling. Haven't gotten started. Really want to learn it.

Rust / Clojurescript. I've started several times but not really been invested
enough in the projects I think up to get very far.

Swimming. I am also starting to make progress here.

Handstand. I have the strength and flexibility but need better technique.

Spanish. I understand when I listen but haven't learned how to speak, need to
move to a latin country.

Eye contact. I can do it with some people but with others (people who feel
insecure) I empathize too much and break eye contact and start talking to the
sky.

Sperm retention. I want to be able to control my ejaculation, I've practiced a
little but it's quite hard.

~~~
zumu
What online course are you doing for category theory?

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samthecoy
Category Theory (and more advanced Set Theory). After taking an undergraduate
Set Theory course I want to explore these areas of mathematics further. I'm
currently going though Thomas Jech's "Set Theory" on the Set Theory side, but
haven't yet found a good, undergraduate accessible, Category Theory text.

~~~
tobbe2064
You should check out "Conceptual mathematics" and then "sets for mathematics",
both written by lawvere. They are the amazing

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iDemonix
A front-end JS framework. Every time I look in to it there's 328 new ones and
5,149 reasons not to use the old one.

~~~
ahussain
React? There seems to be a consensus forming that it's the best. You can get
started really quickly with create-react-app

~~~
Deadron
Even if you don't end up using React itself, alot of libraries are similar in
concept. By learning one you can gain the concepts to use many. For example
vue.js is really easy to pick up if you already know react.

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wilkystyle
In no particular order:

\- A deep and real understanding of the blockchain.

\- Clojure. I've heard that it is not only fun, but changes the way you
approach programming in general. I don't have any professional need for it,
though.

\- Truly understanding how neural networks work.

\- Rust, although this is similar to Clojure above; I don't know what I'd
actually use it for.

~~~
slezyr
> \- Rust, although this is similar to Clojure above; I don't know what I'd
> actually use it for.

Not for network applications. It's nearly impossible to make async tcp server
right now. But it's promising language. So let it mature.

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ydnaclementine
\- elixir pheonix (waiting for the 1.3+ book)

\- C (I have the modern C book, just need to do it. My end goal is to get a PR
into the linux kernel)

\- SICP + lisp

\- basic design, so I can have some idea of where to put things/page structure

I keep track this kind of stuff in a trello list. I have a lot in the ToDo
column

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adius
For anyone looking for something to learn, I'd heavily recommend Haskell. It's
been an eye opener for me.

~~~
InterestBazinga
In what ways did it open your eyes?

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tetha
Mh, there's a bunch of things, but not enough time.

I might want to look at some modern C++ style, but it's tricky to figure out a
year to land on, and it's tricky to find a good book. This could be
interesting for some gaming projects or simulation projects of mine.

I might want to look at salt/ansible from a professional perspective. I'm a
chef guy, but it'd be good to know some of the other tools around. This is
mostly a case of lazy and lack of personal project. Containers and
orchestration systems as well, but that's planned at work.

Beyond that, electronics and model building. I've gotten myself some lego, an
arduino, but I'll need to work more on that to do ... things. I dunno. Make my
lego crane automatically pick up bright pink blocks or something. From there,
I'd probably venture further into model building, like ships or planes. Or
Nerf-Tanks. it sounds really useful to me to have a good basic grasp of low-
voltage electronics, and how you'd wire up a home or how you'd fix simple
electronic devices. It's something I'd be missing if I was supposed to build
my own home from scratch.

And beyond that - but I really want to get going there this summer - get and
learn to paddle a folding canoe. I need to work on my work-life balance, and
paddling a canoe is a great thing to just ignore the world. It's hard to think
about binary deployments if there is a duck racing you.

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cirgue
\- Better theories of social interaction patterns online. I don't even know if
that body of knowledge is out there outside of facebook/google, but i wish I
had a better concrete understanding of how people interact online.

\- Off-the-beaten-path interface design. UI design seems to have converged
around a set of principles that are generally pretty sound, but seem to have
been optimized for looking good in demos but lead to underwhelming user
experiences.

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te_chris
Maths, properly.

~~~
tobbe2064
There is no such thing

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AnimalMuppet
Care to explain?

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tobbe2064
I take properly to mean a structured approach to full understanding. However,
the totality of math is beyond any single person. There are multiple
approaches that all drift of in to different directions.

In short. There is no final Aha moment for maths at large. There are however a
shit load of specific aha moments down the path

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joenot443
I'd really like to get into hobby electronics, specifically DIY guitar pedal
design.

There's a great subreddit, /r/diypedals, which I've been lurking for a while,
I just haven't made the dive into buying my first kit and soldering equipment.
Does anyone here on HN have any tips or words of wisdom?

