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What technologies are you going to learn in 2020?

I saw this thread on HN and thought it would be a good question to ask here, too!

What new tech are you going to learn this year?

What tech you already use are you going to dig deeper into?

  1. 7

    ✨ New tech

    • Rust: I'm interested in it because it's a fantastic compliment to Elixir. It's also got some interesting use cases with WASM and it's great for CLIs and other native programs. I wrote a simple roguelike game in Rust last month and it was a fun way to get started learning!
    • Streaming data system design: I've bought a book on it and am very interested in how to architect this kind of thing in a non-naive way.
    • Blockchain?: Can't say for sure on this one. I'm definitely interested but I'm afraid it's a rabbit hole that will suck up too much of my time

    ⛏️ Digging deeper into

    • Elixir: I teach it, so I really have a strong incentive to keep digging deeper into its ecosystem. I'm also using Elixir to build more products, so it's a double win.
    • Databases: Along with things like Unix and VIM, learning about databases just keeps on paying off.
    • API design: I'm offering a public facing API to my customers in my upcoming product, so this is also key.
    1. 2

      Also looking into Rust this year!

      Side note: for your public facing API project, I'm currently working on a project that could help in that regard. Lightfront (https://getlightfront.com) helps secure public APIs by handling API key provisioning and validation, throttling, etc. I'm currently looking for more folks to try out the closed beta, let me know if you have any interest!

    2. 1

      What's the book on streaming data design?

      1. 1

        Check out Designing Data-Intensive applications by Martin Kleppmann.

      2. 1

        It's just Streaming Data, written by Andrew G. Psaltis.

  2. 6

    Not so much of new tech but go deep into "old/boring techs" is my goal for this year:
    go language, PostgreSQL, javascript

    1. 1

      Go has been my language of choice for the past 2 years after years of Python, good choice!

    2. 1

      The JavaScript part may push you into some new things (either totally new or just new for you) before the year is up!

      1. 2

        With the new release cycle of the standard this indeed a true statement :)

  3. 3

    Go dipper with Python and improve my Django Framework skill to build a better version of my product.

  4. 2

    I use Ruby and Python heavily at work. So those are two languages that definitely will be top of the charts. Even trying to learn Postgres ninja skills and database modelling.

    For a side-project, I'm using Elixir Phoenix. I've followed your tutorials @alchemist, they have helped me a lot. Was planning to pick a functional lang since a long time. Tried to pick Clojure, but it is so difficult to think in functional. Elixir seemed familiar, even Phoenix (Rails like).

    Frontend wise, I'm falling for Svelte and Tailwind. I've used React, but felt very verbose. Svelte seems nice, I don't know how far someone will go developing UIs. Will pick that up doing a side-project.

    My design skills are pathetic, so trying to read around how to improve them. Learning about Figma and Design languages (integrating them in a project). The more I read, more I feel like I don't know much :(

  5. 2

    New: AWS, Web Animations

    Dig Deeper: Cypress.io and other javascript automation frameworks as they are vital to my product https://uppington.io

  6. 2

    I'd like to learn how to implement a third-party key-value store like Redis to move session handling and api throttling from my app

  7. 2

    New:

    • Next.js
    • Android programming with Kotlin
    • GraphQL

    Deeper:

    • Javascript
    • CSS (specifically transitions, animations, grid, etc)
    • More AWS services

    This is also the year I'm going to start learning how to draw (signed up for a four-week basics class through a local art school) so I may get a wacom tablet and start learning to draw digitally too.

  8. 2

    I expect to deepen my understanding of Elixir and Elm. Both have proven to be worth deeper investment.

    I’ll add Rust to the stack, since I need a systems-level language.

    I plan to remove more languages and frameworks from my stack than I will add. I want more depth, not breadth.

    I also plan to return to my CS roots and sharpen the fundamental skills that transcend individual languages and frameworks - algorithms, data structures, etc.

  9. 2

    I’m going to focus on really learning procedural coding with PHP 5.1 and maybe even building web apps with Wordpress as a framework!

  10. 2

    Double down on React, tried Svelte but it's too rough around the edges to maintain beside other React projects.
    Relearn Typescript and try to use it for most of the new projects.
    I'm just in the process of learning Rust and this seems like a great investment given the continuous development of WebAssembly and it's possibilities.

