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$250 remaining of L&D budget – what to spend on?

29 points by czatt ↗ HN
Currently learning basic SQL (for free on Code Academy), already have a Coursera subscription for business courses. Interested in different forms of learning (MOOCs don't really engage me that well).

My background is in finance and I would like to learn more about product development and strategy. Also really keen on starting some new hobbies this year, so bite-sized learning of a variety of things would be great (to help me find something to deep-dive into!).

Books are fair game, as well as courses and productivity tools for this budget. Really anything that can be sold as professional or skill development, doesn't have to be associated with my role or the company.

22 comments

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Rotundo
Perhaps not what you're looking for, but...

Learn a language of a country that you might be doing business with in the future. Sure, everyone speaks English (do they though?) but even a little bit of their native language goes a long way establishing goodwill.

Even if not for profit, it grows your mind and that is never a bad thing.

purple-leafy
Do the nandtotetris course and buy the associated book

Then write your own hack pc emulator in C (buy a book on C)

absoluteunit1
AI Tool Testing

The market is currently flooded with AI tools so you could use all $250 on one month of various AI tools and try them out for next month. Then cancel whatever you don’t like and keep what you do; using the new years L&D budget on it each month.

Self Hosting (Hobby)

You could buy a Raspberry Pi and try self hosting some services.

Conferences

Find conferences next year that have tickets on sale now and buy in advance. For example my city has a monthly one for which you can by an annual subscription via one time payment

Engineering-MD
In your opinion which services are most worthwhile hosting on a rpi? I’m interested in it, but life always gets in the way.
thy77
Hi. My Yamaha receiver no longer has net radio access, so, an rPi for my internet radio preset physical button favorites. Same theory in the car rPi to play internet radio when you hit one of the physical FM presets.
echelon
Python or JavaScript programming.

These are not the best languages, but they are very approachable for beginners and open up so much optionality without too much difficulty.

Python gets you backend development (to use with your SQL), AI/ML, stats/science, simple desktop utilities, command line tools, and pygame for simple video games. Lots of things to explore.

JavaScript gets you web frontend, web backend (to use with your SQL), and gets you the "full stack" experience for writing web applications. There are also some game/3D tools where you can write little video games.

Either language would be a fantastic starting point into the world of programming. Both languages are in high demand, with JavaScript having a bit of a lead.

After you have one of these under your belt for a year, pick up the other one. Then reach for something totally different, like Rust, Swift, or Go. Something statically typed would be great. Make sure to inquire about what each language excels at - you're ultimately wanting to use the language to solve problems you're interested in.

Python and JavaScript are easy to pick up and fun to learn. There are a lot of interactive courses, and either language will serve you in your career no matter where it goes.

There are abundant materials and interactive courses for these languages, and some of them are even free. With your L&D budget you can probably sample several different ones or perhaps learn different aspects of each language.

888666
I used mine on a Claude AI pro subscription. You can get a year billed upfront for $216. Falls under productivity/learning tool.
jedberg
> I would like to learn more about product development and strategy.

Subscribe to Lenny's Newsletter:

https://www.lennysnewsletter.com?r=2vq60

That's my referral link, but you can strip it if you want. Lenny is an old friend, but more importantly, is considered the expert on product development and strategy. He headed up part of product at AirBnB for a long time, and he gets guests that have headed up product at equally well known places.

ldw24
product toolkit for product development, stratechery / every subscription for tech strategy
dSebastien
Learn more about Personal Knowledge Management and level up the way you learn and retain knowledge: https://dsebastien.net
sim7c00
second this. wife gave me a book called 'second brain', on note taking / knowledge management. definitely one of the more useful gifts i've received!
sloaken
I saw your link and thought the basic info was interesting. When I went to order, I notice 'TIP' ... WTF? 20% even. I know you can turn it off, but it highly offended me, for the following reasons:

1) TIP - To insure prompt service - its an online order. What no tip maybe obtain the material through a dial-up modem?

2) It is a course ... Next thing you know my rent due will come with a TIP request.

3) You never TIP the owner. Tipping the owner is an insult to the owner.

nozzlegear
He's using Gumroad (which I use as well). Gumroad turned on tipping as an opt-out feature for all sellers around one or two months ago. If you had a product you were already selling on Gumroad, like I was, the tipping feature was automatically enabled for the product and you have to go in and manually turn it off.

I felt the same way you do about tipping for an info product, but I left mine on and people do use it; turning it off would be turning down extra income.

packtreefly
> TIP - To insure prompt service

FYI, this backronym is nonsensical. It would only make sense if the gratuity were paid in advance, and then again only were it called a "tep," to ensure promptness.

scarface_74
An annual PluralSight subscription
lizzas
This is good. It defers the decision as to what to learn!
michele_f
What does L&D mean?
sshtml
Learning & Development (i.e. books, courses, or similar "professional skill development" resources)
_kb
It feels overhyped from YT ads but honestly brilliant.org is pretty good for drilling fundamentals of math, CS, and adjacent fields if you have any weak spots there.