[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improv...
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       Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2025?
        
       Thread for 2024: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38782613
       Thread for 2023: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33873800  I'd
       like to take on VR dev alongside my existing journeys in computer
       graphics, iOS dev and Unreal Engine. A stretch goal would be
       setting up a blog to document my experiences in those journeys.  In
       terms of non-technical skills, I'm thinking of focusing on sales
       and marketing. Those are fundamental skills, without which any side
       project I do would be doomed to failure.  In terms of more creative
       skills, I have a few already in the "pipeline": a woobles kit to
       learn crocheting, a warhammer starter pack to learn miniature
       painting and a gunpla model kit to learn to properly assemble it.
        
       Author : meridion
       Score  : 107 points
       Date   : 2024-12-25 16:04 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
       | Alex-Programs wrote:
       | Writing. My ability to write is highly dependent on the context.
       | I'm much better at essays than emails, and fiction is completely
       | outside my abilities. I would also like to change my style a
       | little to be less flowery and more succinct. More Paul Graham
       | than purple prose.
       | 
       | Marketing. I'm hopeless at it, and I need to be at least OK at it
       | in order for my project (https://nuenki.app) to succeed.
       | 
       | Time management. I'm very good at obsessing over one thing; less
       | so at managing lots of different things that need to be round-
       | robined.
       | 
       | Physics and maths! I'm in my gap year at the moment, but I want
       | to be prepared for my physics degree next year. I'm already
       | really quite rusty.
       | 
       | Git. I know enough to use it, but I've no clue what a rebase is,
       | for example.
       | 
       | I've had a vague interest in 3D printing for a while, but I've
       | recently been getting into DND and it might finally justify
       | getting one. It seems like miniatures are best with resin
       | printers though, while most other things aren't. I also hate
       | painting things, so maybe it isn't worth it.
       | 
       | German! Nuenki has distracted me from it, but I ought to properly
       | get back to it. It's just something I enjoy - I've discovered how
       | much fun language learning is.
       | 
       | And a number of other things, but the list is already quite long
       | and I should probably be enjoying Christmas instead of browsing
       | HN :)
        
         | toddmorey wrote:
         | Ok, you say you are bad at marketing but the Nuenki homepage is
         | one of the best I've seen. The product and benefits are so
         | clearly explained. Well done.
         | 
         | You may eventually want a small project to create a
         | recognizable logo (think how much mileage Duolingo has got from
         | their little owl fellah).
         | 
         | One thing I often see with SaaS offerings is no clear & simple
         | concept / theme that separates the free and paid plans of a
         | service. For Nuenki I would just lean into "works on mobile"
         | being the clear value you get from the paid plan. Hopefully
         | over time you can bring it to more mobile platforms with a
         | small app or something.
         | 
         | Congrats on what you've built and hope to see more growth in
         | 2025! Great idea well executed.
        
         | punkspider wrote:
         | The marketing trick that had the most impact on my mindset has
         | been this article about how to structure landing pages
         | https://marketingexamples.com/landing-page/guide.
         | 
         | If you didn't know about it already, I think that you could use
         | it to tweak the Nuenki landing page, and you'll possibly have
         | some aha moment that'll help in marketing down the line.
        
         | vunderba wrote:
         | The site is solid, but as somebody who has also built a foreign
         | language partial translation extension over a decade ago,
         | there's a _TON_ of competition in this area.
         | 
         | Off the top of my head, I can think of Langulearn, Language
         | Immersion for Chrome, Polyglot, Alpharabius, Mind the Word,
         | Gloss (I think defunct now though), and Toucan. These are all
         | extension-based approaches and range from individual words to
         | entire sentences.
        
         | BadHumans wrote:
         | > Marketing. I'm hopeless at it, and I need to be at least OK
         | at it in order for my project (https://nuenki.app) to succeed.
         | 
         | This project looks great and the homepage does a great job at
         | explaining what it does. Especially the slider. And it supports
         | Firefox which is a rarity in this space. I think you should
         | take pride in what you have accomplished from a communication
         | perspective.
        
       | pg5 wrote:
       | I want to learn how to make fairly simple characters in blender,
       | so that I can make more unique games, as opposed to using 100%
       | pre-made assets.
        
         | ramon156 wrote:
         | If blender is a bit overwhelming for you (it was for me), give
         | blockbench a try. I love how simple everything is, and you can
         | always add plugins if you miss something. Its open-source too!
        
       | yu3zhou4 wrote:
       | Marketing and sales, so this time I succeed with having paying
       | customers in my next product :)
       | 
       | Any tips or resources for solo entrepreneurs is highly
       | appreciated!
        
         | Alex-Programs wrote:
         | Same here! I really underestimated marketing. I've got a lot
         | more respect for it now.
         | 
         | I assumed "build it and they will come" would work, and while
         | there are definitely areas I could improve my product, the
         | bottleneck for me is getting people to see it and try it. Once
         | they're using the trial, I have an excellent conversion rate.
        
