39 ms·

Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?

• fud101 9mo ago
  SQL, Postgres, Pandas, Polars, Airflow, Duckdb, and whatever else shiny object along the way which distracts me from actually doing something productive towards my goals.
• grim_io 9mo ago
  I'm still good at what I do, so I'm looking forward to better models to help me atrophy and shrivel my remaining skills :)
• whatever1 9mo ago
  Use transformers to predict prime numbers.
  • ipnon 9mo ago
    Good luck with this!
• kenrick95 9mo ago
  I want to learn driving. I live in a city with well-connected public transport (Singapore) so I don't feel the need to learn. However, this year I travelled to some rural areas in Japan and started to feel the pain of relying solely on public transport which is either extremely sparse, or sometimes non-existent which limits the places I want to visit. That's why I felt like if I obtain this skill, I can explore more places in my travels
  • busymom0 9mo ago
    I plan on learning driving this year too! I think I will still continue using public transit because I enjoy doing research things while on transit (which of course can't be done while driving) but I want to learn driving.
  • canpan 9mo ago
    Same here! I lived in big cities all my life and am used to the convenience of good public transport. Want to travel and rent a nice car, just when needed.
    • sokoloff 9mo ago
      I always feel the jump in price from standard to nice rental car is too much to bother with (like a factor of 2.5-5x). So I drive a lot of crappy rentals, but they’re just a way to get from point to point.
      • Nextgrid 9mo ago
        Automatic transmissions (for EU where manual is popular - I guess this doesn’t apply in countries where everyone drives automatics already) are generally only available with higher trim levels and yet don’t cost much more to rent, so this might be an option to get a “nicer” rental.
  • AdieuToLogic 9mo ago
    > I want to learn driving. Two low-risk and cheap ways to develop relevant driving skills are bumper cars[0] and go-karts[1]. This may appear to be silly at first, but both involve the same hand-eye coordination and decision skills of vehicular driving (though the latter is no where nearly as fun as the others). 0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumper_cars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumper_cars 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-kart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-kart
• hu3 9mo ago
  Learn to make money. Quite the adage but I have come to realise that I only ever learned to work, not to make money. I make a good living from consulting. But selling your time only gets you so far. So I'll probably hire. And probably find out all my previous bosses weren't so wrong with their complaints after all.
  • deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
  • LouisSayers 9mo ago
    Stock trading can be quite lucrative if it's a good match. Have a look at Qullamaggie on YouTube. > Edit, I say this as someone that has been learning to trade the last 6 months. To be completely transparent I've actually overall lost money doing this, but have also brought my account back up from having halved to almost break even a couple times now and can definitely see the possibility of doing very well. If I was better at following instructions I would 100% be profitable. The YouTuber I mentioned doesn't sell any courses. > Edit 2, screw you guys for the downvotes. I'm sharing something I've found useful. You don't have to buy into the idea, but there are some people who do very well off of trading. Hence "if it's a match"
    • qnleigh 9mo ago
      I'm not downvoting you, but I think you are probably getting downvoted because "Stock trading can be quite lucrative" is statistically just not true. Even professional financial advisors almost never beat the market [0]. Only hedge funds that pay for huge amounts of priveledged financial information do, and even then not always. Here's a good video that makes a case for this. Even if you don't agree, you might find some of the points he makes interesting. But tl;dr, he argues that index funds basically always outperform other methods, so one should primarily invest in things like that. [0] https://youtu.be/T71ibcZAX3I?si=5kEkLoUhHDkajlyy https://youtu.be/T71ibcZAX3I?si=5kEkLoUhHDkajlyy
      • LouisSayers 9mo ago
        Statistically speaking, we typically end up with a bell curve right? So who's on the ends of the bell curve?
• amha 9mo ago
  * Get less scared about applying to do stuff! I'm leaving my longtime job---I've taught advanced math to super-smart high schoolers; I'm quitting to be a visiting professor at Deep Springs College for a semester and then ???---and in the past, fear of applying to things (jobs, grad schools, writing residencies) has been a major blocker. * Learn complex analysis! * Get a better workflow for writing my notes to myself (e.g., Obsidian) and for publishing my blog/website (have a marginally-functional Hugo instance right now). Small thing, but the kind of important-but-not-urgent thing that it's easy to put off!
  • jimbob45 9mo ago
    Out of curiosity, why are you quitting teaching? If you’re a high school teacher, I have to assume that it’s not the money.
    • amha 9mo ago
      Mmmm it's something I've done for a long time; I've been at the same school for seven years; it's a ton of fun but also gets repetitive... I want more challenges!
  • bawis 9mo ago
    For complex analysis, I recommend using Stein's book (the whole series is good).
    • medbar 9mo ago
      Visualizing Complex Analysis by Tristan Needham is another good one IMO
• radeeyate 9mo ago
  For the past year, I've been learning a lot more about electronics, and in particular, designing PCBs, getting them manufactured, and assembled. I've come a long way from where I started, making little LED flashers shaped like trees for Christmas last year (everyone has to start somewhere!) where I'm now making small products with some of the super cheap ATTiny chips and writing code for them. I really want to get more into microcontrollers, and design some more technical projects. I've been wanting to make a portable point-and-shoot camera for a couple years, though I've never been knowledgeable in that area to do it very well. Though, I'm finally getting to that point. On a non-electronic-designing front, I'd love to learn more about networking and radios. I'm working on my homelab right now, and just got a nice switch to connect some free 15-year-old office PCs I also have. I'd love to get into AREDN, which is a 802.11 mesh network that can run on amateur radio frequencies. I also want to write more about my projects on my website (https://radi8.dev https://radi8.dev,) where hopefully I can share what I work on more often than I currently do.
• swgeek 9mo ago
  I want to, no, need to improve my ability to focus on the task at hand. Other than that near-universal constant, I want to try being a bit of a jack of many trades this year: learn full-stack, practice vibe coding, basics of graphics programming (update to the latest ways) I understand that means master of none, but this is a play around year for me. In theory AI should make it easier to try new things, we shall see about how it works in practice.
  • exasperaited 9mo ago
    > I want to, no, need to improve my ability to focus on the task at hand. This. My control of my focus has been reduced to the point of disability at times (seriously worrying, when in middle age) > Other than that near-universal constant, I want to try being a bit of a jack of many trades this year But this, honestly, is at odds with it. It will be difficult to do these two things at once (source: trust me bro, but no really do trust me). Rather I would suggest a strategy, if you want to learn lots of things: ask yourself, what small set of goals are all those things in service of? What could you gain if they all pointed mostly in one direction, and how will you keep a slow, low-level, long term focus on that direction? (I am writing this comment to myself, as you can probably tell.) I must develop (re-develop) planning skills, because my management of time is poor and my management of my direction in life non-existent. I have a broad set of underdeveloped talents that point to me being able to do a lot more stuff for more people if I wasted less time and just steered them in a couple of directions that will have slow-growing benefits. Apart from progressing some life challenges, what I would like to do is design one complete physical prototype every two months, to move my brain away from everyday web development and towards something that helps people again. I have CAD and 3D printing skills, I am learning what I would need to get work CNC milled, I have just enough awareness of embedded computing possibilities and I have a couple of interests that can be used to drive product ideas forward or at least provide a personal context for learning. Probably photography, initially; I have already made some things and used them for my own photography work, and I have ideas for more. The goal would be Tindie-type sales or at least to get tools into the hands of like-minded friends. I have spent the last year really developing my "CAD thinking" and now it is time to just make things, completely enough that they could be sold at a sort of boutique scale.
• banbangtuth 9mo ago
  I am a fullstack frontend leaning engineer of 10 YoE (still employed). In the early days of my career I enjoyed learning about various programming languages and reading technical books (although mostly tutorials, nothing to deep technically). These days I don't do those things anymore because I am now older, a lot of responsibilities, and hobbies that I need to do, and also quite comfortable in my comfort zone in terms of my niche. I don't do anything anymore these days to advance my career in SWE. Maybe because I am quite jaded because job market sucks, and the job itself sucks (making the rich richer), and any extra time I need to do to advance my career is just doing leetcode monkey grind. I want to change it this year. I do CRUD apps, and I am very boxed in my brain, thinking that CRUD apps is the only programming there is. I often marveled at people who create database, compilers, emulators, 3D engines, version controls, text editors, etc. Those people are like wizards to me. I wonder how can I be creative like that? Like, how can you just wake up one day and decide to create magic. I want to learn how to do those. Any advice is appreciated. Also I want to do it in Zig because I've never worked with manual memory management language before, and I figured might as well.
  • hsuduebc2 9mo ago
    Heh same here. Get stuck in crud apps because it's easy, comfy and well paid. I would like to start something entirely different than computer related but I'm limited to a flat. So something like mushroom growing, or hydroponics seems good. Writing my own compiler would be compelling but I somehow have a problem to do things only for sake of learning. Would love to have the knowledge tho. Anyway happy new year!
  • moltar 9mo ago
    I was in a similar situation a few years back. I wasn’t only focusing on CRUD, but it was a large part of my work too. Mostly working on web-based SaaS projects. I started learning infra via AWS CDK (TypeScript). And by osmosis learned a lot about cloud native application architecture. Which changed my way of creating web apps entirely and rejuvenated my love for software. Still going strong 5 years later. Now with much stronger focus on platform engineering and not working on features much.
• sliicemasternet 9mo ago
  [dead]
• ChuckMcM 9mo ago
  I'd like to get a full QPSK based OFDM modulator/demodulator implemented in an FPGA. Means improving my Verilog skills, my FPGA tool familiarity, and really understand how to implement OFDM modulators. Create a blog and post at least 8 times to it over the next 12 months, which would be improving my skills with writing and illustration. Design at least two boards and get them through the prototype stage into bringup and running. Become conversational in Ukrainian.
  • thijson 9mo ago
    The latest over the air TV spec. is using OFDM, it's called ATSC 3. That's if you're looking for real signals to test your receiver on.
  • throwaway2037 9mo ago
    > Become conversational in Ukrainian. This one caught my eye! What is your motivation?
    • drmpeg 9mo ago
      There's some thought that Ukraine could become a tech hub after the war due to their drone technology.
    • ChuckMcM 9mo ago
      I believe that the outcome of the Ukraine-Russian will shape the world for decades just as WWII did. It is my hope that the Ukrainians succeed in throwing the Russians out of their country. In a post war Ukraine, I'd like to help it rebuild in any way I can, and to do that I have to speak Ukrainian at least conversationally.
  • drmpeg 9mo ago
    Here's my ATSC 3.0 transmitter in C++. https://github.com/drmpeg/gr-atsc3 https://github.com/drmpeg/gr-atsc3
    • ChuckMcM 9mo ago
• TheAceOfHearts 9mo ago
  I want to build the AGI god in order to bring abundance, wealth, and prosperity to all of humanity. Aside from that, I'd like to shore up the cracks or gaps in my mathematical foundations, and learn more advanced mathematics. I'm still really confused about thermodynamics so that's another topic that I would like to revisit. I've never neen able to convince myself that our current understanding is correct. Honestly, I want to read and study more college level textbooks about every single subject.
  • qnleigh 9mo ago
    > I want to build the AGI god in order to bring abundance, wealth, and prosperity to all of humanity. What's the plan to make sure that progress in AI leads to predominantly positive outcomes for people? All the people I've asked who work at the major AI companies haven't given an answer, except to say that they don't study safety or societal impacts, but know others who do. If you don't have an answer, can I humbly suggest that you add finding one to your list?
    • apostata 9mo ago
      Or, fishing. They could take up fishing instead.
• busymom0 9mo ago
  I want to try once again to learn piano. Previously, many years ago, I took lessons for 1.5 years but gave up because it was just too hard and I wasn't enjoying it. This time, I plan on trying to self learn. Been watching YouTube tutorials recently and as soon as I return from my trip, I will try once again. I have bought the Nancy Faber adult piano adventures book 1 too. Any tips are welcome.
  • tmseidman 9mo ago
    Me too! I'm using Alfred's Adult Piano course book.
    • busymom0 9mo ago
      Have you started yet? How is it going? Self learning?
      • tmseidman 9mo ago
        Nope, haven't started yet, since I'm out of town and my keyboard is at home. But yeah, I'll be self-learning! I did it with guitar a few years ago and it worked for me (to a point; I never got amazing at guitar).
  • kuerbel 9mo ago
    What was too hard if I may ask? Maybe your teacher focused on the wrong things for/with you?