~~~
frenchie4111
I highly suggest spending a few extra dollars to get a nice digital soldering
iron w/replaceable tips.

Here is the standard that everyone gets, but sometimes there are deals on
other ones: [https://www.amazon.com/Hakko-FX888D-23BY-Digital-
Soldering-S...](https://www.amazon.com/Hakko-FX888D-23BY-Digital-Soldering-
Station/dp/B00ANZRT4M/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1525277784&sr=8-5&keywords=digital+soldering+iron)

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sixdimensional
For me all I can think of when asked this question is all the topics I wish I
could learn/study that are not specifically software / programming /
information technology related.

Wood frame construction, new ways to run organizations (e.g. Holocracy etc.),
how to build solar power systems, how water purification systems work (e.g.
Hydrolysis or reverse osmosis), cooking and baking... so many more.

And, probably Tensorflow/Keras, Kubernetes, Angular, VR and maybe a deeper
dive into Apache Spark. I didn't really ever get into blockchain. But lately I
don't feel as motivated about the latest technology fad. Which is surprising
even to me!

Original poster, why do you ask?

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gnode
Russian, better; I've been through the Duolingo course many times over now. I
like it's teaching style, but it ends too soon, and I'm struggling to find
good learning resources to advance to a higher level.

More mathematics, particularly more degree-level analysis and geometry. It's
the area that interests me most, and I feel I missed out on it doing a
computer science degree. I'd also like to understand elliptic curve crypto.

Not really a "topic", but I've wanted to get around to learning piano for a
while now.

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anotherevan
On the "Things I Want To Learn But Rarely Get Around To™" list there is Rust
and to a lesser degree, Elm (although I am starting to worry about rumblings
of dissatisfaction in how Elm is being managed).

I'm also been reading a bit about Event Sourcing application design. I want to
play with it, but it seems like I have to get my head around CQRS and Domain-
driven design as part of the process...

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flyingcircus3
In the general sense, I've found that the best way to learn a new skill is to
find an application that you are really interested in. This switches the goal
from learning something to doing something interesting/fun. It is this
motivation of wanting to use the end result that will sustain you through the
grind of learning the skill.

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gpetukhov
Embedded systems, compiler design, Rust, GraphQL. There are too many things I
want to learn...

~~~
senatorobama
Why not Deeo Learning?

~~~
gpetukhov
not very interested

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timdellinger
I'm totally fine with it, but this post looks a lot like market research to
me!

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scarecrowbob
A second and third language.

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oseifrimpong
In no particular order: 1\. Add Python programming to my arsenal of
programming languages. 2\. Project and People management 3\. Data Structures

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danmaz74
Quantum mechanics. I should have studied it better when I was at university
and my math was fresher :)

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werber
The complete lifecycle of the code I write. I don't delve deeper than
breakpoints 99% of the time

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maguirre
Control Systems, DSP, RF design

~~~
kawfey
Getting into amateur radio is a good way to pursue these activities. GNURadio
is popular and well-supported for software-defined-radio systems, and hardware
can be a cheap as $10.

If you're talking about kinematic control systems, building a quadcopter or RC
plane may be worthwhile. There are tons of self-balancing arduino-powered
things out there too.

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grad_ml
Probability + Undergrad statistics interpretations. Never feel confident.

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lainga
Undergrad-level topology, at least enough to understand what a sheaf is.

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slezyr
3D modeling in Blender3D

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errozero
I started doing this recently, but I want to use a laptop. Blender seems
better suited to a full size keyboard and proper mouse. Does anyone use it
with a laptop keyboard and trackpad?

~~~
flyingcircus3
I would say that in the abstract, if this is a skill you want to learn, don't
let the specific tool choices get in the way of the education. Give yourself
every opportunity for success, by choosing the recommended tools, as you can
afford them. A better way to think of good tools is that they get all of the
bullshit out of your way so you can work at maximum efficiency. Thus, until
you actually learn the skill, trying to impose your own preconceived notions
of the right tools for the job is complete guesswork.

Once you understand the basic logistics, then you are positioned to judge
specific characteristics of your tools, and make educated decisions about
which accentuate your craft, and which cause you endless grief to just perform
their basic tasks.

~~~
slezyr
Blender heavily relies on numpad keys and middle mouse button so there is
small "hardware" problem to use it on laptops

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tobbe2064
Natural language processing

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eltomate
Reinforcement learning

~~~
frenchie4111
OpenAI is throwing a RL (and Transfer Learning) contest right now, I am using
it as an opportunity to learn and re-implement the current best RL stuff.
[https://contest.openai.com/](https://contest.openai.com/)

If you end up joining the contest, shoot me a message on the discord, I would
love to chat about RL (I am `lyons` on the discord).

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askthrowaway
Game theory topics

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asdsa5325
Not blockchain

