I’ve been a bit all over the place recently in terms of what to learn next. The main languages I’m proficient in at the moment are C#, and web programming languages like PHP. (Aside: If I hear one more person refer to HTML as a programming language I may get angry). The thing about the software industry is that something you spend a long time mastering may be obsolete in 5 years. If you’re not continuously learning, you can fall behind very fast.

Over the next 6 months to 1 year, I’ve decided to focus on certain technologies/areas in an effort to become someway proficient in them.

I’ve decided on:

• C++ – The expert consensus is that this will not be replaced in the next 50 years.
• Mobile Development – But I’m unsure of which platform. iOS development interests me as I own an iPhone, but it has the extra added learning curve of Objective C, of which I have little experience. I’m thinking Android or Windows Phone 7 (should it be accepted by the masses), since I’m familiar with both Java and C#.
• ‘Newer’ Microsoft technologies such as Silverlight, WPF etc. from the last few years that I haven’t looked at.

I feel if I apply myself I can certainly become proficient in the above areas in less than a year. By ‘proficient’ I mean be able to develop applications from the ground up as I can do in C# at the moment, not ‘master’. I’m fully aware that languages like C++ take thousands of hours to learn and many years of hands on experience to fully master.

No doubt I’ll be posting here of my experiences learning each.