I ran a marathon. I was overweight and out of shape in January. At the encouragement of a coworker, I ran 5 days a week from March to November, and successfully completed the Philly Marathon in 4h10m10s.
That same week, I landed an awesome job, and hopefully left the Military-Industrial Complex for good.
What did you learn?
A little work every day adds up to a hurricane. The value of getting nudged in the right direction, and by extension, the value of surrounding yourself with people who will nudge you in the right direction. And hitting the wall is about as painful as I remember appendicitis to be.
What do you hope to achieve next year?
I want to run two marathons. I want to run one of them in under 3h45m. I want to create something that lots of people use. I want to make a name for myself.
I wrote a blog that got like a million hits. Made more than 50 hit iPhone apps (in the charts). Travelled to asia and africa. Started a masters degree and finished the first semester with the second best scores in the class (not done yet with the degree). Paid off my sisters debts. Became more courageous.
On the other hand, lost a lot of friends. Faced many of my limitations and discovered how lacking I was in many areas.
This year, I hope to focus on creating beautiful software. I'd also like to improve my general condition and health. And of course, I'll finish that degree.
By "lost a lot of friends" do you mean you fell out, they died, you just lost touch with them? If falling out, how?
I'm interested because one of my friends fell out with me this year sufficiently that he said "I don't want us to be friends any more". I was shocked and didn't know why. From what he told me it was the result of me making a few comments about his life in a flippant manner that I thought he was amused by, but actually he took it very very badly over the following few days and decided to not be friends any more. It's the only time I'd say I'd "lost" a friend.
If I worked in startups and business I think the chances of losing friends would explode though. It seems there's huge potential for making rational, business-motivated decisions that others perceive as immoral or backstabbing etc. Is that what happened to you?
Started the year with rudimentary iPhone development experience, sacrificed free time, time with friends (s/going out/HN contributing), my love of Salsa dancing, potential girlfriend(s), got lucky - met the right people, found the right projects, now doing considerable contract iOS work, all without leaving my day job - I no longer fear layoffs. I want to write a find-the-1-beat iPhone app for Salsa dancers :)
I learned that my strength is into diving into something with accountability and public commitment as my flotation devices.
In 2011, I hope to build one or two quality iPhone apps in niches dear to me. And to talk to more women. And to practice Stoicism. And to socialize again. Life is too short for just Xcode.
For aspiring iOS developers, it takes about 100-150 hours of concerted focus - after that Objective-C/Cocoa starts becoming the solution, not the problem.
I stopped all traveling and moved into a house 4 blocks from my mother's nursing home. She has severe dementia and I visit her every night. She never remembers yesterday or plans for tomorrow, but knows me well, and we have a great time together. Jeopardy, the Simpsons, and Family Guy are now our common pursuits.
What did you learn?
No matter how wonderful our memories or ambitious our plans, all we ever really have is today, so make the most of it.
What do you hope to achieve next year?
Launching a start-up that will change the world, watching the Steelers win the Super Bowl, and playing Jeopardy with Mom every night.
I finally worked up the courage to leave the PhD program that had been making me miserable for the past two years (of the three I'd been pursuing the degree), and look for something better. I joined a supercomputing-services company which is doing some really exciting work, and has a very startup-ish feel. And I've built a fun, happy life with my awesome girlfriend, who supported all of the above.
- What did you learn?
There is no reason to keep doing something that makes you feel horrible, and if the end result holds no appeal any more. There are a lot of exciting things to do out there, especially if you're willing to leave your comfort zone.
- What do you hope to achieve next year?
Build some awesome things at work, and learn more about high-performance computing. Get back into fencing. And enjoy life.
Moved in with my girlfriend. Asked her to marry me, she said yes! Went through a lot of drama with my family to accept her. Patience paid off, wedding next year woohoo!
Started my first startup, launched the first product. Progress has been slow, but I'm keeping at it.
Wrote my first book. Coming out in January.
What did you learn?
Patience can get you surprisingly far.
Working alone is hard and boring.
Startup porn is the single biggest time sink in my life and probably a lot of people's lives here. I need to get rid of it.
What do you hope to achieve next year?
In 2011, I hope to:
Get profitable.
Get some great people to work with me on my startup.
Make a really good quality product that people love and use.
I think my main success is that I finally managed to halt my downward spiral of unhappiness. Sold the house and moved to a different city to start a company (it's bringing in a tiny amount but it's a start!), met a great girl, went for two snowboarding trips and finally learned how to do a 360. Learned a whole lot about running a business and everything that entails.
Next year, the most important thing for me is to continue learning how to be happy. Business wise I'd like to find a profitable niche for a software product and grow the revenues.
Left a job which was nice, but not creating something. Launched http://imeveryone.com, got a couple of hundred thousand visitors in the first month, HN, TechCrunch, TechFluff coverage and a whole bunch of help from people who liked my idea.
- What did you learn?
MongoDB, Javascript programming and lots about PR.
- What do you hope to achieve next year?
Get more PR, specifically a major women's magazine. Fix my advertising system. Become revenue positive.
