9 ms·

Ask HN: What technical skill should I learn to prepare for the next 10 Years?

35 points by alexjray 10y ago

dkarapetyan 10y ago
Study the fundamentals. Learn some timeless science like physics or math.
nicomfe 10y ago
VR and self driving cars should do ;)
- matthewleehess 10y ago
  I built a self-driving car, and am launching a VR-based startup. Figured I should chime in here. I personally don't see much opportunity for people to get involved directly with autonomous vehicles, from a tech/development standpoint. The vast majority of work is focused on highly specialized subsets of development. Computer vision, embedded systems, network infrastructure, cellular networks, robotics, artificial intelligence, yada yada yada. The only meaningful work being done right now, is mostly by engineers with Masters, Doctorate, or post-Doctorate level education in niche fields. Personally, I don't have that kind of educational background. I still managed to piece together everything to make a working prototype, but there is not a snowball's chance in hell that I would be able to contribute anything into this field. Not to say it's useless, though. This is about to unlock a need for UI designers/developers on a level that is hard to fathom. Sit down and think for a while about what the hell people are going to be doing, while being chauffeured around. Entertainment options (Netflix, Youtube, News, etc.) will be in massive demand. Gaming of all different kinds (especially multiplayer experiences, that involve the vehicle's environment.) Advertising as a whole. (And goddamn do I wish I could be an investor in PornHub right now.) While Oculus, HTC, Microsoft, etc. all have (or will soon have) consumer-ready products available for the VR market, I still feel like this technology is barely entering it's infancy stage. The financial barrier to entry is holding back 98% of the world from getting into it (for now). There isn't enough meaningful content beyond some decent games. (Once again, goddamn do I wish I could be an investor in PornHub right now.) For the most part, still tethered to a computer (or using a watered-down phone-based experience). It's cool tech for sure, but it doesn't feel (to me, at least) like anyone has really figured out what the hell to do with it yet. 3D development isn't terribly different than any other kind of development. A few more thoughts and considerations, but still the same principles of traditional console/pc game development. WebVR (and ReactVR) are still just a novelty. Because of the sheer scale and intricacy of most 3D environments, and my own predictions of an explosive growth pattern in this industry, I'm thinking that some form of automation (A.I., etc.) will have to be taking over most of the grunt work for development. Thinking that most dev roles are going to evolve into mostly architect roles, and that the real need is going to be for UI/UX (particularly thought leaders, as opposed to designers).
  - throwaway29292 10y ago
    Thanks for this insightful comment. The current VR status irritates me as well. It has only affecting gaming till now, despite the remote working/AR implications. What do you mean by an 'explosive growth pattern'?
AlexAMEEE 10y ago
Algorithms and SQL.
- wirddin 10y ago
  Why specifically SQL?
  - popey456963 10y ago
    Even if you don't use the language specifically, the ideas it provides on creating queries applies to pretty much every database I've used, with the one exception being Redis. It also doesn't hurt it's the most popular language at the moment and judging by the amount of applications using it, won't be disappearing anytime soon (especially not in just ten years).
Bumerang 10y ago
Not sure if exactly technical, more like a meta-skill. Learn how to analyse and decompose problems. There always will be some.
david90 10y ago
Learn about fundamentals and underlying principles; equip yourself with fast learning skills. You may also push up your own technology and contribute in changing the next 10 years.
id122015 10y ago
Political science. Its like techical. It changes faster than technology.
- nylonstrung 10y ago
  As someone with a degree in political science, it absolutely does not change faster than technology. What massive political science paradigm shifts have happened in the last 7 years, the same timeframe that has seen the advent of cloud computing, containerization, hyperconvergence, agile, ect?
v01d4lph4 10y ago
Javascript?
- corporateslave 10y ago
  This is probably the only good answer in here. Also maybe java.
yulaow 10y ago
Design Patterns.
dbrunton 10y ago
Learn to be resilient. Pick up an artistic or handcraft technique. Make friends. Comedy, music, drama, or something other performing art. Know your means, live within them.
- nylonstrung 10y ago
  None of those are technical skills
  - dbrunton 10y ago
    "Making friends" is more technical than "learning math." But more importantly, having friends helps more with technical problems than, say, knowing some technology that doesn't apply here. Same for resiliency. This was an off-the-cuff response, but it's a genuine one, particularly with skills "for the next ten years." I've hired a lot of developers over two decades, and some of them have done good work for me for a long, long time.
fegu 10y ago
Functional programming, especially a language focusing on purity such as Haskell.
