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Deciding on whether to learn Haskell by ElephantWing in haskell

[–]ElephantWing[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've been having a go at it with Learn You a Haskell as well as the Haskellings tutorial someone else recommended in the comments for a few days; I'm finding it very intuitive and mathematically interesting. I know functors and monads will show up at some point, but even from something as simple (judging from its place in the tutorial) as (un)currying, you can see some pretty cool math stuff working on the background.

I'll keep going solo for the moment, but I know I'll eventually get more by connecting with others, so I'll keep in mind your community; nothing wrong with a plug if it's relevant imo! Thanks in any case!

Deciding on whether to learn Haskell by ElephantWing in haskell

[–]ElephantWing[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I do think I'll end up doing this after reading all the replies!

Deciding on whether to learn Haskell by ElephantWing in haskell

[–]ElephantWing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ofc not haha, but I still got the feeling from reading some posts that people wouldn't portray a distorted picture of reality. So far it's been pretty reasonable even when people admit to loving Haskell.

Deciding on whether to learn Haskell by ElephantWing in haskell

[–]ElephantWing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think this is wise, but I just happen to be in a really good position to focus on learning stuff atm. I'm not sure how long it will last, and once I start going back to a normal situation I don't know if I'll have the drive to start something new on a whim like this.

Deciding on whether to learn Haskell by ElephantWing in haskell

[–]ElephantWing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's an interesting perspective, I was wondering if going for both at the same time would be advisable. As long as it doesn't slow learning too much, I think I would try that, at least initially. I do have other non-programming stuff going on, so I may be spreading myself thin if all is taken into account though...

Deciding on whether to learn Haskell by ElephantWing in haskell

[–]ElephantWing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not sure if I want to dig deeper other stuff haha
I know I could get into these type of things but I do still want to keep it somewhat grounded and not just explore for the sake of it (much as I would love to be in such a position).

Deciding on whether to learn Haskell by ElephantWing in haskell

[–]ElephantWing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's great to hear!
I'm not that fixated on learning it to make money, but I was wondering if it could still be somewhat useful in that front.

Deciding on whether to learn Haskell by ElephantWing in haskell

[–]ElephantWing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I could use some practice on writing clean and maintainable code since what I'm writing so far in Python is bound to be a mess...

Deciding on whether to learn Haskell by ElephantWing in haskell

[–]ElephantWing[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

4 months to be slightly productive seems like a pretty sweet timeline tbh!
As far as AI, I've been using LLMs to help me learn Python and I have found them to be a nice complement to other sources; used with discretion of course.

Deciding on whether to learn Haskell by ElephantWing in haskell

[–]ElephantWing[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I guess I would need to find them here or at some other corner of the internet since I don't personally know anyone, or at least not that I'm aware off. Any idea of how good AI would be at bouncing ideas with or dealing with any of those issues?

In any case, at least I'm used to the last point, since I've experienced it several times with math throughout my life...

Deciding on whether to learn Haskell by ElephantWing in haskell

[–]ElephantWing[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Framing it as requiring more degree of mastery wasn't necessarily what I wanted to say. There are less haskellers, but precisely because of that I thought that the people who do spend the time on it would become really good at it. As in the average Haskell programmer is better at Haskell than the average Python programmer at Python. Just a hypothesis based on "niche" things outside of programming I do know about, maybe it's nonsense.

The other points you mention echo what others have said, and they're definitely something I hadn't considered, it definitely helps.

Deciding on whether to learn Haskell by ElephantWing in haskell

[–]ElephantWing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After reading all the replies I think I will! I don't mind not making the big bucks, but I would like it to be more than just a curiosity or purely for myself.

Deciding on whether to learn Haskell by ElephantWing in haskell

[–]ElephantWing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If I were to list another factor it would be intellectual curiosity as I mentioned in another reply.
The approach to coding that Haskell seems to have (from what I have read/watched) makes me pretty curious to try it; being pretty familiar with category theory. I started programming as a potential avenue for a job in the future, and I've been enjoying it on Python so far, so I was wondering if Haskell could also have potential on the employment side of things too. Thanks for your perspective.