Overall I don't feel I did enough this year. I had high hopes of getting a startup off the ground with a friend/co-founder. After a bunch of lies and general not good things we no longer speak. It really put a damper on the year.
Day Job:
Wrote a payroll system for my employer that does exactly what they need and saves them millions annually in software fees. This was actually a pretty fun project dealing with individual state/country laws and other legal issues that needed to be codified.
Learned a lot about Ruby while modifying ECHI converter open source code to work in my employers environment. Again, this saved a ton of money in licensing fees.
Personal Projects:
Learned obj-c and a lot about iPhone development. I made ~$500 from a small utility app. The rush of someone paying money directly for something that I created is addicting.
Other:
Deadlifted 510lbs at a bodyweight of 191 lbs.
Hiked 5 14ers.
This coming year I will get my startup off the ground even if I have to do it completely solo. I'd also like to hike another 5-6 14ers. Finally, I will hit my long term strength goal of 500/400/300 deadlift/squat/bench. I would have hit it last year, but twisted my ankle playing basketball and that kept me from making my squat :)
* Joined a leadership program to get out of a dead end position
* Co-coordinated the local DEFCON group
* Completed the first semester of my Master's degree program
* Broke into the infosec field through my first "rotation" for my new job
What I learned:
* Learned that I can communicate ideas through writing quite a bit better than I thought, and my presentation skills aren't half bad either
* Everyone could achieve so much more if they stopped reading job descriptions and got to work. This year I did so many things I was unqualified for, and it rocked.
* People's academic demeanor is often directly linked to their work performance. Cheaters cheat, liars lie, and procrastinators procrastinate. You never know when you're being watched, and I strongly believe school is one place you can't afford to screw up.
Next year:
* Stay in infosec, but learn a lot more
* Build something. Anything.
* Complete a few more semesters, and do my time while learning more.
* Patch, patch, and patch. I forget to patch too often. For this I am ashamed.
Landed a kick ass job at a boutique investment house in the City of London
Landed 3 Trustee positions
Fixed up my house which is an ongoing project for me
Returned 21% from my investment portfolio and cashed out immediately. Looking forward to starting 2011 from £0
I learnt that I had to keep a very loose structure throughout the year to achieve all these things as accidents were more frequent than I expected. Meticulous planning helped but it could not account for mishaps.
This year I hope to focus on the following areas
1) Improving my communication skills through toastmasters, blogging, writing industry reports/journals and offering my services as a public speaker
2) Taking more risks by playing poker, being more aggressive with my investments and approaching more women
3) Keeping my health in order by eating well, playing football 2x a week and running 3x per week
4) Networking alot more and penetrating specific areas in the City and specific groups/individuals. Starting of 2011 with drinks with several CEOs and a government minister.
For someone coming from tech background, is introvert and has never sold anything in life before, I took up the responsibility of handling sales and marketing for our start up, did cold calling and sales meetings and signed up our first two customers.
What did you learn?
Like everything, you need to persevere and stay patient to succeed in selling. However there is still a lot I need to learn to do sales better. I often find myself looking back at the sales meeting and cold calls that fail thinking i should have handled it a bit differently
What do you hope to achieve next year?
I hope to do better in sales and get our startup from customer 1 to customer 100 hopefully
[+] [-] hackernurse|15 years ago|reply
* Broke up with gf after 5 yrs.
* Met new girl, together for a month.
* Turned 30.
* Went back to school (nursing) and finished year one successfully.
* Still with one foot in web development and liking it, too.
* Went to huge festival for the first time in 10 years.
* Spent more time with good friends.
* Did a 5000km motorcycle trip to Spain.
* Surfed for the first time.
* Picked up CrossFit again, set some PRs.
* Dropped flour, wheat and sugar consumption almost completely.
* Dropped my entrepeneurial ventures. I'm not the type for it.
* I learned to follow my intuitions and to not take everyones advice for truth.
* In 2011, I hope to successfully finish my internship at a psycho-geriatric clinic. I've never been further away from the computer than that.
Wish me luck :) I wish you all the same.
[+] [-] jakevoytko|15 years ago|reply
I ran a marathon. I was overweight and out of shape in January. At the encouragement of a coworker, I ran 5 days a week from March to November, and successfully completed the Philly Marathon in 4h10m10s.
That same week, I landed an awesome job, and hopefully left the Military-Industrial Complex for good.
What did you learn?
A little work every day adds up to a hurricane. The value of getting nudged in the right direction, and by extension, the value of surrounding yourself with people who will nudge you in the right direction. And hitting the wall is about as painful as I remember appendicitis to be.
What do you hope to achieve next year?
I want to run two marathons. I want to run one of them in under 3h45m. I want to create something that lots of people use. I want to make a name for myself.
[+] [-] aeden|15 years ago|reply
* launched DNSimple (https://dnsimple.com/) and got my first 100 customers.
* moved to somewhere less expensive yet still quite comfortable and started reducing my personal debt.
I've learned...
* a ton about building and running a business on a bootstrap budget.
* that really working 8 hours of billable time is exhausting and that working as a salaried worker is way easier than working hourly.
Next year I hope to...