Dowwie 10y ago
decision making through empirical research
tboyd47 10y ago
There is no technical skill that will prepare you for 10 years.
Const-me 10y ago
OOP, OOD
- cholantesh 10y ago
  I found it amusing that the comment directly below this was recommending functional programming.
behnamoh 10y ago
The world is going WWW, so I'd recommend stick to it.
iLemming 10y ago
If you're talking about programming - learn Lisp. Pick any. Clojure, Racket, LFE, Chicken, Guile or emacs-lisp, etc.. Understanding Lisp will make you a better programmer. I'm sure, even 50 years from now there will be a Lisp dialect among 20 most popular languages in use.
- spcelzrd 10y ago
  20 is pretty far down the list for programming language popularity. https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/ https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/ lists Scratch in the 20th position. Cobol is 25. I'm not sure there's a Lisp dialect in the top 20 now. Of course, any ranking of programming languages is problematic. Learning Lisp is always a good idea.
  - juliangoldsmith 10y ago
    I'm not sure I'd agree with the TIOBE Index as a measure of popularity. It ranks languages based on search queries, which more than likely does not correlate that closely with use. For instance, according to the Index, Java (#1) is twice as popular as C (#2). While Java is certainly popular, it seems a stretch, given the amount of code written in C, to say that Java is twice as popular as C.
    - spcelzrd 10y ago
      You might like githut's rankings better. http://githut.info http://githut.info For the purpose of what to learn for the next ten years, Java is probably more relevant to the job market than C.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
rusht 10y ago
Machine learning, especially deep learning.
AnimalMuppet 10y ago
Android.
DannyB2 10y ago
Practice decomposing problems in a way they can be solved on multiple processing elements in parallel. Identify problems that cannot be decomposed in this way and why. Good if you can make a certain problem run on eight processors. But will it also run on a thousand processors? Processor clock speeds will not rise much or any. Everyone has enough memory for most every day problems now, so memory will only gradually increase. The next bragging rights will be how many processing elements my box has vs. your box.
true_tuna 10y ago
Tensorflow. We're going to be offloading a lot of pattern matching to machine learning. Knowing when and where (and of course how) to apply machine learning will become increasingly important.
D1tt0 10y ago
The amount of cores in CPU's is on the rise; get into functional programming.
ParameterOne 10y ago
Sales.
baccredited 10y ago
Learn about the magic of compounding interest and investing in index funds. Oh yeah - if you save 68% of your earnings, you can retire in under 10 years. The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-sim...
chatmasta 10y ago
It's a safe bet that if something was relevant twenty years ago, and still is today, then it will also be relevant in ten years from now. Examples: OS fundamentals, networking fundamentals, low level languages, embedded development, shell/bash scripting, vim, emacs. It's nearly impossible to look at a new technology and determine if it will be around in 10 years. But you know for sure that these timeless fundamentals will still be relevant, so the first step should be mastering all of those. Example: Unix system administration fundamentals are not going anywhere and are more important than ever in the age of containers and developers owning more parts of the stack. It's funny to read blogposts like "check out this problem we ran into with docker" that is really just a rediscovery of a long-known problem in system administration. Example: the recent post from codeship about running thousands of containers on one network. Surprise, they ran into issues with an overflowing arp cache.
kwoff 10y ago
digital electronics, hardware programming
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
londondev45 10y ago
C#, JavaScript, Python. Honestly, i can't see them going anywhere, especially Python. Might as well learn Clojure, you have ten years.. C seems to not be going anywhere ever. Will there be that many new technologies??
edimaudo 10y ago
Learning how to learn is the key.
Blackstone4 10y ago
* Tangent warning * I used to be very focused on what I could do.... learn how to code, how to write a report, stats, CFA, how to present etc..... I've come to realise that it doesn't matter as much as I thought. You only need to be good enough and what is really important is your emotional intelligence and network. Being able to process and manage your own emotions and interact with others in a positive, constructive manner is the most important thing. Reading the book How to win friends and influence people opened my eyes
- Blackstone4 10y ago
  I should finish by saying that if you want to future proof yourself.... you should focus on what I wrote above...
andrei_says_ 10y ago
I'd say survival-related technical and medical skills. Climate change will likely cause mass migrations in the next 10-20 years. First aid and basic understanding of common emergency medicine needs. Building of shelters, basic carpentry etc. Gardening, food preparation, water purification. Community building.

