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Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what would you learn?

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Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what would you learn?

#51

Post by markus_zhang »

erkanerol wrote: post #48
markus_zhang wrote: post #31

Is it a whole 100 hours block without fragmentation, or any 100 hours that you can allocate? I assume the first case, i.e. you have about 4 days to learn something. I'd recommend taking up some paid, intensive training as most such trainings take about 3-5 days and you can maximize the learning during the 4 days of timeframe.

I mean the latter.

Oh I see. I guess it depends on how big one chunk is then. I'd still vote for paid training if you get big chunks. If only smaller chunks are available, hmmm, it's difficult to say. Maybe prepare for a certificate?

Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what would you learn?

#52

Post by Rendello »

wappieslurkz wrote: post #23

Touch typing... I'm embarrassed to confess I'm still typing with just 4 fingers while keeping my eyes on the keyboard instead of the screen. Although I doubt it would require 100 hours to learn.

Just a few days ago I started using Keybr to learn to touch type. It frustrates me less than any other program I've used before, so far. I'm touch-typing this comment... slowly ;)

I can type quickly through my own means but very inaccurately. In a recent fast-paced online game the other players assumed I wasn't a native English speaker due to all my typos. I was a Vim user for ten years and would constantly mash the wrong keys. After starting touch-typing a few days ago, I redownloaded the old Vimfx extension to control my web browser from my keyboard. It ended up requiring me to switch to a Firefox fork called Waterfox though, as the modern (post-2017) extensions have to rely on injecting Javascript into the page and don't work well.

https://www.keybr.com/

Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what would you learn?

#53

Post by Rendello »

sn9 wrote: post #40
jamesponddotco wrote: post #28

As a software engineer, probably JavaScript, as I focus on back-end and don’t have many front-end skills aside from a good hand at design. In general, though, since I believe I’ll lose my job to AI, I’d like to learn and become an electrician.

executeprogram is excellent for picking up JS/TS. Not necessarily front end, but the language. Frontend Masters might be worth checking out.

I only did Execute Program for a little bit and don't remember much, but the developer's Destroy All Software screencasts are what taught me how to write parsers. I must have rewatched that video 30 times while I was writing my first one.

Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what would you learn?

#54

Post by muzani »

wappieslurkz wrote: post #23

Touch typing... I'm embarrassed to confess I'm still typing with just 4 fingers while keeping my eyes on the keyboard instead of the screen. Although I doubt it would require 100 hours to learn.

https://www.colemak.academy/ is actually pretty good for beginners, but switch it to QWERTY layout

It took me a few months on keybr honestly when I got a new, ergonomic keyboard. The problem with ergo keyboards is they're split at the middle and suddenly my left hand couldn't reach for what was on the right side like it normally would and I had never realized I was doing it "wrong" all this time.

Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what would you learn?

#55

Post by muzani »

boogerlad wrote: post #25
wappieslurkz wrote: post #23

Touch typing... I'm embarrassed to confess I'm still typing with just 4 fingers while keeping my eyes on the keyboard instead of the screen. Although I doubt it would require 100 hours to learn.

If you're going to learn it, use at least a split columnar keyboard and a non qwerty layout. Learning to touch type on a regular keyboard will likely worsen your health compared to your four finger hunt and peck due to the bad uncomfortable qwerty touch typing enforces. Think about the awful pinky curls and reaches. Ouch!

I'm almost 40 and have no issues with this yet. Colemak is my favorite non-QWERTY and feels smooth, but sadly, programming was designed with QWERTY in mind. The 30% comfort improvement wasn't really worth it and there's a speed drop because I've been on QWERTY since 5 years old. I also use my laptop in well, laptop mode half the time, so eventually I went back to QWERTY.

But it's actually surprising on mobile how much easier a non-QWERTY keyboard is considering it's two thumbs and your thumbs are at the pinky areas most of the time.

Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what would you learn?

#56

Post by muzani »

1. Drawing, like proper academic drawing. I think I'm close to the skill cap on mobile dev. Design skill would help a lot, things like seeing lighting and stuff. There's things like ambient light, like if the bottom of an area is purple, the top is green, the bottom will bounce some purplish light onto the middle which affects how shadows will look. This is something AI still has problem grasping. Also things like composition, like which people are on the left, which are on the right.

2. CSS tricks and animation. While other people try to race on Leetcode, my personal favorite is CodePen.

3. Probably learn Flutter and React properly instead of just going in blind and editing code.

Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what would you learn?

#57

Post by boogerlad »

konfusinomicon wrote: post #47
boogerlad wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going to learn it, use at least a split columnar keyboard and a non qwerty layout. Learning to touch type on a regular keyboard will likely worsen your health compared to your four finger hunt and peck due to the bad uncomfortable qwerty touch typing enforces. Think about the awful pinky curls and reaches. Ouch!

spread dev pinky awareness whenever possible, we need a ribbon..the struggle is real and its a sign of excessive copy pasting. customized split keyboard is the cure so bring on the subsidized moonlanders for all

I think subsidized svalboards are far better. Moonlanders are an evolution to the standard keyboard design, but a svalboard is a step function improvement - a true keyboard revolution.

Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what would you learn?

#58

Post by andrei_says_ »

I’d spend them on 1x1 classes with experienced Argentinian Argentinian Tango instructors consisting mostly of dancing.

The Argentinians have a unique approach to the Milonguero style which I’m interested in so in this case they need to be from Argentina ;)

Another option would be one of my other interests, again, spent one on one with a world-class instructor and intentional practice.

Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what would you learn?

#59

Post by LinuxBender »

pmags wrote: post #35
LinuxBender wrote: post #32

Instead of learning software engineering I would want to learn: Chemically induced reprogramming to reverse cellular aging [1] a.k.a. OSKM My first experiments would be on some really old horses. I could probably buy a 30 year old horse from a neighbor. She is on her last leg. I want to make her younger again and then just let her have many more years of chilling and not having to make babies every year. If can learn…

This is not meant to be snarky, but I can't help but ask: * Did I miss a tone indicator (/s) in your response? * If not, why do you think that transcriptional reprogramming of fibroblast cells in culture (as per the Yang et al. paper you cite), which results in "reversing trancriptomic age" can be applied to whole organisms? * Ignoring the "de-aging" horses bit, is it realistic to think that getting a handle on the s…

can be applied to whole organisms?

Because it has been for several years in mice and monkeys.

really just a 100 hour task?

To learn, yes. It is a well established process. Mice have been aged, de-aged, aged, de-aged using this process. One can find videos on Youtube from Dr. Sinclairs team that show the mice and their physical abilities during the entire process. This has also been used on humans specifically in the optic nerves but it won't be long before it is approved for body-wide usage. I would not expect the learning process to exceed 72 hours not counting breaks.

Re: Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what would you learn?

#60

Post by wappieslurkz »

Rendello wrote: post #52
wappieslurkz wrote: post #23

Touch typing... I'm embarrassed to confess I'm still typing with just 4 fingers while keeping my eyes on the keyboard instead of the screen. Although I doubt it would require 100 hours to learn.

Just a few days ago I started using Keybr to learn to touch type. It frustrates me less than any other program I've used before, so far. I'm touch-typing this comment... slowly ;) I can type quickly through my own means but very inaccurately. In a recent fast-paced online game the other players assumed I wasn't a native English speaker due to all my typos. I was a Vim user for ten years and would constantly mash the…

Thanks for the Keybr tip!
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