Learning to solve more twisty puzzles. I recently learnt the Megaminx, and it was awesome.
Ask HN: What are you currently learning in your spare time?
31–40 of 62 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are you currently learning in your spare time?
#32reviewing japanese (after living there for 2 years, don't wanna forget it :) )
looking up bitcoin and finding it hard to see what I can do as a developer, it just seems like there's a lot to learn before I can even get through the basics. Reading a cryptography book though, pretty interesting.
Re: Ask HN: What are you currently learning in your spare time?
#33Shell scripting.
I did not realize how powerful it is until I only started with it.
Re: Ask HN: What are you currently learning in your spare time?
#34I'm about to start the assignment for the 5th week of Machine Learning on Coursera https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning
That's awesome! I hope to go through that course soon. I just finished 2nd week assignments of Algorithms- Design and Analysis on Coursera - https://www.coursera.org/course/algo
Re: Ask HN: What are you currently learning in your spare time?
#35Clojure! And I'm absolutely loving it so far. =)
I've been working through the HackerRank Functional Programming challenges lately and have found it to be a great resource for getting accustomed to solving problems in a functional mindset. I suspect it'd be just as useful for any other functional language that they support.
https://www.hackerrank.com/domains/fp/intro
Next step is to actually build something with it. I have a rough idea for my next project but before starting on that I should probably release my current project and get a job...
Re: Ask HN: What are you currently learning in your spare time?
#36Trying, and mostly failing, to learn some game development methods for collision detection. Currently, working on a SAT implementation, quad trees and GJK.
I was taking game development courses at Coursera but they decided to lock everyone out of being able to actually finish the courses without paying for them (which is their right - but still annoying) so i'm also looking for some good 2d tutorials for Unity.
Re: Ask HN: What are you currently learning in your spare time?
#37lojban
Re: Ask HN: What are you currently learning in your spare time?
#38Improving spoken Spanish, learning Cryllic script, post-structural philosophy, contemplating dance lessons. Learning to run without getting tired or dizzy quickly, and trying to learn a better game of tennis but there doesn't seem to be indoor courts where I live and it's rainy season.
Re: Ask HN: What are you currently learning in your spare time?
#39Nice thread. Gotta say, listing all this makes me feel a hell of a lot less lazy! (In southwest China...)
1. Classical Chinese, by translating old texts on Wikisource: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Manshu
2. Just brushed up on technical drawing and woodworking to get new office furniture built.
3. Fatherhood.
4. Event planning. I'm trying to set up a community event to take ~40 party people down to a nearby lake to spend a day in the sun on the lakeshore and go sailing on two Weta Trimarans I transported here last year. http://wetamarine.com/ + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuxian_Lake ... brushed up on sailing a year ago, it'd been 20 years.
5. Winemaking. The focus is on arriving at a process and set of inputs that result in a scalable and commercially viable range of non-grape based wines (cider/perry type drinks, but not limited to apples and pears), then flip it and registered IP to a large and established distributor, and use the knowledge and cash gained to do some small-batch, higher-end organic type stuff.
6. Improving my poetry: I am part of a very international poetry group which meets once every week or two and reads and discusses poetry in English and Chinese, with occasional additional languages.
7. Modern history. I joined a Marxist reading group and am learning a lot about the history of late 19th century/early 20th century Europe as well as various shades of communist/socialist ideology. (Previously, living in China, I have stayed consciously ignorant of such things, which I had never found particularly interesting.)
8. Philosophy of mathematics. Currently reading Pi in the Sky which is an awesome book which I would particularly recommend as a very readable, tangent-laden ponder for programmers without a significant background in formal mathematics who like history, mathematics or philosophy.
9. Documentary filmmaking + new software. Currently working on a social documentary of foreigners living in this corner of southwest China. Although I'd done some since analog days, this is my first major project and I'm using the new Lightworks software on Gentoo Linux: http://www.lwks.com/ .. also planning to finish by end of year.
Re: Ask HN: What are you currently learning in your spare time?
#40UML. Technically this is for a master's, but that's my spare time. I do find it interesting to see why it's not really used. So verbose, but not detailed enough for great communication.
UML - Unnecessary Management Lingo. - @iamdevloper
UML - I know next to nothing about UML - but what I do know is the language was invented first and then people came around and tried to give semantics to the language. Well, in other words what that means is that the language was invented first and it really didn't mean anything. And then, later on, people came around to try to figure out what it meant. Well, that's not the way to design a specification language. The importance of a specification language is to specify something precisely, and therefore what you write - the specification you write - has to have a precise, rigorous meaning. - Leslie Lamport
UML: a language that was invented first and then people came around to try to get semantics. - Leslie Lamport
UML: fuzzy pictures of boxes and arrows. - Leslie Lamport
People use UML, things like UML, to model programs, but it's not clear how to translate them in to sequences of states, for concurrency. If you cannot translate them in to sequences of states, it means you don't understand them, and it may mean that there's nothing there. You know, there are lots of people selling snake-oil, drawing boxes and arrows that make you feel good, but ultimately have no real meaning. If something is really meaningful you should be able to express it in mathematics. - Leslie Lamport
... ie. it's not used much because it lacks precision of expression, and its main competitor is informal diagramming: a couple of boxes and a line on a whiteboard are 90% as effective as UML, and actually function for a general audience. (Quotes from https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup)