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Ask HN: What are you planning to learn in 2013?

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Re: Ask HN: What are you planning to learn in 2013?

#71

Post by bhntr3 »

1. Probability

Bayesian statistics and its applications. A lot of things I want to understand like Probabilistic Graphical Models, Cryptography, and Computer Vision seem to be based in fundamental bayesian statistics I never really grokked that well.

2. EE and Computer architecture.

I never studied any EE. The more I program, the more tempted I am to get closer to the metal. It's a little weird that I tell computers what to do, but I don't really understand exactly what they do with those commands. Nowadays computers are so fast, we don't NEED to know. We're network latency bound all the time. But not knowing still feels like a big gap.

3. Visualization.

There are some crazy cool alternative visualizations out there. The remainder of the decade is going to be about visualizing data for humans as we wait for the day computers can truly understand and reason about it. I want to understand the state of the art in explaining data rather than just throwing pie, line and bar charts around and calling it visualization.

All of these are interesting to me because they're core concepts. I've learned a good bit about Node, Ember, D3, CSS3, and advanced Python in my free time over the last few months, but they're just tools of the moment. I'm getting older and I want practical CS knowledge where the state of the art doesn't change fundamentally every two years. I can pick up and put down the tools.

Re: Ask HN: What are you planning to learn in 2013?

#73

Post by davesmylie »

xiaoma wrote: post #69
julsonl wrote: post #12

Other than improving my programming skills and learning a bit more computer science theory in general: 1. Music. Learning to play the piano 2. Drawing and Painting 3. Cooking

For drawing, I strongly recommend Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. And you DO have all the skills you need to get started as long as you have remotely decent eye-sight and the ability to wield a pencil. The important thing is to force yourself to let go of iconic representations and look at the lines that are actually there. It will be uncomfortable, but once you do that, your progress will really begin.

I can second this. I'm your typical average terrible drawer.

Stepping through the first quarter of this book, following the exercises and going from being able to draw a barely recognisable stick figure to an actually respectable drawing within 50 pages was an amazing experience.

Re: Ask HN: What are you planning to learn in 2013?

#75

Post by ajdecon »

In no particular order...

1) Cooking. I have a few standbys that I can make on a regular basis, but I'd like to expand a bit and find some more dishes both my wife and I enjoy. (She's a vegetarian, I am not.)

2) Systems / low-level programming. Mostly for my own amusement, but I'd like to have a better understanding of operating systems and how software interacts with hardware in general.

3) Improved parallel programming. I'm an HPC sysadmin and I am good enough with parallel programming to get by with helping debug users' code, but I'd like to be a lot better, especially since I often interact with complex applications that scale to thousands of nodes.

4) Math and physics refresher. I have a B.S. in Physics but I've been in computing for a while, and I'd like to re-assure myself that I know about more than computers. :) I plan to spend some time on old books, notes, and problem sets for both basics (Mechanics, EM, Quantum) and some favorite subfields (solid-state).

5) Machine shop skills... probably take some classes at the TechShop in San Jose.

And of course, just about anything I see that I think looks interesting in the next year. :) Be interesting to look at this list again next December and see what I actually did.

Re: Ask HN: What are you planning to learn in 2013?

#76

Post by omGac0W »

1) Node.js, express, socket.io

2) How to build a networked multiplayer game with above technologies. Possibly using impact.js or other game library.

3) How to draw sprites, character concepts, backgrounds for 2d Game.

I've always wanted to become a respectable artist, but the ability to draw was never enough of a motivator to make me really dedicate myself. Building a small mmo that others can enjoy and play together lets me become a better programmer, as well as gives me a reason to draw and exercise my creative side that I can really get behind.

Re: Ask HN: What are you planning to learn in 2013?

#78

Post by shadeless »

tomku wrote: post #58

1) Math, specifically calculus and linear algebra. I studied enough of it in college to pass the classes, completely forgot about it for 10 years, and now I'm finding myself needing it for some of my coding work. I'm hoping to work through MIT's OCW Scholar class on introductory calc as a refresher, then linear algebra, then maybe something harder on the calc side. 2) Japanese. I'm trying the "kanji-first" approach a…

If you're not too deep in RTK give KanjiDamage[1] a try, I found it the best way to learn kanji, onyomi, some kunyomi and even picked up some useful/common jukugo - and it didn't took that much time, either (of course kanji rate heavily depends on free time/motivation).

I used pre-made deck in Anki, set up kanji in question to display stroke order on hover and used dictionaries to double check meanings/usage. I really can't recommend it enough.

[1]: http://kanjidamage.com/introduction

Re: Ask HN: What are you planning to learn in 2013?

#79

Post by ThomPete »

okal wrote: post #54
ThomPete wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cooking really is about process, proportion, texture, color (taste), color (presentation), balance, contrast, seemlingly unrelated items coming together creating new experiences. It will help you understand these terms in music and art more naturally while at the same time being easier to get started with (i.e. you have the skills necessary to create a dish more than to play the piano and draw)

Oh, thanks. I'm a pretty good cook, or so I've been told, but I'm really into improvisation. Not sure how much of that would carry over to art and music. I have an intuitive sense of flavours that work well together, but I haven't been able to translate that to playing instruments.

Then you should be fine. It's the intuition that makes the artist.
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