Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#11

Post by fjp » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 4:01 PM UTC

Real-time communications.

There's a hell of a lot more to building and scaling voice and video than you think, and tons more parts of the world are going to "come more online" with higher-bandwidth telecommunications access in the coming decades.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#12

Post by dannykwells » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 4:04 PM UTC

mortivore wrote: post #2

Machine Learning is the hot thing right now. Just find an area you like, and apply it. Not sure what is after this.

Assuming this is sarcastic. If so, A+ would read again.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#13

Post by s_dev » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 4:07 PM UTC

richtapestry wrote: post #3

mortivore wrote: post #2

Machine Learning is the hot thing right now. Just find an area you like, and apply it. Not sure what is after this.

Thanks, I've had it on my list of stuff to look into for a while. Any advice on where to start?

Machine Learning for Humans.pdf

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#14

Post by ivarv » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 4:08 PM UTC

As to your question of promising areas, I see two major opportunities in health that are coming online in the near future:

* psychedelics as medicine

* gut/microbiome

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#15

Post by mywittyname » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 4:10 PM UTC

mortivore wrote: post #2

Machine Learning is the hot thing right now. Just find an area you like, and apply it. Not sure what is after this.

Machine learning was up and coming in 2012 when I graduated college. Not to say it is a bad career choice, just that it's safe to say that ML's time has already come.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#16

Post by jey » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 4:11 PM UTC

You need to take a longer term view if you want to notice things before they become trends. Hopping on the bandwagon once it's a "hot" or "promising" area is too late.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#17

Post by d4mi3n » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 4:11 PM UTC

Security and privacy. Demand for security folks is white-hot right now, and the need for better security products continues to grow.

I've been seeing a lot of companies in adjacent spaces making headway into the security domain as well—ML assisted intrusion detection and cloud-centric security tooling come to mind.

In a broader sense, I think more governments and regulatory bodies are starting to take cybersecurity much more seriously than they did in the past. GDPR and CCPA are likely the tip of the iceburg in coming year and—regulations aside—I think there is a real and pressing need for better privacy and protection in both consumer and enterprise contexts.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#18

Post by dlivingston » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 4:12 PM UTC

I have a hunch that the Next Big Thing (TM) will be augmented reality: though the technology is currently in its infancy, when compelling AR glasses are finally released (Apple is rumored to be released theirs in 2020) I think that it will have a massive impact.

AR frameworks are a dime a dozen, but if you're an Apple person look into ARKit + Swift.

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#19

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 4:12 PM UTC

mortivore wrote: post #2

Machine Learning is the hot thing right now. Just find an area you like, and apply it. Not sure what is after this.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What's a promising area to work on?

#20

Post by erikerikson » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 4:13 PM UTC

Event sourcing. See dataintensive.net

TL;DR - rip the writeahead log out of databases and materialize not just SQL commands but events yourself, returning control to reality rather than systems.