

Ask HN: What will you learn this year?  - Anon84

Every year, I pick a topic I want to learn more about. Not just by professional imperatives but mostly by sheer curiosity. 
At one point, it was C++, Japanese, Monte-Carlo, Business, Politics, Economics, etc... This year, it's investing and finance in general and the financial crisis in particular (for obvious reasons).<p>With the new year still wet behind the ears, what have you decided to learn about?
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raju
Go back to the basics - This year, there is only book that I want to read -
SICP. I get through that, and I know I will be a better developer for the rest
of my days...

Of course I am currently reading Real World Haskell (just took a break to read
HN), so its not quite the start I wanted, but hopefully learning Haskell will
bring me to a closer understanding of the math behind programming

Less multi-tasking - I started this a week ago, when I was working I switched
off the twitter client, the email, and the phone. And I got so much more done
with so less effort.

Finding myself - More time meditating, and writing (like a journal). Time over
the last 2 years has flown by and I feel like I have nothing to show for it.
Meditating had always helped me compose myself, not to mention it will help
with finding the "zone" (Along the lines of less multi-tasking)

More hacking, actually putting what I learn to metal. I tend to be academic in
nature, but deep inside I know I that its when I put it to use that it really
resonates with me

Finally, just being happy. Fretting over every new technology that I feel I
just have to know about gives me the satisfaction of knowing about it, without
getting enough depth to "know" it.

~~~
Anon84

           Go back to the basics - This year, there is only book that I want to read - SICP.
    

I actually started going over it (along with the videos of the lectures) a
couple of weeks ago.

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shimon
I'm going to learn about making money via subscription payments. I've launched
a few apps, some that I'm very proud of, but nothing that attempts to make
money in the most straightforward way: charging for use. Consequently I've
never felt like I really understood this simple thing, or how easy it would be
to deploy it on a new or existing app.

More broadly, my goal is to learn about bringing a business to life. Having
quit my day job and switched to consulting in the last year, I'd really like
to start exploring new opportunities that could make money while I sleep.

~~~
jfornear
I'm in the same boat. I want to learn to think of ideas for apps that would
create real value that either consumers or businesses would be willing to pay
for.

------
yan
My plans:

    
    
      - dedicate an hour a day to nothing but reading
      - ditto for exercise
      - finish the MIT opencourseware course on intro neuroscience (scored the textbook on eBay for $14)
      - start a software project and bring it to being released
      - build an arduinome if finances permit
      - learn to dance
      - finally complete my pilot's license and get a glider certification (again, finances permitting)
      - go climbing outdoors as much as possible, time and weather permitting. 
      - figure out what I want to do professionally for the next few years (current job obligation ending summer)

~~~
icey
If you build an arduinome, please document the process and put it online
somewhere. It looks interesting; the Monome has always been one of those
things that is super fascinating to me, but I could never justify buying.

~~~
bootload
_"... If you build an arduinome, please document the process and put it online
somewhere ..."_

and if either of you decide to build one consider building them commercially.
there is currently a bit of demand for the Monome & possibly the arduinome ~
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monome>

------
mtrichardson
Judo. I was so happy when I was doing it previously and I'm disappointed I
ever stopped (graduated from college). But, the best dojo in town is right
near my house, so there we go.

After that, I want to focus on polish. I too often focus on the end result but
I'm bad at getting to the done-done stage - specifically, UI/UX.

------
zitterbewegung
Lots of mathematics, abstract algebra, computability, topology, linear
algebra. Also, I want to understand more about theoretical computer science.

------
notaddicted
Technical: 1\. Chalk up one more for SICP. I got started via the ebook. I'll
probably shoot for 80% coverage of the exercises. 2\. Also I'm hoping to get
through the mathematical preliminaries section in TAOCP. 3\. The "Great
Algorithms" course that was posted here seems like particularly ripe fruit.

Non-technical: 1\. Set better goals. I'm am freaking awful at setting goals.
Need to focus on and experiment with setting goals.

------
djm
I want to learn more about social psychology. I've just read Cialdini's book
"influence" and have become fascinated with the subject.

As far as technical stuff goes I'd like to go through SICP - I had a small
exposure to lisp years ago and would like to try it out again.

I'm also going to be doing some courses with the UK's open university
(distance learning) - a math refresher and a course on processors/hardware.

------
tokenadult
I'd like to learn more about economics. I'm happy to hear suggestions about
what I should read.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=415683>

Someone who likes to read a lot elsewhere in cyberspace just recommended to me
the Becker-Posner blog.

<http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/>

~~~
showerst
Here are the blogs I'd start with: For behavioral and general economics, my
two favorites are Tyler Cowen and The Big Picture

<http://www.marginalrevolution.com/>

<http://bigpicture.typepad.com/>

For Development/Macroeconomics two great ones (besides Becker/Posner) are Greg
Mankiw & Danny Rodrik

<http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/>

<http://rodrik.typepad.com/>

Mankiw is a bit more traditional than Rodrik, so they tend to have some great
back & forth, and when the discussion jumps above college-level they tend to
link/explain things. </econ nerd>

~~~
tokenadult
Thanks for the suggestions. I see Big Picture just moved to a new URL.

<http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/>

------
davidw
The raising of my daughter.

~~~
tptacek
You'll do great. How old is she?

