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Ask HN: I have $1000 growth fund that expires on Feb. 2nd. What do I buy?

3 points by kotojo 7y ago

I just hit the requirements for tenure to get access to my growth fund for the year, but it expires on Feb. 2 and the new years fund will come in and this $1k will disappear. I need help figuring out what to get in that time! Related information: Anything I buy that is a course/subscription (pluralsight, lynda, etc) needs to show completion of a course by that deadline, and all purchases have to directly tie to growth in my day job. So, buying a book on Elixir when the tech stack at work is React/React Native/Golang would get rejected, but books on any of our stack or ios/android programming would be approved. When the new year starts I plan on getting a subscription to linux academy to go through their aws cert courses, but really am not sure what to buy by Feb 2nd besides a pile of books. Really just feel like I'd get something on go, and all the top rec books (clean code, prag prog, etc).

new_guy 7y ago
So you can buy books on stuff that you (presumably) already know, but not anything that would help your growth as a professional? Seems a little backwards.
- kotojo 7y ago
  Yeah, this is a bit more strict than I'm use to with a growth fund. Like I said, I couldn't buy a book on elixir since it doesn't relate to the day to day, but I could buy things about professional growth or things like "How to Win Friends and Influence People" or programming books that aren't explicitly about a language we use, but tangentially related to the day to day (Swift/Kotlin book to help with mobile, even though we use React Native)
dwnvoted2hell 7y ago
A nice GPU for ML?
auston 7y ago
Can you go to a conference? There are lots of those happening!
- kotojo 7y ago
  They have to happen by that Feb 2nd deadline. After Feb 2nd I get the 2020 budget that I can use to go to conferences with though!
  - auston 7y ago
    Nice, you should come to Miami! https://superconf.com/ https://superconf.com/
Someone1234 7y ago
So they've designed a growth fund that bans annual subscriptions? Seems like you're just looking for a way to burn $1K at this point. There's lot of good usages but not in 15~ days with a hard cutoff for whatever you buy. I'd just get an annual pluralsight sub after Feb 2nd, and then you can even learn things in your own time unrelated to your job (it isn't per course, it is all you can eat, like Netflix).
- kotojo 7y ago
  Not a ban on annual subscriptions, but I need to show proof of completion of a course to get the reimbursement for it. So if I bought pluralsight now I'd have to make sure I complete a course by Feb 2nd and show proof completion to get them to approve it to take out of the 2019 budget. If I submit proof on Feb 3rd they'll take it out of the 2020 budget.
slipwalker 7y ago
how about AWS/Azure/GCloud prepaid credits ( for work-related-research, of course.... ) ? buy it and leave it there for when you need a lab online.
gshdg 7y ago
Purchase a one-off MOOC? Make a deal with some coworkers to buy them books now off your 2019 allocation in return for a slice of their 2020 budget?
whoback 7y ago
Splurge (and read) TAOCP box set + the newer titles. https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Programming-Volumes-1-4A-Boxed/dp/0321751043 https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Programming-Volumes-1-4A-Box...