Personally I'm learning Elixir, and it's such a pleasant language. It feels great to write, and the packaging/build tools feel refreshing compared to the mess of Python.
Now, handing you the mic. Is there a new stack or language on your mind?
We ended up in cloud, I handed over control to my instructor and spent the next 10 minutes wondering what I would have done if he wasn't with me (hint: not good).
So I slept on it, text my instructor a couple of days later and told him I want to be able to do what he did. He told me I need an Instrument Rating (Restricted) rating, which allows me to fly in and above cloud.
So that's my learning for the next 10 weeks or so. I've got to take one written exam, one flying exam, and then I'm cleared for flying cloudy days.
Then I tinkered with some basic functions: how to strip a list of URLs for a specific Product ASIN, automating some Photoshop image creation, and searching a 10k row Excel doc for specific phrases. All were bad at first, but they worked eventually.
I then did the Automate the Boring Stuff course on Udemy, super fun and deepened my knowledge. Helped me improve some of the programs and start working on others. I started to work with the Facebook Ads API and Pandas to automate reporting. So fun. That program is just getting to the Excel/Sheets automation part which will save me a ton of time every week. I spend a solid amount of time manually analyzing data each week. If I can cut that down, it'll get me quicker insights so better for my clients.
Again, nothing works incredibly well but it all works. And all of them save me time going forward. Automating image files will save a team member 3-6 hours/month and reduced errors by probably 90% (And their stress. We've already used it for 2 months so that's reduced their stress level from the errors they made manually doing it).
I'm basically just carving out an hour a week at this point after shooting for 5+/week for the first 6 months. I might increase it if I slow down on client work or hit a blocker that needs more time.
I subscribe to Always Be Learning, since that is a cornerstone of my own well being, so there is no real goal. I figure if I have a system for it then I'll make progress. And everything I learn is really a bonus for myself, my clients, or any developers I work with.
There's no shortage of interesting ideas to pursue with it so that won't be a problem anytime soon.
I've been binging books on the topic as well as exchanging dialogs with a colleague over email. Books list:
_Completed_
The Origin of Wealth: The Radical Remaking of Economics and What it Means for Business and Society - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1422121038/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy (Economics, Cognition, And Society) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0472064967/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
COMPLEXITY: THE EMERGING SCIENCE AT THE EDGE OF ORDER AND CHAOS - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671872346/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
Complexity Economics: Proceedings of the Santa Fe Institute's 2019 Fall Symposium - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947864351?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_...
_To Be Completed_
Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy - https://www.amazon.com/dp/087584863X?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_...
I began reading a book on analytic number theory on my own sometime last year. While re-reading some chapters of the book again, I decided I might as well do the re-reading with a group of other folks who are interested in this subject. So I began hosting book club meetings for analytic number theory since March this year. I had made a Tell HN post about it back then.
Those meetings are still going on consistently. We have a tiny but regular group of participants who meet daily for 40 minutes to read the book together. In fact, we now have a small community around it. We call it the Offbeat Computation Club. See https://offbeat.cc/ for more details about it. We plan to add more topics of discussion, such as Common Lisp, SICP, etc., soon.
We will begin reading a new chapter (Quadratic Residues and the Quadratic Reciprocity Law) on Monday. This is a pretty self-contained chapter and quite accessible to someone who has not read the previous chapters but has some basic knowledge of modular arithmetic. If this sounds like fun, you are very welcome to join us. See the link in the previous paragraph to find our IRC channel location, meeting link, and other details.
There's a great youtube channel with hundreds of videos of guitarist Nelson Faria chatting and playing music at home with a different Brazilian musician each time, a lot with English captions. https://www.youtube.com/c/umcafelaemcasa/videos
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.
Also re-learning modern JavaScript, and TypeScript too - I've been using JavaScript professionally since 2003, but always begrudgingly. And spending some time picking up Flutter (and Dart). We're doing more and more work on the front-end and on our mobile app, and as a technical founder it's good to have some idea of what's going on even if you're not writing the code yourself.