         | hambos22 wrote:
         | I've been running my brand of scented products and cosmetics
         | (https://yuma.gr) for 2 years now. 2 months ago we completed a
         | rebranding and we're steadily gaining national consumer
         | awareness of our existence as a brand.
         | 
         | From the top of my head, in order of importance:
         | 
         | 1. Your perspective is unique - no one else shares your exact
         | point of view. Try everything.
         | 
         | 2. Master digital marketing: Google & Facebook Ads, Server Side
         | Tracking, Google Tag Manager, and Analytics. Recommended
         | communities:
         | 
         | - reddit.com/r/PPC
         | 
         | - measure.chat
         | 
         | 3. Keep creative talent in-house (designers, developers)
         | 
         | 4. Study pricing psychology (eg. kolenda.io/guides/pricing)
         | 
         | 5. Good books with warstories:
         | 
         | * Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
         | 
         | * The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing & of Branding (2 separate
         | books) by Al Ries
         | 
         | 6. Learn accounting essentials, each country has its own system
         | 
         | 7. Provide solid support via multiple channels (phone, email,
         | chat, social etc)
        
       | sailorganymede wrote:
       | Releasing stuff.
        
       | Tutanota1 wrote:
       | Learning machine learning through maths and implementing some of
       | the most common ML algorithms from scratch.
       | 
       | Writing technical blogs - I find it easy to write topics where
       | there is no right or wrong, just a perspective. But would like to
       | write some technical stuffs i learnt over the year.
        
         | punkspider wrote:
         | 1. Your first one is also on my list.
         | 
         | 2. I have written technical blogs and it is very rewarding when
         | you see your article ranking at the top of Google, and people
         | sharing it because it is genuinely useful.
         | 
         | I may have some advice here.
         | 
         | If you've never had a blog, you'll be surprised how easily you
         | can rank in search engines and get visitors. Technical blogs
         | that haven't been tainted by monetization aren't as many as
         | you'd think. You probably see many of them here on HN, but in
         | Google most websites fight to stay on top for major keywords to
         | make money.
         | 
         | Furthermore, many experts don't write. You'll be amazed when
         | you start seeing impressions in Google Search Console (their
         | dashboard for search activity).
         | 
         | I highly recommend: - Setup the site quick, in an imperfect
         | state - Post a few articles in an imperfect state - Install
         | Google Search Console
         | 
         | Then follow the data in Search Console - you'll see which
         | keywords and pages are getting traction. From there, keep
         | posting what you think would be helpful for people like you.
        
           | mettamage wrote:
           | That's really encouraging, I might start a blog as well.
        
         | binarymax wrote:
         | Hey! Not sure if you're looking for recommendations, but Andrew
         | Ng's original coursera course for Machine Learning is what
         | you're looking for. I took the course back in 2015 but it's
         | timeless, and gives you the algo and maths foundations you're
         | looking for.
        
       | beretguy wrote:
       | Pottery/ceramics throwing. I want to learn to make cups and
       | plates. I'm tired of computers. I already know enough to be able
       | to write useful programs and get the job done.
        
       | travisgriggs wrote:
       | I want to build/finish my second stand up paddleboard from wood
       | (https://sliverpaddleboards.com/). I want this one to stay
       | floating longer than 15 minutes :(
        
       | MilanTodorovic wrote:
       | Learn how to use (Neo)vim.
        
       | lylejantzi3rd wrote:
       | Marketing and sales, like everybody else. :)
       | 
       | Desktop application development. I want to make it as easy and
       | fast to create desktop apps as it is to create a web app or a
       | command line app.
        
         | melvinroest wrote:
         | Funny you mention that, while I know quite a few programming
         | languages, I think most desktop applications that don't need a
         | lot of bells and whistles, I'd probably make it with Pharo.
         | 
         | I haven't programmed in a while with Pharo but they have a
         | built-in GUI framework. But there was also Bloc, if remember
         | correctly.
         | 
         | Fun fact: you can then also ship the IDE itself with it, so
         | people can hack into your application, if that's the sort of
         | thing you'd want.
        
           | em-bee wrote:
           | pharo is awesome. if i had any need for desktop applications,
           | it's the first thing i'd try to use.
        
       | punkspider wrote:
       | Mental endurance and discipline to better handle tasks that
       | require sustained focus, especially those I instinctively resist
       | or dismiss, whether because I dislike them or I downplay their
       | importance. Examples are thinking through unfamiliar and
       | difficult problems or reading dense documentation and contracts.
       | 
       | I also want to improve my prioritization skills to better judge
       | which challenging tasks truly deserve my time and mental energy,
       | and which ones don't.
        
       | swayvil wrote:
       | I want to be bigger and fluffier.
        
       | sunday_serif wrote:
       | Writing blog posts and being ok with them not being perfect.
       | 
       | I often have an idea for a post that would be interesting, but
       | then as a learn more about the topic in order to write, I start
       | to realize how much I don't know. At this point, the post either
       | dies or I spend way too long learning every irrelevant detail
       | until I feel like I know enough.
       | 
       | So I think the skill I am trying to learn is writing as a non-
       | expert. Learning to write in a tone that makes it ok to not know
       | everything. Writing in a tone that conveys my experience and
       | understanding, but doesn't try to be an authority on the subject.
       | 
       | Writing is a tough skill!
        