35 points by alexjray 10y ago

dkarapetyan 10y ago

Study the fundamentals. Learn some timeless science like physics or math.

nicomfe 10y ago

VR and self driving cars should do ;)

matthewleehess 10y ago
I built a self-driving car, and am launching a VR-based startup. Figured I should chime in here. I personally don't see much opportunity for people to get involved directly with autonomous vehicles, from a tech/development standpoint. The vast majority of work is focused on highly specialized subsets of development. Computer vision, embedded systems, network infrastructure, cellular networks, robotics, artificial intelligence, yada yada yada. The only meaningful work being done right now, is mostly by engineers with Masters, Doctorate, or post-Doctorate level education in niche fields. Personally, I don't have that kind of educational background. I still managed to piece together everything to make a working prototype, but there is not a snowball's chance in hell that I would be able to contribute anything into this field. Not to say it's useless, though. This is about to unlock a need for UI designers/developers on a level that is hard to fathom. Sit down and think for a while about what the hell people are going to be doing, while being chauffeured around. Entertainment options (Netflix, Youtube, News, etc.) will be in massive demand. Gaming of all different kinds (especially multiplayer experiences, that involve the vehicle's environment.) Advertising as a whole. (And goddamn do I wish I could be an investor in PornHub right now.) While Oculus, HTC, Microsoft, etc. all have (or will soon have) consumer-ready products available for the VR market, I still feel like this technology is barely entering it's infancy stage. The financial barrier to entry is holding back 98% of the world from getting into it (for now). There isn't enough meaningful content beyond some decent games. (Once again, goddamn do I wish I could be an investor in PornHub right now.) For the most part, still tethered to a computer (or using a watered-down phone-based experience). It's cool tech for sure, but it doesn't feel (to me, at least) like anyone has really figured out what the hell to do with it yet. 3D development isn't terribly different than any other kind of development. A few more thoughts and considerations, but still the same principles of traditional console/pc game development. WebVR (and ReactVR) are still just a novelty. Because of the sheer scale and intricacy of most 3D environments, and my own predictions of an explosive growth pattern in this industry, I'm thinking that some form of automation (A.I., etc.) will have to be taking over most of the grunt work for development. Thinking that most dev roles are going to evolve into mostly architect roles, and that the real need is going to be for UI/UX (particularly thought leaders, as opposed to designers).
- throwaway29292 10y ago
  Thanks for this insightful comment. The current VR status irritates me as well. It has only affecting gaming till now, despite the remote working/AR implications. What do you mean by an 'explosive growth pattern'?

AlexAMEEE 10y ago

Algorithms and SQL.

wirddin 10y ago
Why specifically SQL?
- popey456963 10y ago
  Even if you don't use the language specifically, the ideas it provides on creating queries applies to pretty much every database I've used, with the one exception being Redis. It also doesn't hurt it's the most popular language at the moment and judging by the amount of applications using it, won't be disappearing anytime soon (especially not in just ten years).

Bumerang 10y ago

Not sure if exactly technical, more like a meta-skill. Learn how to analyse and decompose problems. There always will be some.

david90 10y ago

Learn about fundamentals and underlying principles; equip yourself with fast learning skills. You may also push up your own technology and contribute in changing the next 10 years.

id122015 10y ago

Political science. Its like techical. It changes faster than technology.

nylonstrung 10y ago
As someone with a degree in political science, it absolutely does not change faster than technology. What massive political science paradigm shifts have happened in the last 7 years, the same timeframe that has seen the advent of cloud computing, containerization, hyperconvergence, agile, ect?

v01d4lph4 10y ago

Javascript?

corporateslave 10y ago
This is probably the only good answer in here. Also maybe java.

yulaow 10y ago

Design Patterns.

dbrunton 10y ago

Learn to be resilient. Pick up an artistic or handcraft technique. Make friends. Comedy, music, drama, or something other performing art. Know your means, live within them.

nylonstrung 10y ago
None of those are technical skills
- dbrunton 10y ago
  "Making friends" is more technical than "learning math." But more importantly, having friends helps more with technical problems than, say, knowing some technology that doesn't apply here. Same for resiliency. This was an off-the-cuff response, but it's a genuine one, particularly with skills "for the next ten years." I've hired a lot of developers over two decades, and some of them have done good work for me for a long, long time.

fegu 10y ago

Functional programming, especially a language focusing on purity such as Haskell.

