10 ms·

Ask HN: What are you currently learning in your spare time?

32 points by aprdm 11y ago

HNers, what are you currently learning in your spare time? Some new js framework? Machine learning? New devops technics? :)

robinhoodexe 11y ago
Meditation. Oh, and how to consume large amounts of ethanol without it tasting like anything. That's mostly a weekend project with a couple of mates.
bradcomp 11y ago
I've been digging into Haskell in the time I have to program at home. Im going through the course at http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~cis194/spring13/lectures.html http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~cis194/spring13/lectures.html. In addition to the classes, I've been trying to use it to write small programs and whatnot. While I can't use Haskell at work, I can say working with it more regularly has definitely improved the JavaScript code I write on the job.
nlawalker 11y ago
Rocket League skills :)
grouphugs 11y ago
Clojure
athrowaway27 11y ago
Javascript and golang
shifte 11y ago
I'm learning German. I've never learnt a non-machine language before and having just moved to Berlin I thought I'd try not being that jerk foreigner that only speaks english, even after living here for 2 years. So far it's been quite fun. Last week I finally cracked the level where I understood a conversation of a Couple passing me on the street.
- Hockenbrizzle 11y ago
  Nice! I am also learning German. I've just moved to Heidelberg about 10 months ago. It is a difficult language... :/ Did you take classes?
  - shifte 11y ago
    So far no. I've been using Duo Lingo, which has been surprisingly good to get the basics, plus a bunch of learn German audio files I found. I'll probably sign up for classes soon when I find some good ones. A friend of mine took classes aimed at tourists and said she didn't get much from it.
  - shifte 11y ago
    Also listening to German heavy metal while coding, not sure if it helps, but there's a genre called "new german hardness".
  - fallenhitokiri 11y ago
    Hey, I'm also located in Heidelberg, born here, if you ever want to get a coffee and practice a bit let me know.
    - Hockenbrizzle 11y ago
      Hey that would be great. I am a bit new to HN, is there a way to PM someone?
- osullivj 11y ago
  An old bilingual hacker mate once commented to me, on learning German, that it's a stack based languages, as all the verbs are at the end of the sentence...
  - shifte 11y ago
    That's excellent. I'll remember that.
ribs 11y ago
I've been taking chemistry courses, online, with some labs in person. Oregon State ($$) and Coursera. I've finished general chemistry, took a little analytic, and now I'm making my way through an organic chemistry sequence.
HiLo 11y ago
Although I already have my finance degree and wouldn't so much need it, getting my CFA is a near-term goal. Learning wise, trying to completely re-learn mathematics, starting with books like the Mathematicians Delight and beginning with the most basic arithmetic, hopefully up through diffy q's, linear algebra, and intermediate stat. If anybody has any good tips on completely teaching yourself math from start to finish, please send them my way!
- JauntTrooper 11y ago
  Good luck with the CFA! It's a great program. I didn't expect it at first, but the best lesson I got out of it was that it taught me how to study and teach myself a subject comprehensively.
eccp 11y ago
I've been reading bits about Erlang and Lisp-flavored Erlang (http://lfe.io/ http://lfe.io/). I ported Norvig's Lispy (http://norvig.com/lispy.html http://norvig.com/lispy.html) to Java as a weekend project and now I'm curious about Pixie (https://github.com/pixie-lang/pixie https://github.com/pixie-lang/pixie)
AndrewKemendo 11y ago
Sales and Marketing. Close.io has been really useful.
mondoshawan 11y ago
Rust, and base system call interfaces that Linux provides. Hoping to write up a simple composable user land someday.
thinkvitamin 11y ago
Doing what I can to learn Java.
keane 11y ago
metaethics and the thought of John Wesley
colund 11y ago
I'm about to start the assignment for the 5th week of Machine Learning on Coursera https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning
- pyvek 11y ago
  That's awesome! I hope to go through that course soon. I just finished 2nd week assignments of Algorithms- Design and Analysis on Coursera - https://www.coursera.org/course/algo https://www.coursera.org/course/algo
virmundi 11y ago
UML. Technically this is for a master's, but that's my spare time. I do find it interesting to see why it's not really used. So verbose, but not detailed enough for great communication.
- contingencies 11y ago