         | memhole wrote:
         | I've been working on writing this year. It's hard. I have
         | countless posts or ideas for posts sitting there because I
         | don't like them for one reason or another.
         | 
         | For me I don't collect metrics or really try to think that
         | anyone might read a shred of it. I think that's been helpful.
         | And also just publish it. In the grand scheme it's for you
         | anyways to enjoy and develop. One piece of advice that I've
         | gotten, is to commit to your points or idea. I think that's can
         | even include committing to uncertainty. You might need to
         | revise it later, but done thoughtfully if you have readers,
         | they should respect that. If not, well, without comments and
         | metrics what does it matter?
         | 
         | Over the holiday break I've migrated to my own blog instead of
         | a platform. So I've certainly found it enjoyable even if
         | frustrating!
        
         | chege wrote:
         | Who is your blog's target audience? I write
         | https://www.curiosities.dev/ for myself. I'm a non-expert in
         | all of the posts.
         | 
         | When I revisit old posts, I digest the information differently
         | and add more explorations/questions. It's much easier to build
         | upon scaffolding that's already there. Maybe in N years, I'll
         | have something insightful to say about X, but I don't have to
         | hold off writing anything until then -- incomplete notes and
         | rephrasing of other people's ideas already benefit me now.
        
         | NorwegianDude wrote:
         | Personally I think that even if you don't know everything, just
         | make clear what you are certain and uncertain about.
         | 
         | You probably know a lot, and what you write is still good as
         | long as you don't spread misinformation. I have issues trusting
         | most sources that are not clear about what they are uncertain
         | about, cause most people are not experts.
        
       | itsmemattchung wrote:
       | Non-technical skills
       | 
       | * (Continue) Dancing - Beginning of 2023, I got into street style
       | dance and movement (including stretching which I've done now for
       | the past 223 days) helped me get through one of the most
       | challenging periods of my life (i.e. divorced with a child, moved
       | from U.S. to London to single raise my daughter). Dance has now
       | taken its life of its own and I'm finding myself competing in
       | dance "battles" as a way to test and grow my mental fortitude.
       | 
       | Technical skills
       | 
       | * UI Design - as a low level (i.e. C developer), I currently lack
       | the skills to make my own little toy web apps more aesthetically
       | pleasing for not just me, but to share with others
       | 
       | * Photography and videography - want to increase my current
       | level(s) since I started a YouTube channel documenting my dance
       | journey and also create little reels for community events
       | 
       | * (maybe) Rust or C++
       | 
       | [0] - Example of dance related YouTube shorts I make:
       | https://youtube.com/shorts/cI2LAe-MMrw
        
       | tiffanyh wrote:
       | Practical AI/ML, and not all the marketing buzz.
       | 
       | Does anyone know of a good "AI/ML for Dummies" ... from the
       | basics.
       | 
       | I do _not_ want something that is just teaching me dozens of
       | frameworks or toolkits.
        
         | Alex-Programs wrote:
         | Andrew Ng's courses tend to be widely recommended, including by
         | someone I know who went from physics to ML.
         | 
         | This was pre-gpt-3.5 release. It's classical ML.
        
           | HybridCurve wrote:
           | Definitely Andrew Ng's courses, especially for concrete
           | explanations.
        
       | nxpnsv wrote:
       | I just want to do more math.
        
       | linux2647 wrote:
       | How to parent/be a parent. I don't have much choice in the
       | matter, as my firstborn is coming this spring ^_^
        
         | SnowingXIV wrote:
         | Congratulations just had mine a few months ago so this is
         | certainly the skill I'm working on!
         | 
         | Other than that sharpen guitar skills, linear algebra, and as a
         | rubyist thinking about doing something in elixir. But we will
         | see how the time allotment goes with an infant part of the
         | program now.
        
         | fm2606 wrote:
         | Just read the manual that comes with the child. /s
         | 
         | All kidding aside, my kids are 16 and 19 and I am still trying
         | to figure it out.
         | 
         | Pretty sure it is a journey and not a destination.
        
           | em-bee wrote:
           | we found that manual in "the baby book" by william and martha
           | sears. it was really helpful in the first few years. the book
           | promotes the idea of attachment parenting, which i feel is
           | the right approach. but any parent should decide that for
           | themselves. the general rule for parenting advice though is
           | to only apply advice that makes sense to you. don't let
           | anyone pressure you into doing anything you don't agree with.
           | 
           | i think you'll never stop figuring things out as your kids
           | grow. not with the first few anyways. i guess repetition only
           | comes in with the fourth child or so ;-)
        
       | jawns wrote:
       | One of the skills I already have is the ability to work with
       | difficult people or take on projects that need to be rescued and
       | turn them around. That has been a valuable skill and has allowed
       | me to develop a brand around it.
       | 
       | However, that doesn't mean that I enjoy working with difficult
       | people or cleaning up other people's messes. I find those people
       | just as off-putting as everyone else; I just happen to be better
       | at masking it. And I find cleaning up messes just as tedious and
       | challenging as everyone else; I just happen to be able to do it
       | anyway.
       | 
       | So I think one of the skills I want to better develop in 2025 is
       | being able to strike a better balance between the things I'm
       | recognized for being good at and the things I actually enjoy
       | doing.
       | 
       | (And if anyone has tips for how to make use of this skill set in
       | a way that's genuinely fulfilling rather than draining, I'm all
       | ears!)
        
