December 25, 2025
Resolutions.exe is chaotic good
Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?
Hackers plan 2026 glow-up: cash skills, focus, VR dreams, and bigger friend circles
TLDR: HN’s 2026 skill wishlist swings from making money and hiring to VR tinkering and AI everywhere. Comments split between monetizers and explorers, specialists and generalists, with “vibe coding” jokes and focus anxiety—showing where tech workers want to go next and what’s stressing them now.
Ask HN dropped its annual “skills for 2026” thread, and the vibe is equal parts hustle, existential crisis, and nerd joy. The original poster dreams of VR dev (Samsung Galaxy XR), finishing a computer graphics course on rendering (they called the first one “enlightening”), an end‑to‑end side project that actually earns money, and using AI everywhere—plus meeting NYC folks IRL. Then the comments lit up. The spiciest take: hu3’s blunt “Learn to make money,” a mic‑drop that turned the thread into a therapy circle about escaping hourly billing and hiring others. On the other end, amha is quitting a cushy teaching job to be a visiting professor at Deep Springs College, then “???,” confessing fear of applications while wanting to tackle complex analysis (high‑end math). Hardware hero radeeyate flexed PCB (printed circuit board) wins, from Christmas LED trees to tiny chip products. Meanwhile, swgeek declared war on distraction, embracing a “jack of many trades” year and joking about “vibe coding.” Older pros like banbangtuth confessed comfort creep: when life gets busy, learning slides. The drama lines are clear: money‑first vs curiosity‑first, specialist vs generalist, AI booster vs skeptics. And yes, the “vibe coding” meme stole the show. Receipts: 2025, 2024, 2023.
Key Points
- •The author plans to start VR development in 2026 using the Samsung Galaxy XR to learn spatial computing fundamentals.
- •They intend to complete the “UCSanDiegoX: Computer Graphics II: Rendering” course after finishing the first course in the series.
- •A goal is to build an end-to-end side project that generates income, applying product and technical skills.
- •The author aims to leverage AI tools broadly to accelerate learning and effectiveness across projects.
- •Non-technical objectives include expanding their social network via proactive outreach and local meetups in New York City.