  UML - Unnecessary Management Lingo. - @iamdevloper UML - I know next to nothing about UML - but what I do know is the language was invented first and then people came around and tried to give semantics to the language. Well, in other words what that means is that the language was invented first and it really didn't mean anything. And then, later on, people came around to try to figure out what it meant. Well, that's not the way to design a specification language. The importance of a specification language is to specify something precisely, and therefore what you write - the specification you write - has to have a precise, rigorous meaning. - Leslie Lamport UML: a language that was invented first and then people came around to try to get semantics. - Leslie Lamport UML: fuzzy pictures of boxes and arrows. - Leslie Lamport People use UML, things like UML, to model programs, but it's not clear how to translate them in to sequences of states, for concurrency. If you cannot translate them in to sequences of states, it means you don't understand them, and it may mean that there's nothing there. You know, there are lots of people selling snake-oil, drawing boxes and arrows that make you feel good, but ultimately have no real meaning. If something is really meaningful you should be able to express it in mathematics. - Leslie Lamport ... ie. it's not used much because it lacks precision of expression, and its main competitor is informal diagramming: a couple of boxes and a line on a whiteboard are 90% as effective as UML, and actually function for a general audience. (Quotes from https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup)
charlieegan3 11y ago
I've been doing the http://open.kattis.com/ http://open.kattis.com/ problems in Go.
greydius 11y ago
Working through MacLane & Birkhoff's Algebra. I used to study Japanese, but Ive been slacking on that pursuit.
TDL 11y ago
Not really in my spare time since I took a couple months off from working (have to go pound the pavement this month,) but machine learning (UofW Coursera's specialization) & pandas. Also, spending time in the mornings on math (currently probability.)
ldarcyftw 11y ago
Handstands
BjoernKW 11y ago
Improving my Dutch language skills.
scottmcdot 11y ago
Tableau
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
timroy 11y ago
Calculus and chemistry.
sdogruyol 11y ago
Learning Crystal and making useful stuff with it. E.g a Sinatra like web framework with 10x performance https://github.com/kemalcr/kemal https://github.com/kemalcr/kemal
rndstr 11y ago
I'm digging into Android Wear and writing an app. It's nice but it needs a lot of boilerplate code to set up communication between mobile and wear. Once set up and understood it's pretty straightforward
ThrustVectoring 11y ago
I've been picking up a skill that's probably best described as "living as a body" (as opposed to identifying with and being the thoughts in your head). To borrow terms from Thinking Fast and Slow, it's deliberately acting more from a System 1 kind of place. Recommended reading - "The Inner Game of Tennis" and "Impro" by Keith Johnstone. These are pretty easy reads and have helped me out tremendously in unexpected ways.
falcolas 11y ago
After several years of wanting to play an instrument, and wanting to draw, I'm sitting down and actually doing both of those. It's been a bit liberating, doing something so different from my day job, yet it's helping me look at programming in a new light.
mazsa 11y ago
converting political order into set theory http://us.metamath.org/mpegif/mmset.html http://us.metamath.org/mpegif/mmset.html
captn3m0 11y ago
Learning to solve more twisty puzzles. I recently learnt the Megaminx, and it was awesome.
deeteecee 11y ago
reviewing japanese (after living there for 2 years, don't wanna forget it :) ) looking up bitcoin and finding it hard to see what I can do as a developer, it just seems like there's a lot to learn before I can even get through the basics. Reading a cryptography book though, pretty interesting.
AkshayD08 11y ago
Shell scripting. I did not realize how powerful it is until I only started with it.
- hanniabu 11y ago
  I've been planning on taking the plunge to learn that as well. Do you have any useful links I should check out?
lewisl9029 11y ago
Clojure! And I'm absolutely loving it so far. =) I've been working through the HackerRank Functional Programming challenges lately and have found it to be a great resource for getting accustomed to solving problems in a functional mindset. I suspect it'd be just as useful for any other functional language that they support. https://www.hackerrank.com/domains/fp/intro https://www.hackerrank.com/domains/fp/intro Next step is to actually build something with it. I have a rough idea for my next project but before starting on that I should probably release my current project and get a job...