         | orzig wrote:
         | I can't believe I'm saying this, but it sounds like you should
         | look into stoic philosophy. I think it is overly hyped, and
         | actually caused me some damage when I applied it too much, for
         | too long, but definitely one of several worthwhile perspectives
         | to have deeply internalized.
        
         | geocrasher wrote:
         | I use this same (or similar) skill to solve the unsolvable
         | problems by listening to a customers needs, which usually
         | somebody hasn't done by the time they get to me, and then work
         | on fulfilling that need in a way the customer never would have
         | expected. It's very rewarding and turns a negative interaction
         | into a positive one. It's customer service 101 type stuff, but
         | when you get the technical side involved, and you're competent,
         | you become more than a punching bag and become the solution.
         | It's so fun.
        
         | ttoinou wrote:
         | Those are great skills. Would another course of action work for
         | you ? For example selecting projects that bring more money, so
         | as to spend less time on those boring projects (saved time
         | could be used on things you enjoy then)
        
         | punkspider wrote:
         | Isn't it fulfilling already because you get things done where
         | others may fail? Also how do you do it? I'd love any tip you
         | may have.
        
         | sandspar wrote:
         | Maybe work with difficult high performers? Talented people who
         | are difficult because they're brash rather than untalented
         | people who are difficult because they're messy.
        
       | ssutch3 wrote:
       | I am retiring from tech after 20 years and embarking on a new
       | career which requires intensive schooling. As a high school and
       | college drop out, I will need to learn how to study again, and
       | want to be as efficient as possible so that I may still spend
       | ample time with my family. Any tips greatly appreciated!
        
         | medler wrote:
         | Sounds like the Learning How To Learn course on Coursera was
         | made for you. Good luck on your new pursuit!
        
       | hu3 wrote:
       | entrepreneurship
       | 
       | To leave the rat race.
        
         | em-bee wrote:
         | become a freelancer and build interesting sideprojects that you
         | can try to monetize. in a startup, especially one that needs VC
         | funding, the ratrace is replaced with a fox race, but you are
         | the rabbit.
        
       | hypertexthero wrote:
       | In the beginning of the day, don't look at phone or computer.
       | Avoid news especially, and instead write thoughts, draw
       | something, work on a song, make something, anything. Don't let
       | day get sucked away with things that can't be controlled.
       | 
       | Excercise every day with "scientific 7 minute workout". Also
       | 20-40 minute walks or 100 basketball jump-shots.
       | 
       | Draw daily, even a 5 minute drawing.
       | 
       | Write daily, even for 5 minutes.
       | 
       | Publish first original song, publish first EP. Learn a new song
       | or practice one or two from existing set. Keep learning piano by
       | learning songs you like: https://hypertexthero.com/piano/
       | 
       | Write postcards to people.
       | 
       | Set up a weekly "office hours" livestream to help people with
       | design or technical computer issues.
        
         | 331c8c71 wrote:
         | > Don't look at the phone or computer in the morning
         | 
         | Avoiding wasting time is okayish but it pales in comparison to
         | the state where you are naturally drawn to doing things that
         | you consider to be more important.
        
       | chasd00 wrote:
       | Effective multiple team management. Keeping multiple teams of
       | developers effective, motivated, and pointed in the right
       | direction in a deadline oriented project (enterprise consulting)
       | is almost impossibly hard. Way harder than any technical skill
       | I've ever encountered.
        
       | therealfiona wrote:
       | Learning Rust.
       | 
       | Learning how to draw.
        
       | nodra wrote:
       | * I want to learn how to make a game from beginning to end.
       | 
       | * Math. Got two books to refresh my skills.
       | 
       | * Improve my parenting.
       | 
       | * Get back to sxratchin (turntables) and making beats.
       | 
       | * Put my work out.
        
       | geocrasher wrote:
       | I want to learn how to properly build a habit/routine that isn't
       | dopamine driven. I have ADHD and I recently realized, even as I'm
       | pushing 50 years old, that all of my hobbies, habits, and "likes"
       | have been dopamine driven. I need to learn how to exclude the
       | reward of a dopamine hit as the reason for doing something.
       | Resources welcome.
        
         | BadHumans wrote:
         | I would recommend you read Tiny Habits by Dr BJ Fogg. A lot of
         | people recommend Atomic Habits but I will go against the grain
         | and say I don't think Atomic Habits is a good book and Tiny
         | Habits is a much better read.
        
           | geocrasher wrote:
           | Thank you, I'm checking that out now.
        