Learning to be a better manager too, one mistake at a time, as I've been doing for the past few years.
Topological Manifolds (Lee: Topological Manifolds)
Abstract Algebra (Dummit and Foote)
Geometric Algebra (Doran: Geometric Algebra for Physicists)
Differential Geometry (Fecko: Differential Geometry and Lie Groups for Physicists)
Though I'm less invested in these last two currently, as the diff geo's a prep for the masters I'll be doing and the other is something I'd really like to pursue but can't motivate myself to start working the problems out on.
I play around with some tech stuff, but nothing major -- just doing FreeCodeCamp and trying to keep my Python skills from going too rusty.
I'm fixing to start an Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics masters, so might review QM and CM as well as it's been a while since I've done them in school and I need a refresher, even if I hope to lean towards the 'Applied Math' (which is mostly numerical algorithms related, etc.) side of things in the masters.
Otherwise, I've been continuing working with Irish (Gaelic), and keep dabbling in some other languages, ranging from Spanish to Latin to Japanese. I also try to read widely in various topics from religious studies, philosophy to linguistics, psychology (I know...), sociology, pop science, etc. I've also bought an ocarina I need to try to practice since I'm off for the summer and don't have to worry about disturbing my roommate. But this is all mostly dabbling at this point, as I'm fixing to move countries for (at least) a year, so...
Our hypothesis is that there must be enzymes that works similarly with plant proteins as chymosin (part of rennet used in cheese making) works with casein.
So, I need to catch up on my bio basics to be able to better understand what's going on :-)
- 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 old fuck.
- Basic EE digital circuits and microcontrollers. One should really have a grasp how computers work on a fundamental level.
- Cooking. Because it is social, full of culture and makes you independent.
"Learning OpenCV 4 Computer Vision with Python 3: Get to grips with tools, techniques, and algorithms for computer vision and machine learning"
by Joseph Howse, Joe Minichino - 2020, Packt Publishing
available here (library genesis): http://libgen.lc/item/index.php?md5=9208FA33E5C1F93918E128F8...
Got a background in 3D and Programming, but I think the 3d industry has the same approach to problems as programming. Couple of frameworks and libraries and poof, you have an applications.
In 3d you grab a render engine, a light setup, some assets and poof, you have an image/game/animation. I miss the days that I 3d was exploring and experimentation. The alternative would be to dive into 1 subject (modeling, rendering, lighting, FX etc). But in my experience that just made me feel like a factory worker. Piece of concept art, here you go.
3D can really trap you into polishing a soulless turd, so I'm learning drawing. where you can't cut as many corners and enjoying the creative process again.
On the programming side I'm just enjoying work and learning on the job, also going back to the fundamentals like shell, sql and regex. It's amazing how much you can automate.
* The other thing I've been investigating is meta-learning techniques for predictive modeling, like ensembling, stacking and boosting (the kinds of techniques used in ML competitions) -- basically ways to combine statistical models to extract more signal without overfitting. At some point individual statistical models are limited in their ability to extract signal from data (even though the signals are there) -- and neural networks are a step too far because of the data volume requirements -- so learning how to combine multiple models is the way to go. None of this stuff is new and I'm a few years late to the game but better late than never.
I routinely keep a web page updated with all my learning projects, both the ones I did and the ones I'd like to do [1]. I found that it keeps me accountable, plus it might be useful for some.
This thread is a gold mine of ideas to expand it!
So 6 months ago, I quit my job, published a short book, then studied AI. It's funny how so many material makes the vast assumption that you already know so much. They gloss over activation functions, loss functions, vanishing gradients, or the most fundamental things like properly loading your data. No one even tells you how to load the data!
Anyway, I got my Deep Learning Specialization certificate, I watched all 3blue1brown videos, I built a smart assistant that runs on raspberry pi in my car. The goal is to have it Assist the driver, with blind spots and keeping the eyes on the road.
