How do you decide what to learn?

[Dani]

One of the main reasons that we switched from forums (for the top handful of programming languages) to tags years back is because the number of programming languages just kept increasing, and it became untenable to have a separate forum for each of them. With so many languages and technologies coming out all the time, coupled with information overload on the Internet these days, how do you personally decide what's worth learning and what's just noise?

[Reverend Jim]

Several criteria come to mind. In no particular order:

o Is it interesting
o Is it useful
o Is the effort to learn it worth the payback
o Will I use it often enough to retain it

[rproffitt]

Q: How do you decide what to learn?
A: A need arises and it may be within the time and space I have to spend time and effort.

Q: With so many languages and technologies coming out all the time, coupled with information overload on the Internet these days, how do you personally decide what's worth learning and what's just noise?
A: For the most part I'll read about some topic but have no use for it so that's noise but filed away for later. Just because there's some article about something doesn't mean it's time to learn about it in depth. It's good to know there's information about the subject but the topic is INDEXED rather than LEARNED.

FIN: A need leads to learning more.

[Reverend Jim]

There is one further consideration, and it is a tad morbid. At the age of 71 (very soon to be 72), and after having gone through several surgeries and treatments for cancer (fortunately stable for the last six years) I also have to consider what portion of my remaining time I am willing to devote to learning a new technology. When you don't have a lot of money you make a budget (or you should), but time is also a limited resource. I know too many people who are willing to borrow money and die in debt. You can't borrow time, in spite of the old saying.