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
Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
101–110 of 433 posts
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#102I 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.
What subjects or style do you like to draw?
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.
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#103I 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 ter…
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.
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#104Write 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
That sounds like fun! Which is THE paper by Niklas Wirth?
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#105I 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.
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.
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#106I 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.
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#107- 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.
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#108By 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.
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#109I 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.
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#110Get better at Spanish. Reading and writing, I’m hovering around an A2 with decent vocabulary. 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…
My wife and hired a personal Spanish tutor