Ask HN: What domain knowledge should I learn?

PS: Please, no cliche like "learn whatever you are passionate about" - I've heard it all before. What I'm looking for right now is to step out of my comfort zone (SE).

Sorry, but that's about the only responsible answer to a question this broad. It's a bit like asking "What book should I read?"

If you can narrow the question down a bit, you'll get a much more appropriate answer.

Gaining "domain knowledge" is key. However, the range of possible domains is next to infinite.

Your success is not going to be dependent upon the quality of the domain, but on the quality of your ability to learn the domain.

So, pick a subject that you are able to learn. Is there some domain where you have a natural advantage of some kind?

I'm mostly interested in engineering/science. That's pretty much as narrow as I can get. The point of asking a broad question was to get answers I wouldn't spontaneously come up with. I'm looking for diversity and originality.

In that case, explore those realms, and see what opportunities arise.

My career has been successful largely because of my domain knowledge, in a few different domains-- but it's all come about accidentally. I've just kept my eyes open, tried to soak up the things that interest me, and (most importantly), tried to see how I could apply the knowledge in new ways.

Put another way: don't wait for some guy to come up to you at a party and say "Plastics."

If I were starting over right now, I would definitely get in on the bioengineering/genetics stuff. The barriers to entry are now very low compared to the last 20 years and they keep getting lower every day.

Imagine if you could hack a new cure or bacteria that changes the world. This field will make the information revolution look like a little girl's tea party.

This field looks indeed fascinating. That being said, I wonder how I could go about learning bioengineering by myself. Perhaps I should find an online community and ask them where I should get started.

I would start by finding the best online communities of DIYers and read everything you can. If you're near a big city, you can probably find IRL groups to check out. You can do anything alone, but you can accelerate the learning process by collaborating or, better yet, finding a mentor.

You didn't mention your present circumstances, but a good university will help immensely with this type of field. You can also make a lot of contacts if you go to the right school.

With all of that said, I'm not sure how far you can go if you aren't truly interested in it. Just keep trying different things, giving each a respectable amount of effort, and eventually something will strike a chord with you and you'll know what you want to do.

Expertise that's in demand now wont necessarily be as hot by the time your learn their ins and outs.

Just a hunch: enterprise software design. Someone has got to navigate all those XML specs.

Also, it's always a good idea to learn whatever programmers hate.

That's precisely why I'm looking to learn something not related to software development.

Baby boomers are starting to retire. That's a large demographic that isn't good with computers. Maybe find an industry that caters to them where technology can help. It doesn't sound like fun to me, but where there's muck there's brass.

Also, you may not have to be "passionate" about the domain, but you've got to at least tolerate it since you'll need to spend a lot of time doing it.

Look around for mentors. If you can get a good mentor, you will be significantly better than you would be otherwise. It's impossible to say what will be 'hot' five years from now, so you might as well go for what you can become good at.

(I'm assuming you are talking about deep knowledge that takes a while to obtain... if you mean a month or two of studying, ignore me.)

product marketing!