  • mmcconnell1618 9mo ago
    Learning to play individual notes from sheet music only helps you learn one song. The breakthrough for me was thinking in musical structure. - There are 12 keys on the piano just repeated - A scale can start on any of those 12 keys - The "home" key of the scale get labels with a roman numeral one, I - The rest of the keys in the scale get roman numerals ii,iii,IV,V,vi,vii - The I,IV,V are all upper case to represent major chords, the lower case for minor chords - Most pop songs use I,IV,V from a scale. In C-major scale, C, F, G major chords. - You can start on any key on the piano and if you play the same sequence of I, IV, V, you'll get the same song, just transposed into a different key. (the scales are slightly different due to even temperament for advanced ears) So, learn songs by the chord structure first. It is easier to remember and you'll start to recognize patterns in other songs and unlock them faster.
• deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
• Insanity 9mo ago
  GenAI security. I work in the security space as an engineering manager but need to be more versed in LLM focused attack vectors. Outside of work, I’m really into Roman history so I’ll keep learning about that.
• Ocerge 9mo ago
  I've already been working at it for a few weeks now, but I want to swallow my pride and stay up-to-date on interview skills (thankfully I'm safely employed but want to make sure I'm prepared if I need to be.) I do 2-3 leetcode problems a day and at least try to fully understand each line when comparing against the answer. I'm still pretty bad at it but instead of being terrified/anxious in the future I'd like to be confident that I at least can do my best. And my best is being prepared as opposed to just hoping I magically intuit a whiteboard problem out of thin air.
• Trasmatta 9mo ago
  I'm pretty intensely depressed, so I think I'd like to learn how to be a little less of that. I've tried so many things, but I guess there's always more. Thinking about getting a personal trainer, because I try to stay active, but have no idea how to actually work out. Seems like a good skill to learn, and should help somewhat with the crushing weight my brain seems to be in constantly.
  • it_is_beautiful 9mo ago
    I'm in a similar position but figured out how to work out last year. it's not a panacea, but working out is quite fun and is a great skill. I never had a personal trainer, but the best part about having one would probably be that they could set you up with some plans to follow, removing all the initial guesswork. The hardest part about working out for me is trying to figure out a goal to optimize for that's not too far away but not too simple either.
  • etrautmann 9mo ago
    Working out does SO MUCH to help with depression. There’s a lot of literature to support this, and plenty of anecdata as well. Good luck, you can do it!
  • ludicity 9mo ago
    I've written about getting out of some giga-depression a few years ago, but having a good therapist was massive. Working out kept me busy and mitigated symptoms, but I don't think I would have improved without a strong psychologist. Hope that helps a little bit. It gets better sometimes!
    • throwaway2037 9mo ago
      > I've written about If you are willing, can you share a link to any public writing? I'm surprised that we don't see more blog posts shared in HN about people's stuggle with mental health. You definitely see HN posts about it, but I don't see so much blog post sharing.
      • 9mo ago
• rewgs 9mo ago
  Technical: Audio programming with C++. I was a professional film/game composer for the first 10+ years of my career, but when I started programming I was mostly interested in solving problems that required web and infrastructure skills. Also, I always looked at C++ as something to tackle once I was a better programmer -- I now think I'm a pretty okay programmer and am ready to take it on. I'd like to eventually do a deep dive into Rust as well, but I'm focusing on C++ first, as the vast majority of audio programming is still done in C++ and likely will be for the foreseeable future, and I think learning Rust will be more valuable once I've run into many of the pain points that it addresses. Non-technical: Improve my archery. I started this year and love it.
  • quantpunk 9mo ago
    Have you ever done anything with tone.js? I think of this completely opposite. C++ and audio is the incumbent relic that will progress one funeral at a time. Librosa and Pyo are just incredible in python but for offline processing. Rust and audio would be really cool in terms of wasm. Anything VST is IMO a complete waste of time. That was saturated 15 years ago.
• spudlyo 9mo ago
  I started learning Latin in 2025, and I'm pretty happy with my progress. I can read intermediate level pedagogical texts -- mostly adapted Greek and Roman myths. In 2026 I want to get my proficiency up to the point where I can comfortably read the first book of Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico. This is doable, many of the texts I'm reading now were designed to teach the vocabulary and grammar so High School students could slog through it.
  • ipnon 9mo ago
    De Bello Gallico is much more intimidating than it is difficult. Caesar wrote using pretty simple language. Once you learn the main geographic and military terms it's a fun read!
• AbstractH24 9mo ago
  To expand my knowledge of product management and JavaScript enough to build a strong prototype of app/business i have in mind with the help of Lovable and other ai tools. Already, I know enough to know that just prompting without a solid foundation is going to be unpleasant in so many ways. And then, once I’ve proven it out hire real coders.
• pinkmuffinere 9mo ago
  - Do the splits! - Climb a V8 at my local climbing gym! I presently project V5's, and I think the scale is super-linear (but personally it doesn't feel logarithmic to me). So that would be a significant increase, probably near the edge of what I could really achieve in a year. - Get our business (mydragonskin.com) to a point where it pays us standard engineer salaries. So far we've been extracting significantly less than our market value. - Acquire (romantic) partner that I believe will be my person; find "The One"
  • cindyllm 9mo ago
    [dead]
• pan69 9mo ago
  I want to quit my cosy, well paying, job and start building the products I have been wanting to build for quite some years now. I have been starting to use AI about 12 months ago and, as an experienced engineer of 30+ years professionally, I am blown away by how productive it makes me. What I used to be able to do in a week now takes me a day, what I used to be able to do in a month now takes me week, etc. So, 2026 is going to be the year I'm going to run this experiment on myself and see what I can accomplish with this way of working.
  • kaizenb 9mo ago
    "The decision of all decisions is to reject the default path. To answer the call to adventure. To finally begin writing the first chapter. To leave the tutorial and start level one. That's when your life starts." Good luck!
  • imron 9mo ago
    How are you using AI and what sort of software are you building? I have similar years experience and regularly try out AI for development but always find it’s slower for the things I want to build and/or that it produces less than satisfactory results. Not sure if it’s how I use the models (I’ve experimented with all the frontier ones), or the types of things I’m building, or the languages I’m using, or if I’m not spending enough, or if it’s just my standards are too high for the code that is produced but I usually always end up going back to doing things by hand. I try to keep the AI focused on small well defined tasks, use AGENT.MD and skills, build out a plan first, followed by tests for spec based development, keep context windows and chats a reasonable length etc, but if I add up all that time I could have done it myself and have better grasp of the program and the domain in the process. I keep reading how AI is a force multiplier but I’m yet to see it play out for myself. I see lots of posts talking about how much more productive AI has made people, but very few with actual specifics on setup, models, costs, workflows etc. I’m not an AI doomer and would love to realize the benefits people are claiming they get.... but how to get there is the question
    • kukkeliskuu 9mo ago
      For me, it has gone through stages. Initially I was astounded by the results. Then I wrote a large feature (ad pacing) on a site using LLMs. I learned the LLMs did not really understand what they were doing. The algorithm (PID controller) itself was properly implemented (as there is plenty of data to train on), but it was trying to optimize the wrong thing. There were other similar findings where LLM was doing very stupid mistakes. So I went through a disillusionment stage and kind of gave up for a while. Since then, I have learned how to use Claude Code effectively. I have used it mostly on existing Django code bases. I think everybody has a slightly different take on how it works well. Probably the most reasonable advice is to just keep going and try different kind of things. Existing code bases seem easier, as well as working on a spec beforehand, requiring tests etc. basic SWE principles.
• kaizenb 9mo ago
  Does being "emotionally strong" is a skill to improve?
  • deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
  • esseph 9mo ago
    "Villages" help. Lean into yours, or, maybe it's the time to find or build yours. Best of luck.
    • kaizenb 9mo ago
      Thanks! Actually, I live in a village (: https://x.com/borakaizen/status/2004825887691153795 https://x.com/borakaizen/status/2004825887691153795
• thot_experiment 9mo ago
  I want to be much more publicly unhinged and in general do a lot more art without worrying too much about why or what I'm trying to say. I've found a lot of beauty in shitposts this year and I want to develop my skills to really meaningfully contribute to the corpus.
  • hsuduebc2 9mo ago
    I just wanted I support your enthusiasm for shitposting. The meta irony hidden in these posts is lovable.
  • brador 9mo ago
    Deleted
  • jesseduffield 9mo ago
    The world needs more intelligent shitposting. I support you.
    • thot_experiment 9mo ago
      Bold of you to assume! <3
• it_is_beautiful 9mo ago
  (Non-technical skill) To live with ambition. Depression is a strange thing. In my case, the causes are plainly visible to me or any passer-by: I don't have much in the way of connections, assets, or responsibilities. Surely, it wasn't (and isn't) bound-to-be: my upbringing and environment lack little, and when I've had some of any of the three, I've done better for myself. I want these things, but I abase myself such that I can barely act at all. Maybe it's a tyranny of being a social animal where the humiliated keep themselves low out-of-sight through some natural pack instinct. As a higher animal, surely there's a way out of it. And of course there is. But it's a tangle: how can you connect to anyone when you feel completely humiliated? When the act of any connection makes you feel ill and behave strangely? How do you build assets and security when you're sickened by responsibility? And why can your instincts –designed to guide and protect you– screw you over so badly? When a bright, sunny day surrounded by loved ones seems like a trip to hell, how do you even start to work through that? I have a lot of goals, but there seems to be this bottleneck that prevents moving meaningfully on any of them. The thing is: I know to get out the other side, I need connections, responsibility, work, etc. But I seem to be getting worse at it, not better, and the years are just flying by.
  • esseph 9mo ago
    I'm asking, curiously. Do you have ADHD?
  • strix_mahalo 9mo ago
    My friend I see a lot of myself in what you wrote, I was in a deep depression and trying to think my way out of it. It didn't work. Honestly I didn't have it as bad as you "sunny day surrounded by loved ones seems like a trip to hell" - this is VERY concerning. I got better. Much better. I'm literally more social than ever and for the first time in my life i feel my cup is full. If there's one piece of advice I can give is take ACTION, stay in MOTION. Always DO something to get better. You started going to the gym? That's great! Join some classes while you're at it. Don't stay still. That's when it gets you. It sounds to me like you're already living with some ambition. What do you REALLY want from 2026?
    • 9mo ago
• WillAdams 9mo ago
  I need to improve my facility with Python and math and geometry sufficiently to finish up my current project, a previewer for G-code which allows creating design files programmatically. Really need to get back to practicing archery on a regular basis as well (really need the exercise). Hopefully I can also find more time for woodworking, and hopefully I can figure out how to calibrate my 3D printers so that I can print PETG and PETG-GF as readily as PLA.
• gcanyon 9mo ago
  How to build and deploy web apps. I worked as a developer for many years (before becoming a product manager), but always in desktop apps. I still code for fun, but I never made the jump to web apps. Now with AI that's easier than ever, so I'm going to do it. Python. I played around with it three years ago, and did about 30 Project Euler problems with it, but I've let that lapse. I'll work to pick that up. I bought my wife a learn-to-draw kit for Christmas, but it's really a gift for both of us.
• kaz-inc 9mo ago
  Learn more saxophone, learn more jazz piano. Get better at ear training. Technically, apply myself more to projects at my job, learn how to fit in our flow better. I've been using AI to program some goofy projects, and I've found a good medium between vibe-coding and auto-complete, where I make it draw up a plan for every commit, and then I ask it to implement it, and if the generated code is wrong I undo the changes and revise the plan to be more precise. It's relatively easy to verify the plan, not as easy to verify the code, but it's still easy to debug the code and figure out what's wrong. The burden shifts more to creating small modules with stable interfaces.
• eleventhborn 9mo ago
  Technical skills: - Launch my own hand-rolled paper trading solution by mid to late 2026. I want to focus on strategies that prevents heavy losses, rather than actively looking for profits. If I succeed, go live in 2027. - I hope to complete 3 semesters with a B or above in the ongoing Online Masters Degree program I've enrolled for. - Do more coding with AI. - Be prepared for job interviews - even though I have no plans to change jobs. This year my rustiness and lack of interview readiness has cost me "dream jobs" (from my POV) Non-technical skills: - The usual. Lose weight, eat mindfully, gain strength, learn the language of my country.
  • araes 9mo ago
    I find it difficult to read "hand-rolled paper trading solution" without thinking toilet paper. "focus on strategies that prevents heavy losses" I donno, I think I kind of like somebody else's skill objective about trying out shitposting. It's the age deucine (credit @naasking).