         | samtho wrote:
         | A good ADHD coach can be life-changing, as cheesy and corny as
         | it sounds. As you're likely aware (but for the benefit of
         | everyone else), the ADHD brain is not extrinsically and
         | intrinsically motivated by the exact same things of someone
         | with a more neurotypical brain.
         | 
         | An ADHD brain is more motivated by external Urgency while a
         | more neurotypical will be motivated externally by Importance.
         | This often leads to ADHD people being perceived as anywhere
         | from flakey, unreliable, to totally unconcerned with problems
         | and/or commitments. In social relationships, they are perceived
         | as being anywhere from touch and go to just unwilling to invest
         | into social bonds. The worst part is that if you are able to
         | mask well in one area, you just don't have the energy to mask
         | everywhere else. It's like an unwinnable game of wack-a-mole.
         | 
         | It has taken many years and losing so much to get to where I am
         | and it's still objectively shit. Knowing that every in the
         | world is not made for how your brain functions and is often
         | made specifically for how the majority of people's brain
         | functions is depressing.
         | 
         | I've found that very carefully selecting work that lets me lean
         | into my specific strengths (good under pressure, able to dive
         | deep on technical problems and pull out results, and being a
         | good business communicator), in conjunction with aggressively
         | automating or pre-preparing parts of my life that suck (laying
         | out clothes/tools/equipment the night before, having a checking
         | "escrow" account all my auto bill pay gets pulled out of) helps
         | me function more efficiently.
         | 
         | It gets better, you can carve newer and deeper neural-pathways
         | by sticking to routines, and finding ways to get that dopamine.
         | 
         | Also medication, that really helps.
        
         | Tepix wrote:
         | Try reading books, i'm always happy when i finish one, starting
         | is the difficult part.
        
       | larsiusprime wrote:
       | Learning to forgive and let go of resentment
        
       | rubicon33 wrote:
       | Mental fortitude and strength.
       | 
       | As I enter mid life I'm finding a lot of things (mentally)
       | challenging. I'm hoping to find peace and mental strength to stay
       | the course and enjoy the life I have built. Worry less,
       | appreciate more, and generally just be happy.
       | 
       | How to skill up in this area? I'm honestly not sure, but starting
       | with reading.
        
       | nvarsj wrote:
       | My goal is a non goal. Try to live in the present, enjoy leisure
       | time, and stop stressing about always having to up-skill myself.
       | As I near my 50s, I realise life is too short to always be
       | working. It's okay to take a break and just enjoy stuff guilt
       | free.
       | 
       | Having said that I have allowed myself one time intensive hobby -
       | to learn Japanese. I've memorised around 1000 kanji and my
       | grammar is decent. My goal is to pass the N4 or N3 next year.
        
       | uludag wrote:
       | Oddly enough, for 2025 I would say writing.
       | 
       | I would normally think that with the rise of LLMs, writing would
       | be come obsolete. Interestingly though, I think LLMs make good
       | writing more valuable and at the same time more rare.
        
         | azangru wrote:
         | > I would normally think that with the rise of LLMs, writing
         | would be come obsolete
         | 
         | If LLMs obsolete writing, then they will also obsolete reading.
         | Why waste time on reading texts when you know that no effort
         | has been put into creating them, when they do not encourage
         | trust, or sparkle joy.
        
       | robviren wrote:
       | Discipline all day. My life is rarely the reason for me not
       | practicing the other skills I want to develop. Other than that I
       | want to try out some pixel art, write more stories, and maybe
       | some more pickup volleyball.
        
       | azeirah wrote:
       | Nix, nix nix nix nix nix and nix.
       | 
       | Also, delegation.
       | 
       | More health
       | 
       | More friendship
        
       | jmcgough wrote:
       | EKG interpretation - I doubt I'll get around to ultrasound and CT
       | in 2025, they're a good bit more complicated.
       | 
       | I also recently got a Quest 3, so hoping to learn some basic
       | modeling and rigging, I want to make a VR medical clinic.
        
       | CalRobert wrote:
       | I keep hearing about people building entire programs with Claude,
       | etc and I haven't figured that out yet. So far I use and like
       | copilot, etc but it's just a slight improvement, nothing huge.
       | I'd like to figure out what I'm missing.
       | 
       | Also, professional development. I think I've never learned to
       | sell myself.
        
         | jackthetab wrote:
         | I found the tutorials on this YT channel[1] helpful in learning
         | "what I'm missing". This playlist[2] in particular.
         | 
         | I need to learn how to sell myself as well.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.youtube.com/@CodingtheFuture-jg1he [2]
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMXP2wwC5Ss&list=PLk7JCUQLwR...
        
       | leoff wrote:
       | Computer Science. After transitioning from Mechanical Engineer,
       | and 5 years of being a "Software Engineer", I want to understand
       | more how computers, operating systems, network, etc. work
        
       | mettamage wrote:
       | Sleep, making quite some progress and it shows. I want to be even
       | better.
       | 
       | Dev-wise: python and SQL. I have some skill in both but my new
       | job requires it.
       | 
       | non-technical: marketing. My new job will be a good opportunity
       | for it.
       | 
       | Perhaps also leetcode, but only if I can scooch that in.
       | 
       | Creative skill: starting any side project really.
        
