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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?

#361

Post by LouisSayers »

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #336
LouisSayers wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Maybe algotrading is the answer

Yes, I might consider doing this but need to consistently feel confident doing it manually first. I did set up a docker instance to connect to my broker, so perhaps a goal for this year!

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

#362

Post by imron »

fragmede wrote: post #358
imron wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the info. I try a mix of things I know well and things I want to play around with. Swift and iOS was something that didn’t work so well for me. I wanted to play around with face capture and spent a day with Claude putting together a small app that showed realtime video of a face and put dots on/around various facial features and printed log messages if the person changed the direction they were looking (up…

When did you try Claude and Swift? There was a dramatic improvement (imo, I haven't written my own swift, I'm mostly back end guy) with the latest releases, judging by how many iterations on stupid shit my programs have taken. If you tried it roughly prior to https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode-release-note... give it another shot. f you tried it after and found it lacking then this doesn't apply.

Thanks. Definitely before this. Will try it out again next time I’m playing with swift.

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

#363

Post by bartvk »

exasperaited wrote: post #341
bartvk wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I am no expert but my take on this is: FreeCAD is obviously not a commercial grade CAD package, but it’s not because it is weak conceptually: it’s not dissimilar to Solidworks, Onshape or Fusion. It’s weak in terms of UI flow and its CAD kernel is flawed in some ways (as you probably already know: fillets, chamfers, drafts, thicknesses/shells). I don’t believe there is so much to learn to get from FreeCAD to one of t…

I didn't know about Solidworks for Makers, thanks so much for the tip. Watching the Deltahedra video right now, pretty interesting.

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

#364

Post by globular-toast »

reorder9695 wrote: post #335
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.

Honestly I found it the other way around, learning to drive made me a significantly better and safer cyclist as I realised what drivers are expecting to happen, and actually had to learn the rules of the road. Before I learned to drive I didn't really know what was expected or legal in a lot of situations in the city especially.

It should be taught really, but unfortunately car-centric society means road=car for a lot of people. Cycling is more advanced because road positioning is much more important, plus you have to deal with cars. So it's kinda ridiculous we don't teach it in schools. Apparently they used to back in my parents' day (it was called cycling proficiency).

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

#365

Post by rainonmoon »

theletterf wrote: post #98

Off the top of my head: — Learn Rust. I'm halfway through the Rustlings exercises and I'll continue with more challenges. Advice is welcome. I might also ask LLMs to pose as teachers and create exercises for me and check them. - Cooking. This has been something I neglected all my life and I really want to get better at it. It's so fundamental to quality of life. - Persian language. Studied it for six months, I can re…

I really like Rustfully on YouTube. Every video is under 10 minutes long and he goes over one concept and where it would be used in practice. Great for reinforcement learning.

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

#366

Post by jononor »

miguel_martin wrote: post #352
saimiam wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want users, the requirement is sales skills, not product development skills.

What about simply providing value?

At the very least one must connect to people who would find it valuable (either inbound or outbound), and the value has to be communicated to the prospective buyers. People make their decisions based on how they perceive the product, not based on your view. And the value big enough to overcome friction involved in purchasing, including soft factors like people trusting you with their money. There might be habits and other pieces of inertia that has to be overcome also, and why would they pick your thing over the alternatives. And of course you must be able to charge enough to cover the costs of providing said value.

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

#367

Post by nicbou »

zeusly wrote: post #168
boricj wrote: post #78

I want to draw again. I used to, when I was in a classroom or at a bar. Actually managed to get quite good at it through sheer boredom in grande école . Then life happened and that faded away, alongside my mental health. Recently I've rediscovered doodling while attending ACM CCS 2025 as an independent (long story) and I want to improve my mental health in 2026, to the point where I can draw regularly again.

I would love to learn how to draw. I have an iPad Pro with a pencil and procreate. Can anyone give me a few good pointers? I draw like a 5 year old.

I have the same setup and I like it, but traditional media is just much more pleasant.

In any case, practice. Keep drawing, and try drawing the same thing multiple times. Don't just start over, fix your mistakes. Step back and take time off to let the mistakes come out.

Above all, remember to have fun. Mistakes are an integral part of learning, and if you take yourself too seriously, you will never make any. Waste as much paper as you need, if it means that you will keep practicing.

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

#368

Post by nicbou »

smokel wrote: post #179
nicbou wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in the same boat and started drawing again at around 30. Remember that paper is cheap and that experimentation is valuable. Make all the bad art you can. The cost of all the paper I wasted in the last 5 years is probably less than the cost of a pizza. There is a valuable life lesson in there about being okay with making mistakes so that you can learn from them. Nowadays I always carry a notebook, and more often…

> The cost of all the paper I wasted in the last 5 years is probably less than the cost of a pizza. Once you get into it, there is an amazing assortment of papers that can cost up to a pizza per sheet. Especially if you're going for the larger formats. https://arches-papers.com/arches-range-of-papers/watercolor-...

Yes, but let's not nitpick our way out of understanding the point. Don't be afraid to soil a notebook with bad drawings, and waste as much paper as it takes. Mistakes are part of the process, not something to avoid.

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

#370

Post by kaizenb »

esseph wrote: post #128
kaizenb wrote: post #31

Does being "emotionally strong" is a skill to improve?

"Villages" help. Lean into yours, or, maybe it's the time to find or build yours. Best of luck.

Thanks! Actually, I live in a village (: https://x.com/borakaizen/status/2004825887691153795
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