Ask HN: How do you stay sharp?

1) Go to, present at, local meetups, unconferences. 2) Get involved in OSS projects. 3) Find a mentor. 4) Job hop to something that challenges you and probably pays you more as well.

Find a bigger pond. Big fish in small pond is a good way for short term benefits, but it limits the growth.

Try something new outside of software. You will learn some new things that will kick-off new learning in software.

What are your side projects? IMO learning is only useful is it lets you build something.

Take on more responsibility at work, either do it on your own or ask for more from your boss, say you want to do more, you feel you can do more.

Or start contributing to meetups, be out there, and get another job that is a step up.

Or try and make a product on your own, even if it is a silly idea, until you launch it. Do it again.

1-1.5 years isn't a plateau don't stress too much, that you want to do more is nearly all you need to climb, there are countless people that don't want anything more

Surround yourself with people far smarter than you are. Bring up interesting topics that you want to learn about but can also contribute to, let them fill in the gaps. Ask them what they are most interested in at this moment. Ideally do prior steps while buying them drinks.

Sounds like you're doing all of the right things. Try reading material from outside your primary interests: biology, pure maths, civil engineering, electronics, chemistry, etc. Ideas are not born in a vacuum and over-specialization can sometimes give you the illusion of progress. I find digging into a new subject exciting and it often gives me new connections or angles to programming and maths that I wouldn't have otherwise encountered before.

As for commercial applications... well software for business is usually dry and boring grunt work. Interesting, innovative, and challenging are, paradoxically, antithetical to commercial software. You want reliable, boring, and simple. Perhaps you need to look for a research position or take a risk and start a venture based on one of your ideas.

>I read. I work on side projects. I learn new programs like Sketch, take classes on Udemy and Coursera

Sounds like you are already doing more to improve than most!

>I'm not learning that much on the job anymore, just adding value to the company.

Do you feel like you are often the smartest person in the room where you currently work? If so, time to move some place where that isn't the case. I find working with people more skilled than myself is the fastest way to improve. Sure, your ego will take a hit, but it is worth it for the self-improvement benefits.

However, short of places like Google, I'm not sure how to go about finding a place with more skilled people. Can't know for sure until you are actually working there.

Start your own company: you'll learn a ton, and be forced to stay sharp, since your survival depends on it.

> I work on side projects.

I'm intrigued this is here, because when I read the title this was my immediate suggestion.

In my experience there's no better way to learn than working on side projects that explore technologies that you don't already know. Is this what you do?

Writing an app on the same framework/languages as you use at work is also definitely valuable, it'll give you more depth of knowledge that's then directly applicable at work (in fact when starting a new job I recommend doing exactly this) but it won't stretch you much intellectually. To do that you kind of have to force yourself to use completely new stuff.

I kept learning til 30. Now i'm still learning at 33 but it feels different. Once you learn enough is more about the ability of connecting dots.

I.e. I know a load of libraries and built a fair deal myself, including a orm and a crud framework from ground up, and I know many of the pitfalls (I fell for many of them but I was young and foolish) however I also learned the why stuff grlets built a certain way and now it's ten time easier to pick up new things (yeah ember does this and that because it solves the problem x in a way I already saw done here and there, which is better than this other way under these conditions)

Another example I've been around to see the latency/bandwidth problem arise so many times it's not even funny anymore. and each generation solve it's time solution (initially it was the terminal because bandwith was the problem, then the thick client because latency, then it was again dumb data screen within browser, then ajax become viable so code moved back to the browser, last framework are so bloated latency is an issue again and they are moving templates back server side once more)

Learn enough new thing about solving the problem yourself, and basically you'll know every class of library that tries to solve that specific domain. Then you are free to learn higher level stuff. If you start too much high then it's easy to be lost in a flurty as technology shift without understanding the whys.

Go outside your comfort zone, learn a functional language and give a talk on it. Learn higher-level maths. (IMO) There's satisfaction and clarity to be found there if your current path isn't challenging you. You might find that it takes you into new roles too.

Careers and jobs and employers and technologies all come and go.

Figure out what interests you yourself, whether you want to go somewhere or do something, and how you might get there. What's important to you.

If your current job can or does line up with that, great. If not, then start working toward your target and toward a different role at your employer, a different employer, or self-employment.

Have enough cash and/or short-term assets available to operate for at least six months without a job. Maybe longer, depending on what the job market looks like in your area.

As for yourself: diet, exercise, regular sleep and regular meals, and working sane hours. Work on your own mental, social, and physical health. Your finances and your cash flow and your sleep and your meal schedules are all part of this health, too.

Schedule time for yourself. Outside of your job. Both to learn and grow, and for socializing. Seek out folks that will challenge you — either at work, at university, at a Maker's event, or outside. Seek out and talk with folks of different backgrounds and interest areas and any of the different genders and of different personal histories and experiences. Learn a new language.

Once you have pondered on these and have your plans underway, then you can start working on the technologies and the tools and the online courses and classes and the rest. If they're applicable, and how you best learn.

While your employer will certainly like the focus on your career, life is more about yourself.

> I learn new programs like Sketch, take classes on Udemy and Coursera, but do not feel like I'm learning as much as I'd like

Maybe you're not challenging yourself sufficiently. Try to find something that will be very difficult for you and start to attack it.

