I thought I'd mix things up for change by doing this before the year is over. After all, it's already December 17th, and little is likely to change at this point. You can find the original goals here.
First, the scorecard:
- Get Back into Open Source: ✓
- Write More!: ✓
- Read Some Tech Books: ✗
- Learn a Useful Amount of Frontend: ✗
- Give More Talks: ✓
Score: 3/5
1. Get Back into Open Source: ✓
It happened!
I didn't make quite as much progress as I had hoped I would, but some forward movement did occur:
- Parsenvy got Windows CI and v3 is nearly done.
- Starminder v2 is in progress (I've started sketching out the redesigned flow, but have written no code yet.)
- I launched Wendlerizer.
- I submitted some minor PRs to a few projects, but—somewhat notably—some of that work was done on my employer's dime. Hooray for sweetgreen!
It's not quite the mad flurry I was hoping—if not expecting—to achieve, but I'm glad to have completed something of consequence. Honestly, I'm perhaps most excited about having gotten to do some of it at work, starting to give back to the world on which I and all my employers have built so much.
2. Write More!: ✓
Oh, this definitely happened!
I've got at least one other post slated for publishing before the year is up. That will break past the previous record of ten in 2015, 2017, and 2018. I think they've been more worthwhile on average, too.
I've also written elsewhere, namely in a journal I started keeping. It had been a long while since I last did something like that, so I thought I'd see if I can get the habit going, and whether I then care to continue it. Results were great at first, but I've lately fallen off the train. I think I'll get back to it, starting tonight.
3. Read Some Tech Books: ✗
Nope. I even bought some (more).
4. Learn a Useful Amount of Frontend: ✗
It should come as no surprise that this one went absolutely nowhere.
In 2019 I made a mental switch from "web dev" to "software dev", which only pushed me further away from any notion of "full-stack" in the traditional web sense. With this disappeared much of my desire to keep up with frontend tech (i.e., the JS ecosystem), so this is no longer really a relevant goal.
I expect I'll actually tick this box when I need it for a real project I truly care about, be it for work or otherwise.
5. Give More Talks: ✓
We've come to the crown jewel of this year('s goals).
In 2018, I gave one talk at one meetup. In 2019, I gave that same talk at another meetup and a conference. I also gave a lightning talk at the same conference, totally on a whim (and bombing spectacularly). I'll share the links soon, I promise.
Past Years
- 2018 goals, 2018 review, score: 0/1
- 2017 goals, 2017 review, score: 1/5
- 2016 goals, 2016 review, score: 4/5