       | hooverd wrote:
       | Learn Rust (for real this year). Increase my lifting PRs. Paint
       | 40k models well. Honestly just get healthier. I've been lacking
       | in 2024. Take up bow hunting because guns are too loud and if you
       | ask me a bit gauche.
        
       | delichon wrote:
       | I spend so much time rushing past moments, trying almost
       | frantically to get through them by applying rules of thumb and
       | not wasting attention. Of course if you do that too little you
       | get stuck in the mud. But too much of it is a form of self-
       | defeating panic. In survival mode you have to rush, eat things
       | you normally wouldn't, put aside any non critical detail. But
       | those details pile up when you stay in that mode for year after
       | year. So my goal is to learn to apply my full attention to the
       | details, and to work hard on picking the right ones.
       | 
       | Factorio teaches this. You work on some tiny little thing, like
       | getting a belt to balance properly, and move on to the next. By
       | iterating that you can raise up this great machine, like
       | pointillist art. Mark Andreessen claims that is Elon's secret
       | sauce. I'm not so much hoping to accelerate inter planetary
       | diaspora as I am to figure out how to keep my shoes from coming
       | untied. I'm considering making one small step for man and
       | ordering those elastic shoe laces, and solve a problem that I've
       | been faffing around on since about age four. And then repeating
       | that.
        
         | highfrequency wrote:
         | Merry Christmas. Do you have a link to the Andreessen quote?
        
           | delichon wrote:
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ4wBv0w9ew
        
         | punkspider wrote:
         | I forgot to add this one to my list, but it's exactly what I've
         | been trying for the past few days, after I was reminded of it
         | after hearing John Carmack, in a podcast, talk about learning
         | things deeply.
         | 
         | This is one of the reasons I'm dissatisfied with myself. My
         | greatest successes have been when I applied full attention to
         | details out of frustration, which have been rare. I genuinely
         | believe that my life would drastically improve if I'd stop
         | rushing from one thing to another.
        
         | skobes wrote:
         | I gave up on shoelaces many years ago and now wear loafers
         | almost exclusively. It has saved a lot of time!
        
         | physicles wrote:
         | If you've thought a lot about shoelaces, I assume you've seen
         | https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/. I switched to a square knot
         | a few years ago and my shoes basically never come untied.
        
       | victorbjorklund wrote:
       | Liveview Native and swiftui is on my wish list
        
       | binarymax wrote:
       | Sales, sales, sales. I've been in tech so long but as a founder
       | this is where I need to really focus. ABC for me all the way in
       | 2025.
        
       | jackschultz wrote:
       | Back to embedded systems, particularly with Rust.
       | 
       | I did computer engineering in college some 10-15 years ago, where
       | these projects were super basic and difficult to get into. Seems
       | like massive advancements in the past decade. Maybe my eye has
       | been watching for these, but I'm seeing many more posts about
       | ESP32 projects, for example, being linked here. Same for RP2040s,
       | along with sensors galore and wifi / bluetooth connections.
       | 
       | Picking Rust as language for the chips instead of the C and
       | MicroPython. Rust has applications beyond the embedded systems
       | and learning it lower level can be helpful if wanted in other
       | cases.
        
         | zevv wrote:
         | I've been a (professional?) embedded software engineer for 25
         | years. I tried rust a few times, but did not particularly enjoy
         | the experience.
         | 
         | MY_GPIO.borrow(cs).borrow().as_ref().unwrap().odr.modify(|_, w|
         | w.odr1().set_bit());
        
           | jackschultz wrote:
           | It seems like the options are 1) MicroPython, which is really
           | easy to use (use python for everything) but lacking in
           | anything lower level to a quick restriction on what you can
           | do. 2) C, which I've used before and understand, but going
           | from the Arduino or PlatformIO experience would require a lot
           | of learning as well. 3) Rust (with embedded_hal and embassy),
           | which is newer, along with different language, but with
           | ability to go lower level with complies, and seeming overall
           | goal to be more widely used.
           | 
           | College was all C/C++ so I've used that before, so I can
           | understand and pick up the code. Since I have brief
           | experience rather than your experience, I'm betting that the
           | time it'd take for me to get up to speed with C and fuller
           | dev environments would take as long as with Rust, and since I
           | can use rust in more applications for what I do
           | professionally, I'm figuring to put the time there.
           | 
           | What have you built and with what in your 25 years? Too many
           | posts and vids about these things are intro rather than more
           | in depth. It's great to hear from people who actually do this
           | into production rather than mini-projects.
        
       | boplicity wrote:
       | I want to be able to run five miles and start weightlifting for
       | more overall strength.
       | 
       | I also would love to get better at developing partnerships with
       | experts and those who are skilled in areas I'll never be skilled
       | in.
        