  • monsecchris 9mo ago
    One possible route towards reducing heavy losses might be to minimise correlation. AI might be quite good at optimising for this.
• Zambyte 9mo ago
  I want be able to play music on the piano. I got a nice keyboard earlier this year, and have only really been inspired to dig into it since I got myself a circle of fifths decoder in the last couple of months. I'm confident now that I have the tools to learn and make concrete progress. I want to get better at speaking to people. I love conversing with people who have a lot to say, but I feel like lately I struggle with coming up with things to say myself. Especially if it's someone I'm not very familiar with. It's not even necessarily a shyness thing or something like that, I've just got a bad habit of carrying an internal monologue that I don't share even when it'd be appropriate, because I don't feel like it's necessary. But communication shouldn't be limited to what is necessary.
  • wawhal 9mo ago
    Try PianoForAll. My experience, fwiw - Pianoforall was instrumental in helping me play real music at parties and make the piano journey rewarding and enjoyable early on. Without that, the early days of learning classical music, music theory, practicing scales, ballads etc were a limbo - you don't feel like you are making progress (even when you are). That said, PFA only compliments your classical syllabus, not replaces it.
    • Zambyte 9mo ago
      Thanks for the tip, I'll have to check it out :)
    • RonSkufca 9mo ago
      I am doing something very similar. Purchased a Yamaha piano for my daughter's Piano lessons and I want to learn as well. I have no music experience and was wondering if PianoForAll is good for learning the very basics?
  • calvinmorrison 9mo ago
    I have done this in 2025. I picked up a few hymnals at the ol library book sale. They're easy enough, there will be familiar tunes and licks that you can just get, and it's great for sight reading. There's usually 4 lines to follow but you can start with 1, 2, and then do them all. It's a fun skill
• strangelove026 9mo ago
  Develop a calistenics practice. Ive been to the gym more on than off over the past few years and feel like I’ve plateaued. I also had a minor thing that I’ve gone to the physio for recently and I prefer the routine of doing those exercises (which would be similar to a calistenics practice in a lot of ways) to going to the gym. Kettlebell and pull up bar to be ordered when I’m back from India I recently bought a stainless steel pot set which already seems like such a game changer in terms of cooking due to how much better sauces come out due to better fonds. So I want to see what else I can do to push things forward again and generally level up my cooking Also want to do better with skincare. Partially to age gracefully but I’ve always had dryness here and there off and on on my face. I’ve been in India all month and it got worse, but, got better when I bought some coconut oil. I think the oil acts as a barrier to prevent moisture from escaping. Also would like to play with some mlops tooling. I do a lot of infra / DevOps stuff, which I can do in my sleep at this point. So I haven’t really been growing in a specific vertical much aside from just generally getting better at software engineering (communication / prioritization / clean and simple architectures). Also would like to learn linear algebra. Reading a book on how that works with ML and it’s been actually super satisfying seeing how all the math connects. The book is called why machines learn
  • LouisSayers 9mo ago
    If you're into the gym and cooking, consider getting a cast iron frying pan. Not only great for cooking, but it can also help with wrist strength - you may need to ease into lifting the pan with a single hand.
    • strangelove026 9mo ago
      I've got a wok (I make mapo tofu every now and then) and definitely agree!
• FarmerPotato 9mo ago
  Write an operating system in Forth. I've digested Wirth's THE paper. And the XINU book, as well as the BSD book. Anyhow it's for my own use on my own hardware, but it must be beautiful. I've been encouraged by feedback on my Forth code's clear Forthiness, in the way of small, comprehendable word units. That add up to poetic top level loops like OVER PROCESS OVER SCHEDULE IDLE
  • araes 9mo ago
    That's a very specific skill development. I'd ask why Forth, yet guess because "must be beautiful"? Seems like kind of strange / yet somewhat appropriate choice since Forth "traditionally use neither operating system nor file system." and "A full-featured Forth system with all source code will compile itself". Bootstrap your own operating system on a computer with literally nothing. Interesting to read about though as a tangent, very different kind of language. "grammar has no official specification" "looks the word up in the dictionary" and then does whatever the dictionary specifies. Good luck on the project though, seems like it fell out of use in the 80's and only got recovered recently. The Forth Interest Group comments on the subject are funny too. [1] "What ANS Forths are available?" -> "The simple answer is: none" Apparently somebody (Vincent Hamp) got it to work on Thumb-2 ISA (ARMv7-M and newer) though. Tiny. 7kb flash, 320B of ram. [2] [1] https://www.forth.org/ansforth/ansforth.html https://www.forth.org/ansforth/ansforth.html [2] https://gitlab.com/higaski/Shi https://gitlab.com/higaski/Shi
    • FarmerPotato 9mo ago
      The primary virtue of a Forth system is that it is interactive. You can see this on any 1990s system that can start up in Open Firmware. I've started with a FIG-Forth kernel in 9900 assembler, which fits into 8K. Many authors worked that code up to the 1990s branch I grabbed. To bring up the board, I cross-assemble to produce two Flash EEPROMs, plug them in, and power up. The Forth kernel looks at block 6 for customizations where I tell it to compile some source packages I want from Flash. One of these is -ASSEMBLER, which lets me create short chunks of native machine code to work on very low-level things like bit I/O, the SPI and I2C peripheral behavior. Very good for debugging initial hardware. When I'm happy with some code, I add the source to the next EEPROM build. Block numbers were originally 1K chunks of disk, but can refer to any kind of storage like pages of ROM/RAM, or even to a process' virtual address space.
• fs_software 9mo ago
  I want to learn how to be bored again. I also want to learn how to ask better questions.
  • intermerda 9mo ago
    I didn't realize it was important to be bored until I read/watched this: https://hbr.org/2025/08/you-need-to-be-bored-heres-why https://hbr.org/2025/08/you-need-to-be-bored-heres-why. There are some pointers in there that you might find helpful. One thing that's helped me is solo hikes which I've done many times before. I still do them for workouts and use them as an opportunity to get bored.
  • qnleigh 9mo ago
    These are great. I recently started taking phone holidays, usually on weekends, where for a whole day I don't allow myself to use my phone except to communicate with people.* Sometimes I just wind up bored, sometimes I wind up spending my time better. I've been gradually increasing how frequently I do this. How would you go about learning to ask better questions? *Thinking how strange this sentence would sound 20 years ago.
• deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
• ipaddr 9mo ago
  I got a headset and wanted to do vr apps but found the medium to addicting and now I just play with no desire to create.
• ekropotin 9mo ago
  My #1 goal for the next year is to find a job that would re-ignite my passion for engineering. I just can’t longer spend my life doing stupid corporate nonsense work contributing to widespread enshittification of the world.
  • kuerbel 9mo ago
    Same here. I really want to stop peddling Microsoft stuff and support m365. Don't know where to go from here though. But if there's a will there's a way right?
    • ekropotin 9mo ago
      100%. You got this, bro or sis!
• biztos 9mo ago
  Tech: 1. Rust, I quite like it but I still need AI assistance. 2. Desktop app dev, I'm making one in Tauri and love it, now I want to "go native." 3. Lower-level AI stuff, so far everything has been with APIs, and while that's great it feels a little too abstract. 4. Leetcode pattern matching. (Grumble grumble, but when job-hunting in Rome...) Differently tech: 5. City driving. Thanks @kenrick95 for reminding me! 6. Color grading, and video editing in general. 7. The Thai language (speaking and reading). 8. Writing for the public.
  • mmcconnell1618 9mo ago
    Color grading is pretty interesting. Please share good resources if you find some.
    • biztos 9mo ago
      I’ve found Darren Mostyn’s videos quite helpful: https://youtu.be/YbDRl_xugJo https://youtu.be/YbDRl_xugJo Also Daniel Batal, more in the “tips and tricks” category but very accessible: https://youtube.com/@daniel_batal https://youtube.com/@daniel_batal These are both DaVinci Resolve specific. For more general info I found it useful to do some googling around LUTs. I find the big downside of color grading is it makes you really want a camera that records RAW video.
• jackyalcine 9mo ago
  Tech: 1. Releasing a solo product. 2. Writing more about code and the intersections of the field in history and world events. 3. Trying to do more talks. Not-tech: 1. PR like there's no tomorrow. 2. Run two half marathons. 3. Move out of Florida.
• volk45 9mo ago
  Scheduled for Fire 1 (basic Fire academy) in 2026. Looking forward to developing basic fire fighting skills and strengthen my knowledge in this new volunteer undertaking I started in mid 2025. As for tech skills in 2026, I’d love to develop a photogrammetry pipeline mixing shoulder mounted SLAM scanner, DSLR terrestrial photography, and aerial LiDAR data sets. I’m lucky to have access to these data sets, just gotta put the pieces together. I’m already familiar with UAS (unmanned aerial systems) photogrammetry and mixing that with terrestrial photos for high detail models. Aerial Lidar and SLAM datasets are something new I’ve been working with over the past 6 months.
  • throwaway2037 9mo ago
    > new volunteer undertaking Is your town/village fully volunteer fire fighters, or a mixed bag of paid pros combined with volunteers? Personally, I always thought a first aid course could be very useful in real life.
    • volk45 9mo ago
      Town and county fire service is all volunteer. We all however have to go through pro board accreditation (for classes) which is nationally recognized in the USA. Check with your local department to see if they offer CPR and basic first aid courses. If your local FD (fire department) doesn’t offer any, neighboring town stations may.
• mraza007 9mo ago
  I want to go full into indie hacking and learn atleast a new language this year Lastly I must say with the help of AI i can now finally develop good frontends
• ttsalami 9mo ago
  My main ones are career focused: - Vastly and in depth expand my knowledge of data architecture approaches. I'm an analytics engineer but have no experience in high level planning of architecture and I feel like I'm missing a lot of knowledge of the field. - Learn data engineering skills like handling event streams. I'm very happy with my analytics engineer position, but it seems like standard data engineering is a very desired skill for any new career opportunities. - Learn how to manage a small SaaS company and the product. I'm in the finishing stages of a platform that I have been developing by myself(while my cofounder is the industry expert). Neither of us has knowledge on what it takes to launch and sell this product, for which we know there is demand in the industry. - Create practical real life ML workflows. I have only theoretical experience since I never had the need or opportunity to work with a more real scenario. This is both from personal interest and for career growth. - Start and actually approach university in a meaningful way. I have a respectable career, but no higher education, which has always weighted on me Some non-technical: - Force myself into more social situations, especially with absolutely non-tech people. - Just started treating ADHD, so hopefully wrangle that
  • whinvik 9mo ago
    I think this is how us engineers always do it but it's almost always the other way around. Sell first. Building the tech is just an excuse to not learn how to sell. You don't really know what customers really want until you start asking for money.
• gavinhoward 9mo ago
  I have had to put programming aside in 2025, probably for the rest of my life, so 2026 will be the year I reskill and reinvent myself. But most importantly, I want to finally become as kind, patient, and charitable as I have always wanted to be.
  • windows_hater_7 9mo ago
    May I ask why you have had to put programming aside?
• sailorganymede 9mo ago
  Marketing so I can show the stuff I’ve been making off
• boricj 9mo ago
  I want to draw again. I used to, when I was in a classroom or at a bar. Actually managed to get quite good at it through sheer boredom in grande école. Then life happened and that faded away, alongside my mental health. Recently I've rediscovered doodling while attending ACM CCS 2025 as an independent (long story) and I want to improve my mental health in 2026, to the point where I can draw regularly again.
  • sandspar 9mo ago
    What subjects or style do you like to draw?
    • boricj 9mo ago
      Being entirely self-taught, I'm not sure how to describe my style. If I have to, it's kinda a nondescript knock-off of Gisèle Lagacé's recent webcomics. As for the subjects, being a horny teenager at the time I mostly drew scantily clad women. Sometimes portraits/caricatures of teachers or other students, mostly on request. All together, that led to an unfathomable number of hijinks. Thankfully, the one time that a teacher came across their caricature, it ended well. A fellow student requested it while in class (of handwriting Java of all things). She then took my handout and brought it to the teacher, proudly stating with glee "look at what boricj drew!". Cue the laughter. Then the teacher stated flipping pages and stumbled upon the rest of my usual bodywork, so to speak. Cue the laughter again. By that point, I was rolling on the floor, my sides hurting. I don't think I'll ever top that, but the reception of my doodles at the conference by academics reminded me of that past. Hopefully I'll manage to rekindle it.
