Upskill
2024-08-15
It's good to brush up on your computer-magician skills from time to time.
Platforms with programming challenges are great for this. You can quickly solve a short task to regain some confidence in your fundemantal knowledge. One such platform is Codewars, which lets you solve simple tasks in a variety of programming languages. Solutions are tested on the platform and sometimes are constrained in terms of execution time, although the testing isn't as through as you might expect for competitive programming. The second platform I like is Codeforces, which aggregates tasks from various competitions. That's where you can really test your knowledge of algorithms. Then there's Project Euler, a collection of challenges often relating to some mathematical concepts.
Capture The Flag is a different class of challenges. On ctftime.org you can find a list of upcoming CTF competitions, archive of past events, and many useful writeups. You will never run out of new tasks to solve. I particularly like Cryptohack, a CTF platform filled with challenges around the topic of cryptography. For a more structured approach to CybSec training, HackTheBox is probably the best choice. They offer a huge library of virtual labs and learning environments to break in quite a realistic fashion.
Nonetheless, the best way to upskill is to take up a personal project and to see it through. I always favor this over courses and dull exercises. Not to say that courses are bad, but I believe books and official documentation are the best learning resources, especially effective with practice.
Learning new programming languages or different technologies can also be very refreshing. Picking up a foreign language is great too. When you're tired of tech it might be a good idea to delve into literature from other scientific fields and hopefully come back with a new perspective. There's so many interesting topics to study, it's impossible not to get drawn into something when walking through a library.
Never stop learning!