2022 Thoughts and Goals

What Happened in 2021 (oh and 2020)?

Last time I reflected on the past year and wrote my aspirations for the upcoming year was 2 (!!) years ago¹. A lot (... a pandemic?) has happened since then but in some ways I feel like I'm back to square one². Let's see...

• 2020
  • had a terrific experience taking classes and interning in Silicon Valley
  • ... only for it to be cut short by the pandemic
  • ... which had a big effect on my behavior - I began to really prioritize familial relationships and spent more time in the real world, less time behind a screen
  • interned for Amazon in the summer of 2020, when I of course had to be behind a screen again
  • attended my final fall semster of school in ~hybrid mode~

Did 2020 me do what 2019 me expected? Well, sort of:

• I learned some Go and Rust, but I didn't quite get as comfortable with either as I am with Python (spoiler - until 2021/2022 with Go).
• I got more familiar with Docker and gained more experience with some AWS services (spoiler - will be getting much more familiar throughout 2022)
• I didn't quite disentangle myself from the Google botnet as I naively wrote in 2019. YouTube and Gmail, you bastards.
• I didn't predict a global pandemic would flip our world upside down:

  • I’ll have a whole semester in Silicon Valley, where I will be taking classes and working for Deliv. Following that, I’ll be in Austin, TX working for Amazon!

  • ... that didn't age well

I didn't take the time in 2020 to write down some 2021 goals, so here's what happended:

• 2021
  • tried some more Rust
  • ... sorry Rust, imma let you finish but Go is one of the best programming languages of all time³
    • read: I got more familiar with Go through some personal projects and Advent of Code and it's my favorite language
  • started blogging again!⁴
  • graduated college
  • moved to Seattle and started a full time SWE job

And Now 2022...

I have a lot to look forward to in 2022 - I'll be joining a team that works closely with Containers (ergo: Go!!), Open Source, Linux... basically, what seems like a dream team for me since I was a lowly sophomore in my school's Linux Users Group. There are certainly some other things I have to look forward to in 2022 that I won't mention here, so to close, here are some goals:

• Contribute to [an] open source project[s] in the container space

A few of my coworkers are contributors or even maintainers for projects like containerd. As I learn more about containers, container runtimes, etc., I hope to make some open source contributions in my work/spare time.

• Read at least one book every month

In my opinion, the best way to stay sharp, well rounded, creative, etc. as an individual, professional, or otherwise is to read. Like the Go language/syntax, this appears simple but is actually more difficult than it seems. As they say, life gets in the way - it is easier said than done to find time to read. I plan on being more proactive about cutting time out of my day to read rather than doom scrolling on my phone - an easy one is to crack open a book⁵ during lunch rather than staring at my phone. I have a Goodreads that I used more diligently in the past. Getting back in the habit of logging my reading through that will be a good way to track my effort in this goal.

• Finish/continue existing/new personal projects

I "completed" a project last spring - a CLI typeracer. If you're curious enough to check out the sauce you'll see a hacked together project with its share of TODOs. I'd like to clean this up and make it a bit more presentable and legit, and who knows, maybe turn it into a public-facing game. I also will need to finish making my aocrunner before next year's Advent of Code. There's a few other small projects I'd like to start/finish in 2022, and I'm still coming up with strats that work for me in seeing a toy project to completion.

• Complete all of Advent of Code

Ok yea this one's 11 months out, but next year I ~promise~⁶ will be the year I do all 25 (50?) Advent of Code challenges. This year I got the furthest than I have before which was fun. Next year I'll hopefully be aided by my aocrunner.

Cheers to the New Year 🎉

The last two years have had their ups and downs, their twists and turns, whatever you want to call it. In any case, Jan 1 always elicits feelings of hope and ambition. I hope anyone reading this feels the same and has a happy and healthy 2022 :)

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¹ _{https://ginglis.me/new-year-2020}
² _{or should I say day 1... /cringe}
³ _{kanye did it first}
⁴ _{at first because of Hackers class, now because I finally got around to changing the site theme and I want to again :) blogs due for a few projects from 2021}
⁵ _{aka open a pdf or epub on my ReMarkable}
⁶ _{no promises}