Are you enjoying your work? Is it challenging you? It might help if your "day job" was the primary driver of your learning, vs fringe efforts

Could it be that you've exhausted the easy things to learn? I feel that at some point it gets hard to keep the same learning velocity as the knowledge you are acquiring gets more complex and difficult to grasp. Also major breakthroughs are much rarer. While learning things similar to previous subjects seem trivial. Learning new programming languages for example. Once you've accumulated enough of then pattern start to repeat and learning the next one becomes more and more trivial to the point where it doesn't feel like learning the same amount of stuff as previously.

I try to work through hard technical material. Personally, I enjoy both technical books and MIT OCW lectures. There were a number of courses in school that I was interested in and didn't have time for, so I've been looking at the online equivalents.

"Working through" means doing exercises and projects. Reading or watching material without applying it doesn't help.

I aim to spend an hour a day on this. It doesn't always happen, but it's a reasonable enough goal that I can find time for it most days. Occasionally, I'll take a full day to study on the weekend.

Some specific recommendations:

  books:
    SICP (https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/)
    K&R
    The Art of Computer Programming (if you have lots of time)
    On Lisp (http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html)
    Learn you a Haskell
    Types and Programming Languages
    CLRS
    The Dragon Book (Compilers, http://www.amazon.com/Compilers-Principles-Techniques-Tools-2nd/dp/0321486811)

  OCW Courses:
    6.172 (High performance engineering)
    6.046 (Algorithms)

This is just what I've been interested in and is by no means comprehensive. Outside of CS, math is great to learn if you haven't studied it formally.

I've found it's best to pick a topic you know enough about to be motivated to study it, but haven't done serious work in.

Part if the plateau might be not knowing the new stuff cold. There are times when it's hard to progress if your base understanding is kind of shaky. as you actually use the new stuff it'll gel, and open up new avenues for inquiry.

I'd also suggest Haskell. compare this: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/LeakyAbstractions.htm... to abstractions from math. mathematicians ensure the abstractions never leak. they make the rules, there is no way out of the game. this kinda points in that direction: http://conal.net/blog/posts/denotational-design-with-type-cl...

I think the most important thing is just keep trying.

Since I left University, I have gone through a few periods where I felt that I had plateaued and stopped climbing, both in my career and in terms of learning. To snap out of this, I found the following helpful:

a) I changed my perspective. In University, learning was broken up into easy to digest semester long chunks. In four months, I would write papers, write exams and receive marks which sort of indicated what I had learned. Since University, I have had to change my expectations, both in terms of chunks of time and in terms of feedback. I try to remind myself that I am learning, but sometimes I just learn in chunks that are almost too small to notice.

b) I keep a journal about what I am learning and what I am working on. This journal tends to be long on opinion. Every few months, I go back and read how far I have come. For me, there is no better way of seeing how far I have come than to read how wrong I used to be. Hacker News helps with this, since there is no shortage of extremely smart people who are willing to tell me that I am wrong.

c) I added hobbies. When I was in University, learning was my job and all of my hobbies and social interactions were built around this. Since University, I have picked up some hobbies. For me, lifting weights and jogging started off as a way to solve a serious health/stress problem and evolved into a bonafide hobby. I may not be learning as much as I was in University, but I can bench press my weight now and run 10km at will. Progress (of any sort) is addictive for me and it forces me to keep finding ways to progress.

d) I got into public speaking. In University, I belonged to a Toastmasters chapter, but after University, I not only joined another chapter, but I started seeking out speaking opportunities. Not only did my public speaking improve, but I have learned an immense amount through speaking in public. The old adage that you never really know something until you can explain it to someone who knows nothing is 100% true.

Right now, my biggest challenge is to incorporate meditation into my day to day routine. I love meditating and I know that it makes me a better, more mindful person, but it is hard for me to incorporate it. My hope is that a little more mindfulness will keep me from obsessing about the big picture (where change is so slow) and keep me in the moment.

Good luck, my friend and if you need anyone to talk to, my email is in my profile.

I thought training doesn't increase intelligence. Does it?

Try teaching other people. It's amazing what you find you don't know by explaining things to others. If there aren't people who want to learn what you know then post on a blog or forum and get feedback from those who are interested.

Apprenticeship Patterns[1] was linked in a thread a while ago and its got some good ideas.

I think that learning a lot can hurt the overall effort, Focus on one or two things at a time and use them to do stuff. Try and get to the 'know what you don't know' stage for each thing, even if you cant do something at the moment knowing what steps you should take to get there is a good feeling.

[1]: http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000001813/index.ht...

I want to say this to my Product Manager, and if aren't doing this already try investing 10-20% of your time on doing hands on work. Details matter.

I wasn't interested in studying at a university, so I have plenty of things to learn. I usually work from home and I learn a ton every day. That's primarily because I always have a book or two around and read about new stuff on HN. Luckily, the world of programming is huge, so there's always something to learn. In my opinion, at least reading a book on general programming is beneficial to everyone, especially managers.

- Write prose. I find my verbal fluency (and my inner monologue) become far more dull when I haven't written anything in a while

- Keep alcohol consumption to a minimum, even a single glass of wine impacts memory formation and recall.

- Get lots of sleep