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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?

#51
1. I plan to learn some category theory, differential/algebraic geometry, abstract algebra, and topology, in order to apply them to Haskell/Fortran programming and quantum optics.

2. Drawing. I've always wanted to be able to, but I've never really given it a serious try.

3. I want to learn how to play various synthesizers and some music theory, with the aim of producing electronic music recreationally.

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

#54
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to explain how?

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.

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

#55
I just got my first Jr Developer job so I'm going to learn the following job related skills:

1) More algorithms and data structures

2) Get better at using recursion to solve problems

3) If I get through the first two - design patterns

Outside of work I'm going to learn about (and/or continue to practice):

1) Cooking - more techniques, flavors that work well together

2) Running, rowing, weights - correct form, improving my training program, the theory behind different training programs and why I should do certain types of work. For example: long steady state pieces vs short interval work

3) Filming videos and editing them well, in particular surfing and snowboarding/skiing

Edit: formatting - I'm trying to make lists

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

#56
1) A foreign language. Maybe Spanish, but more likely French or German.

2) Perhaps how to drive. But I probably won't.

3) Modern CSS / HTML. I'm comfortable with static sites in HTML 4, but I'd like to learn about newer technology. I'm planning two sites in 2013 (one will be buying / receiving gifted Duplo, Lego, and StickleBrix to be cleaned, sorted, sterilised, and distributed to local not-wealthy children. That's easy enough for static. The other is the "alcohol awareness" game, where people have pictures of wine glasses and they have to "pour" either one unit, or pour a serving and guess how many units are in it. This is going to be lots of dynamic stuff.)

4) Enough about Linux to get a Raspberry Pi to boot in under 3 seconds. (http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/320/what-is-a...)

5) Child development for children 2.5 to 5 years old; mostly because that's my son's age but also because it's freaking fascinating.

6) How to YouTube, because I might set up a channel doing small youtubey type things.

7) How to correctly run encrypted partitions and password managers and all that other privacy stuff. 2013 is going to be my year of reclaiming my data and keeping it safer.

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

#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 advocated by "Remembering the Kanji" with practice through Skritter[1]. I already know hiragana/katakana and basic pronunciation, so after I finish RtK I should be in a good position to tackle a couple books on grammar and start reading/watching/listening to less structured content.

3) A creative pursuit that doesn't involve (or at least center around) writing code. I love programming, but sometimes it feels like I'm missing something (everything?) by having my methods of creative expression so clustered together. I want to try writing fiction, drawing/sketching and possibly musical composition, and see what ends up staying with me.

4) HTML5, CSS3 and modern Javascript. At one point in my life, long ago, I would've introduced myself as a web designer. This was back when DHTML was a synonym for Javascript, anything more complex than hover effects seemed to require Flash or Java and every site had an unholy mess of framesets and tables for layout. Fortunately for everyone involved, all of those things (and many more) have changed in the past 10 years. Unfortunately for me, my front-end skills haven't. Hoping to get up to date with stuff like JS MVC frameworks, responsive design and Less/Sass.

5) Blogging, so that I can bore other people with stories about learning the things listed above.

[1]: http://www.skritter.com/

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

#60
I learned how to program in Haskell. Although Haskell is hard, learning a language is still relatively easy compared to writing good 100KLOC+ sized software in whatever language.

In 2013 I hope I will figure out how to write good software in Haskell by writing good software in Haskell.

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