Dowwie 10y ago

decision making through empirical research

tboyd47 10y ago

There is no technical skill that will prepare you for 10 years.

Const-me 10y ago

OOP, OOD

cholantesh 10y ago
I found it amusing that the comment directly below this was recommending functional programming.

behnamoh 10y ago

The world is going WWW, so I'd recommend stick to it.

iLemming 10y ago

If you're talking about programming - learn Lisp. Pick any. Clojure, Racket, LFE, Chicken, Guile or emacs-lisp, etc.. Understanding Lisp will make you a better programmer. I'm sure, even 50 years from now there will be a Lisp dialect among 20 most popular languages in use.

spcelzrd 10y ago
20 is pretty far down the list for programming language popularity. https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/ https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/ lists Scratch in the 20th position. Cobol is 25. I'm not sure there's a Lisp dialect in the top 20 now. Of course, any ranking of programming languages is problematic. Learning Lisp is always a good idea.
- juliangoldsmith 10y ago
  I'm not sure I'd agree with the TIOBE Index as a measure of popularity. It ranks languages based on search queries, which more than likely does not correlate that closely with use. For instance, according to the Index, Java (#1) is twice as popular as C (#2). While Java is certainly popular, it seems a stretch, given the amount of code written in C, to say that Java is twice as popular as C.
  - spcelzrd 10y ago
    You might like githut's rankings better. http://githut.info http://githut.info For the purpose of what to learn for the next ten years, Java is probably more relevant to the job market than C.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

rusht 10y ago

Machine learning, especially deep learning.

AnimalMuppet 10y ago

Android.

DannyB2 10y ago

Practice decomposing problems in a way they can be solved on multiple processing elements in parallel. Identify problems that cannot be decomposed in this way and why. Good if you can make a certain problem run on eight processors. But will it also run on a thousand processors? Processor clock speeds will not rise much or any. Everyone has enough memory for most every day problems now, so memory will only gradually increase. The next bragging rights will be how many processing elements my box has vs. your box.

true_tuna 10y ago

Tensorflow. We're going to be offloading a lot of pattern matching to machine learning. Knowing when and where (and of course how) to apply machine learning will become increasingly important.

D1tt0 10y ago

The amount of cores in CPU's is on the rise; get into functional programming.

ParameterOne 10y ago

Sales.

baccredited 10y ago

Learn about the magic of compounding interest and investing in index funds. Oh yeah - if you save 68% of your earnings, you can retire in under 10 years. The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-sim...

chatmasta 10y ago

It's a safe bet that if something was relevant twenty years ago, and still is today, then it will also be relevant in ten years from now. Examples: OS fundamentals, networking fundamentals, low level languages, embedded development, shell/bash scripting, vim, emacs. It's nearly impossible to look at a new technology and determine if it will be around in 10 years. But you know for sure that these timeless fundamentals will still be relevant, so the first step should be mastering all of those. Example: Unix system administration fundamentals are not going anywhere and are more important than ever in the age of containers and developers owning more parts of the stack. It's funny to read blogposts like "check out this problem we ran into with docker" that is really just a rediscovery of a long-known problem in system administration. Example: the recent post from codeship about running thousands of containers on one network. Surprise, they ran into issues with an overflowing arp cache.

kwoff 10y ago

digital electronics, hardware programming

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

londondev45 10y ago

C#, JavaScript, Python. Honestly, i can't see them going anywhere, especially Python. Might as well learn Clojure, you have ten years.. C seems to not be going anywhere ever. Will there be that many new technologies??

edimaudo 10y ago

Learning how to learn is the key.

Blackstone4 10y ago

* Tangent warning * I used to be very focused on what I could do.... learn how to code, how to write a report, stats, CFA, how to present etc..... I've come to realise that it doesn't matter as much as I thought. You only need to be good enough and what is really important is your emotional intelligence and network. Being able to process and manage your own emotions and interact with others in a positive, constructive manner is the most important thing. Reading the book How to win friends and influence people opened my eyes

Blackstone4 10y ago
I should finish by saying that if you want to future proof yourself.... you should focus on what I wrote above...

andrei_says_ 10y ago

I'd say survival-related technical and medical skills. Climate change will likely cause mass migrations in the next 10-20 years. First aid and basic understanding of common emergency medicine needs. Building of shelters, basic carpentry etc. Gardening, food preparation, water purification. Community building.