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Ask HN: What are you learning?

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Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#391

Post by grumpy8 »

scarface74 wrote: post #276
EnderMB wrote: post #138

I'll probably get a lot of shit for this, but LeetCode. I've recently been furloughed, and I think that redundancies aren't too far away. There aren't many companies hiring in my area at the moment, and if I'm going to move it's going to be for a big company, so I'm dusting off the CV and am applying to some Big N companies. A recruiter recently reached out to me, and I've got an interview with one Big N company comi…

I use to hate the idea of studying leetCode and I still refuse to do it. But then I realized how hypocritical I was being considering all of the time I’ve spent “grinding architecture and infrastructure”, reading white papers and studying videos on TOGAF so I could talk the talk on an “Enterprise Architect” or a “Digital Transformation Consultant”. But if I have to play a game to get the next salary upgrade after I t…

don't need to do leetCode just for the salary game, there are some really fun algorithms

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#392

Post by werber »

I got a tattoo gun. I’ve wanted to learn since the nineties and I’m loving it. Dumb, but I did my first one on myself today and it was so satisfying to accomplish something I’d totally given up on

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#394

Post by cs702 »

jlelonm wrote: post #365
cs702 wrote: post #252

* Learning and building a more intuitive understanding of Projective Geometric Algebra (PGA). Looks very disruptive for all kinds of computer graphics applications. PGA replaces the use of Vectors, Quaternions, Dual Quaternions, and the entire machinery of Linear Algebra with a single unified, elegant framework that "just works." Feels a bit like magic. * Exploring and playing with new capsule routing algorithms in d…

What makes it so disruptive?

The following video has a good, developer-friendly introduction to the subject that should answer your question. Take a look in particular at the code snippets that are sprinkled throughout the video and notice how much cleaner, shorter, simpler, less computationally costly, and "universal"/"exception-free" the code becomes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX4H_ctggYo

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#395

Post by petamask »

mjfl wrote: post #333
Twisol wrote: post #275

I'm working through Aluffi's Algebra: Chapter Zero , which covers abstract algebra (groups, fields, vector spaces, etc.) with category theoretic foundations. I took undergraduate algebra several years ago, and I'm really interested in category theory from a compositionality perspective, so this is a good opportunity to brush up on both topics. Aluffi is really well-written. It assumes some degree of mathematical matu…

You know something? I know a little abstract algebra: groups, subgroups, quotient groups, and the relvent theorems behind them. It's been disappointingly useless to me though. Maybe someday I will take the quotient group of two matrix groups... I'm not sure though.

What I got to think recently about the value of knowing more about stuff whose usage isn't imminently obvious is that when you expand your knwoledge, the 'range' of your world changes. So yes, almost by its nature, you would not use the stuff that you don't know much of, but you would be hemmed in by your own ignorance. On the other hand, by expanding your knowledge, you would also expand your range of experience (your world) thus find it more useful.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#396

Post by shitoujizu »

returningfory wrote: post #361
senderista wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to say it, but I got no discernible advantage from my non-trivial coding projects during my last job search. My time would have been far better spent just grinding leetcode, from a purely economic perspective. I wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun, but I probably would have gotten more offers.

100% percent my experience too. In the last 3 months I've been on-site at 3 of the FAANG companies. Not a single interviewer brought up the large personal projects I've done and which are given decent space on my resume; my weeks of leetcoding was definitely far far far more beneficial for getting a job.

sometimes feels very sad about this since one's value should be reflected by the awesome projects he has done. I think it's just laziness of the FAANG companies. If the interviewer is well prepared and keeps digging the resume, then he should know the candidate is good or not. But by leetcoding, it's simpler for them, just keep asking the repeated questions.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#397

Post by colkassad »

zuppy wrote: post #266
jakeinspace wrote: post #262

Getting back into regular guitar practice (mostly classical). Also trying to broaden my musical horizons a bit: playing around with some virtual synths and my analog synth. I'm currently shopping for a hollow body or solid body electric guitar and amp, since I want to start getting into blues guitar. Hoping that I can meld some of the music production/synth stuff with guitar practice by laying down some backing synth…

Just ordered my first guitar and audio interface yesterday. Any tips for really starting from 0? I will be looking for some online courses, but there’s so much information online that it is hard for me to find out which is good for absolute beginners and which is not.

Not sure what exists out there, I started over 25 years ago. A good first step is to learn chords, starting with major and minor versions of each chord. Get comfortable switching between them. This is where most people quit as a lot of chords are not friendly to untrained fingers.

What can help with this is a concept called the "1, 4, 5" rule (it's actually called the I, IV, V rule but let's keep it simple). Basically, you start in a key, say the key of A, assign that to 1. The 4th and 5th chords from that starting chord always sound good with the 1st. So for the key of A, the 4th and 5th are D and E. Notes start over after G, so if 4 and 5 go past, like with G, you start over at A. In the key of G, the 4th and 5th are C and D respectively, for example. This is at the heart of blues music. For me, the easiest three-chord progression for my fingers to learn was G, C, and D.

There are a lot of little "rules" like that in music theory and it can be fun to learn them and experiment. If you find that you are really getting into it, I recommend dropping $300 or so on a decent acoustic guitar. There is something to be said about an instrument you can just pick up and play and not have to worry about wires and interfaces.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#398

Post by Areading314 »

enhdless wrote: post #338

I'm trying to learn to draw. I feel comfortable enough with my technical skills where I feel like I can pick up a new language or framework with relative ease, so I want to switch gears and improve my drawing and visual communication skills. I believe that any project can benefit from a compelling visual component. For now, I've been trying to start slow and just have fun; for example, telling myself to do three quic…

Learning to draw is something anyone can do and is incredibly rewarding. It activates a huge part of your brain (visual) that starts firing when you see all sorts of scenes, faces, patterns, colors in real life. Try the book "drawing on the right side of the brain". Another good one is the Bargue sculpture drawing course.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#399

Post by focodev »

I'm entering my junior year in a CS program and just had my internship opportunities rescinded because of the virus. So I'm home taking a docker / K8s course on Udemy as well as a Spring Boot course.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#400

Post by war1025 »

I spent a couple hours this afternoon trying to start a fire with a cheap magnifying glass. If I had a decent tinder bundle I would have succeeded. Amazing how easy it is to get something smoking. Burnt a whole bunch of stuff, just never managed to get to fire.
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