New Year Resolutions 2018

Hi there! How are you? I hope you are well!

I wish you all Happy New Year! This is the first post of the year 2018 and it will be a brief, non-technical one. We will review the last year and then set the goals for the new one. Please do tell me about yours in the comments section if you wish to do so. Thanks!

Recap 2017

Let’s recap what we did in the last year:

1. Learnt React and React Native by building small apps and taking online courses extensively
2. Got engaged (see comments below, 😉 )
3. Read a lot of great books, many of them in italian language
4. Learnt italian and moved mid-year to Treviso, Italy
5. Left old job and job hunted for a new one where I can work with React or React Native
6. Moved in with my fiancè and now living together with her
7. Traveled a great deal: China, Italy, Hungary
8. Started learning chinese
9. Learnt Java and XML for Android by winning a scholarship in Udacity’s nanodegree Become an Android developer

New Year Resolutions

For the New Year my goals would be the following:

1. Study chinese language and practice it more
2. Study italian language and practice speaking it more
3. Study and master Data Structures and Algorithms
4. Master React or React Native
5. Keep building side projects and finish unfinished ones
6. Contribute more to Open Source projects
7. Start looking for other ways to advance one’s career such as a Master’s degree, look for suitable degrees in the Netherlands for start
8. Focus more on practicing best techniques and design patterns in writing software, acquire and read some books too for this reason
9. Start public speaking in local events about software development and ‘Why not?’ in bigger and more famous conferences and meetups and DevDays
10. Keep writing more and more articles that provide great value in my blog and share knowledge with the community
11. Start investing money when job is acquired

Guidelines and pillars

In my mind I keep thinking about the following areas of growth and advancement:

1. Study foreign languages
2. Study Computer Science
3. Write better code every day
4. Public speaking is the new thing I would love to start
5. Contribute more to the community (blog posts, contributing code)
6. Personal life and happiness
7. Save and invest money to low cost index funds and start building up the foundations for the future

Conclusion

Last year 2017 had been a super exciting year for me. A lot of things changed for ever! A lot of agonies and stress to make it happen, but it was all worth it so far!

I wish and hope all of you to have a happy New Year and fruitful one!