Think of Facebook. You create a post and see it on your wall right away. The rest of the world doesn't need to see it right away, but you should or else you think the post wasn't saved. Does that post get saved in some db/cache specific for you, and _then_ an event is emitted?
But yes, I'm learning things like that.
Running - also relearning, which happened quickly this time. I'm already back to running 5ks after just a few weeks (though I also spent 6 months building up my cardio with a rowing machine).
How to be offline and focused. Computers (and smartphones) are fantastic tools of distraction. I'm trying to regain my focus overall. Reading physical texts is helping immensely with this. I've mostly reinstated my personal "no tech in the sitting room" rule, aside from my Kindle Fire which is sufficiently anemic to be useful as a reader and not as major distraction with other media.
• I’d quite like to learn how to do ‘low-level stuff’, particularly microcontrollers — I rediscovered an old Arduino which I’ve had some fun playing around with. I particularly want to get to the point where I can write low-level Forth code and flash it to the microcontroller. Also, I should learn assembly language at some point, but it’s proving difficult since I’m on Windows.
• Relatedly, I want to learn the basics of electrical engineering. My physics degree has given me a good overview of the underlying concepts, but I still can’t even design a basic circuit for my Arduino.
• I have very little knowledge of how the networking stack works, so I’m thinking of getting myself a Raspberry Pi and learning how to build and host my own website.
• Wrt linguistics (a favourite subject of mine), I’d like to learn more about morphosyntactic alignment, specifically split intransitivity and alignment in person marking. I have a whole stack of papers stored up which I’d like to read.
• Time management — I feel like I have so much time but am wasting most of it.
Luckily, university vacation started this week, so I may even get enough time to learn some of these!
Edit: In the past I've tried to do too many things at once and ended up making only limited progress on any of them as a result, so I'm trying to focus on just 1 or 2 things at a time now.
Kitesurf is really nice but you need to account for a few lessons before you can even stand on the board and prob a few more before you can rent on your own. In my case I did 6h base course, then another 10h with the teacher, typically 2h/day.
Windsurf you can start cruising around much faster, so I guess it's more rewarding immediately. This said many ppl told me that the progression is the opposite, meaning that with Kite you get better quickly, but with Wind it takes a lot of effort to grow from beginner.
On the language/stack side I'm deepening typescript and nestjs (nest with a S, not next) and will prob play more with rust soon.
I think planning is extremely neglected and undervalued for what it is. The field is a mess, but there's real opportunity now with all the progress in reinforcement learning.
Working in 3D has opened my eyes to new possibilities. I believe that having skills in 3D will become very important over the next five years with adoption of mixed reality hardware.
1. 'Write a Interpreter in Go' by Thorsten Ball
2. 'Write a Compiler in Go' by Thorsten Ball
3. 'Crafting Interpreters' by Bob Nystrom
4. 'Ruby under a Microscope' by Pat Shaughnessy
Also, I'm trying to learn Racket in my spare time.
Creative Focus: Since the beginning of the pandemic, I’ve been reducing the number of projects I take on to the ones that bring me the most joy. I manage an engineering org during the day and compose music by night, and have often felt I needed to —be- all aspects of each world. I felt I couldn’t lead my team without being fluent in every language, framework, ideology that they employ. In music, I felt like I needed to run multiple bands reflecting my range as a player, book those, publish a podcast on a regular cadence, make noise about what I’m doing every 2 weeks on the socials,etc. Now I practice, work on the projects I love, and invest time in my next learning area:
Teaching my team Conscious Self-leadership: I’m responsible for amplifying the superpowers of the humans on my team in an org that has a lot of 'old-world' patterns - expecting a parent to come in and solve your problems, expecting one person to issue an edict on technical direction without collaboration, expecting articulation of a goal to be enough, etc. I'm sure there are jargon words you can point me to for the patterns I'm seeing - I'm still on my first cup of coffee. In a remote-first world, people of all personality stripes need space to lead themselves where their most energized/joyful, and making that space can feel byzantine, but I don't think it has to. So: I'm sharpening patterns and techniques that I'm seeing work.
