Deciding to learn a \{programming\} topic

These are some things I found helpful when deciding on a new language or framework or module.

Deciding to learn

I pick something to learn only when the language/framework…

• has been around for at-least a few year
• is under active development and is likely to stay
• has good community support/tools

I find it easier to learn something by category like:

• Frontend: Angular
• Backend: Spring Boot (Currently with Java)
• Database: SQL (pretty much all SQL are same)
• Deep Learning: PyTorch
• Containerizing: Docker
• Hardware: Ardruino (C++)
• Game Development: Yet to be decided

The benefit of learning by category is that same skills can apply to other categories.

Like: My pandas (python) skills helped me a lot during new SQL problems.

Deciding not to learn

I hate learning “new” languages/framework/technology especially when

• it does the exact same thing that I can do now
• does not add any new benefit
• it’s old/outdated
• if I’ll likely never use it
• proprietary technology

So,

• no AngularJS after learning Angular.
• nothing less than Spring Boot when doing Java.
• Typescript > Javascript.
• PyTorch is probably enough. Don’t need Tensorflow.
• SQL is enough. No need of NoSQL yet.

Exceptions

There have always existed exceptions and cases where I just needed to learn something.

• Old but need it: Had to learn excel to reverse engineering and build same feature in Spring Boot
• Learning a good framework: Had learned Django before. After joining worked I learned Spring Boot and realized it much better.
• Made life easy: My application UI was crap. Easiest way was to learn CSS myself without using Bootstrap. It was easier than I expected. Thanks Fireship.
• For Future: I may learn a little Firebase just to see how fast I can develop applications in it. Hopefully transferring some of that knowledge to my daily coding.

But most exceptions occur where I either had to do it or see a benefit that is transferrable to what I do.

I try not to learn something just to add to resume or to list of things that just sound cool (sometimes I do).

I usually spend months deciding.

YouTube videos and written articles have been great help when deciding.