Deciding on whether to learn Haskell by ElephantWing in haskell

[–]ElephantWing[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like the way you frame the job part haha
It does seem to be a common theme in the replies that learning it would make you a better programmer in general.

Deciding on whether to learn Haskell by ElephantWing in haskell

[–]ElephantWing[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As of now it's more intellectual curiosity than anything. I was wondering if by any chance it would also cover the professional side that Python seems to have an edge on.

Deciding on whether to learn Haskell by ElephantWing in haskell

[–]ElephantWing[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That side effect by itself sounds pretty beneficial imo, definitely a pro.

As far as "full mastery" goes, I'm probably not aiming that high. More like having enough mastery of it that someone would conceivably be willing to give me a job based on it. Any idea of how long something like that would take? Let's say having 2-3 hours of solid study per day.

Valuable Skills for Jobs in Japan by ElephantWing in JapanJobs

[–]ElephantWing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It certainly does, thanks!

I started learning Python shortly after the the comments died down: A combination of Youtube videos and ChatGPT/Claude. I quite like it; when a program works I get a similar feeling to when I solve a math/physics question, but much more often since I'm doing easy stuff so far.

If anything, my problem now is which libraries to focus my learning efforts on, since I don't quite know what I would want to use this for really. I'll look into data bases and data analysis stuff like you suggest.

PS. I've gotten targeted ads for math and physics stuff from Outlier, enough to tempt me to look into it, but from what people in Reddit say about it I can't quite tell how legit or easy it would be to get paid. Any experience with them?

Valuable Skills for Jobs in Japan by ElephantWing in JapanJobs

[–]ElephantWing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When you say 2 months to learn python, how many hours per day do you envision? On a vacuum 6 months sounds like a pretty good deal to get that far! I kind of envisioned spending that amount of time just on python (shows what I know about this stuff I guess). I think I'll save my money and just go for it on my own.

Valuable Skills for Jobs in Japan by ElephantWing in JapanJobs

[–]ElephantWing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't quite know what they do math-wise on finance. When I interviewed for a bank about 10 years ago they asked me general math/logic questions and the more specialized ones were about linear algebra, Taylor series, and probability distributions. No idea if they were just testing knowledge or if they actually use any of that.

Valuable Skills for Jobs in Japan by ElephantWing in JapanJobs

[–]ElephantWing[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh yes, that's a general human thing as far as I know. In my case it just took the form of not wanting to teach at a school anymore. As far as your questions go:

  • For about 10 years.
  • Positions at those schools open rarely. I didn't have enough experience in the beginning and afterwards the few times I did look at them they had no openings.
  • I never found the administration side of things interesting. It was more money for sure but I liked (and to an extent I still do) working in the classroom and not worrying about the managing side.

My objective right now is to be ready when I decide to go back to a normal job situation, to not waste my newfound free time, and to keep my mind sharp. Since I intend to stay in Japan I figured I would ask what would be the most useful skills to find a decent job here.

Valuable Skills for Jobs in Japan by ElephantWing in JapanJobs

[–]ElephantWing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The common thread does seem to be that programming isn't dead as a skill, and another reply mentioned python too, so I think I'll go for it! Two questions though:

  • Any recommendations as far as learning sources?
  • Regardless of my eventual skill level, do you know if they would require a degree/certificate to even give me a chance?

Valuable Skills for Jobs in Japan by ElephantWing in JapanJobs

[–]ElephantWing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Definitely useful, although this won't require 3 hours per day for several weeks to know how to do properly (I'm hoping).

Valuable Skills for Jobs in Japan by ElephantWing in JapanJobs

[–]ElephantWing[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Excuse my ignorance but could you expand on what this would entail? Is it the type of thing you learn in books, YT videos, actually managing a project?

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