  11. 2

    New - Firebase
    Deeper - Webflow

  12. 2

    New: Shopify integration

    Deeper: Azure (specifically: cost, choosing the right tools for the job, Azure Functions), Blazor + Xamarin Forms.

    Pretty sporadic, I know. But I think having the ability to build some good Shopify tools could be valuable.

    1. 1

      How is your experience with Blazor so far? I've been intrigued by what seems like the promise of both fantastic productivity (for someone deep in the .Net world) plus better performance than is possible with JS alone.

      1. 2

        It has been pretty good so far. I have only done minimal experimenting with it. But since I did quite a bit of Silverlight (RIP) development in the past, and have been doing angular for the past few years, it seems pretty standard when it comes to the patterns they are encouraging. No major complaints as of yet. Anywhere that you feel like you can't do something, there's a way to bridge it to javascript to accomplish what you need. So I think it is a matter of adding more and more capabilities to the C# side of things so javascript will be needed less. Still continuing to learn. But so far so good. I think it will be better when client-side rendering is released (March, i believe), as right now everything is server-side rendered and dom updates are somehow passed to the client through a SignalR-ish methodology, if i understand correctly.

  13. 2

    Machine Learning and Elasticsearch is on my list of things to do.

  14. 2

    New: PWAs

    Dig deeper: JAMstack - React, GatsbyJS, Netlify

  15. 2

    New: Svelte
    Digging deeper: Backend, GraphQL

  16. 2

    I am planning to carry on learning GraphQL and hoping to make a start on Python.

  17. 2

    As a backend developer I’ve always hated how the industry is trying to move towards front end only. But this year I decided “if you can’t beat em, join em”. So I’m launching my 2nd SaaS this year, and I decided to ditch the backend and make a Vue application.

    I’m really liking it so far. I plan on doubling down on Vue and learning it very well this year.

    1. 1

      I've moved steadily in the opposite direction, but either way surveying the landscape and continued learning is a win!

      That said, I've also settled on Vue as my favorite choice for a SPA.

    2. 1

      Welcome to the dark side

  18. 2

    New:
    AWS

    Dig Deeper:
    Javascript

  19. 2

    My plan is to actually NOT learn any new technology. I just want to build stuff this year :)

    1. 3

      You will probably learn something by building...

      1. 1

        I am trying to stick only to the technologies I know and not go after the next shiny-thing. I guess I am learning hooks in React, but the syntax is so much simpler than components that's not really much of a learning curve.

    2. 1

      Then why are you hanging out in the developer group? Get out and go build! 🤣

  20. 2

    New tech

    • Mobile apps: I have my eye on Vue Native since I'm already familiar with vue. I'd also like to dabble with swift and Kotlin.

    Digging deeper

    • Linux: I've been using Ubuntu for my desktop for the past 3 years. I can't imagine using anything else but boy have I learned how little I really know about it.
    • "My stack": I've jumped around a lot the past few years and I'm really looking forward to doubling down on python, vue.js, and postgres this year. I feel like I've finally found "my stack" and now I'm more interested in honing and mastering my craft as opposed to chasing new shiny things.
    1. 1

      Linux
      That is sooooo worth it! Stuff I've learned related to VIM, bash, grep, awk, SystemD etc, has stayed useful and just kept paying off over time. I can't say the same for my once valuable knowledge of Backbone.js.

      A similar one I forgot to post was Git. Little stuff like knowing git add -u to only add updated files or some details about the .git/config file have made life easier and I want to learn more.

      1. 2

        Git is a good one. I feel like I never actually learned git, I just learned a few commands and sometimes I pick up new ones.

        If you have any books or resources for learning more about linux, send them my way!

        1. 2

          Digital Ocean has some great getting started tutorials

          For full books, I'm a fan of No Starch Press's Linux stuff, particularly The Linux Command Line. I also suspect Your Linux Toolbox is excellent based on the author's previous work, but I haven't bought it yet.

      2. 1

        Heck yeah, ricing out my Arch install right now!

  21. 0

    I'm going to learn how to pick the right developer to do the job right, so I don't have to learn the tech myself. So, I'm going to learn "outsourcing" technologies. Is that a thing?

    1. 1

      This is hardest thing mentioned in the thread haha.

  22. 0

    No Code (learn and dig deeper into)

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    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

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    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

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    This comment was deleted a year ago.

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        This comment was deleted a year ago.

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