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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?

#181

Post by JackFr »

jkingsbery wrote: post #48

As many others have said, books are the best things I've spent money on, but let me say more: Do books sometimes say things that are obvious? Yes. For example, when I first read Martin Fowler's book Refactoring, I had been renaming variables and moving methods from one class to another for years. But he gave a new framework for thinking about something that obvious. I've found the idea of separating out my coding flo…

I had the reaction when reading a preprint of Domain Driven Design. It was packed with ideas which were just coming into focus in my own mind after 10 years in the industry, but I didn't have names for them or have them systematized. It's a terrific feeling reading a well-written book like that and going 'Yes! Yes! Yes!'.

(Since then, as with many things in our industry, it seems the book has been turned into a buzzword consulting/training money grab. Sigh.)

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

#182

Post by radihuq »

miguendes wrote: post #80
gtf21 wrote: post #67

As a founder / CTO the best money I have spent is on a really good coach. My coach (my cofounder's too, and now some of our leadership team) doesn't have particular expertise in founding or leading companies, but works with many founders, and she's not technical, but the things I think I have found hardest to learn are mostly around people management and leadership, which I think are underrated skills that require se…

I'm considering hiring a coach to improve my soft skills. The problem is finding the right person. Do you have any tips on how to find such person? Edit: software -> soft I mean stuff like better communication, goal setting, learning strategies, negotiation skills...

I'm not a coach, but I know one strategy that helped me IMMENSELY develop my social skills was moving to a new place where I didn't know anyone (and more importantly, no one knew me) and becoming the social person I wanted to be.

At first I was pretty socially awkward, but over time (1-2 yrs) I became more confident in social environments and my conversation skills improved. I think the "fake it till you make it" worked great for me here.

Obviously there are limitations to this - not sure most people can just move to a new city - but perhaps the principles can be applied ---> put yourself in an environment (like going to a meetup) where no one knows you and act like a socialite

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

#183

Post by pdx6 »

x87678r wrote: post #37
adambware wrote: post #19

O’Reilly has a subscription that gives access to all of their books. Incredible amount of value over countless topics.

$49/mo isn't cheap though, you can buy an awful lot of books for that money directly.

Some local libraries have Safari available for free to patrons.

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

#184

Post by rdtwo »

JackFr wrote: post #170
somurzakov wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

never buy from dealership at retail prices period. go to a smaller dealer and ask them to buy a car from wholesale auction for you and you cover their costs. that way their margin js transparent and is negotiated upfront. You will be lucky to get 5-10% discount from retail prices, but wholesale prices at Manheim can be 15-30% less than retail, even more if you are willing to buy less than perfect condition car

There was a fascinating EconTalk episode about the economics of a car dealers. https://www.econtalk.org/cole-on-the-market-for-new-cars/ One interesting point was letting the buyer successfully negotiate to an absolute rock bottom price, but then making back the margin on financing.

I’ve tried that and they wouldn’t budge. I got rock bottom and I offered to do financing if they would go lower but the incentive structure of the individual sales person didn’t match that of the dealership so no go

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

#185

Post by zerop »

Please don't fund money on any training/book/online. This doesn't work in most cases and might influence incorrectly. Look for ways where you would get more interaction/engagement with skilled and diverse set of people. The lessons should touch your mind and must be hard earned. That's when they will stay with you. Rest of trainings/book take aways are someone else's experiences and effects are very ephemeral and might be incorrect sometimes. The key is to look for deeper experiences.

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

#186

Post by rdtwo »

gorjusborg wrote: post #175
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.

Love the headphones but the ear pads wear out every 3-6 months

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

#187

Post by elchief »

unoti wrote: post #172

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'…

I second NVC by Rosenberg. The only problem with reading it is you then realize how violently everyone communicates

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

#188

Post by christoomey »

camnora wrote: post #9

Destroy All Software screencasts by Gary Bernhardt has some great content. Besides the typical CS degree, I felt that these videos were most pivotal in me writing better code. https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/screencasts

Destroy All Software is absolutely fantastic and without question worth $29/month. Probably more than any other single resource, DAS provided some of the most foundational ideas that still drive how I think about software.

You can also view a handful of the screencasts for free (no sign in needed). Some of my personal favorites.

* https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/screencasts/catalog/funct... * https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/screencasts/catalog/a-com... * https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/boundaries

Also, if podcasts are more your thing, we just had Gary as a guest on the Bike Shed podcast this week: https://www.bikeshed.fm/269.

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

#189

Post by omar12 »

baggachipz wrote: post #115

Improv lessons. Seriously. Being confident speaking in front of others and the life lessons it provides ("yes, and") are absolutely indispensable. It brought me out of my shell and advanced me in my career significantly, all while having fun and making friends.

Definitely!

For me, the skills of listening before responding and processing a response in a timely manner were invaluable lessons learned taking improv classes.

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

#190

Post by laddng »

_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 second this - I'm 3 semesters into the online MS in CS program at GATech and it's been a huge level up for me. I highly recommend the investment IF you have the time - it is a large time commitment.
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