  • nicbou 9mo ago
    I was in the same boat and started drawing again at around 30. Remember that paper is cheap and that experimentation is valuable. Make all the bad art you can. The cost of all the paper I wasted in the last 5 years is probably less than the cost of a pizza. There is a valuable life lesson in there about being okay with making mistakes so that you can learn from them. Nowadays I always carry a notebook, and more often than not pens and watercolours. You can build a really tiny kit out of makeup palettes. I also loved taking painting lessons and going to live nude drawing at one of my favourite pubs. Making art is such a pleasant disconnect from work and digital life.
• jachee 9mo ago
  I probably need to learn Go.
• luiwammus 9mo ago
  I would like to learn more about Web development and related knowledge (networking, security). Currently my programming knowledge is primarily system languages+python. I'm thinking of building a few websites / apps from scratch, and perhaps hosting my own server. Recommendations for frameworks or do's/don'ts are very welcome. Second thing is networking skills at my (future) job. One thing I regret from my PhD is not seeking collaborators out more actively and building my network. Although I'm moving to industry, I've realised that having a strong professional network is vital for job security and can make the job much easier and more fun.
  • culi 9mo ago
    For self-hosting: Buy a cheap VPS and use something like Coolify, Dokploy, or Dokku if you don't need a UI. These are half way in between "managed" PaaS (e.g. Vercel, Netlify, etc) and "hosting it yourself". Self-hosting is important experience but setting up reverse proxies, nginx, database backups, port-forwarding, firewall rules, secrets management, dependency updates, etc is not trivial. You should absolutely learn how to do those eventually but it's important to get something up and running first and the software I mentioned does just that for you For building websites: If you don't already know HTML/CSS/JS definitely start with a vanilla site. No matter what framework is in right now, having the fundamentals down is absolutely a huge boost. So start with a simple static site. If you already have that knowledge, don't go crazy. React is basically the "boring technology" at this point and its not going anywhere anytime soon. Use Vite to create a basic React app
  • s_ting765 9mo ago
    For web development I would say avoid high-level frameworks as much as you can. Most of them are built for hand-holding developers which is counterproductive to learning the fundamentals and are usually inflexible to demands outside the "happy path".
• yu3zhou4 9mo ago
  Good luck to everyone in achieving their goals and exploring new paths! To me it's deep learning compilers since mid 2025. I am a person who can't learn just from reading books, so 80% of time I learn by doing (contribute to PyTorch) and 20% of time I read books (now: Engineering a Compiler from Keith Cooper and Linda Torczon) and talk to LLMs to fill gaps in my understanding. My main quest now is to build a bridge [0] between PyTorch and universal GPU computing world - which I believe WebGPU might become. What it requires is to build is 1) a runtime for executing PyTorch ATen operations on WebGPU by running WGSL shaders and 2) a compiler, so you can use full PyTorch power with @torch.compile [0] - https://github.com/jmaczan/torch-webgpu https://github.com/jmaczan/torch-webgpu
• anal_reactor 9mo ago
  I want to learn how to sit, stare at the wall, do nothing, and be happy about it.
• pdyc 9mo ago
  I want to give away my tools for free and take on more ambitious projects, like building more capable browsers and local LLMs to get rid of corporate chokeholds. But that would probably never come true, because I would be tied up making money just to survive, rather than being able to give things away or take on more ambitious projects.
• dvh 9mo ago
  I want to improve my Nase fishing skills and finally catch 50cm one (46cm atm).
• gnarcoregrizz 9mo ago
  Technical: release a simple, focused product. AI makes it easy to spam things out that look good. I would be psyched if something catches just a little bit of attention. I feel like my main limit is creativity now. Mine has been stifled by 15 years of rote web dev. Non technical: I made a conscious decision to push career and technical things aside to spend more time living life (hobbies, family). I’ve since fallen behind in my career, but I’ve had more interesting life experiences I suppose. I do get jealous of people’s titles and promotions sometimes, but I don’t want their jobs. The competition to make others rich right now is enormous. Fucked labor market. Seems like a loser’s game (I just tell myself that since I can’t compete)
• 0xMohan 9mo ago
  I'm good at coding so hate using LLMs for coding. but the other things such as writing, just can't do it without LLMs's help. Looking up things, I defaulted to LLMs. So in 2026, I just want to stop relying on LLMs. Lol but I do like building LLMs (training from scratch, pre-training, fine-tuning, etc.). as a matter of fact, I'm pre-training a 1b model for last 2 days.
• thenthenthen 9mo ago
  Reverse engineering. I cannot stand that every product I buy requires an app (that will break with the next upgrade/or lack thereof). I realise this is a problem possibly better suited to be solved on a policy level, but I rather learn some more reverse engineering skills (which can be both very rewarding as well as frustrating) than go into politics.
  • mft_ 9mo ago
    Maybe also think about a structure for such things. As in, it’s all very well to reverse engineer something for your own edification or benefit, but sharing the fruits of your labour with others would be so much better. And further, serendipitously discovering (possibly abandoned) reverse engineering efforts on GitHub is better than nothing, but having a community working on such things, sharing progress and techniques, and offering a central point of discovery would also be so much better.
    • thenthenthen 9mo ago
      100% find a buddy and have some hacking sharing session/weekend is a great way! Ofc this can be scaled as well!
• codybontecou 9mo ago
  I hope to explore AI on edge devices and see how far it can get me. New models like functiongemma are promising and I think we may be at a point where consistent tool calling is all we need.
• raw_anon_1111 9mo ago
  Get better at Spanish. Reading and writing, I’m hovering around an A2 with decent vocabulary. https://www.escuela-hablamos.com/en/understanding-the-common-european-framework-of-reference-cefr-for-spanish-as-a-foreign-language/ https://www.escuela-hablamos.com/en/understanding-the-common... I want to be able to speak and listen at at least a B1 by the end of next year. We will be spending a bit over a month in Costa Rica next year and I want to get as immersed as possible. Work related get better at pre-sales. Currently, I’m a staff architect at a cloud consulting company leading post sales implementations. While there is some ambiguity when it gets to me, for the most part I know the shape of the business problem they want to solve, working in pre-sales has a higher level of ambiguity. They can’t outsource pre sales since it involves travel
  • zippyman55 9mo ago
    My wife and hired a personal Spanish tutor
    • scottmcdot 9mo ago
      I hired my wife one too. She's really enjoying it [1] [1] www.lacasitaspanishschool.com.au
    • raw_anon_1111 9mo ago
      My wife is going to work with a Spanish tutor remotely who lives in Costa Rica and then work with her in person when we get there. As far me, I learned a little in school decades ago so I knew basic grammar. DuoLingo gives me a guided learning path to explore. But I use ChatGPT to create drills like creating sentences using words and phrases “at an a2 level using present and past tense verbs” using whatever I need to practice. I practice speaking using Apple’s voice to text and not ChatGPTs voice to text since it is a lot less forgiving.
• kamphey 9mo ago
  Wife and I started a 3d printing business. We just started a couple of months ago and have put our items in a few retail stores. Our goal is not to do this super fast but more like supplemental income. Also its fun to print stuff for ourselves. I already designed a finger mini golf game and may start to build my own board games out of 3d printed parts. So I want to build up 3d modeling skills. I am not surprised but its much much slower to get a physical product business going than just writing some code and launching.
  • throwaway2037 9mo ago
    This sounds very cool! Can you share a link to your company website, or are you only selling on eBay or Etsy? I think 3D printed stuff can make great creative gifts.
• theletterf 9mo ago
  Off the top of my head: — Learn Rust. I'm halfway through the Rustlings exercises and I'll continue with more challenges. Advice is welcome. I might also ask LLMs to pose as teachers and create exercises for me and check them. - Cooking. This has been something I neglected all my life and I really want to get better at it. It's so fundamental to quality of life. - Persian language. Studied it for six months, I can read and write the script and I understand basic sentences, but I want to get better at it. If there are any Persian folks reading this, ping me. It's a beautiful language and culture.
  • rezlouria 9mo ago
    > Persian language Hey! Iranian here. It’s pretty rare to run into someone learning Persian, so this made me smile. Wishing you the best with it.
    • theletterf 9mo ago
      Mersi khubam!
  • maxbond 9mo ago
    > Advice is welcome. Here's some advice I've given about learning Rust in the past. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38020654 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38020654 There are also project-based resources beyond Rustlings like Entirely Too Many Linked Lists[1] you might check out. I've found Gjengset's videos[2] great for intermediate content, and they include both project and lecture formats. Best of luck! [1] https://rust-unofficial.github.io/too-many-lists/ https://rust-unofficial.github.io/too-many-lists/ [2] https://www.youtube.com/@jonhoo https://www.youtube.com/@jonhoo
  • throwaway2037 9mo ago
    > Cooking For me, what sparked my interest in cooking was two things: (1) getting older (in youth, food was simply fuel, not so much to be enjoyed), (2) wanting to replicate favourites dishes from restaurants (my first first was channa masala). You can learn a lot from middle-aged house wives that have a YouTube cooking channel that show you how to cook classic dishes from various cultures. One thing that has been incredibly liberating is making small tweaks to recipes that will trigger a cultural native to immediately declare: "Oh, that's not authentic." To that I say: "Who cares, it is my food, and I will enjoy it!"
• IamDaedalus 9mo ago
  learn spanish and schematic design with pcb I'm self taught programmer blessed to be working in the embedded space this year and I want to take my love for low level further and learn to build hardware from scratc
• huhkerrf 9mo ago
  I want to learn how to swim. I never took lessons as a kid, and, while I can get from one edge of the pool to the other, I want to feel completely comfortable. Even if I don't pick up swimming as a workout, I like that it will open up new activities through different watersports.
  • Rendello 9mo ago
    I swam a lot as a kid as my mother was a lifeguard and instructor. Despite that, I was never amazing at it, probably because I was lean and had no buoyancy, but I loved it a lot. I swam for the first time in years a few months ago, and was surprised how exhausted I was after 30 minutes of treading water! I work out and go on frequent long runs, but I was totally spent from that. I too would love to get into it again, it's definitely a great exercise.
    • tasuki 9mo ago
      Never amazing at swimming because you lacked buoyancy? I know people who are plenty buoyant: they aren't fast swimmers!
      • Rendello 9mo ago
        Haha yes. Well, I'm pretty sure most pro swimmers are very lean and muscular (ie. not buoyant), so that's not the whole story. I was decent enough at swimming but never great at floating.
  • b2w 9mo ago
    There are plenty of skills involved to develop and improve here like floating, body position, kicking, breathing, etc. Plan it out and make it count!
• mschild 9mo ago
  - Woodworking. Bit of a cliché for an engineer, I know ;) I renovated my own house from the ground up over the past 2 years but I found the woodworking part always incredibly rewarding. At this point I have quite a good selection of tools and will setup a dedicated workshop in my basement. - Contributing to Homeassistant community by integrating non-standard zigbee devices. A lot of lighting devices in my house are zigbee. There are some companies that deviate from the standard protocol though to force you to use their hub or software.
  • zenlot 9mo ago
    [dead]
• Yash16 9mo ago
  By 2026, I plan to stop writing code myself and go all-in on AI coding tools like Claude. My focus will shift entirely to marketing, building products, and scaling my own company. AI is changing the game—soon, one person will be able to build a billion-dollar company with AI doing the heavy lifting.
• CoffeeDeSanta 9mo ago
  I was lost not sure of my career and I put too much focus on it, since now things are more stable, I want to: - Work on projects that actually interest me, not just to fill the CV. - Learn CS fundamentals but I know web development but not how computers work under the hood. I have been ignoring my mental and physical health for years, so working on these is a top priority.
  • spit2wind 9mo ago
    Do you have any particular resources lined up? Regarding how computers work under the hood, i can recommend Nand2Tetris. https://www.nand2tetris.org/ https://www.nand2tetris.org/
• spondyl 9mo ago
  I'd like to learn a little bit about electronics and hardware. At the moment, I have a child's mental model like you plug something into the wall and then it "powers on". I couldn't really tell you what properties make something a conductor or not, and I also couldn't tell you various components like capacitors do. It's actually quite fun in that I have a pretty clear plan for learning about this stuff but because I've never done it, it's all very new and novel with lots of "Aha!" moments for why things are the way they are.
  • Cwizard 9mo ago
    I can recommend doing this! It really is not hard to learn the basics of electronics and you will have a better understanding of how the things around you work.
