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Ask HN: What skills/things are you learning?

by sawirricardo on 8/14/24, 1:36 PM with 48 comments

• by solardev on 8/14/24, 3:18 PM

  I've been doing muay thai (kickboxing) for a few years and trying to get my girlfriend into it, but she doesn't like it much :/ Took her to a taekwondo class instead and she loved it, so gonna try that with her for a few months. Will be interesting starting a new martial art at 40 years old, lol...

  Also been taking vocal lessons at the local community college. Because karaoke, heh. Turns out the singing is way more fun than the drinking.

  Also trying to get more into climbing and mountain & gravel biking. My body aches everywhere all the damned time, and the dad bod makes it hard to do anything well, but that's ok :)

  Spread pretty thin, ultimately. This is how you end up being a lifelong amateur at many different things... it's all fun though, and I'd be hard pressed to give any of it up. I'm a nerd like anyone here, but it's nice to use different parts of the brain and body once in a while.

• by fuzzfactor on 8/14/24, 3:47 PM

  I'm finally learning to slow down on the attempts at self-improvement and put more effort into trying to pass on my findings ;)

  For one thing I've tried a lot of capos over the decades, and used a number of them on different instruments routinely, but was always disappointed by their effect on tuning, except for the Sabine capo which is long out of production:

  https://reverb.com/item/2776684-sabine-capo-1980s

  https://umgf.com/wtb-sabine-capo-remember-these-late-70-s-80...

  These were precise enough to use on an electric guitar without having to adjust tuning.

  Anyway, the hard plastic did deteriorate with age a long time ago so NOS they are not good any more either.

  I didn't really depend on it anyway, usually only using it to play tunes that were originally recorded with a capo, or to accommodate a vocalist's preferred key. It sure makes it easy to play in any key, whether sharp, flat, or natural, which is a very worthwhile thing to do.

  So worthwhile that I set an objective to be able to play in any key without a capo. This is not as easy.

  It took a few years but eventually when a singer was putting on their own capo I was not doing that and ready to play with the bare hands no matter what. Not that I'm a real musician, I need tricks like this to make me sound better than I actually am, and I admit it ;)

• by the__alchemist on 8/14/24, 2:34 PM

  Molecular biology. Building plasmid editor software, make some liquid cultures and glycerol stocks, did a miniprep, about to try transformation into competent cells, cloning, and expression.

• by sam29681749 on 8/14/24, 2:22 PM

  I'm learning to draw with the help a book called "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain".

• by shortrounddev2 on 8/14/24, 3:24 PM

  I dropped out of college to be a full time software engineer and I decided to go back to community college to learn more fundamental math. I'm starting a calculus class next week

• by EstanislaoStan on 8/14/24, 3:31 PM

  Unity modding via BepInEx and Harmony, I guess lol. https://github.com/Stan-Stani/SummerhouseFlipped

  Got back into drawing recently. https://www.instagram.com/p/C9Tdnj4uIlN/?img_index=1

• by klondike_klive on 8/14/24, 4:07 PM

  Sewing with my mother's machine that I inherited. I'm hoping to finish one of the projects she left unfinished. One of these days.

• by mikewarot on 8/14/24, 4:56 PM

  Learning how to use GitHub's CoPilot as a pair programmer to get me through doing C and Javascript programming, as part of my BitGrid project, so I can eventually have something worthy of ShowHN.

  I apparently also need to learn about VENV as it applies to python, so I can get WikidPad to run properly, as it's frozen in 2012-ish python.

• by themmes on 8/14/24, 5:33 PM

  I’ll soon start a course to learn operate a manual lathe and mill at a local workshop run by volunteers. I actually found a nice US army machinists guide to prepare for the course [0] as a welcome alternative to the youtube machining rabbit-hole. If others have other great text-based resources or advice on what to make as a beginner, I would love to hear about them!

  [0] https://archive.org/details/usarmymachinistcourseprincipleso...

• by randcraw on 8/14/24, 5:22 PM

  How to repair a 100 year old house:

  - replace window sash cords

  - repoint a rubblestone foundation and exterior brickwork

  - replace the surface of a deck

  - rebuild a rotted cellar door

  - till my yard where a large tree was removed

  - lots more small stuff

  Ask This Old House videos have been most helpful.

• by aristofun on 8/14/24, 3:30 PM

  Whatever current circumstances or values or life goals require me to.

  Recently: apache flink, scala, parenting, self regulation, patience :)

• by shanecleveland on 8/14/24, 5:34 PM

  Boat resto and outboard engine maintenance. On my second, bigger restoration (old fiberglass boats). Knee deep in electrical right now. I really want to get a smaller two-stroke outboard and fully take it apart and rebuild it, and work my way up to larger engines.

• by vouaobrasil on 8/14/24, 1:40 PM

  Nice! I'm learning Portuguese now. It's been a long journey of about two years but I can now have very basic conversations in it and read simple books. I don't have much time for it due to other constraints but it's fun.

• by Tomte on 8/14/24, 1:50 PM

  Educational Science, on evenings and weekends. Just handed in my bachelor‘s thesis.

• by stcroixx on 8/14/24, 5:18 PM

  I have a hobby farm and late summer is when all of the ducks and geese we hatched in the winter or early spring need to be butchered and put in the freezer. Get more efficient at it each year.

• by jcahill84 on 8/14/24, 4:55 PM

  Recently learned to fly and got my private pilot license. I'm working on an instrument rating next...

  I've also played drums most of my life and am planning to learn to play piano next year.

• by stonlyb on 8/14/24, 4:02 PM

  Half-way through "Essential Calculus-based Physics Study Guide Workbook: Waves, Fluids, Sound, Heat, and Light".

  Training for my first Muay Thai competitive fight.

• by linsomniac on 8/14/24, 2:09 PM

  I'm learning to pour a concrete slab this weekend.

• by adipandas on 8/14/24, 4:19 PM

  Learning quantization approaches in deep learning.

• by andrei_says_ on 8/14/24, 4:39 PM

  Tango, djembe (Senegalian rhythms), piano.

  Practicing each of these gives me pure joy and makes me feel invigorated and recharged, happy to be alive.

• by marssaxman on 8/14/24, 5:04 PM

  I have been learning to speak Dutch, and spend at least a few minutes practicing every day.

• by grepLeigh on 8/14/24, 4:06 PM

  Linear Algebra. I'm taking a class at a community college.

• by ssc23 on 8/14/24, 1:45 PM

  I am about to start learning architectural drawings

• by allanren on 8/14/24, 4:06 PM

  Learning using Figma with tailwindcss recently.

• by constantinum on 8/14/24, 3:17 PM

  Music(Piano)

  Cooking

  Finance management(investment instruments)

• by ToDougie on 8/14/24, 4:53 PM

  How to be a dad.

• by cranberryturkey on 8/14/24, 1:47 PM

  RAG with ollama