krapp 11y ago
Trying, and mostly failing, to learn some game development methods for collision detection. Currently, working on a SAT implementation, quad trees and GJK. I was taking game development courses at Coursera but they decided to lock everyone out of being able to actually finish the courses without paying for them (which is their right - but still annoying) so i'm also looking for some good 2d tutorials for Unity.
miguelrochefort 11y ago
lojban
personlurking 11y ago
Improving spoken Spanish, learning Cryllic script, post-structural philosophy, contemplating dance lessons. Learning to run without getting tired or dizzy quickly, and trying to learn a better game of tennis but there doesn't seem to be indoor courts where I live and it's rainy season.
contingencies 11y ago
Nice thread. Gotta say, listing all this makes me feel a hell of a lot less lazy! (In southwest China...) 1. Classical Chinese, by translating old texts on Wikisource: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Manshu https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Manshu 2. Just brushed up on technical drawing and woodworking to get new office furniture built. 3. Fatherhood. 4. Event planning. I'm trying to set up a community event to take ~40 party people down to a nearby lake to spend a day in the sun on the lakeshore and go sailing on two Weta Trimarans I transported here last year. http://wetamarine.com/ http://wetamarine.com/ + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuxian_Lake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuxian_Lake ... brushed up on sailing a year ago, it'd been 20 years. 5. Winemaking. The focus is on arriving at a process and set of inputs that result in a scalable and commercially viable range of non-grape based wines (cider/perry type drinks, but not limited to apples and pears), then flip it and registered IP to a large and established distributor, and use the knowledge and cash gained to do some small-batch, higher-end organic type stuff. 6. Improving my poetry: I am part of a very international poetry group which meets once every week or two and reads and discusses poetry in English and Chinese, with occasional additional languages. 7. Modern history. I joined a Marxist reading group and am learning a lot about the history of late 19th century/early 20th century Europe as well as various shades of communist/socialist ideology. (Previously, living in China, I have stayed consciously ignorant of such things, which I had never found particularly interesting.) 8. Philosophy of mathematics. Currently reading Pi in the Sky which is an awesome book which I would particularly recommend as a very readable, tangent-laden ponder for programmers without a significant background in formal mathematics who like history, mathematics or philosophy. 9. Documentary filmmaking + new software. Currently working on a social documentary of foreigners living in this corner of southwest China. Although I'd done some since analog days, this is my first major project and I'm using the new Lightworks software on Gentoo Linux: http://www.lwks.com/ http://www.lwks.com/ .. also planning to finish by end of year.
- studentrob 11y ago
  Cool. Kunming? I am in south Taiwan =)
  - contingencies 11y ago
Ch_livecodingtv 11y ago
I'm watching a lot of videos and tutorials trying to learn how to build social networking site. https://www.livecoding.tv/video/enfrbuilding-a-social-network-with-laravel-150/ https://www.livecoding.tv/video/enfrbuilding-a-social-networ...
jags-v 11y ago
AWS & Ansible..
akbar501 11y ago
CockroachDB. I've been writing about it as I learn: https://www.grockdoc.com/cockroachdb/alpha/articles https://www.grockdoc.com/cockroachdb/alpha/articles
Lordarminius 11y ago
Ruby. And some days I feel like a complete idiot
arisAlexis 11y ago
Udemy courses about business and lean startup method
veddox 11y ago
C, and taking a course on algorithms and data structures.
modafinil 11y ago
Learning to solve more twisty puzzles.
floating_cloud 11y ago
Elixir and Rust, and brushing up on C++11.
pandaFish 11y ago
I've been learning more about lease-option contracts. My goal is to understand how to determine interest rates for lessee's who lack a formal credit history. But have a year or more of lease payment history. Also, studying the growth of suburbs in Santa Clara and Alameda Counties during the post war period. It really helps in understanding some recent urban planning policies.
awshepard 11y ago
There's a coursera session on digital signal processing going on right now, figured I'd take a crack at it: https://www.coursera.org/course/dsp https://www.coursera.org/course/dsp