• pgryko 9mo ago
  Sales - especially B2B. I've got a strong technical background (PhD in Physics) and have been writing code for almost 15 years (most domains, with ML more recently). I'm also comfortable with public speaking (talking a conferences, pitching etc). I feel sales is the last piece of the puzzle I'm missing
• apexalpha 9mo ago
  I want to learn proper programming. Maybe Go, then C(++). I have never had a proper formal IT education, just learned everything on the go. I can write essentially everything in Python or Bash using AI. I know most (data)concepts and what data to move where in what fashion, I just don't have the hours in it to be able to do it from the top of my head. I feel the AI is great, but it's also holding me back. Like how driving a automatic transmission is nice, but you'll never learn to drive stick from it. Also Docker / k8s ecosystem seems to be mostly Go based. And it looks cool, the syntax. If anyone has any courses that are interactive and can keep an ADHD mind invested in it I'm all ears. Might be a bit of a tame goal for hckrnews but yeah.
  • heckelson 9mo ago
    I've been learning Go for about 4-6 months. So far I've been really enjoying the language. I'll suggest to you to work through the go tour in the beginning, then gobyexample is a great reference resource. I've also heard good things about the book "100 Go mistakes" which is for advanced users. Obviously, Go has its own quirks but if you can enjoy them and make the language work for you, it's really fun!
    • apexalpha 9mo ago
      Thanks for the suggestions!
      • heckelson 9mo ago
        I remembered a course called "Learn Go through testing" that looks intriguing and also for beginners.
• bigpeopleareold 9mo ago
  Technical: - Just anything more programming-specific stuff at work. When I get to do something, it's a stress-relief, because the typical day involves dealing with meetings, people, etc. and I can't have that much anymore, now with my health. Even when I can just focus, I want to shake the worry of other people's issues. The programming I do mostly is handling precise reporting requests, but since that is going to be offshored, I can move to something else at least. I am hoping that I can take on anything outside of Java or .NET. I work at a consultancy and those projects do pop up. - Recreational programming: graphics programming, something to support my odd project (a "recreation" of the bad software from "a company" "I worked for"). I already wrote a hacky command language that is intentionally tedious to use :) Next is the user interface! - I have a plan also to go through Wirth's Oberon Compiler Construction and his Algorithm text using Oberon. If there is a project in it, I want to maybe bootstrap a simple Oberon compiler in Pascal then rewrite in Oberon (without caps!) Non-technical: - I want in the future to expand my range of project options from my employer, so I want to rev-up my mind again in this country's language and go through the thickets of folk's heavy dialects. - Eat better. If I can help to avoid my gut issues at this point, I need to. - Do more presentations, particularly in the more topics I have embraced (Pascal, compilers, etc.) as something pedagogical for others in my company of consultants.
• onion2k 9mo ago
  I want to get better at Systems Thinking. I'm fairly certain that while AI is going to get better and better at most things, it's only ever going to be able to look as far ahead as the prompt it's given and the context available. Architecting a system that can be won't grind to a halt after years of prompt-based additions is going to be a key skill, and the foundation of that is building high quality systems on top of simple foundational systems. That is going to necessitate being good at Systems Thinking. Also, 'systems' doesn't mean code here. It could be business processes, people processes, ways of working, etc. AI is eventually going to impact all of it (it has already really), and that means being able to think about how to build systems that work well, and especially how to describe systems so that AI can help improve them.
  • Flere-Imsaho 9mo ago
    I too have had similar ideas. Perhaps of interest to you, are the UK's guides on Systems Thinking for Civil Servants [0]. They might be generic enough to apply to what you're interested in? [0] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/systems-thinking-for-civil-servants https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/systems-thinking-...
  • esperent 9mo ago
    You're probably already aware of this book but just in case, have you read Thinking In Systems: A Primer by Donnela Meadows? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3828902-thinking-in-systems https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3828902-thinking-in-syst...
• scottmcdot 9mo ago
  I've just started managing a team and would like to develop my EQ and think more before I speak.
• _yy01 9mo ago
  SW: - Architecting larger scale applications - A project which is related to fundamentals (like compilers, OS) rather than run of the mill web development. Not SW: - Motorcycle internals and general repair skills - Ancient sanskrit grammar
• Agentlien 9mo ago
  I mainly want to learn even more about what I've already been working with. I want to deepen my understanding of the AGC API and finally take the time to teach myself Vulkan.
• ep_jhu 9mo ago
  My wife and I quit our tech jobs and moved from the US to a European country last year to learn/grow/explore. The plan is to renew the visa and continue our exploration. For 2026, other than more traveling, I have just started a course at the local tech university on solar power, and asset management/O&M of solar installations. The hope is to gain basic domain knowledge for potentially transitioning my career into this field in a year or two, taking advantage of my SWE, data analytics, and PM experience. I'm also planning to take my host country's driving exam. That means I first need to learn how to drive a car with manual transmission, after 30+ years driving in the US.
  • throwaway2037 9mo ago
    Nice post. Without doxing yourself, can you share the European country and your visa situation? If you want to stay and work in European as US citizens, I highly recommend you look at the DAFT treaty which allows US citizens to live and work (by starting a business) in the Netherlands. Honestly, I could not do what you have done. Hats off. I am a bit jealous! I really need the daily structure of a regular office job. (Hold your tomatoes folks!) How do you fight they tyranny of structurelessness? Or maybe you don't have it at all...
• hithre 9mo ago
  Pro: After 10 year I feel that I am becoming a specialist of the software I work on rather than a software specialist. Needing to work in different domains where I am not the expert. Other: Better time management and micro napping. After a working day sucking mind and kids energy, the brain stops working for anything but doom scrolling or TV.
• MangoToupe 9mo ago
  i wanna learn to play the kora. I've been listening to a ton of asake and it really sticks out as a defining sound Also it'd be nice if a bunch of data centers burned down but... odds are against this
• EliRivers 9mo ago
  The Running Man. It's really the foundation action in a good shuffle dance and it really has to flow naturally and consistently.
• Nextgrid 9mo ago
  Tech skills: * Building LLM-backed products. I’ve recently had a real use-case for AI (as opposed to slapping a useless chatbot on everything just to claim to use AI) and for now I’ve been calling the APIs directly from Django; which while works, makes me write tons of boilerplate for basic tasks like an UI for testing prompts and so on. It seems like this must be a solved problem so I’d need to look around (LangChain?) Non-tech: * Sales - from feedback it seems like I’m not actually that bad of a salesman/people person but I would like to formalize that skill, maybe getting an entry-level technical sales/solutions engineer position and grow from there. Personal: * Letting go of projects and prioritizing: I’ve always had a ton of tech projects going at once which leads to my free time being spread thin across all of them and ultimately wasted as no meaningful progress is made. While it’s been an amazing learning experience when I started it’s since stopped paying off on that front once I mastered the tech involved. I need to let go for good and just delete the unfinished code once and for all so I’m never tempted to get back to it.
  • jstummbillig 9mo ago
    > I’ve recently had a real use-case for AI I'd be interested to learn more!
    • Nextgrid 9mo ago
      Can’t disclose too much yet without nuking my competitive advantage, but basically it’s using LLMs to parse lots of scraped data to identify prospective customers in a certain niche - not in the way “these guys might need it” but more like “these guys have explicitly said they need it”, just that the “say” can be in many different channels and formats, and the LLM’s job is to ingest that firehose of trash and pick out the gems. All in all a pretty basic and boring use-case that I’m sure I’m not the only one doing, but it’s frankly the first use-case I have where the probabilistic and imperfect nature of LLMs is actually fine.
• lewiscollard 9mo ago
  I am going to get good at TIG welding. This is mostly because there's a lot of subprojects of my car that would really benefit from me doing TIG - stainless, aluminium, etc (I already got pretty good at MIG for mild steel). But also, AI. Previously my worry was "AI is not going to be good enough to replace me, but the people who make the decisions might think it is". After actually using a code assistant myself lately that turned into "AI is going to replace me". No, it's not that good _yet_ (it still needs lots of nudging and shepherding) but I don't think the odds are good of my job title existing in a decade. LLMs can't wield a TIG torch yet and the work pays well. Being good at it is a good hedge against this industry being eaten by AI.
• gremlinsinc 9mo ago
  I'm going to learn to ship things. I can build a full SaaS in 5 days using Claude so there is no excuse for me not to ship. I've been out of work 2 years, had to do a GoFundMe just to survive the winter, and I raised 5k which gave me a runway to get off Uber and Lyft and focus on finding clients to build for add with chatGPT I think I'm in the verge of figuring this freelance thing out .. other things to learn: I want to get AWS certified and work on other certifications like Service Now... or sales force... I'm wanting a digital agency but need to figure out the sales aspect.
• findthebug 9mo ago
  I want to develop another game and release it on Switch or Steam. It used to be a hobby...
• mitjam 9mo ago
  I want to learn to launch and grow a paid app, I‘ve built a few SaaS and installed apps up to a point of „80% ready to launch“, but did not go all the way. I don’t quite know what‘s holding me back but I realized that this is what’s most important for me to learn when it comes to my software side endeavor.
• duckydude20 9mo ago
  - "expand my social circle" same here, try to make real world connection not just technical connections but with people i can hang out with, friday night parties, trips, etc. apart from work i don't have any connections. opportunities are lacking and idk how to increase my chance. if anyone in Bengaluru, India having meetups invite me, duckydude20 at gmail.com
• brailsafe 9mo ago
  I'd like to get better at time management and relevant math maybe. LLMs are pretty boring already, quality dropped off, trust decreasing. Also swimming and rope climbing. Can't swim
• zenlot 9mo ago
  [dead]
• Oras 9mo ago
  I want to learn to relax and stop worrying and overthinking. Will start with the 2 minutes breathing on Apple Watch and try to increase by time.
• elric 9mo ago
  I should work on getting better at selling myself. I'm doing alright at scoring longer projects (mostly in the Java/Fintech sphere), but I'd like to take on some smaller projects as well. Things like self-promotion and networking don't come easily to me.
• rr808 9mo ago
  Work solidly at work for 8 hours and then go home, instead of sitting behind a computer for 12 hours and wasting a lot of time.
  • vittore 9mo ago
    Ah you are not alone!
  • dspillett 9mo ago
    Definitely something akin to this for me too. My ability to concentrate has definitely fallen off since my younger years, precipitously since 2020. That and I'm trying to re-learn Spanish to a useful degree¹ - better attentiveness to the task would help with that too. -------- [1] I did pretty well at GCSE level three decades ago, then never used it again. I fancy spending time over there in future and don't want to be that guy who turns up and expect everyone to speak some English.
  • f_allwein 9mo ago
    Then check out the Pomodoro technique if you haven’t done so! I’m always amazed how much I can get done in 25 minutes of focus.
  • Rastonbury 9mo ago
    This helped me when I used to dally, but assuming you are salaried, finishing your day in 50% less time means your effective hourly wage goes up as much
  • quietloop 9mo ago
    I'm kinda like this and sometimes even more than 12 hours isn't enough to do a task that shouldn't require 4 hours (at least for me). It was always like this, but it started to worsen in the last few months. I was diagnosed with ADHD a few weeks ago and it improved a lot since I started taking meds.
• techInacho 9mo ago
  Non-technical skills: Meet more women, lose my fear of flirting with women, being able to have a relationship, lose my psychosis for a single women.
• bossyTeacher 9mo ago
  1. Sight read (focusing on treble clef) at a decent level 2. Being more effective at using LLMs 3. Being able to improve in multiple areas of my level simultaneously
• dielll 9mo ago
  Kotlin and Golang. I know it6not advisable to learn 2 languages at the same time but I want Kotlin for android apps and Go for backend. Been working alot with python and I want to shift to a different stack and hopefully get a change of careers from Test Automation/ QA to a more coding focused role(backend, android)
  • david_allison 9mo ago
    I'm co-maintaining an open source Android app (primarily Kotlin, with Svelte & Rust). I'd be happy to mentor in 2026. Feel free to get in touch if you're interested: https://github.com/ankidroid/Anki-Android/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#joining-our-community https://github.com/ankidroid/Anki-Android/blob/main/CONTRIBU...
    • dielll 9mo ago
      Thank you David. Definitely going to reach out. Hoping to learn a lot from you
• kentrf 9mo ago
  I want to learn it all... But what will happen is that I use my working days writing code/producing software, evenings to make dinner and be with family, and nights gaming with friends. Weekends are for recharging. And that is completely OK. It is a healthy balance between getting stuff done, recovery, and enjoying life. To avoid burnout again, I take a day or two off whenever I feel like I need some time off.
