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Ask HN: What is the best money you have spent on professional development?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the best money you have spent on professional development?

#171

Post by orzig »

paulgb wrote: post #17

I've enjoyed having an O'Reilly Safari subscription for random access to books. In particular, the Pragmatic Programmer and Designing Data-Intensive Applications. I've also had good experiences with SCPD courses from Stanford, if your budget would cover those (they are at the other end of the price spectrum).

I frequently muse about whether Safari, which is valuable, is worth the $399/y

Pro: I like being able to sample the same topic from many prospectives (one chapter from each of 3-5 books)

Cons: I wouldn't spend /that/ much on books in a year, the quality of the videos is widely variable, the search (including quality filtering) is _terrible_, and the inability to bookmark specific talks within a conference is infuriating. Part of the pain is how close it is to being really good!

What's your pro/con list?

Re: Ask HN: What is the best money you have spent on professional development?

#172

Post by unoti »

1. Book: Nonviolent Communication, by Marhsall Rosenberg PhD. Great things are built by teams. The more senior I become, the greatest challenges involve teamwork, and the programming is the easy part. I've read countless leadership and self help books, but the simple concepts in just the first few chapters were absolutely transformative to me.

2. The Fast AI for coders course and associated book. (Maybe this shouldn't be on this list, because it's free, but it's still the absolute best place to learn machine learning from scratch.) This is a book and a set of videos that go over the same material. I work on a team of data scientists, and using information from the first few chapters of this book I've done things that are far beyond the capabilities of my teammates. Unlike most courses, this starts with practical knowledge you can use to do useful work on day 1. Then later it moves into the theory of how it works. You don't need more than high school math to get going.

3. The Coursera Deep Learning Specialization, a set of 5 AI courses. Has a certification you can use on your resume and LinkedIn.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best money you have spent on professional development?

#173

Post by mbloom1915 »

Venture University - just an awesome way to immerse yourself into how venture capital works and what it takes for both the startup and investor to achieve their goals.

So much of our future falls in the hands of companies and investors funding them, so knowing how all of this works is crucial to understanding why and when company's make huge decisions that impact us.

https://www.venture.university/

Re: Ask HN: What is the best money you have spent on professional development?

#174

Post by roel_v »

cannaceo wrote: post #141
athenot wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fun part is you can turn that technique against them and it works like a charm. I've repeated this a few times now: dedicate a day to car buying and call 10 of them up telling them I'm buying a car TODAY, with these precise specs. No upsells entertained. And I let them in on the fact that I'm calling all the others and expect to make a decision by a set time. Always remain super polite but stay firm. In a way I s…

A lot of car salesmen ignore buyers like this. They see it as a waste of time to get pitted against each other. I’ve gotten the best results by starting with the dealerships with the lowest prices on TrueCar and then baiting them to invest time in me. Then they’re more committed and eager to close. Show your teeth later in the negotiation.

Yeah this. I've tried this in various ways (not with cars, with other things) but usually they just hang up on me. I've never gotten deals that are better than what I could have gotten in other ways.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best money you have spent on professional development?

#175

Post by gorjusborg »

nolok wrote: post #26

I found that (for me !) it was less useful to invest in learning to do new things, as opposed to investing in being more efficient and / or having my work time more pleasant. Make your work feel like pleasure and there is no limit to what you can achieve. So maybe don't only think "what can I be better at ?" but also "how can my life be better while I work ?". Software: A proper training session with a high level deb…

Your list is on point.

I'll admit that I haven't any experience with other brands, but the Bose QC35 IIs changed my work life (especially when I as working in the office).

I really should upgrade my chair and desk.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best money you have spent on professional development?

#176

Post by noir_lord »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #103

If your budget is a few hundred, an IntelliJ Ultimate license. For me it's a force multiplier. Built-in highlights of things that can be improved (e.g. linting) is a bonus. In the end, things like VS Code are just text editors. I mean, you can't get a warning that the `[]` syntax isn't available in your old codebase's flavor of PHP (5.2) in VS Code. I think. Alternatively: Take time off. If you have enough money to l…

Second this.

I pay for Intellij Ultimate out of pocket, work would buy it but frankly it's easier to just have my own license and I use it a lot outside of work.

vscode is fantastic at what it does but one is a wheelbarrow, the other a dump truck.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best money you have spent on professional development?

#177

Post by nikanj »

cannaceo wrote: post #141
athenot wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fun part is you can turn that technique against them and it works like a charm. I've repeated this a few times now: dedicate a day to car buying and call 10 of them up telling them I'm buying a car TODAY, with these precise specs. No upsells entertained. And I let them in on the fact that I'm calling all the others and expect to make a decision by a set time. Always remain super polite but stay firm. In a way I s…

A lot of car salesmen ignore buyers like this. They see it as a waste of time to get pitted against each other. I’ve gotten the best results by starting with the dealerships with the lowest prices on TrueCar and then baiting them to invest time in me. Then they’re more committed and eager to close. Show your teeth later in the negotiation.

They're free to turn down the business, and only time will tell if it was the right call. Personally I believe revenue is revenue, and salesmen generally need a lesson in humility, but then again I've never successfully ran a car dealership.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best money you have spent on professional development?

#178

Post by rticesterp »

Two day presentation skills class. The class went over how to present for a large group and how to make slides that are easy to understand. Other topics focused on engaging the audience with stories that are easy to understand. The course concluded with everyone giving a five minute presentation. Feedback on limiting filler words and hand gestures was invaluable

Re: Ask HN: What is the best money you have spent on professional development?

#179

Post by _gy5c »

"Designing Data-Intensive Applications" is the best reference I've found explaining the many pitfalls of data storage and transmission. It's especially helpful if your code has ownership of any data (i.e. if you create or modify it), and an order of magnitude more useful if your organization has multiple processes touching a given piece of data.

https://dataintensive.net/

Re: Ask HN: What is the best money you have spent on professional development?

#180

Post by crims0n »

_wldu wrote: post #47

Spend $9,000 US dollars to get a MS in CS, Data Science or Cyber Security from Georgia Tech. It's a solid top 10 CS program. It will take a few years, but it is definitely a great investment. If you don't already have an undergrad degree and/or want a quicker program, look at some of the reputable code/security academies that partner with major state universities. They cost a bit more 15K to 20K but are shorter (typi…

I thought that price had to be a typo... but wow you are not kidding. I wonder why it is so cheap? Seriously considering it.
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