32 points by aprdm 11y ago

HNers, what are you currently learning in your spare time? Some new js framework? Machine learning? New devops technics? :)

robinhoodexe 11y ago

Meditation. Oh, and how to consume large amounts of ethanol without it tasting like anything. That's mostly a weekend project with a couple of mates.

bradcomp 11y ago

I've been digging into Haskell in the time I have to program at home. Im going through the course at http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~cis194/spring13/lectures.html http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~cis194/spring13/lectures.html. In addition to the classes, I've been trying to use it to write small programs and whatnot. While I can't use Haskell at work, I can say working with it more regularly has definitely improved the JavaScript code I write on the job.

nlawalker 11y ago

Rocket League skills :)

grouphugs 11y ago

Clojure

athrowaway27 11y ago

Javascript and golang

shifte 11y ago

I'm learning German. I've never learnt a non-machine language before and having just moved to Berlin I thought I'd try not being that jerk foreigner that only speaks english, even after living here for 2 years. So far it's been quite fun. Last week I finally cracked the level where I understood a conversation of a Couple passing me on the street.

Hockenbrizzle 11y ago
Nice! I am also learning German. I've just moved to Heidelberg about 10 months ago. It is a difficult language... :/ Did you take classes?
- shifte 11y ago
  So far no. I've been using Duo Lingo, which has been surprisingly good to get the basics, plus a bunch of learn German audio files I found. I'll probably sign up for classes soon when I find some good ones. A friend of mine took classes aimed at tourists and said she didn't get much from it.
- shifte 11y ago
  Also listening to German heavy metal while coding, not sure if it helps, but there's a genre called "new german hardness".
- fallenhitokiri 11y ago
  Hey, I'm also located in Heidelberg, born here, if you ever want to get a coffee and practice a bit let me know.
  - Hockenbrizzle 11y ago
    Hey that would be great. I am a bit new to HN, is there a way to PM someone?
osullivj 11y ago
An old bilingual hacker mate once commented to me, on learning German, that it's a stack based languages, as all the verbs are at the end of the sentence...
- shifte 11y ago
  That's excellent. I'll remember that.

ribs 11y ago

I've been taking chemistry courses, online, with some labs in person. Oregon State ($$) and Coursera. I've finished general chemistry, took a little analytic, and now I'm making my way through an organic chemistry sequence.

HiLo 11y ago

Although I already have my finance degree and wouldn't so much need it, getting my CFA is a near-term goal. Learning wise, trying to completely re-learn mathematics, starting with books like the Mathematicians Delight and beginning with the most basic arithmetic, hopefully up through diffy q's, linear algebra, and intermediate stat. If anybody has any good tips on completely teaching yourself math from start to finish, please send them my way!

JauntTrooper 11y ago
Good luck with the CFA! It's a great program. I didn't expect it at first, but the best lesson I got out of it was that it taught me how to study and teach myself a subject comprehensively.

eccp 11y ago

I've been reading bits about Erlang and Lisp-flavored Erlang (http://lfe.io/ http://lfe.io/). I ported Norvig's Lispy (http://norvig.com/lispy.html http://norvig.com/lispy.html) to Java as a weekend project and now I'm curious about Pixie (https://github.com/pixie-lang/pixie https://github.com/pixie-lang/pixie)

AndrewKemendo 11y ago

Sales and Marketing. Close.io has been really useful.

mondoshawan 11y ago

Rust, and base system call interfaces that Linux provides. Hoping to write up a simple composable user land someday.

thinkvitamin 11y ago

Doing what I can to learn Java.

keane 11y ago

metaethics and the thought of John Wesley

colund 11y ago

I'm about to start the assignment for the 5th week of Machine Learning on Coursera https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning

pyvek 11y ago
That's awesome! I hope to go through that course soon. I just finished 2nd week assignments of Algorithms- Design and Analysis on Coursera - https://www.coursera.org/course/algo https://www.coursera.org/course/algo

virmundi 11y ago

UML. Technically this is for a master's, but that's my spare time. I do find it interesting to see why it's not really used. So verbose, but not detailed enough for great communication.