       | lormayna wrote:
       | * Improving K8S knowledge and maybe obtain a certification
       | 
       | * Learn a functional language (probably Elixir/Gleam)
       | 
       | * Launch at least one of my side projects
       | 
       | * Improving Mandarin skills
       | 
       | * Ending the long track of one of my favourite cycling granfondo
       | (Nove Colli)
        
       | georgeburdell wrote:
       | Deploying ML models to production. I work in silicon at an
       | established company, and management every year wants to
       | incorporate "ML" and "AI" into our workflows, but it doesn't
       | happen because a) nobody wants to risk their review on it b) the
       | median age is 40 and it requires a brain rewiring.
       | 
       | I spent part of a bout of FMLA learning to develop simple PyTorch
       | models to help with our data processing, which is sometimes
       | frustratingly qualitative because nobody can define rigorously
       | what they want to compute, just endless sketches and corner cases
        
       | sshine wrote:
       | Bare-metal Rust: I've worked professionally with Rust for 3
       | years, and embedded Rust for 2. But mostly on RPi 4. I want to
       | make more hardware prototypes, and I have half a dozen ideas.
       | 
       | Nix for production: I've used NixOS on my work laptop for 9
       | months, and I've deployed it in production for on-prem CI,
       | dashboard web servers, blogs, VPN gateways, DNS servers. But I
       | could sink another 200 hours into more "katas", especially wrt.
       | deployment and handling a network of devices.
       | 
       | My path is to create learning material for others.
        
       | bmitc wrote:
       | The ability to separate work and family, spending time with my
       | family, and to act on some long-standing personal projects and
       | books waiting to be read. I want rely on work to drive work-
       | related skills while re-capturing some of my personal time for
       | personal endeavors. For work, I hope to get into Rust with
       | embedded systems, FPGAs, and increasing general-purpose software
       | skills on the backend and frontend side as well.
        
       | 7402 wrote:
       | 1) Improved fluency in reading Latin, so I can get through more
       | of Seneca's Letters without so many hours referring to
       | dictionaries and my first-year (and only) textbook; 2) improve
       | Morse code copying speed from 15 wpm to a solid 20 wpm.
        
         | booleandilemma wrote:
         | Hey, that's really cool. Why did you pick Latin over Greek? Or
         | do you study Greek as well?
        
       | azangru wrote:
       | WebGL. At least for 2d graphics. And brush up on the simple
       | aspects of the maths that are involved.
       | 
       | Web accessibility.
       | 
       | Would be great if I could finally finish a simple static website
       | for myself. I've been stuck in the analysis paralysis phase for
       | so long it's embarrassing.
        
         | gosub100 wrote:
         | Check out three.js, it's amazing and has a 2D api
        
       | gosub100 wrote:
       | Functional programming, either Haskell or Ocaml. Been putting it
       | off for years. I know at least a glimpse of it from other
       | languages. Just haven't doubled down to actually studying it
       | formally.
        
       | DontchaKnowit wrote:
       | Spanish! Been learning for about 4 months and just had my first
       | opportunity to speak a lot, stayed with a spanish speaking family
       | for 4 days. It went much worse than expected, I couldnt
       | understand anything and spoke so slowly that I only had a few
       | oppirtubities to join the conversation. So I hope by the end of
       | 2025 ill be a little more fluent.
       | 
       | Using a program called learncraft spanish currently and its been
       | very very effective imo. Recommendations for learning strategies
       | are welcome!
        
         | aunty_helen wrote:
         | 4 months and you're already starting to understand and able to
         | join in some? That sounds pretty good tbh.
         | 
         | I've been partially avoiding learning whilst mostly living in
         | Spanish speaking countries for the last 6 years. Concerted
         | effort is key but don't beat yourself up about having
         | difficulties listening, native speakers have the whole
         | dictionary to pull from whereas you only have a few words and
         | phrases with basic grammar.
         | 
         | It helps to be around other people that are learning or have
         | learned as there's a lot of cracks to fall into between a
         | direct literal translation. These are obvious for bilinguals
         | but can't be appreciated by native monolinguals. Try asking
         | someone to go on a fecha with you to the movies.
         | 
         | And don't worry about being slow, find good people with
         | patience.
        
         | luca_aurelia wrote:
         | In-person Spanish teachers are pretty affordable in many
         | Spanish-speaking countries -- in my experience, often around 20
         | USD / hour. I was in Argentina for three months this year and
         | got one-on-one lessons for two hours a day for $800/month.
         | 
         | One-on-one lessons are super fun because you can do whatever
         | sounds interesting to you, and doing it in a Spanish-speaking
         | country means it's automatically in the target language. I
         | would get ice cream with my teacher, go for walks, watch
         | movies, read short stories, listen to music, browse meme pages,
         | etc.
         | 
         | They can also go with you to turn errands like renting a car
         | into learning experiences, or help you specifically prepare for
         | an errand you need to run.
         | 
         | Not to mention all the other benefits of immersion, and it
         | gives you an excuse to travel.
        