Villa-Lobos Etudes: I've been a guitarist for just about 40 years (yikes) and finally dug into these last year. I feel I'll be exploring them for the rest of my life, finding new things to work through every week.
Music Engraving: I'm publishing some pieces of mine (including https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmvI6H64SPI and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M7vOIHOeeU) and am learning a ton about how to make a beautiful page of music for guitarists with my mentor John Stropes.
Ideally I'd like to press a button on the site and have it generate a manuscript - so far I've been looking at a combination of markdown, pandoc, and LaTeX for the formatted form. From what I understand that's frowned upon for Real Publishers, but works well for the DIY process (amazon, book baby, Ingram). I'm playing around with LaTeX templates now, and have a subsection of the book laid out manually now, using various guidelines I can find for font, font size, margins, etc.
I'm also writing a separate book more having to do with how people can respectfully share reasoned conclusions with each other - for that, I'm also using a LaTeX book template and am just writing it in LaTeX, since it's kind of fun to see an approximation of what the actual book would look like as I write it.
There's a long way to go on learning this though and I haven't found a lot of good resources, so I'm definitely open to suggestions for folks who have written good technical dynamic pipelines for book publishing - particularly anything that can be wired into a web backend that starts with markdown data.
I learned Japanese for several years and decided to learn something new, but I wanted the same experience I had for learning Japanese. There's just an insane dearth of GOOD learning tools for Japanese.
It turns out there's good stuff for Piano too, but none hit the right spot. So I made my own learning tool called Piano Gym.
Piano Gym is flash cards + midi piano + spaced repetition to teach you music theory and performance using actual sheet music and music theory tools.
It's SUPER cool, and I stream myself using it every day. I have a whole curriculum using a Piano method's book, so it's exciting to know that the content I'm going through is actually made by someone else.
I made a ShowHN post, but this site is weird, so if you're interested you can see that here.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27304875
Either way, it's pretty cool to learn using a tool I created. Excited to keep it going!
I'm surprised by those who commented that they're learning multiple unrelated subjects at once. Are you learning anything beyond a superficial level? Or is the goal to pique your curiosity on a new subject and then decide if you want to make it your core focus?
I had spent a lot of time prepping before starting my training, so some stuff has been expected but other stuff has been a pleasant surprise.
One of the things that crosses over to engineering is the concept of flows. This idea that you’re constantly wanting to check on certain items throughout flight, and then at different phases of flight work through a flow.
You have checklists that you use and reference, but certain flows you commit to memory. This is very similar to incident response work as someone who has been in infrastructure for the last decade. How I triage and work through a problem has a very specific flow to it that helps me quickly sort out where the issue is (even if it doesn’t immediately tell me how to fix it). I always love seeing how two skills, like engineering and flying, can have correlated patterns.
For anyone with a love of aviation, go take a discovery flight. General aviation flying is a wonderful thing.
I am using C/C++ to program the library while learning essential concepts.
- PC Modding, Who would say that soldering and re arranging power supplies would be fun!
- Gardering. Gives me mental peace.
Need to build a stack consisting of Kubernetes (zero downtime, volumes), Docker for images, Django Rest Framework (backend), Nginx (reverse proxy for static files), Uwsgi (for Nginx-Django coordination), Next.js (front), Postgresql (db), Flux (for syncing with private docker registry images using maybe semver and for github repository polling), Ansible (for agentless initial configuration for test/qa/production servers), and Github Actions for CI (maybe later CD; servers allow only polling at the moment).
So I'm learning Dart and Flutter. Flutter (which uses Dart), now has some full support for web in its latest version, so it's a real possibility I might get to propose we create some front end parts of our app in Flutter web, and even suggest we adopt it for the mobile version of our product.
