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Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

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Re: Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

#51

Post by cknight »

I'm sure many here on HN did this long ago, but for me: Learning how to get by in a large org for the first time.

1 month ago I was responsible for the entire IT function of an SMB. I was the guy who knew everything required to get stuff done, and I reported directly to the CEO. A lot of processes were not formalised because the overheads of doing so weren't worth it.

New job, now working for the government in a skyscraper full of colleagues. I know virtually nothing, there is no onboarding to speak of, and I am second from the bottom in a huge hierarchy strangled by red tape. Every day I find out that there is another whole team dedicated to doing something I thought I was going to have to work out myself - which has pros and cons. I haven't even seen an org chart yet, but I've just been told "those teams over there are getting outsourced next month". So I think I know why there is no up-to-date org chart...

It's different. But it's a pay rise, and I'm not bored anymore. The level of coordination required to get anything done here is a learning exercise in itself. After my first week I was worried I wasn't cut out for this sort of thing, but after a couple more weeks I'm finding it... fun? Still weird though.

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

#52

Post by gandalfgreybeer »

jacquesm wrote: post #5

Piano. I've decided that more programming languages or web stacks are a complete waste of time. Piano is for life and I wished I had started doing this in earnest long ago.

Mind sharing resources you’re using to learn? Also do you have background in music theory or is this from scratch?

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

#53

Post by antognini »

jk7tarYZAQNpTQa wrote: post #50
antognini wrote: post #40

Lately I have been diving deep into ancient astronomy, Babylonian astronomy in particular. I have a PhD in astronomy, but I've found that a lot of astronomers tend to have a somewhat superficial knowledge of the history of their field. To motivate myself to learn more about it I started podcasting what I learned with the schtick being that I release episodes every full moon to force myself to keep it up.

Very interesting. I enjoy both astronomy and history, do you know any books/materials you would recommend to someone who is just an enthusiast? Also, would you share the title of your podcast?

I've found a couple of books that have been very good:

A History of Astronomy by A. Pannekoek has a reasonably detailed and readable history of ancient astronomy, though as I've been diving into it I've found that parts are a little dated. But it's really good to get a high level overview of what the main problems early astronomers were trying to solve and how they were trying to solve them.

Episodes in the Early History of Astronomy by Aaboe is really good, too, though it's more from the perspective of a modern astronomer trying to put the ancient methods into modern mathematical notation. It's very valuable if you're not intimidated by equations.

Exploring Ancient Skies by Kelly et al. is by far the most detailed and contains the most up-to-date scholarship on ancient astronomy, but it's pretty hard to read casually. In some parts it's kind of like a review article that's just a bunch of pointers to other references.

My podcast is Song of Urania and you can find it here: https://songofurania.com/

The full moon was today, so naturally I'm procrastinating here on HN rather than editing my latest episode. :)

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

#54

Post by jacquesm »

cknight wrote: post #51

I'm sure many here on HN did this long ago, but for me: Learning how to get by in a large org for the first time. 1 month ago I was responsible for the entire IT function of an SMB. I was the guy who knew everything required to get stuff done, and I reported directly to the CEO. A lot of processes were not formalised because the overheads of doing so weren't worth it. New job, now working for the government in a skys…

Good luck with that. Keep a sharp eye on the door and have a 'plan-B' in case you need it.

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

#56

Post by halotrope »

kochikame wrote: post #33
halotrope wrote: post #28

- Graphics Design because people really listen when stuff is pretty. - French which has to be done but is quite hard. - Some math because the more I work with computers there more I understand how it would be very useful. - Combat sports because it keeps me fit and its good for your posture if you know how to throw a punch. - Traveling. Never learned it, work too much and would like to see the world before being an o…

What do you mean by "learn" travelling? Isn't it just... travelling?

I never traveled when I was younger. So I would say I never learned it. The mechanics of taking time off, not working, knowing where to go, where to stay etc. That all needs some practice. It is of course not something that you would "study"

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

#57

Post by halotrope »

grp000 wrote: post #31
halotrope wrote: post #28

- Graphics Design because people really listen when stuff is pretty. - French which has to be done but is quite hard. - Some math because the more I work with computers there more I understand how it would be very useful. - Combat sports because it keeps me fit and its good for your posture if you know how to throw a punch. - Traveling. Never learned it, work too much and would like to see the world before being an o…

Is that all at the same time? If so, do you have concurrency issues?

Yes but in small pieces and with varying intensity. Just sticking to something and making small incremental progress does compound.

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

#58

Post by jacquesm »

gandalfgreybeer wrote: post #52
jacquesm wrote: post #5

Piano. I've decided that more programming languages or web stacks are a complete waste of time. Piano is for life and I wished I had started doing this in earnest long ago.

Mind sharing resources you’re using to learn? Also do you have background in music theory or is this from scratch?

I built pianojacq.com to help me practice sightreading and to keep track of where I'm making mistakes. It is still far from perfect but quite useful. The main problem is to get the pieces I want to practice into MIDI format, but there is a wealth of MIDI files out there that can be used with a little editing.

I have this pipeline where I take a youtube video, download it as an MP3, convert that to MIDI and then edit that midi to split left/right and to ensure it is all set to time and of the proper length so I can show it as sheet music.

I knew next to nothing about music theory when I started this beyond the very first basic stuff, but after watching many youtube videos on the subject and reading a lot of stuff it is starting to make sense. This is a subject that is overcomplicated to the point that it seems much harder than it really is, there are only very few good teachers out there to make that which looks complicated but it ultimately relatively simple simple again.

If you want I can do a write-up of all the resources that I've used over the last year and a half.

Currently practicing Ennio Morricone's "Chi Mai" arranged for piano.

Progress is still slow but if I compare my sightreading spead, accuracy and general quality of play with a year ago the difference is huge even if you can't see it day-by-day. Each new piece brings new challenges, and teaches me something that re-inforces the pieces that I already know how to play which then all get a little bit better.

Overall I'm having a ton of fun with this and the joy I get from playing a piece end-to-end without mistakes, at speed and in a way that is nice to listen is hard to describe.

It's obvious that an experienced pianist would probably laugh at the level of my accomplishments but that's fine with me, I'm enjoying this and that's what counts. It's also one of very few things in my life that I've done without any commercial goal, and which is just for myself. Overall if I could do this life over I'd tone down the business career in favor of making more music. And the programming skills came in handy while making pianojacq.com, so in a way this allowed me to combine two things I love.

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

#60

Post by jacquesm »

halotrope wrote: post #57
grp000 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that all at the same time? If so, do you have concurrency issues?

Yes but in small pieces and with varying intensity. Just sticking to something and making small incremental progress does compound.

And: unrelated skills and the act of learning itself also compound. Learning gets easier as you do more of it because you have more of a method to do so and more knowledge to help you integrate your new knowledge. So as you know more/have more skills adding new skills or more knowledge gets easier.
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