       | highspeedbus wrote:
       | English, German, and all hard skills i'm slacking off: Cloud,
       | Deep knowledge of networking and linux. Maybe finish reading
       | Design Data Intensive Applications for good. And definitely
       | getting a Java certification as I find it useful as a personal
       | metric.
       | 
       | For my hobbies, I still hope to get things organized (in my
       | computer, my desk and my mind) to record some metal composings.
        
       | aunty_helen wrote:
       | Utilizing advice without having to learn lessons the hard way.
       | 
       | Probably should B1 my Spanish.
       | 
       | Sales. High volume sales specifically and capitalizing on
       | opportunities that I'm maybe not ready to take on yet.
       | 
       | Applying consistency to my goal setting. Ie reading run rate.
        
       | gspencley wrote:
       | I'm learning to tailor and fabricate clothing right now. My wife
       | and I are part time magicians and I want to be able to make our
       | costumes ourselevs. At the moment I'm making a longline underbust
       | corset for my wife's costume and will work up to a woman's
       | tailcoat and eventually the goal is to make my own bespoke
       | 3-piece late Victorian / Edwardian inspired men's suit.
       | 
       | It has been such a rabbit hole because, much like software
       | development, it is not just one skill but lots of different
       | skills and disciplines that combine. From design sketches to
       | pattern drafting to understanding the nature of fabrics and how
       | to cut them properly for wear and durability to the actual sewing
       | and fitting etc.
        
       | Tepix wrote:
       | I want to solve a rubiks cube in less than a minute. Less than 30
       | seconds would be really cool.
       | 
       | Got a nice speed cube with magnets for christmas, so that's the
       | first important step on the journey :-)
        
       | motohagiography wrote:
       | - financial management skills. how to allocate and manage capital
       | and get value from money. to me elon musk is mainly a very
       | successful private equity investor. imo if you can do that, you
       | can do anything.
       | 
       | - fitness discipline, moderation and better consistent average
       | performance than hitting PR's.
       | 
       | - musical literacy. I'd like to be able to read a score and hear
       | it instead of just sounding out each note.
       | 
       | - horsemanship, continue the journey into a third decade, train
       | up another young horse but this time with more lightness.
       | 
       | having amateur interests is a strange dynamic. what is more
       | absurd? the ridiculousness of being an adult trying learn things
       | that children do and that other people have already spent entire
       | lifetimes and sacrificed other opportunities to learn- or _not_
       | learning them or developing the physical competence, but having
       | mere opinions and taste about them?
        
       | jeanlucas wrote:
       | Code using AI;
       | 
       | For that I will try launching from idea to production a solo
       | project.
        
       | blacksmithgu wrote:
       | I want to learn how to sleep well again. The difference in how I
       | feel when sleep deprived versus fully rested is staggering.
        
       | kelseyfrog wrote:
       | I want to win every argument I have in here.
        
         | em-bee wrote:
         | not a chance! ;-)
         | 
         | the only way to win is not to play. that's easy to achive...
        
       | toolslive wrote:
       | The decisions were made more than a year ago, but the goals
       | should be reached in 2025. Nothing special, but I just have to
       | put in the work                 - Running: I want to run a
       | marathon under 4h in 2025. My smartwatch currently predicts
       | 4:01:20 (was 4:30 beginning of the year)       - Chess: I want to
       | improve my FIDE rating to 2100 (I'm at 2050 now and was 1930 in
       | 2023)
        
       | schwartzworld wrote:
       | I already make music, but I'm a really crappy piano player. I can
       | bang out chords, but my fingerings are way wrong. I want to try
       | to actually learn the piano.
        
       | randcraw wrote:
       | As someone about to retire, I'm looking to develop passions that
       | involve more physical activity than computerdom allows, like:
       | 
       | - Fix up a 30 year old motorcycle that's been just sitting far
       | too long. Maybe resurrect a classic bike or two thereafter.
       | 
       | - Tour by bicycle and motorbike and write about the journey, both
       | physical and mental.
       | 
       | - Hike and backpack, day hikes and longer.
       | 
       | - Develop musically, maybe even play the myriad instruments I've
       | accumulated over the years. Ideally, in an ensemble.
       | 
       | - Find others with similar interests to hang with offline.
       | 
       | - Stay actively curious and engaged.
        
       | Zdechlak wrote:
       | Habits > Motivation - Develop a set of habits and behaviors that
       | force me to work on my side projects everyday even if for just 5
       | minutes. The sporadic bursts of motivation that push me into the
       | hyperfocus mode are actually useless if I can't finish the
       | project and it's 80% done in perpetuity.
       | 
       | Networking - I find it really hard to approach random people and
       | finding any connection.
       | 
       | Sales - finding and converting clients is a must if I am to
       | seriously consider doing freelance engineering or
       | entrepreneurship.
       | 
       | Do you guys think it's worth reaching out to a professional coach
       | wrt the points listed above?
        
       | 2-3-7-43-1807 wrote:
       | stop taking it so personal if some one critiques me at work. in
       | hindsight i never really know why i even care. but in the
       | respective moment i immediately feel attacked.
        
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