We are going to do some kind of mobile version, but are currently thinking about a PWA using either React or Vue.
Apart from that, I really need to improve my knowledge of PHP design patterns.
I hope that I can meet an artist some day and participate in a game jam.
- Databases : in the past I feel that I've learned too heavily on ORMs, so lately I've been trying to learn how databases actually work. Things like how to interpret execution plans, the data structures used for indexes, etc. Found some really cool tools like Postgrest & Postgraphile that are making me more interested in database-centric apps.
- Math : as a self taught dev that studied English in college, I was never exposed to much math. But I love thinking about the underlying patterns and structures of anything, and math seems to be an invaluable tool in doing this. Not sure how I'm going to self-teach math (or where to begin), but the little bit of discrete math I've learned has been super fascinating.
It feels good to be a total beginner and then slowly learn different tricks/moves.
Sadly, it's gonna take me some more learning and experimenting to get there.
[1] - https://itp.uni-frankfurt.de/~gros/StudentProjects/Projects_...
[2] - All the online code examples I can find are using three.js or WebGL shaders and I have a stubborn belief that this is doable in vanilla JS using the 2D canvas API. Just because I've failed so far doesn't mean it's a Bad Idea!
For non coding related stuff: acoustic guitar and French.
(I know it is supposed to be pronounced 'geeks' but I can't help but want to say 'goo-eeks')
So far I've had more failed prints than successes over the last week or two, but I'm still excited to be doing it. I'm learning the ins and outs, which were different from the last printers I worked with. The wheels are churning as to what I can make, and I'm very excited to continue exploring and "resharpening" the skills that I once had.
On a broader level, I'm learning about creating APIs/microservices.
On an even broader level, I'm learning how to make (architectural) decisions and run projects.
At home I'm looking at Common Lisp and APL (which are so far out of my frame of reference I can feel my brain hurting when I sit down to them).
I used to be afraid of the water - especially natural bodies of water. This comes from learning to swim late due to tubes in my ears. So rivers carry a lot of mystique for me. I got into class 2-3 whitewater kayaking as a teenager, gained confidence in rivers, then did a bit more after college.
Recently, in my 40s, I realized “it’s ok to have interests your partner/family doesn’t”. Somehow this was a eureka for me to find more hobbies away from coding. So for me kayaking has been a part of that and my family has been supportive. Hopefully I'll find a local group that shares my interest at my beginner skill level :)
Started implementing some algs in Rust, just to learn it. Liz Bradley seems super impressive as a teacher and researcher, haven't heard easier explanations for complex concepts :) The course is mind blowing to me so far.
There's more on the https://www.complexityexplorer.org/ website.
Right now I suppose I'm semi-actively learning Erlang & OTP (I vastly prefer the syntax compared to Elixir).
In the future I want to learn more about the BEAM (how it's implemented, my basic details are good but I'd like to get to internals). I want to learn about compilers too, to be able to for example contribute to BEAM. Oh, and I want to learn lisp + work through SICP.
edit: oh also just the small matter of Mathematics (from like half way through GCSE to A Level). Russian would also be interesting.
- FoundryVTT. My friends and I have tried a couple of times to run some remote DnD games over the last several years on Roll20 and Virtual Table Top, with mixed results. Discovered Foundry and am very excited to try it out, though there is a bit of a learning curve to get a game up and running.
- Procreate. I almost majored in Graphic Design as an undergrad but since switching to STEM haven't done much artwork. I've been using Procreate on my iPad to create isometric assets for the above-metioned Foundry VTT DnD session.
It's elegant but it's build-times are pretty terrible.
It has the RPC stuff built-in but I've never seen anyone use it in production and instead folks are doing redis or
something else traditional.
It has elegant process management but it's cloaked in magic (that you have to carefully learn).
Also, in my free time during work I'm trying to improve my writing by creating technical and leadership blog posts...it's difficult!