~~~
davidw
8 months old in a few days!

~~~
tptacek
Good age! She's interactive now.

Before you buy any books on parenting strategies, you need this book:

[http://www.amazon.com/Doggy-Picture-Book-Thingy-
Things/dp/07...](http://www.amazon.com/Doggy-Picture-Book-Thingy-
Things/dp/0786806427)

------
swombat
Public speaking. I'm signing up to some Toastmasters meetings and learning to
do that well.

~~~
imp
Cool. I've been doing it for over a year now and it's a lot of fun and very
helpful.

------
vaksel
Keeping costs as low as possible long term.

------
brl
The main thing I want to learn more about is cryptology, and in particular
cryptanalysis. I've been collecting papers that I want to read but I'm still
missing a lot of the mathematical background that I need to understand them.

I'm currently working through a new book called _Applied Cryptanalysis -
Breaking Ciphers in the Real World_ and plan to fill in the math as needed
from other sources.

Like many other people I also have SICP on my list and it will remain there
until I have finished it including most of the exercises.

I have also been learning Haskell over the last year and plan to continue
using it as much as possible, especially for mathematical oriented projects
such as implementing attacks from the cryptanalysis book.

------
ericlavigne
I'm just starting to learn about web development with Clojure. Even though I'm
barely beyond the "hello world" stage, I've put my app on Slicehost at
<http://ericlavigne.net> and I'm documenting the learning process on my blog
at <http://ericlavigne.wordpress.com>

------
lionheart
How to turn a one-man startup into a real company.

------
gommm
Learn to manage my time better and stop procastinating with HN :-)

More seriously, I want to read SICP seriously and play again with Ocaml (I
used it quite a bit in university and really liked this language)

On things outside of programming, I'm going to get my chinese back into
shape...

------
tptacek
The math behind signal processing; curing and drying ham and salami.

------
mikeyur
I want to learn more about marketing and SEO. I have the basics, but I want to
take it a step further.

------
ktharavaad
1, Get a solid foundation on statistical learning theory and machine learning.
I'm currently working my way through the cs229 course online on the stanford
site

2, Learn how to network with people and start a company and apply to
Ycombinator for the summer 09 cycle.

------
mtw
be serious about javascript, re-learn C, re-learn stats, master user interface
design

~~~
motoko
I strongly recommend: \- jQuery (all the documentation you'll need is online)
\- O'Reilly JavaScript: The Definitive Guide \- Firebug Javascript Debugger
for Firefox. \- Emacs Javascript Mode \- Some virtual machine environment for
IE6 testing (IE6 testing will be your biggest chore, but it's essential for
any public website)

Also, read the source code of sites you like or to see how novel effects work.

This should be (almost) everything that you'll need.

------
joubert
Violin. Started 3 weeks ago.

------
sidmitra
1\. Statistics: Hate the way it was taught in college.

2\. And maybe the Guitar. I'll start by learning to tune it first, which was
the reason it's gathering dust in the first place.

~~~
dag
Guitar string frequencies are 82 Hz, 110 Hz, 147 Hz, 196 Hz, 247 Hz, and 330
Hz. Generate each frequency and twist the knobs until you can no longer hear a
beat frequency. Or buy a tuner.

If the strings are hard to keep in tune you will want to replace them. In that
case google "change guitar strings".

Then you search "smoke on the water tab", and you should be good from there.

~~~
chett
Good advice. When buying a tuner look for a "chromatic" meaning it can tune
ALL frequencies (within a certain range) no more than $40. This will give you
more flexibility down the road. String names from high (the skinny one) to low
are E B G D A E. And your first string change will probably be awful. Leave
extra room and try to keep the winds even. Good Luck!

~~~
icey
Along the lines of the first string change; don't try to tune the strings
until they're all on and in the general vicinity of the correct tension.

It takes some practice until you realize you really have to tune all six
strings at once until everything is tuned approximately right. Then you can
fine tune on a string-by-string basis.

------
oscardelben
Time management: I want to become expert at time management. Math and business
in general. Regarding programming instead, SICP, Erlang and Closures are what
I'm working right now.

------
joeyo
To read (at least phonetically) and write in Armenian.

------
paraschopra
I'm definitely going to learn more math this year. And maybe I would want to
do something non web based but interesting.

------
zandorg
Back to On Lisp (printed out) this year.

------
whacked_new
I decided to learn about deciding to learn about something.

------
effektz
Ruby!

~~~
juliend2
I want to learn Ruby too! Especially with Rails. I just want to get rid of
PHP. Maybe it's not going to happen this year completely, but at least i will
try. I find it's a fantastic framework. I worked with CakePHP and CodeIgniter
before, but any PHP framework is just far behind the ruby syntax.

~~~
RossM
Erk, exactly (swap CodeIgnitor for ZF) the same position I'm in.

------
yummyfajitas
Statistics and Eskrima.

------
jcapote
Math.

------
symptic
French.

------
qqq
I'm going to learn more philosophy and maybe some physics.

~~~
Anon84
I always thought that physics is the mother of all philosophy (at least the of
"natural" kind)... then again, I am a physicist. :D

~~~
qqq
No, no, it's the other way around :)

Physics is "natural philosophy", one branch of philosophy. There is also
philosophy of knowledge, existence, morals, political philosophy, etc.

------
vidioradeo
Juggle and ride a unicycle at the same time, and be more creative when trying
to sneak a tow up hills in traffic on my bike.

