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.
Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
231–240 of 433 posts
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#232Kotlin 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)
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/CONTRIBU...
Thank you David. Definitely going to reach out. Hoping to learn a lot from you
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#233In 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
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#234I 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 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…
Or, fishing. They could take up fishing instead.
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#235Explicitly 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?…
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.
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.
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#236I 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.
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Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#237Gardening, 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.
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#238I 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.
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#239I 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.
Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
#240Explicitly 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?…
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…
Which is all well and good, and if it works for you, I’m genuinely glad. But we know that’s not the case for most people. We know most set an unrealistic goal in the New Year which is never achieved (if it even lasts a month) then feel worse.
I’m suggesting that those who identify should cut themselves some slack and not feel pressured to have something planned to do in the New Year. Do it calmly. Don’t get hyper specific.
For example, instead of saying (in December) “I know nothing about plants, and in 2026 I’ll grow a giant sequoia”, one day during the year you may be walking around, see a book on home gardening with some seeds attached and decide to buy it to finally start to learn about plants.