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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?

#421

Post by medbar »

bawis wrote: post #393
amha wrote: post #3

* Get less scared about applying to do stuff! I'm leaving my longtime job---I've taught advanced math to super-smart high schoolers; I'm quitting to be a visiting professor at Deep Springs College for a semester and then ???---and in the past, fear of applying to things (jobs, grad schools, writing residencies) has been a major blocker. * Learn complex analysis! * Get a better workflow for writing my notes to myself…

For complex analysis, I recommend using Stein's book (the whole series is good).

Visualizing Complex Analysis by Tristan Needham is another good one IMO

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

#422

Post by kondov »

banbangtuth wrote: post #6

I am a fullstack frontend leaning engineer of 10 YoE (still employed). In the early days of my career I enjoyed learning about various programming languages and reading technical books (although mostly tutorials, nothing to deep technically). These days I don't do those things anymore because I am now older, a lot of responsibilities, and hobbies that I need to do, and also quite comfortable in my comfort zone in ter…

I feel the exact same way and my career path and years in the industry are pretty much the same as well. What's usually blocking me from giving other programming niches a try is that I can't imagine ever building something in them that people actually use. Everything I've studied so far has been grounded in practicality and building a compiler, for example, seemed like something that only a select few can build with good quality.

Anyway, I got the "Writing An Interpreter In Go" book and I think I'll give it a shot either way. I think I'm at a point in my career where I'm finally tired of building the same things again and again. I've also been thinking about doing a design course in Interaction Design Foundation just to get my mind interested in things again and detach myself from the work I've been doing.

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

#423

Post by quietloop »

rr808 wrote: post #163

Work solidly at work for 8 hours and then go home, instead of sitting behind a computer for 12 hours and wasting a lot of time.

I'm kinda like this and sometimes even more than 12 hours isn't enough to do a task that shouldn't require 4 hours (at least for me). It was always like this, but it started to worsen in the last few months. I was diagnosed with ADHD a few weeks ago and it improved a lot since I started taking meds.

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

#424

Post by strix_mahalo »

it_is_beautiful wrote: post #36

(Non-technical skill) To live with ambition. Depression is a strange thing. In my case, the causes are plainly visible to me or any passer-by: I don't have much in the way of connections, assets, or responsibilities. Surely, it wasn't (and isn't) bound-to-be: my upbringing and environment lack little, and when I've had some of any of the three, I've done better for myself. I want these things, but I abase myself such…

My friend I see a lot of myself in what you wrote, I was in a deep depression and trying to think my way out of it. It didn't work. Honestly I didn't have it as bad as you "sunny day surrounded by loved ones seems like a trip to hell" - this is VERY concerning.

I got better. Much better. I'm literally more social than ever and for the first time in my life i feel my cup is full.

If there's one piece of advice I can give is take ACTION, stay in MOTION. Always DO something to get better. You started going to the gym? That's great! Join some classes while you're at it. Don't stay still. That's when it gets you.

It sounds to me like you're already living with some ambition. What do you REALLY want from 2026?

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

#426

Post by kukkeliskuu »

imron wrote: post #414
kukkeliskuu wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I meant by "not treating LLM as senior" is that the disillusionment phase culminates in an a-ha moment which could be described a "LLM is not a senior developer". This a-ha moment is not intellectual, but emotional. It is possible to same time think that LLM is not a senior developer, but not realize it emotionally. This emotional realization in turn has consequences. >The threading issue didn't come up at all i…

I'm pretty sure I have the right intellectual and emotional understanding of the AI and its abilities. > I consider this to be partly what I mean by "LLM is a junior" and that "I act as the project manager". And this is partly what I mean when I say the time I spend instructing the "junior" LLM could be just as well spent implementing the code myself - because the "project manager" side of me can work with the "senio…

>The mobile app wasn't complex (literally only does the things outlined above) and I've done enough mobile development and graphics/computer vision development before that the stack and concepts involved weren't completely unknown, just the specifics of the various iOS APIs and how to string them together - hence why I initially thought it would be a good use case for AI. > >It was also an incredible coincidence that the toy app I wanted to build had an apple developer tutorial that did almost the same thing as what I was looking to build, and so yes, I clearly would have been better off using the documentation as a starting point rather than the AI.

Ok. I have done similar, too. For example, when starting a new Django project, I will rather copy an old project as basis than create a new from scratch with LLM.

If there already exists full documentation or repo of exactly what you are trying to do and/or it is something you have already done many times, then LLM might not add too much value, and may even be a hindrance.

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

#427

Post by snicky »

doom2 wrote: post #251

I want to learn two languages in 2026: * CW (also known as Morse code) - I'm not able to have an amateur radio station at home, so I have to work portable/QRP. Given current band conditions, CW is one easy option to make contacts * Learn a "low level" programming language, likely C - I never had any kind of formal CS education and kind of fell into the field, initially doing web development and then data engineering.…

I'm in the same boat regarding the CS education and the desire to learn C. I find the videos recorded by Antirez (the creator of Redis) that make up something you could call a C course quite interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjXBXBgfKyk&list=PLrEMgOSrS_... . He starts from the basics, but the pace is good and he quickly gets to nitty and gritty. The videos are in Italian, though the automated translations do the job. I think he releases one episode a week.

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

#428

Post by jijath »

bawis wrote: post #394
jijath wrote: post #269

Off the top of my head: - Language learning: I have a couple of languages that I want to focus on this 2026. Both for the enjoyment of learning and using said languages, and also because it will help me improve work-wise. - OSS development: Programming was set aside these couple of years and I want to be active and help the community. Either by contributing to a project or an OS (9front is always on my mind). - Be a…

> Language learning: I have a couple of languages that I want to focus on this 2026. Both for the enjoyment of learning and using said languages, and also because it will help me improve work-wise. May I ask which languages are you talking about here? and what methods you will follow?

Sorry, human languages. Progress in my Italian and start learning some of the other more complex languages such as Russian and/or Arabic.

I will try to make the learning process as natural as possible. Italian I already have a base and my native language is similar, so the learning process will be based on immersion and grammar learning. For the other ones, I will try to get a more structured learning path such as courses or programs to get to learn as fast and simple as possible.

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

#429

Post by theletterf »

rezlouria wrote: post #415
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…

> Persian language Hey! Iranian here. It’s pretty rare to run into someone learning Persian, so this made me smile. Wishing you the best with it.

Mersi khubam!

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

#430

Post by biztos »

mmcconnell1618 wrote: post #218
biztos wrote: post #64

Tech: 1. Rust, I quite like it but I still need AI assistance. 2. Desktop app dev, I'm making one in Tauri and love it, now I want to "go native." 3. Lower-level AI stuff, so far everything has been with APIs, and while that's great it feels a little too abstract. 4. Leetcode pattern matching. (Grumble grumble, but when job-hunting in Rome...) Differently tech: 5. City driving. Thanks @kenrick95 for reminding me! 6.…

Color grading is pretty interesting. Please share good resources if you find some.

I’ve found Darren Mostyn’s videos quite helpful:

https://youtu.be/YbDRl_xugJo

Also Daniel Batal, more in the “tips and tricks” category but very accessible:

https://youtube.com/@daniel_batal

These are both DaVinci Resolve specific. For more general info I found it useful to do some googling around LUTs.

I find the big downside of color grading is it makes you really want a camera that records RAW video.

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