  • jimkleiber 9mo ago
    To me it seems you not only want to learn how to code/write software but also to learn how to make dinner and be with family, how to game with friends, and how to recharge on weekends. Learning it all is also about learning those other things, too. This has helped me a lot, makes me realize I want to learn how to relax better, to sleep better, and to slow down better. Thank you!
    • kentrf 9mo ago
      I guess that is a valid interpretation. I was thinking about tech and maths, not "everyday life". "Life" is also a skill that needs practice.
• jjude 9mo ago
  I want to get good at "taste" I am a software engineer and I have trained to think logically and structurally. In that processes, I have lost "taste". I don't have any design (user facing) capability. I bet in the near future, developing apps and hosting will become so easy that we will soon see "substack for apps" [1]. If I'm right, the thing that will set me still apart (I'm currently a CTO with 30 years of experience) will be taste and not engineering. Or putting it differently, taste + engineering will set me apart than just engineering. I don't know what that will look like yet. But that is what I want to learn in 2026. [1]: https://jjude.com/substack-for-apps/ https://jjude.com/substack-for-apps/
• pdimitar 9mo ago
  - MANDATORY: Re-learn focus. I will not self-diagnose but I exhibit ADHD symptoms and I started actively fighting them back (they mostly come from the phone). I am not going to just deny myself access to apps on schedule -- my brain never clicked schedule, not even once in my life -- but through a persistent and sustainable self-change from deep within. It's slow but it's beginning to work. - MANDATORY: Get more intimate with my Neovim. I've always kind of half-arsed my editors / IDEs, I always found it annoying to become a deep expert. This must change; surface-level skills rob you of productivity. I already am hugely annoyed by my typing speed, which is quite excellent but still not enough to work almost at the speed of thought. I want to achieve something near to these levels. - OPTIONAL: Integrate closer with one ore more LLM agents for coding. I have not paid for any yet but copying-pasting from a web UI gets tiring. Sometimes you really just want to say "OK, now remove that duplicate test and include that edge case" and see it materialize in 20 seconds. I am not against paying, it's just that so far the paid tiers have not been a blocker. Well, seems like they are now. - MANDATORY: Prioritize body. I have health conditions and I have a relatively good visibility how to fix them. I regularly end up desperately trying to solve more and more problems on the computer just so I don't get up and start a workout. I started turning this around but it's way too slow and time and age don't wait for anyone. In general: connect better with myself, forgive myself all the previous mistakes, understand why and how they came to be and remove the root causes, put myself on a better path. And above all: be more true to myself.
  • dcel 9mo ago
    I feel like I could’ve written exactly this myself. The first point is the hardest. It affects every aspect of my life and I have no idea how to really tackle it. This is the first year where I feel the need to take drastic action to achieve some kind of improvement. What’s your plan? How is it working?
    • costcopizza 9mo ago
      Seconded. I am also curious to what your ADHD plan is.
      • 9mo ago
• mawadev 9mo ago
  It's not a skill in particular but I want to decouple the way I think from todays economics. I want to learn skills that give me confidence and well being instead of training me to be a better cog in the machinery, so that I can impress other people or put a price tag next to the value of me as a human. Just enough to be average, but not more to end up living to work to fuel delusions. I also don't want to be derailed from hyped up technologies that ultimately sell me on a quick path to reach a delusional goal. I want steady and consistent growth and understand the makings deeply.
• sonderotis 9mo ago
  proper software marketing I guess.
• wawhal 9mo ago
  Here's mine: 0. Build the habit of taking notes ruthlessly to build a comprehensive second brain. 1. I transitioned to the penhold grip in Table Tennis in Nov 2025 and it has been a fun exploration. My goal for 2026 is to learn to play all the strokes comfortably with the penhold grip, and start competing at the district level. 2. Go from novice-intermediate to upper-intermediate in piano playing. Learn, memorize, and perform flawlessly 30 advanced piano pieces (minimum Henle 7–9) end-to-end, recorded on video, within the next 12 months. 3. Learn to speak Kannada. Been living in Bangalore past 9 years and it's almost embarrassing to not know a single complete Kannada sentence.
• mcny 9mo ago
  I really need to get better at READING code. I know it has always been true but with vibe coding, it is more important than ever of a skill.
• Havoc 9mo ago
  - Learn how to design custom PCBs instead of soldering freehand - Lean into vibecoding. Day job is in finance, and enthusiastic hobbyist coder so despite the happy path nature of it I suspect it may be worthwhile getting good at this from a job market future proofing angle. Whatever comes being able to describe to machines what you want seems like it'll be useful - Improve non-vibe Rust coding - Improve homelab. The internet enshittification continues so keen to build out more personal infra. In short term focus is on pipeline to package & deploy. Think docker build -> k8s deploy. If that pipleline is frictionless that'll be good for vibe coded personal tools
• mulhoon 9mo ago
  Relearning and reconnecting.. Buy the cassette 4-track I had in ‘93 and reconnect with my teenage self - record whole songs on it, not worrying about sound quality and knob tweaking. It is what it is.
• timbaboon 9mo ago
  I’ve played guitar for 20 years, but I’ve decided to do something different and just got some drums. I need to spend some time away from work lest I suffer from burnout again…
  • quantpunk 9mo ago
    That will be fun. I am actually going to come back to electric guitar in 2026 after 15 years away. I tried learning piano but that was a total waste. Drums I think make a lot of sense as a compliment to guitar. Piano just made me feel like I wasted my life practicing guitar.
• level09 9mo ago
  Here are mine: - Build something boring that makes money. Excitement is optional; users are not. - Use AI less like a chatbot and more like infrastructure, background processes that think while I sleep. - Go back to fundamentals that compound, graphics, systems, taste. - Experiment selectively; curiosity without commitment. - Invest in people, not “networking.” Fewer pings, more real conversations. - Protect focus like equity.
  • saimiam 9mo ago
    If you want users, the requirement is sales skills, not product development skills.
    • miguel_martin 9mo ago
      What about simply providing value?
      • jononor 9mo ago
        At the very least one must connect to people who would find it valuable (either inbound or outbound), and the value has to be communicated to the prospective buyers. People make their decisions based on how they perceive the product, not based on your view. And the value big enough to overcome friction involved in purchasing, including soft factors like people trusting you with their money. There might be habits and other pieces of inertia that has to be overcome also, and why would they pick your thing over the alternatives. And of course you must be able to charge enough to cover the costs of providing said value.
• wanderingmind 9mo ago
  1. Build AI voice agents for telephony, for personal use and maybe build for one other person 2. Make one cool toy from scratch with my kid using esp32 3. Reduce snacking and junk food to 1 day a week 4. Learn to tumble turn in swimming
• nh43215rgb 9mo ago
  Find out how to stay employed with AI floods
• testing-in-prod 9mo ago
  Tech: - Complete Agile Project Management course and apply this new knowledge to my Scrumban team - Learn Go and Linux in greater detail - Experiment with other frontend frameworks like Remix and Astro.js Non-tech: - Make new friends with similar interest and develop my social life a bit (if you're in London, hit me up) - Learn how to promote my side projects - building them is fun but I can't seem to get even 1 user to sign up and use them - Read more Warhammer 40k books
  • _dain_ 9mo ago
    >if you're in London, hit me up hi :) (email in my HN profile)
• greenchair 9mo ago
  Bible study
• mmcconnell1618 9mo ago
  Technical: - Understand how to deploy teams of agents effectively to accomplish significant goals - Learn ECS/Dots in Unity to scale a system to hundreds of thousands of actors Non Technical: - Improve people management skills for leading technical teams with a target of helping each person grow in 2026 and level up the team - Automate more of my personal finances to gain leverage from systems instead of hoping I make good decisions consistently
• bapo 9mo ago
  - Art of Bonsai: We are inheriting about 50-100 bonsai plants from father. All my life I’ve been wondering how he’s been caring for them, but never gave a chance to actually learn from him. He is not doing well and we don’t know how many years he has left. That’s why 2026 will be the year of finally learning the craft from him, taking time to acquire his techniques and in general just spend more time with him.
  • homeonthemtn 9mo ago
    I wish you the best of luck
  • Maciek416 9mo ago
    There are one or two nice people from Switzerland (assuming you are there, just guessing from comments) on bonsainut if you are looking for local resources and helpful people. A decent-sized collection like that is a real testament to unbroken continuity (especially during the growing season where you can't skip a day or even a few hours sometimes), other hobbyists can help you fill the gap when situations come up. Stop by the r/bonsai beginners thread any time if you wanna talk trees!
• euparkeria 9mo ago
  Back to the basics, relearn linear algebra.
  • downboots 9mo ago
    Get the Lay book
• robviren 9mo ago
  I want to explore the space of audio encoding and GPT like understanding of audio. I'm so highly interested in how a simple 1d signal must go through so much processing to be understood by language models, and am curious what tradeoffs occur. Would also be fun to make a TTS Library and understand it.
• surfsvammel 9mo ago
  I want to: - Hone my motorcycle riding skills. Curves, breaking and the rest. - Learn and manage to do some basic home renovation stuff by myself. - Learn the basics for keeping a garden. - Start playing table tennis
• PaulHoule 9mo ago
  I’m interested in a subject that, I guess, could best be described as Jane Houston’s work, see https://www.amazon.com/Possible-Human-Enhancing-Physical-Abilities/dp/0874778727 https://www.amazon.com/Possible-Human-Enhancing-Physical-Abi... but involves martial arts, eastern religion, character acting, Ericksonian hypnosis, and all sorts of things. In my case it I use to express myself-as-a-fox [1] but outwardly as social artistry that functions as a form of ‘witnessing’. I will certainly not advocate that others to do what I do as a whole but I can offer people little useful things out of a large toolbox. I’ve been working on this for a long time, felt I received an invitation to Kitsune-tsuki 2 years ago but it came together late this year when I got my motivation right and began to see it as a form of activism and service. [1] a creature of the forest instead of a creature of the engineering school
  • serf 9mo ago
    this comment has a lot of words I find interesting; and I like the book -- but I can say that I have no clue what you're talking about. As someone interested, though : care to explain in a bit more detail for a layperson?
    • PaulHoule 9mo ago
      Try https://www.jeanhouston.com/Social-Artistry/social-artistry.html https://www.jeanhouston.com/Social-Artistry/social-artistry.... I put on my hood and people see my ears and I wait a beat and then say or do something fox like (comment on smells, a compulsion to chase after squirrels, or raise a paw glove) and it is like the set up and punch line of a joke and they laugh with me and they are in my field -- but it is not a comedy act. If I have to explain something or do the work of myself-as-an-engineer or talk about my personal history I put the hood down and the detransformation can be startling as I shift from a voice patterned after Michael Jackson's speaking voice (always trying to be as soft as I can and still be legible) to my old booming voice that raises in pitch as emotions get high. I practice distinctive gaits (collected trot, walking quietly, ...) with an eye on my heart rate monitor to keep my cardiovascular load low to keep it sustainable. It can take a lot of energy, one trot across campus to the Arts & Architecture school [1] I came back to my office drenched in sweat despite it being a cold day. My photo backpack became an essential part of my kit because it functions as my "tail" giving me more control of my center of gravity and a place to put my hood and other parts of my kit if I need them out of my way. When I first went out-as-a-fox with my camera I found I couldn't hold my adjustments but with the counterweight of the backpack it was easy -- but I have to pack lightly to control my cardiovascular load. To speak in the register of the fox I need to think in the register of character acting but it is not really an act, not really a costume, but an expression of my own liminal nature as a person who has always crossed boundaries wandered between worlds. If I am against anything it is the trauma theory, when I started looking into the "human potential" movement in my area I found so many people inclined to build an identity and discover meaning by licking their wounds. I think people should "get over it" [2] but telling them to "get over it" will only bring about backlash. I begin by being an example (witnessing as Christians would put it) of getting over it with courage and heart and authenticity in expressing myself but behind that is a vast toolbox of trickery and seduction applied to the greater good. Does that make more sense? [1] where i feel least comfortable as-a-fox because there creativity is something you do for a class or a job and needs slotting into a social hierarchy [2] enjoy the pleasures of the moment, find joy inside themselves, raise their spiritual pressure, increase their "gong" as Falun Gong would put it, etc.