contingencies 11y ago
UML - Unnecessary Management Lingo. - @iamdevloper UML - I know next to nothing about UML - but what I do know is the language was invented first and then people came around and tried to give semantics to the language. Well, in other words what that means is that the language was invented first and it really didn't mean anything. And then, later on, people came around to try to figure out what it meant. Well, that's not the way to design a specification language. The importance of a specification language is to specify something precisely, and therefore what you write - the specification you write - has to have a precise, rigorous meaning. - Leslie Lamport UML: a language that was invented first and then people came around to try to get semantics. - Leslie Lamport UML: fuzzy pictures of boxes and arrows. - Leslie Lamport People use UML, things like UML, to model programs, but it's not clear how to translate them in to sequences of states, for concurrency. If you cannot translate them in to sequences of states, it means you don't understand them, and it may mean that there's nothing there. You know, there are lots of people selling snake-oil, drawing boxes and arrows that make you feel good, but ultimately have no real meaning. If something is really meaningful you should be able to express it in mathematics. - Leslie Lamport ... ie. it's not used much because it lacks precision of expression, and its main competitor is informal diagramming: a couple of boxes and a line on a whiteboard are 90% as effective as UML, and actually function for a general audience. (Quotes from https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup)

charlieegan3 11y ago

I've been doing the http://open.kattis.com/ http://open.kattis.com/ problems in Go.

greydius 11y ago

Working through MacLane & Birkhoff's Algebra. I used to study Japanese, but Ive been slacking on that pursuit.

TDL 11y ago

Not really in my spare time since I took a couple months off from working (have to go pound the pavement this month,) but machine learning (UofW Coursera's specialization) & pandas. Also, spending time in the mornings on math (currently probability.)

ldarcyftw 11y ago

Handstands

BjoernKW 11y ago

Improving my Dutch language skills.

scottmcdot 11y ago

Tableau

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

timroy 11y ago

Calculus and chemistry.

sdogruyol 11y ago

Learning Crystal and making useful stuff with it. E.g a Sinatra like web framework with 10x performance https://github.com/kemalcr/kemal https://github.com/kemalcr/kemal

rndstr 11y ago

I'm digging into Android Wear and writing an app. It's nice but it needs a lot of boilerplate code to set up communication between mobile and wear. Once set up and understood it's pretty straightforward

ThrustVectoring 11y ago

I've been picking up a skill that's probably best described as "living as a body" (as opposed to identifying with and being the thoughts in your head). To borrow terms from Thinking Fast and Slow, it's deliberately acting more from a System 1 kind of place. Recommended reading - "The Inner Game of Tennis" and "Impro" by Keith Johnstone. These are pretty easy reads and have helped me out tremendously in unexpected ways.

falcolas 11y ago

After several years of wanting to play an instrument, and wanting to draw, I'm sitting down and actually doing both of those. It's been a bit liberating, doing something so different from my day job, yet it's helping me look at programming in a new light.

mazsa 11y ago

converting political order into set theory http://us.metamath.org/mpegif/mmset.html http://us.metamath.org/mpegif/mmset.html

captn3m0 11y ago

Learning to solve more twisty puzzles. I recently learnt the Megaminx, and it was awesome.

deeteecee 11y ago

reviewing japanese (after living there for 2 years, don't wanna forget it :) ) looking up bitcoin and finding it hard to see what I can do as a developer, it just seems like there's a lot to learn before I can even get through the basics. Reading a cryptography book though, pretty interesting.