This is not learning a skill, but it is an enabler for learning: first, using the correct sources for studying which will be identified, and first, because it will be projectedly a time-saver (processing bad information is very time consuming, a waste).
So, not sure if this fits the question - spent a lot of time learning new tech, focusing on non-tech for a short period of time. I feel that I have been overlooking that side of skill-set.
learning quantum-resistant crypto - Learning With Errors and variants. Because they interest me, however, little direct value to work.
Generally how to provision a server and deploy an app on it. Mostly to migrate slow-and-steady workloads off my laptop, but also as a skill in its own right.
Language learning: Julia. I tried porting some models to Rust, it has its strengths, but if you need matrices as a first-class feature - just don't.
I have wanted to produce some useful tutorials on coding and robots for kids. I taught some lessons at my daughter's school. This gave me some great insight, but I want to reach a bigger audience online.
I am finding that thumbnail, title, and how well you structure your cuts into a story makes a big difference. I am mostly trying things out and seeing how an audience responds to a video in terms of average view duration.
Otherwise: Japanese for 2-3 hours a day (will hopefully pass the N2 exam in December), and have also been reading a lot of pedagogical theory lately, and will implement some of it in a curriculum that I'm proposing soon (My day job is teaching).
Feels like there is potential for something interesting to emerge in the knowledge + social graph layer/squad/studio operating models.
Particularly with everyone moving around now and the increasingly fine lines between legal corporate entities, co-living, creative work, and intellectual property.
Open to any recommended readings on the topic, or just to chat about tangential spaces!
I've been developing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27627381 using Django and its templates for UI. This became unmanageable fast. These days there are wonderful volunteers, who help me. We've chosen React for the UI and I learn it to be able to contribute to and maintain the new UI.
Will hit the books on how Data Clean Rooms work once the fall comes.
Deno’s locked-down permission system and wide support of browser APIs is really cool, and they’ve been cooking up some really cool stuff (see their new Deploy cloud service).
hope to release in a few months
After that getting Grafana, Prometheus and Influxdb going.
On a more relaxed note, also learning more techniques about how to do proper gardening to grow more veggies and flowers.
Machine learning - how it works behind the scenes was really insightful.
(Currently working as a PHP backend developer, Drupal.)
Cooking- trying to make 25 recipes for each of the Eight Great Traditions of Chinese cuisine. Just finished Fujian, doing Cantonese now.
Biking- exploring different markets and bakeries in the city I live in.
GeoGuessr.
I'm an SRE and my company has had these as pain points for years... Might need to learn how to advocate for adoption next XD.
Also looking into ML for time series data (metrics). Greykite and Kats seem to be interesting candidates.
I've been skateboarding more and reading my books about statistics in a no pressure, leisurely manner.
Given the decline of European culture, law is on really shaky philosophical foundations. I’d seriously like to figure out if Roman law concepts can be refounded upon something like Vedanta.
I'm also smoking ribs for the first time today, that should be a fun learning experience.
It's actually quite similar to React meets Ruby or something, but without the nested dependency breakages you get with node in React. Anyway, client wanted so client gets.
I’m building up the side hustle gradually to escape the soul-sucking grind of the day job, and being a good manager of an outsourced team will allow me to take things to the next level.
I have a strong hypothesis that working on my side projects full time would make me happier. These days I focus on noticing my own problems and exploring whether others have them too.
Just taking it slower this time, doing ALL the examples and trying stuff for myself.
It's going way better than my first attempt about a year ago.
I'm 31 and for whatever reason (financial, time etc), kept putting off need to learn and acquire this basic skill set until I felt helpless in certain situations.
- Exploring Manifestation and subconscious mind.
Would also like to learn knapping and more about blacksmithing, but hard to find someone to learn from around here.