• latexr 9mo ago
  Explicitly nothing. The overwhelming majority of New Year’s resolutions and goals fail, then people feel bad, then repeat it the year after that. There’s no reason to make such a decision now; make it when it’s relevant in your life and don’t beat yourself over it. I also find this relentless pursuit of more more more, especially in what relates to productivity, increasingly maddening and (ironically? paradoxically?) counter-productive. We are always doing more in a worse manner with less attention. And what do we do with the extra time we “gain”? More of the same shit we were doing before. To get more time to… do more of it? It’s insane, bordering on societal mass hysteria. We’re all going to die, and all you did will mean nothing. So stop and smell the roses. Be kind to your fellow human being. Stop trying to get ahead and lift others with you instead.
  • kylecazar 9mo ago
    I'm all for existentialism informing our ridiculous chase of productivity. But... learning new things before you kick the bucket can qualify as stopping and smelling the roses.
    • latexr 9mo ago
      I agree, what I’m rallying against is the notion of feeling you have to learn something. Which is what happens near the New Year, this sudden pressure of having a goal and doing something, this arbitrary point to making grandiose decisions. What I’m suggesting instead is to not tie a date or a goal to it. Let your interests and desires guide your learning process, not the calendar. I’m also advocating for reflection in the choice of what to pursue. Learning manipulation techniques and scams because you’re interested in the ingenuity of ideas or want to better defend yourself and your loved ones may count as smelling the roses, but learning those same techniques to apply them to other people for personal gain does not.
  • m_fayer 9mo ago
    I like reframing New Year’s resolutions in a more humane way. It’s an arbitrary day on the calendar, yes. I want to grow as a person, in terms of character and ability. My desire to evolve is a product of curiosity and vitality and ethics, not some capitalist mania for MORE. Putting a random day on the calendar where I tell myself that I’m at an inflection point, that I’ve decided to bend my path, it’s useful. There are religious holidays where you atone, forgive, and so on. Those are also just days on a calendar. But they serve a purpose.
• wslh 9mo ago
  Sometimes we only need concentration (and free time).
• magmostafa 9mo ago
  [dead]
• CornySensei 9mo ago
  I got an entry level job doing IT admin and MS Dynamics customizations so I really want to master the stack we use at work: C# for plugins, Python and Powershell for IT admin and JS for frontend. I also want to read the canon of good software engineering books that you get recommended all the time, like SICP, DDIA, CSAPP, etc.
• off-script 9mo ago
  In order of importance: - chinese: been traveling to china for a few years now, super enjoyable and just joined a company that is half chinese. Comes in handy - get experience in scaling products, especially on the backend side. I feel super comfortable on the frontend and now want to learn more the other side too - learn go and build a full product with it: ive been learning go in my free time and remaking an active telegram bot i have from ts to go. Wanna take it a step further and do something more complex and satisfying. Very happy for how my learning journey has been going so far
• simonsarris 9mo ago
  Gardening, mostly. I am (slowly) trying to make the second largest rose garden in New Hampshire. Plastering (walls, ceilings, etc). Releasing side projects at a faster pace. This gets harder with more children alas. But they're starting to help with the gardening.
• jvanderbot 9mo ago
  I find myself making this same list every year. About being more healthy, changing this or that bad habits, and embracing some kind of tech and making a side gig etc. It all kind of adds to the background clutter of my life, by promising I'll "finally" do the "basic" things I need to do to somehow transform my life into a better version of itself, but those things get added to the list of things I feel like I should do every day. I think I'm done with that. I don't know what I'm doing next year but we will find out in five days.
• nmora 9mo ago
  I want to finally work through sicp as a means to go back to basics of computing. Also want to read Designing Data-Intensive Applications as I have worked with things like Kafka and Spark for many years on and off but have never dove into more details that I assume the book could help with.
• voodooEntity 9mo ago
  My post is very contrary to the most here but maybe there is someone else in a similar situation so i think it may be worth writing it. Background: I've spend the bigger part of the past 20 years of my life continously extending and enhancing my technical knowledge and skills, mostly in IT/Coding but also in some other fields. Meanwhile i kinda let my social life completely degrade and also always care more about solving others problems than my actual own problems. Therefor the "skills" i want to improve and develop in 2026: - Learn to take care of myself instead of always putting others first (its not my job to safe the world) - Don't try to got 150% all of the time and rather slow down - Care for my health - Get back into social life - Actually try to not spend 95% of my free time in front of a screen and go outside (touch grass) --------------------------------------------------------------------- While i accumulated alot of knowledge over the past two decades, if i don't start to care for myself more ill probably won't have much benefit of it other than having accumulated it. Health (biological and mental) are important, neglecting it maybe works shortterm but will kick your ass longterm.
• phasnox 9mo ago
  Learn to control procrastination.
• mateusfreira 9mo ago
  Technical/Non-technical skills: * Off-grid energy production (Solar, etc.) * Food production on a small scale * Homesteading * 3D printing * And all interfaces of that with technology
• rochansinha 9mo ago
  Work: 1. Learning about manufacturing processes for high-throughput electroplating. 2. Learn pymatgen and other tools for building a self-driving lab for materials discovery and testing. Non-work: 1. Improving my writing skills and start my blog with a few technical and non-technical posts.
• saltybytes 9mo ago
  I used to DJ in the 90's with vinyl on 1210s decks. A lot has changed in the industry and I'd like to spin at home for fun since I'm still a "househead". Anyone knows a good YT channel that explains my options? Money is tight these days so I'm unable to buy the latest and greatest but I'm curious of the new technology used.
  • comprev 9mo ago
    Look at the Phase Controller [0] if you're looking at spinning again. Amazing milli-second response time even on older hardware. I DJ with a MacBook Air 2017. Failing that, a second hand Pioneer DJM-250mk2 is the entry level digital vinyl controller which works (via hardware unlock) with Pioneer's Rekordbox software. Welcome back :) [0] https://www.phasedj.com/ https://www.phasedj.com/
• Myrmornis 9mo ago
  Touch-typing. In some countries it's common to learn this at school as a teenager but that's not true of all countries. With LLMs this skill has become significantly more important to programmers.
  • gregsadetsky 9mo ago
    Speaking of, are there resources for people who type fast but want to get competitive, ie into the top 20 on typeracer for example? Beyond "just" practicing. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
• doom2 9mo ago
  I want to learn two languages in 2026: * CW (also known as Morse code) - I'm not able to have an amateur radio station at home, so I have to work portable/QRP. Given current band conditions, CW is one easy option to make contacts * Learn a "low level" programming language, likely C - I never had any kind of formal CS education and kind of fell into the field, initially doing web development and then data engineering. Most of my career has been dominated by Python with a smattering of Java and Scala. Maybe this year will be the year I learn something a little lower down the stack!
  • ipcress_file 9mo ago
    I am also not a professional programmer, but learned enough C to do some programming on hobby projects a few years back. I started with Ashley Mills' videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCNJWVn9MJuPtPyljb-hewNfwEGES2oIW https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCNJWVn9MJuPtPyljb-he... If you've already programmed in Python you'll know enough to recognize that he makes a few logical leaps in the later videos (where you have to read up on topics to fill in the gaps), but overall I thought they were really good. I also liked NASA's "The Power of 10: Rules for Developing Safety-Critical Code" and their C style guide from 1994, both of which helped me achieve the simplicity and clarity I was after.
  • Rendello 9mo ago
    I always wanted a reason to learn C, but couldn't figure out a good project for it. I ended up learning TempleOS' HolyC as my introduction to low-level programming, funnily enough. If you're familiar with web programming and data engineering, WebAssembly might be a good way to get into low-level programming. I've written a few web extensions in Rust, compiled down to WASM, and lots of low-level languages have WASM targets now.
    • doom2 9mo ago
      The project I keep wanting to pair learning C with is an extremely simple IRC client in the terminal. It'd give me the chance to learn the language and the protocol at the same time.
  • 9mo ago
• gregsadetsky 9mo ago
  Embroidery! I'd love to develop an art/tech practice and make custom embroidery pieces, maybe even daily - ie make up some words for a new t-shirt or hat every day? Speaking of, I also learned during my initial research into this world that a lot of embroidery software seems... expensive/not competitive/a bit arcane? So I'm wondering if I'll get into all of this and start writing & releasing open source software..? Time will tell! If anyone has played around with entry-level (or pro) machines, and has tips/tricks, I'd be super grateful! Thanks. I'm considering an entry level Brother SE700.
• alun 9mo ago
  My list: - General knowledge: by intentionally curating the information I consume - Chess: by practicing tactics, watching videos, and learning new openings - Salsa: by dancing a lot - SEO: by building a side project and trying to get it to rank well on Google
  • FergusArgyll 9mo ago
    > Chess Depending on your level, I've found that reviewing annotated master games have a high return. Youtube works for this as well.
• digitalsushi 9mo ago
  This is a new years resolution question barely in disguise, but they're fun cause a lot of us are cooped up, barely 4 days into winter, 86ish to go, and we're champing at the bit for change. I am pretty sure I'm a 50th percentiler. I'm mid 40s, kinda burned out but still struggling forward in my ok-but-not-hollywood IT career, I still have a passion for doing things well in a technical society that values doing things cheap (and well). The things I am known for being good at, I still google daily, and for a long time, I've been hungry for a change - any change - but especially one that isn't chaotically negative. So in 2026, I wanna learn how dirt works. I actually have a giant box of dirt sitting on a shelf at the UNH community co-op soil analysis lab, waiting to give me some kind of data about the soil behind my house. (Or is it dirt? I don't know what I'm getting into). In 2024 I tried growing some corn. It never sprouted. In 2025 I tried growing some corn. It sprouted and a few ears had enough kernels to make one full mouthful. Tasty, but maybe 7 calories of food for a year of effort. So in 2026 I'd like to grow: one entire fully formed ear of sweet corn. Anything else is a bonus. That's what I wanna develop in 2026 - learning how soil works enough to make it make a thing. Small moves, Ellie.
  • eudamoniac 9mo ago
    Read "Start with the Soil"
  • mythrwy 9mo ago
    Great hobby! A couple of things about corn. It might not be soil at issue. Germination depends on correct temperature and moisture. Too much moisture the seed will rot or not have enough air to germinate. Too little moisture it won't trigger germination. Too deep it won't germinate, too shallow and germination won't happen either because it will dry out instead of staying moist. Seeds vary in depth they require and some even require light to germinate (doesn't apply to corn). It's a bit of an art figuring out what "even moisture until germination" is, and this varies based on soil type. Timing of planting with correct temperature is important. Each kernel of corn has one silk. The silk is analogous to a Fallopian tube with pollen traveling down into the ovary (or kernel of corn in this case). If you have an ear of corn with only a few kernels it's often because pollen didn't land on all the silks. For this reason corn is usually planted in blocks. It's wind pollinated so wind shakes pollen off the tassels or male flowers at the top, down onto the silk. But if you just have one corn plant in isolation, or a row in isolation it's easier for the pollen to just blow away or miss. Planting in blocks or "array of arrays" configuration helps the pollen to reach the silk more uniformly as pollen from the surrounding plants is released.
• KellyCriterion 9mo ago
  I would be glad if I could get back my old stickiness to my routines, wich were perfectly aligned with me - until my children arrived: since then, my live became chaos on all levels :-X (I havent used my new 200 EUR running shoes one time, I bought them 13 month ago)
  • nkg 9mo ago
    It will get better. They grow up.
• hmokiguess 9mo ago
  I want to start a family, learn to be a better son and husband, become a father, and be more patient with those I cross paths with.
• kenosha 9mo ago
  [dead]
• jijath 9mo ago
  Off the top of my head: - Language learning: I have a couple of languages that I want to focus on this 2026. Both for the enjoyment of learning and using said languages, and also because it will help me improve work-wise. - OSS development: Programming was set aside these couple of years and I want to be active and help the community. Either by contributing to a project or an OS (9front is always on my mind). - Be a good father and partner: this is one of my primary goals this 2026. - More time for outdoor sports: As much as I like being indoors, playing with computers, I need to go outside and spend time in nature doing something that I enjoy (ie. running or surfing) - Mindfulness and spirituality: Grown so much in the past couple of years and now is time for me to meditate on these topics. - Last but not least, participate in the old-school internet: Be more active and talk to real people, read their blogs, donate to their endevours for a better internet, enjoy their art, etc.
  • bawis 9mo ago
    > Language learning: I have a couple of languages that I want to focus on this 2026. Both for the enjoyment of learning and using said languages, and also because it will help me improve work-wise. May I ask which languages are you talking about here? and what methods you will follow?