AkshayD08 11y ago

Shell scripting. I did not realize how powerful it is until I only started with it.

hanniabu 11y ago
I've been planning on taking the plunge to learn that as well. Do you have any useful links I should check out?

lewisl9029 11y ago

Clojure! And I'm absolutely loving it so far. =) I've been working through the HackerRank Functional Programming challenges lately and have found it to be a great resource for getting accustomed to solving problems in a functional mindset. I suspect it'd be just as useful for any other functional language that they support. https://www.hackerrank.com/domains/fp/intro https://www.hackerrank.com/domains/fp/intro Next step is to actually build something with it. I have a rough idea for my next project but before starting on that I should probably release my current project and get a job...

krapp 11y ago

Trying, and mostly failing, to learn some game development methods for collision detection. Currently, working on a SAT implementation, quad trees and GJK. I was taking game development courses at Coursera but they decided to lock everyone out of being able to actually finish the courses without paying for them (which is their right - but still annoying) so i'm also looking for some good 2d tutorials for Unity.

miguelrochefort 11y ago

lojban

personlurking 11y ago

Improving spoken Spanish, learning Cryllic script, post-structural philosophy, contemplating dance lessons. Learning to run without getting tired or dizzy quickly, and trying to learn a better game of tennis but there doesn't seem to be indoor courts where I live and it's rainy season.

contingencies 11y ago

Nice thread. Gotta say, listing all this makes me feel a hell of a lot less lazy! (In southwest China...) 1. Classical Chinese, by translating old texts on Wikisource: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Manshu https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Manshu 2. Just brushed up on technical drawing and woodworking to get new office furniture built. 3. Fatherhood. 4. Event planning. I'm trying to set up a community event to take ~40 party people down to a nearby lake to spend a day in the sun on the lakeshore and go sailing on two Weta Trimarans I transported here last year. http://wetamarine.com/ http://wetamarine.com/ + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuxian_Lake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuxian_Lake ... brushed up on sailing a year ago, it'd been 20 years. 5. Winemaking. The focus is on arriving at a process and set of inputs that result in a scalable and commercially viable range of non-grape based wines (cider/perry type drinks, but not limited to apples and pears), then flip it and registered IP to a large and established distributor, and use the knowledge and cash gained to do some small-batch, higher-end organic type stuff. 6. Improving my poetry: I am part of a very international poetry group which meets once every week or two and reads and discusses poetry in English and Chinese, with occasional additional languages. 7. Modern history. I joined a Marxist reading group and am learning a lot about the history of late 19th century/early 20th century Europe as well as various shades of communist/socialist ideology. (Previously, living in China, I have stayed consciously ignorant of such things, which I had never found particularly interesting.) 8. Philosophy of mathematics. Currently reading Pi in the Sky which is an awesome book which I would particularly recommend as a very readable, tangent-laden ponder for programmers without a significant background in formal mathematics who like history, mathematics or philosophy. 9. Documentary filmmaking + new software. Currently working on a social documentary of foreigners living in this corner of southwest China. Although I'd done some since analog days, this is my first major project and I'm using the new Lightworks software on Gentoo Linux: http://www.lwks.com/ http://www.lwks.com/ .. also planning to finish by end of year.

studentrob 11y ago
Cool. Kunming? I am in south Taiwan =)
- contingencies 11y ago

Ch_livecodingtv 11y ago

I'm watching a lot of videos and tutorials trying to learn how to build social networking site. https://www.livecoding.tv/video/enfrbuilding-a-social-network-with-laravel-150/ https://www.livecoding.tv/video/enfrbuilding-a-social-networ...

jags-v 11y ago

AWS & Ansible..

akbar501 11y ago

CockroachDB. I've been writing about it as I learn: https://www.grockdoc.com/cockroachdb/alpha/articles https://www.grockdoc.com/cockroachdb/alpha/articles

Lordarminius 11y ago

Ruby. And some days I feel like a complete idiot

arisAlexis 11y ago

Udemy courses about business and lean startup method

veddox 11y ago

C, and taking a course on algorithms and data structures.

modafinil 11y ago

Learning to solve more twisty puzzles.

floating_cloud 11y ago

Elixir and Rust, and brushing up on C++11.

pandaFish 11y ago

I've been learning more about lease-option contracts. My goal is to understand how to determine interest rates for lessee's who lack a formal credit history. But have a year or more of lease payment history. Also, studying the growth of suburbs in Santa Clara and Alameda Counties during the post war period. It really helps in understanding some recent urban planning policies.

awshepard 11y ago

There's a coursera session on digital signal processing going on right now, figured I'd take a crack at it: https://www.coursera.org/course/dsp https://www.coursera.org/course/dsp