What could a geek in his forties learn in 1000 hours for a more exciting career?

Great topics. How about algorithms, networks, and design patterns? There's also a lot of in-depth computer science stuff you can learn from Coursera.

Haskell. I'm still on the journey but it's changed the way I think about programming already (always worthwhile!). You might also consider clojure for the same kind of effect but likely more real world utility if you come from Java land.

Some great suggestions on what would be interesting to study have already been made but - I suspect that this is about something more - it is about redirecting a career. Looking for some rigour and a new purpose.

If miriadis wants to stay in a management type role - what skills and experience should he be gaining to re-energise himself and make his future contribution in that role something special.

Perhaps miriadis wants to shift towards a developer role - if so - in what sort of company and thus what sort of skills should be acquired?

How to move mountains in prayer.

If I were you, I would focus on business side of things. You are fast approaching to a point where ageism will start to bite. A purely technical skill set can be very limiting when it does.

I think the question you might ask is a little different. Do you want to improve at your current job or do you want a better job (with the same generous employer)?

If you want a better job, you need to learn soft skills. Focus on marketing, managing & finance. I'd also get your english skills to 100%, even if that's not your homeland. Lots of companies place a higher value on bilingual employees.

If you want to focus on improving the skill set you currently use, I'd look for resume buzzwords. Find a current trend technology & make an impact in a open source project. E.g. Node.js (or one of the frameworks), Go, Hadoop, etc...Hit it hard and mean make an impact. Ask people involved in those areas what needs work. Find a weak spot and tackle it. Publish your work on Github.

I know that sounds cheap and dirty. However, nobody will notice that you read Kernigan & Richie or Code Complete. Anyhow, you'll get more from the fundamentals when you see it in practice.

Plus if you help an open source project, you will get to meet all kinds of smart people who will help you because that's how it works. And you might even get to help someone less far along than you.

I am 32 so it might be easy for me to give advice to you as a 42 year old but here it goes. You seem to have a good personal life and a decent professional life even though "boring" as you put it. It seems like the boredom and the desire to do something new/exciting has hit you which has already hit me by the way :). The real question is: Have you considered the risk factor ? You may not realize but you have a lot to lose if you do take the risk and try something new.I am in no way suggesting that you should not do it. I just want you to assess the following:

How bad do you want this ? Are you just bored and want to try something new for a change OR do you actually want to pursue a whole new career path/entrepreneurship etc. Big difference b/w the 2. A lot more at risk if you go for the second one but hopefully a lot more reward as well.

P.S: Your English seems pretty good to me.

I'm 30, and just entering the Planner phase of my career. I can see where a few years down the road I'd be in a similar position. My percentage of time coding has dropped to 5% or lower, and I'm already itching to learn something new. Looking ahead, I think I'd focus on functional languages, asynch patterns, scaleable architecture, i8n patterns, and hardware. I'd stay away from the "Web app" and desktop spaces; I think we've reached peak web app.

In fact, the hardware category makes me feel the best, what with the "Internet of things" coming in vogue. If I were in your shoes, I'd get a 3-d printer and some raspberry pis and come up with weird, creative things that may or may not serve a realistic purpose. It's never been easier to get involved in the maker culture, but I already feel like I don't have the time and expertise to capitalize on it properly. This is probably where I'd spend my time.

If you are a computer engineer and have prior knowledge of programming, you should be able to pick up any new language or technology in a very short time. With 1000 hours (that is 5 months of 5 day weeks) you have more than enough time to: find an interesting startup idea, learn the necessary technologies, build it, test it, launch it and validate with potential customers. If it doesn't work you just go back to your old day job. There is nothing to lose.

Combining computer with art and design is what I think would be interesting.

User Interface design, writing an indy video game with Unity. Something along those lines

Could you go to a conference to add in some social events that are programming-related? Perhaps having self-imposed deadlines and social support would be helpful.

Do you know any programmers that could be a bit of a mentor?

I went through a career pivot going from mostly web development to mobile programming. The big thing for me was to release your own apps and to create good tech demos.

Thanks for all the comments. This is really a great community.

Any suggestion about a promising technology stack to be mainstream in five years?

The truth is that you can learn everything covered by the new buzz words out there. However, unless you have a real use case for them or serious about finding ways to use them. You will just be wasting your time. Might as well spend more time with family and just enjoy life.

You can go ahead and learn something new. However, you need to set your expectations right. Unless you are a genius (which you may be. i just have never met you or know anything about you), the new language for you will just be a hobby. Making a career out of a hobby and compete with others who have being doing it for a while is hard unless you are dedicated. Or it could be that you just want to learn it and have fun. No one knows yourself better than other people. So you will know what your realistic expectations are and whether you are okay with it.

That being said, my approach would actually not be trying to start with picking a new language. Each language is good at certain contexts. For example, you use node if you want to do long polling because it's unreasonably low memory usage per connection. Each nosql database has its pros and cons towards what you are trying to do.

My advice will be try to build something and pick languages and backends based on what you are trying to build. You already have 2 side projects. Maybe start with a mobile project this time? Try to look into your day to day life and see if there some little and fun tasks you can solve using new technologies? I think you will learn in a much more relevant context this way.