- how to fix my xaomi m365 battery
- Japanese
- basics of koi ponds, for a gift to my mother in law
- cooking with a instant pot
- ayurveda
Computer org and design (risc-v) with Patterson
Digital signal processing
For that PDF parser I wrote a Packrat parsing engine, which I think might end up as a useful way to explore some of the possible optimizations that could be applied to Packrat to reduce its dismaying constant factors in both memory and time. So I've been learning a lot about Packrat too.
I've been learning about the Imp language, which is a sort of followup to Eve, and it has a lot of really interesting concepts in it. But I wouldn't say I'm "learning Imp" yet.
This weekend I learned to use an old Arduino with Sigrok as a logic analyzer and get Sigrok to decode the PS/2 keyboard protocol.
I've been learning about the history of political philosophy and social movements, much of which is very unsavory.
I've been learning about economics and current events. Did you know that China now produces more than half the world's cement? Or that their electrical power generation has doubled over the last decade? Or that in tropical and subtropical countries photovoltaic power plants are not only cheaper than building coal or nuclear plants, they're cheaper than keeping existing ones running? Or that the Federal Reserve permanently stopped publishing M2 monetary supply data in February, after updating it monthly for 41 years?
Last night I melted glass with a torch for the first time, but I don't think I can reasonably say I'm "learning glassblowing" yet. I didn't cool it slowly enough and it cracked as it cooled. I did learn vermiculite will stick to glass if the glass is soft enough for long enough.
This month I learned about Melisa Orta Martinez's brilliantly simple "Haplink" design for a two-degree-of-freedom mechanical actuator and encoder, originally designed for haptic user interface research, but in my view much more broadly applicable.
I've been learning about planetary roller screws, which with modern advanced digital fabrication technology could plausibly replace a lot of existing linear actuators with significant improvements in precision and achievable reduction ratios. Also I think you can use them as a worm gear to get these benefits and more for rotary motion. I haven't built one yet.
I've been learning about the RISC-V instruction set and some of the issues that go into designing and implementing such a thing. But I haven't written a RISC-V simulator yet.
I've been learning about exotic mineral cements like "geopolymers", aluminum borate, and aluminum phosphate, which can be precipitated hydrothermally as well as with high-temperature reactions. But I haven't synthesized them yet, just calcium phosphate.
I've been folding origami from strange materials. Aluminum foil, aluminum window screen, corrugated cardboard (must precompress your crease pattern), aluminum cans, plastic coke bottle walls.
I've been learning how to keep my potted plants alive and deal with insect pests.
I've been learning more about abstract algebra (the conventional kind, with rings, lattices, and semigroups, not category theory) and how it relates to algorithm design.
I've been learning about food-product rheology, and how thixotropic flow isn't quite the same thing I thought it was, nor is it caused by the same causes. Thixotropy is super important for digital fabrication.
I've been reading about filled polymer systems, especially the kinds of surface treatments used to adjust the adhesion between the matrix and the fillers. I wouldn't say I'm learning it yet because I haven't been able to get much of anything to work. But I will, if I can stay alive a bit longer.
I'm learning how widespread outright fraud is on MercadoLibre. The last thing I bought there was a "1600x1200" USB microscope which turned out to be 640x480 (from DUAITEK). I also got a "600 watt" immersion blender that turned out to be 300 watts. I'd like to take "Origins of Persistent National Poverty" for $800, Alex.
I'm learning that HN doesn't value people like me, and I'd be better off spending my time elsewhere.
I am learning more about Transformers architecture and modern NLP using the Hugging Face API.
Building a computer from scratch using nand2tetris on Sundays.
Learning to meditate following a detailed meditation guide. This has been working better than I expected.
Going on and off with learning classical music online (with a piano).
Learning German.
I am primarily focused on learning deploying AI to embedded devices right now. Working with the TinyML book and the course on edX.
As someone who does Computer Vision for a living, and always loved Electronics in college (no microcontrollers experience), I am finding it right at home with this. I wish I had started earlier. Really liking the experience.