~jonashietala.se

2020 in review

And so 2020 has come to an end. On a global scale it’s been quite a horrible year, and for me personally it’s been both good and bad. Luckily we haven’t been directly affected by COVID too much, but it’s still been very disruptive. Either way as I’ve done for years now it always makes me feel better to do a little yearly review, as when I sit down in write it down I’ve always done more things than I first realize.

2020 Non-Geek Achievements

  1. We got another child.

    They’re both so wonderful and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.

  2. Read or listened to some books.

    Dune and Bad Blood are the ones I remember the most.

  3. Read a bunch of light novels.

    There are many good ones, and to be honest I don’t remember all the ones I read. Second Coming of Gluttony and Returner’s Magic Should be Special are two of my all-time favorites.

  4. Started a Grappling club.

2020 Geek Achievements

  1. “Finished” my book.

    Although there’s a bunch of things left until I can truly call it complete, I’ve finished all the chapters at least.

  2. Wrote some Rust.

  3. Wrote some Racket. Used it to generate the online version of my book.

  4. Wrote a little Elixir.

    Mostly I read and worked through a bunch of Elixir books. Programming Elixir, Programming Phoenix, Programming Ecto and Real-Time Phoenix was my summer reading and Elixir in Action has entertained me during the winter holidays.

    Even though I haven’t finished Elixir in Action yet, it’s probably my favorite and if you’re looking for a good Elixir resource I’d suggest you start with it.

  5. Wrote a little C.

  6. Wrote a little Python.

  7. Started working professionally in Rust.

    I’ve come into the mindset of personal development and steering my software development career to focus on technologies that I find interesting and think are really good is something I want to prioritize. Having a job that pays me to work on Rust fits perfectly.

  8. Built some custom keyboards: the GergoPlex and the Kyria.

  9. Got up to 40-50 wpm on an alternate keyboard layout.

    Based on BEAKL 15, with some modifications.

    However as I’m writing this I’ve moved on to yet another layout. The jury is still out on that one.

2020 Failures

  1. Did not finish building git.

    I did go through the first part using Rust, but I ran out of steam just as it started to get really interesting with implementing branching and merging. I do need to get back to it some day.

  2. Did not train grappling that much.

    COVID didn’t kill me or my family, but it as good as killed my biggest hobby.

  3. Did not actually finish the book.

    It’s easy to blame COVID or getting another child, but the truth is as the project’s nearing completion I’ve been running out of steam. Writing a chapter was easy, but proof-reading it and polishing it is harder. Uploading a chapter online was easy, but formating it in InDesign is harder.

    Realistically there’s not that much left, but it still feels like walking in mud. Maybe that’s just how it feels with big projects like these? I’m certainly a starter, not a finisher.

  4. Did not blog that much.

    I want to blog more and do more big articles, but that will have to wait until my book project is completely done. My writing energy isn’t enough to do them both.

Plans for 2021

  1. Take the COVID vaccine.
  2. Grapple more.
  3. Finish the book project.
  4. Completely migrate to the new keyboard and the new layout.
  5. Read more books.
  6. Focus on personal development and/or another project.