Although increasingly code is not written by typing into a keyboard but rather by multiplying matrices and calculating the next most likely bit until the full thing comes out, I'd like to reignite my Python proficiency. I'm going through Neetcode's list of 150 LeetCode problems for the third time. Claude and company are definitely force multipliers; as such, the base vector is important as well. As I've stopped using Python in my day job, my skills and knowledge of it have been degrading. It's time to rekindle the fire. After all, it's key in machine learning and in finance.
Brushing up on algorithms is also really important. A lot of people online don't like Leetcode and think companies should not be asking these kinds of questions in interviews. I think it's the most objective way to evaluate the ability to do the job, second only to actually doing the job.
A curated list of increasingly difficult Leetcode problems is also the closest thing out there to "Deliberate practice" for programming.
Very structured, very short and clear feedback loop.
"Archimedes taught us that a small quantity added to itself often enough becomes a large quantity (or, in proverbial terms, every little bit helps). When it comes to accomplishing the bulk of the world's work, and, in particular, when it comes to writing a book, I believe that the converse of Archimedes' teaching is also true: the only way to write a large book is to keep writing a small bit of it, steadily every day, with no exception, with no holiday." - Paul R. Halmos, I Want to Be a Mathematician