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Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?

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Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?

#311

Post by globular-toast »

smileysteve wrote: post #205
globular-toast wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real way is just to ride a bike. You can ride it on the road so you'll learn how the road works as well as how to operate a vehicle. When I got in a car the only things that took time to learn were operating the clutch and manoeuvres in tight spaces (you need to develop spacial awareness that you won't get from cycling). If I had learnt to drive an auto it would have been trivially easy after years of cycling.

The biggest pro of a bike is it teaches you to read the road and traffic ahead for energy conservation (and defensive driving). On a bike, this mostly reduces pedaling; in a car this can reduce unnecessary braking, safer driving distances, which make you a more predictable driver.

It also gives you a lifelong respect for people so if you do drive you won't treat humans like annoying obstacles that might ruin your paintwork if you hit them.

I believe 100% that nobody should be allowed behind the wheel of a motor vehicle before obtaining cycling proficiency.

Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?

#312

Post by nkg »

Drawing! I always loved pencil drawing, but it is an activity I had to put aside because it's time-consuming and we have a 3 yo at home that is also very time-consuming. After years of not doing it, I feel I lack the meditative part of it.

I am evaluating drawing tablets, if you have any recommendation. I am thinking about the Huion Kamvas 13.

Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?

#313

Post by kentrf »

jimkleiber wrote: post #192
kentrf wrote: post #176

I want to learn it all... But what will happen is that I use my working days writing code/producing software, evenings to make dinner and be with family, and nights gaming with friends. Weekends are for recharging. And that is completely OK. It is a healthy balance between getting stuff done, recovery, and enjoying life. To avoid burnout again, I take a day or two off whenever I feel like I need some time off.

To me it seems you not only want to learn how to code/write software but also to learn how to make dinner and be with family, how to game with friends, and how to recharge on weekends. Learning it all is also about learning those other things, too. This has helped me a lot, makes me realize I want to learn how to relax better, to sleep better, and to slow down better. Thank you!

I guess that is a valid interpretation. I was thinking about tech and maths, not "everyday life".

"Life" is also a skill that needs practice.

Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?

#314

Post by Flere-Imsaho »

dynamite-ready wrote: post #185
Flere-Imsaho wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a technical manager, I'm liable for every line of code we produce - regardless of who in the team actually wrote the code. This is why I review every pull request :)

This is interesting. At what level and team size? There's going to have to be a point where you just give in to the 'vibes' (whether it's from a human, or a machine), otherwise you become the bottleneck, no?

Only 4 or so people...so small, but that's how agile teams should be.

Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?

#315

Post by [deleted] »

kenrick95 wrote: post #7

I want to learn driving. I live in a city with well-connected public transport (Singapore) so I don't feel the need to learn. However, this year I travelled to some rural areas in Japan and started to feel the pain of relying solely on public transport which is either extremely sparse, or sometimes non-existent which limits the places I want to visit. That's why I felt like if I obtain this skill, I can explore more…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?

#316

Post by eudamoniac »

digitalsushi wrote: post #259

This is a new years resolution question barely in disguise, but they're fun cause a lot of us are cooped up, barely 4 days into winter, 86ish to go, and we're champing at the bit for change. I am pretty sure I'm a 50th percentiler. I'm mid 40s, kinda burned out but still struggling forward in my ok-but-not-hollywood IT career, I still have a passion for doing things well in a technical society that values doing thing…

Read "Start with the Soil"

Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?

#317

Post by bartvk »

exasperaited wrote: post #290
bartvk wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks so much. Going through some of these motions... installed OpenSCAD, made something basic which was easy. But I found out that making something more complex forces you to invent your own layout system. Last month I looked on Udemy and did part of Mango Jelly's course. It's a good one, I actually found out later that he has a bunch of stuff on YouTube. I'm still reading the rest of this and your other comment, t…

> But I found out that making something more complex forces you to invent your own layout system. The problem is exactly that, yes. If you want a simple shape and maybe to stick a thread on it (one of the first things I printed) then OpenSCAD has the basics and there are really interesting libraries. But if you get into something complex, you end up building your own scheme and then constantly gardening it. The compl…

I love free software. However I'm still kinda doubting... should I want to take a commercial job, aren't we expected to use Solidworks or something?

But yeah, thinking in CAD is probably the major step here.

Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?

#319

Post by tasuki »

Rendello wrote: post #305
huhkerrf wrote: post #106

I 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.

I swam a lot as a kid as my mother was a lifeguard and instructor. Despite that, I was never amazing at it, probably because I was lean and had no buoyancy, but I loved it a lot. I swam for the first time in years a few months ago, and was surprised how exhausted I was after 30 minutes of treading water! I work out and go on frequent long runs, but I was totally spent from that. I too would love to get into it again,…

Never amazing at swimming because you lacked buoyancy?

I know people who are plenty buoyant: they aren't fast swimmers!

Re: Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?

#320

Post by LouisSayers »

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #307
smileysteve wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stock "trading" is statistically against the odds. "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" was published nearly 50 years ago and remains generally true. No YouTuber or perfect instruction following would make you 100% likely to be profitable. The most profitable (and effort efficient way) is to routinely invest in a broad basket of stocks over a long period. Ie Voo and Hold.

How about options trading?

I've seen people on tiktok that exclusively trade options. It's not something I've looked into but my take after 6 months is that you basically find an approach that works for you, whether that be trading stocks, commodities, options etc and the time-scale that you trade.

Personally I like to do primarily tech stocks and mix it up doing swing trading (holding multiple days) with a bit of scalping as well (buy / sells over minutes).

At first I lost a lot of money scalping but now I seem to have a much higher success rate - you start to notice certain patterns in the way stocks move if you watch the charts long enough, and I've been learning to have more conviction in my positions.

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