    • jijath 9mo ago
      Sorry, human languages. Progress in my Italian and start learning some of the other more complex languages such as Russian and/or Arabic. I will try to make the learning process as natural as possible. Italian I already have a base and my native language is similar, so the learning process will be based on immersion and grammar learning. For the other ones, I will try to get a more structured learning path such as courses or programs to get to learn as fast and simple as possible.
• grep_name 9mo ago
  I've spent a lot of the last four years accumulating tools and building out infra in my home for my hobbies, to an extent that it's blocked me from actually doing things due to being bogged down from meta-work, learning, and research. This year I'm going to put a hard stop on spending and building up new things so that I can: - Continue to take old-time music classes at the folk school, play more music with people that way - Finally run some water through my hydroponic setup - Finish electrifying part of the basement - Play some noise shows with my friend and the synths I've built over the years (and make some recordings) - Make a dating profile, setup instagram (which seems necessary for a successful dating profile these days) - Actually catalogue, export, and post the extensive photography I've done of the last years and continue my black and white development processes - Get back in the swing of eating from-scratch bread, fermented sauces, mayo, saurkraut, ginger ale, and home-cooked food in general - Actually make blog posts, improve my web presence - Finish my woodworking bench, tackle some of the woodworking projects I've had backed up That's a lot of things, but I already have every piece of the puzzle to tackle all of them stored neatly in my house and the experience to do it all, which cuts down on a lot of it. I also really need to save money, so all that should dovetail nicely. I'm at a point where tech projects crop up and sort themselves out on their own regularly in my life so I'm not mentioning that here. Really, the 'skill' I need to learn is having the mental energy and drive to get things done as I go about my work week, or maybe to realize that I don't need perfect energy / motivation / clarity / whatever to work on something in the afternoon.
• sqircles 9mo ago
  Paper Credentials: I'm going to stack on a masters degree and some more certs. As a kid I was into development and anything tech, but for some reason resisted formal education or even working in the field. I spent my summers and school breaks working different construction trades as my entire family was spread out amongst the trades. After the military I did an entrepreneurial stint, then I took the comfortable, "guaranteed" route, in regard to career- wherever I could land in the US Fed. Govt, where I did about 12 years in 5 or so different positions... I was raised to, and had always worked hard - but I never really had much risk in regard to losing my job until recently. Preceding wall of text to explain how hard the realization hit, for practically the first time in my life, when stuff started going crazy in the feds: "damn... I really could be ~6mo away from losing it all." As many of you know, the market was and is ridiculous. Thankfully a few years back, even when I "knew" I didn't need it, I finished my BS:CS before my GI Bill dried up. And then as another challenge took the Security+ exam before I started applying for a job in the private sector. A lot of people in this industry like to say none of that matters-- which might certainly be true, but I can say without a doubt that those pieces of paper are the main reason I was about to get out of the hole I was in. I'd rather not be in that position ever again, but I'd like to be well prepared "on paper" if I am.
• gautamsomani 9mo ago
  I want to learn how to chillax (chill and relax) no matter what (I have hyper-anxiety.) Rest all (programming in C and Go, Japanese language, master System Design, get ripped and few more) is secondary.
• madduci 9mo ago
  I'd like to improve my parenting skills, as well as improving the ability to maximize my (few) free time to dedicate to my hobbies
• idontwantthis 9mo ago
  I want to be able to play piano at a level where I can turn inspiration into art. I know I'll never be pro level, but I want to be able to create something that gives me joy.
• nihiven 9mo ago
  I'm going to continue learning Rust by working on my TUI IRC client. I'd like to make some, any, contribution to keeping IRC alive. It was such a big part of my formative years!
• tmaly 9mo ago
  I would like to improve: 1. storytelling, I think this is still a valuable skill. 2. improve my teaching skills and create better courses. 3. improve my writing skills.
  • Rendello 9mo ago
    I've started re-writing things I like, like passages from books, poems, or even comments. Perhaps too early to say whether it's been effective, but this is called "copywork" and was apparently a common part of education for writers and journalists in the past. I've been doing it mostly in French since it doubles as language practice. For years I've been at an intermediate level (B2), where reading, writing, listening, and even speaking hasn't improved my skill at all. When you can glean anything (from context) and communicate anything (awkwardly), there's a lot less pressure for things to "stick". I think this is the main advantage kids have with their neuroplasticity, since it'll stick regardless. So, I've wanted a deliberate way to practice the language that I'd actually stick to and truly learn from. Rewriting things I find interesting has been fun, and I can pick different sources each day: formal or informal, Canadian French or Metropolitan, literary or prose, etc. A variation on this is the "Scriptorium technique" [1], where instead of just copying while reading, you repeat a sentence out loud, then write it out while saying it out loud, and then repeat what you wrote and check it against the original. I like this. Even for English, it should build up those neural pathways and help you write more like the writers you love, in theory. 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo7_5CGcKek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo7_5CGcKek
• omosubi 9mo ago
  I would if answers came with age
• i-blis 9mo ago
  [dead]
• nkg 9mo ago
  Drawing! I always loved pencil drawing, but it is an activity I had to put aside because it's time-consuming and we have a 3 yo at home that is also very time-consuming. After years of not doing it, I feel I lack the meditative part of it. I am evaluating drawing tablets, if you have any recommendation. I am thinking about the Huion Kamvas 13.
• ItsBob 9mo ago
  Two things for me: 1. Develop discipline around the piano 2. Build my side hustle beyond a side hustle (Kopi - replicate a production DB schema and relational subsets of its data for local development in seconds)
• tasuki 9mo ago
  Ok, fine: ceramics. I used to go when I lived in Warsaw and there was a pay-monthly-and-stay-as-long-as-you-want. Now I've moved and all the ceramics places charge per hour, which, apart from being expensive, is much less fun. I hear there's a group of grumpy old women doing ceramics nearby. I want to infiltrate said group and learn from them.
• tacone 9mo ago
  I'd like to start planning my days and improve self organization, commit to auto hypnosis and stress inoculation, and finally start releasing hobby projects.
• orgeohrosne 9mo ago
  Wesley Gabriel Caetano dos Santos
• bitbasher 9mo ago
  I'm going back to the basics. Going to use C, C++ and Rust for all of my development projects, tools, services, etc. I'm not going to use LLMs or even LSPs. Read documentation. Understand the tools and languages. Build solid software.
• rijavecb 9mo ago
  I'm planning to read more, mostly technical books recommended by the fine folks on the Book Overflow podcast and a few books on writing. As someone who's mostly self-taught, I know I have many gaps in my knowledge, so I'd like to fill some of those. And learning new things just feels great. I'm also hoping to improve my Romanian. While I can get by (my wife is Romanian and we live there), I make waay too many mistakes, and considering I've been living there for a few years now, I feel I should do better. This year has been pretty busy with personal things and working on my own apps, so I hope next year I can get back to learning things I find interesting and useful.
• I_am_tiberius 9mo ago
  - Nix OS - French
• Anon84 9mo ago
  Get better at finding freelance/consulting gigs. I’ve been doing it on and off on the side for a few years now and want to move to doing it full time. Advice welcome!
• nbbaier 9mo ago
  I want to figure out how to focus on something
• arwhatever 9mo ago
  Embedded software development. After 18 years of business and web application development, I want to intentionally seek out work that is constrained by physical reality.
• jackzhuo 9mo ago
  I started indie hacking 6 months ago. Thanks to AI tools, coding is now the easy part. I can build full-stack apps faster than ever. But I hit a wall. I realized my problem isn't engineering anymore. It is finding users. For 2026, I want to shift my focus. I need to stop worrying about "how to build" and learn "how to sell." Marketing and distribution are now my top priorities.
• gsora 9mo ago
  CS basics.
• darubedarob 9mo ago
  I want to get good at exterior cascades. Seeing them. Using them. Detecting potential in the physical world that exist now or soon will exist. Lining up companies and academia with that potential. Organizing funding that unleashes that cascade into companies and change. I think we had way too much focus on interior changes and optimizations, zero sum games at best and exterior cascade preventing at worst.
  • ifh-hn 9mo ago
    Apologies for my ignorance but what is "exterior cascades"? Without that context I can't make head nor tail of your comment.
• Zyten 9mo ago
  For the past decade, I‘ve been at basically the same employer, even if in different institutes. Maybe it’s time for a switch, also to grow more experience in the fields I‘ve worked in, lastly mainly HPC performance analysis tools and working with parallel paradigms in such field. The past few years, I‘ve gotten close to development on compilers and parallel runtimes, such as OpenMP, but never looked into working on them directly. However, I‘m really interested in it. So one of the things I really want to spend time on is understanding more of the compilers and their code base, and start contributing. Learning another programming language is also high on my priority list. C/C++/Python are languages where I‘m quite versed in, but looking into Rust, Go or Zig would be quite interesting for me as well.
• manuj10 9mo ago
  Staff engineer, 12 years in. I've had side project ideas rattling around for years but never had the bandwidth to build them end to end. AI tooling has changed that, I can now ship complete apps solo in a fraction of the time. Planning to launch and market a few of these myself in 2026. Mostly as a learning exercise in the non-engineering side of things.
• stephenlf 9mo ago
  Linear algebra
• swsieber 9mo ago
  Feeling things without using net-negative coping mechanisms. Feeling management, time management, weight management, running, parenting, sermon writing, budgeting. Hobby electronics and circuit board design, Morse code, ux design
• qkeast 9mo ago
  I want to give a go at learning to make chocolate.
• suralind 9mo ago
  My incomplete list: - learn to sew clothes - improve my kitesurfing skills - I want to create and share more online - not to improve, but run more This last bit is critical, I’ve been working on projects never really finishing them. I think part of that is I really, really dislike sharing unfinished things with strangers. The other part is that I struggle if something just works, I always want to make that perfect (when building for myself, ironically I’m usually the person to advocate for iterative approach). So this next year I’m going to focus more on improving that skill (already started this year).
• Agoreddah 9mo ago
  Coffee roasting - I've started to roast a coffee for my girlfriend coffee shop as a side job 2.5 years ago and now I start to feel, my learning curve is finally growing up. I want to learn how to make consistently great roasted coffee, how to manage entire process and how to keep pushing quality up.
• rldjbpin 9mo ago
  quite appreciate everyone chiming in the comments to help others reach their goals. mine are rehash from this year (which failed!) with a new one: - focus on health: specifically getting back on track and maintaining a sustainable routine - consume less, make more: less passive pastime - explore side hustles: to encourage the previous, try to fill in a (very) small market gap using what i know or want to learn
• gethly 9mo ago
  I might try to do some work with manually memory managed languages like Odin, Zig or Rust. I just have no use case yet.
• bLorax 9mo ago
  I really feel like university has drifted me away from the spirit of engineering. The topics sound really fun in theory, but the execution of the professors is so poor that it really makes you want to "just pass" the class. Therefore, I really want to reignite my passion in 2026. Work on my basic skills and get them as close as possible to perfection, maybe dabble in some open source projects. Hell, maybe even start my own. I can see myself getting into theory again, but I want to do it out of passion, and not necessity. In terms of non-technical skills, philosophy is what is on my mind right now. I don't really like the world view that I currently possess and stoicism sounds fun, so I will be giving that a try. Those were the concrete plans. I used to have an artsy side when I was a kid, and that side comes out and gets repressed by me every once in a while. I don't really know what I need to do to reignite that passion, so any suggestion is wholeheartedly appreciated.
• negm17111995 9mo ago
  [dead]
• Maximilian_Bet 9mo ago
  [dead]
• ozarkerD 9mo ago
  Progress on learning Korean. Get at least one programming project to the point I can show it off. Fix my focusing problem and consume much less content.
• rock8y 9mo ago
  Ice skating! Turning 41 in a week and signed up for classes already. Curious to see how my body copes.
• firemelt 9mo ago
  anyone know how to be better organized as individuals?
• rankiwiki 9mo ago
  I want to get better at writing clearly for non-technical audiences. It feels like an underrated skill that multiplies everything else.
• idk1 9mo ago
  This is going to sound strange, but I simply must decorate a few rooms. I seem to be so obsessive about selecting exactly the right thing in there in case it's wrong. I can't seem to select anything at all. If I carry on like this, I'm going to go another 10 years living in essentially an empty room with a bed in it.
• dipiert 9mo ago
  I may be adding a few more in the next days. So far: - Lose 3% of body fat / 2 Kgs. - Run a marathon. - Complete a 5.6Km run in less than 32 mins. - Get my VO2Max to 50.2. - Read 12 books. - Get the first 200 subscribers in my podcast about computer science history (not yet published)