What ((programming) language) should I learn this year, 2025 ?
It's a question that is evergreen, but especially prevalent at the turn of the year: what skills should I learn this year? It's not just programming languages either, there are a slew of areas of life where skills are desirable but you wonder how to go about it or whether it's worth the effort. And if there's anything I've learned it's not "should I learn it" but "how much does it cost to learn it?" Cost of starting Some skills are more expensive to pick up, and wondering whether you want to spend a lot without even knowing if you'll be sticking with it is a reasonable reason for pause. For example, if you wanted to pick up a musical instrument skill, there's the outlay of buying or renting said instrument upfront. To learn piano, you need regular access to a piano for practice, and those things don't come cheap, so it's fairly reasonable to um and ah about it. But if you wanted to pick up an instrument with a piano-layout keyboard (albeit limited), you could probably manage a melodion and see if the layout works - it's cheap, it's portable, and a lot of beginner piano theory and tutorials apply to it. Conversely, there are skills which cost little to get started with - cooking certain types of foods if you already have a stove/oven, or take up drawing (pencils and eraser, and a stack of A4/letter paper is easy to come by), and then scour youtube for a variety of tutorials - try drawing chibis to start with?. Similarly there are many options and approaches for learning foreign spoken languages, ranging from free (apps and meetups) to pay-for (courses) or even specialization (degrees) which you can approach little by little as you find your feet. Last year I took up foraging and fermenting, and whilst there was a little cost in books (I have many now) and jars (I just bought some more the other day), it was mostly a quick and cheap set of skills I took great joy from, and intend still to do this year. Mostly, gaining a reason and actual pleasure from heading out into the woods. It's not just about computers - anything you can do to spend time away from the screen is immensely important for your continued good health to come back refrehsed
It's a question that is evergreen, but especially prevalent at the turn of the year: what skills should I learn this year?
It's not just programming languages either, there are a slew of areas of life where skills are desirable but you wonder how to go about it or whether it's worth the effort.
And if there's anything I've learned it's not "should I learn it" but "how much does it cost to learn it?"
Cost of starting
Some skills are more expensive to pick up, and wondering whether you want to spend a lot without even knowing if you'll be sticking with it is a reasonable reason for pause.
For example, if you wanted to pick up a musical instrument skill, there's the outlay of buying or renting said instrument upfront. To learn piano, you need regular access to a piano for practice, and those things don't come cheap, so it's fairly reasonable to um and ah about it. But if you wanted to pick up an instrument with a piano-layout keyboard (albeit limited), you could probably manage a melodion and see if the layout works - it's cheap, it's portable, and a lot of beginner piano theory and tutorials apply to it.
Conversely, there are skills which cost little to get started with - cooking certain types of foods if you already have a stove/oven, or take up drawing (pencils and eraser, and a stack of A4/letter paper is easy to come by), and then scour youtube for a variety of tutorials - try drawing chibis to start with?.
Similarly there are many options and approaches for learning foreign spoken languages, ranging from free (apps and meetups) to pay-for (courses) or even specialization (degrees) which you can approach little by little as you find your feet.
Last year I took up foraging and fermenting, and whilst there was a little cost in books (I have many now) and jars (I just bought some more the other day), it was mostly a quick and cheap set of skills I took great joy from, and intend still to do this year. Mostly, gaining a reason and actual pleasure from heading out into the woods.
It's not just about computers - anything you can do to spend time away from the screen is immensely important for your continued good health to come back refrehsed