* make DNSimple take off and generate 10x the revenue it generates now so I can reduce the amount of time I need to spend on contract work.
* pay off all of my personal credit card debt.
* enjoy every day and make the most of life.
Good luck to everyone in 2011 and remember to do what makes you happy and enjoy your lives while you can.
[+] [-] benologist|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maxklein|15 years ago|reply
On the other hand, lost a lot of friends. Faced many of my limitations and discovered how lacking I was in many areas.
This year, I hope to focus on creating beautiful software. I'd also like to improve my general condition and health. And of course, I'll finish that degree.
[+] [-] Clarity1992|15 years ago|reply
I'm interested because one of my friends fell out with me this year sufficiently that he said "I don't want us to be friends any more". I was shocked and didn't know why. From what he told me it was the result of me making a few comments about his life in a flippant manner that I thought he was amused by, but actually he took it very very badly over the following few days and decided to not be friends any more. It's the only time I'd say I'd "lost" a friend.
If I worked in startups and business I think the chances of losing friends would explode though. It seems there's huge potential for making rational, business-motivated decisions that others perceive as immoral or backstabbing etc. Is that what happened to you?
[+] [-] wallflower|15 years ago|reply
I learned that my strength is into diving into something with accountability and public commitment as my flotation devices.
In 2011, I hope to build one or two quality iPhone apps in niches dear to me. And to talk to more women. And to practice Stoicism. And to socialize again. Life is too short for just Xcode.
For aspiring iOS developers, it takes about 100-150 hours of concerted focus - after that Objective-C/Cocoa starts becoming the solution, not the problem.
[+] [-] rubyrescue|15 years ago|reply
Hired 6 developers and started a much more serious consulting company (with new clients),
Launched inboxSEO and got over 100 paying customers (when the trials run out),
Formed an Argentine SRL to pay those devs (like a US LLC but much harder to start)
[+] [-] edw519|15 years ago|reply
I stopped all traveling and moved into a house 4 blocks from my mother's nursing home. She has severe dementia and I visit her every night. She never remembers yesterday or plans for tomorrow, but knows me well, and we have a great time together. Jeopardy, the Simpsons, and Family Guy are now our common pursuits.
What did you learn?
No matter how wonderful our memories or ambitious our plans, all we ever really have is today, so make the most of it.
What do you hope to achieve next year?
Launching a start-up that will change the world, watching the Steelers win the Super Bowl, and playing Jeopardy with Mom every night.
[+] [-] vidar|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ajdecon|15 years ago|reply
I finally worked up the courage to leave the PhD program that had been making me miserable for the past two years (of the three I'd been pursuing the degree), and look for something better. I joined a supercomputing-services company which is doing some really exciting work, and has a very startup-ish feel. And I've built a fun, happy life with my awesome girlfriend, who supported all of the above.
- What did you learn?
There is no reason to keep doing something that makes you feel horrible, and if the end result holds no appeal any more. There are a lot of exciting things to do out there, especially if you're willing to leave your comfort zone.
- What do you hope to achieve next year?
Build some awesome things at work, and learn more about high-performance computing. Get back into fencing. And enjoy life.
[+] [-] revorad|15 years ago|reply
Moved in with my girlfriend. Asked her to marry me, she said yes! Went through a lot of drama with my family to accept her. Patience paid off, wedding next year woohoo!
Started my first startup, launched the first product. Progress has been slow, but I'm keeping at it.
Wrote my first book. Coming out in January.
What did you learn?
Patience can get you surprisingly far.
Working alone is hard and boring.
Startup porn is the single biggest time sink in my life and probably a lot of people's lives here. I need to get rid of it.
What do you hope to achieve next year?
In 2011, I hope to:
Get profitable.
Get some great people to work with me on my startup.
Make a really good quality product that people love and use.
[+] [-] sarnold|15 years ago|reply
2011 is my year.
[+] [-] SupremumLimit|15 years ago|reply
Next year, the most important thing for me is to continue learning how to be happy. Business wise I'd like to find a profitable niche for a software product and grow the revenues.
Good luck in 2011 to everyone!
[+] [-] nailer|15 years ago|reply
Left a job which was nice, but not creating something. Launched http://imeveryone.com, got a couple of hundred thousand visitors in the first month, HN, TechCrunch, TechFluff coverage and a whole bunch of help from people who liked my idea.
- What did you learn?
MongoDB, Javascript programming and lots about PR.
- What do you hope to achieve next year?
Get more PR, specifically a major women's magazine. Fix my advertising system. Become revenue positive.
[+] [-] matwood|15 years ago|reply
Day Job:
Wrote a payroll system for my employer that does exactly what they need and saves them millions annually in software fees. This was actually a pretty fun project dealing with individual state/country laws and other legal issues that needed to be codified.
Learned a lot about Ruby while modifying ECHI converter open source code to work in my employers environment. Again, this saved a ton of money in licensing fees.
Personal Projects:
Learned obj-c and a lot about iPhone development. I made ~$500 from a small utility app. The rush of someone paying money directly for something that I created is addicting.
Other:
Deadlifted 510lbs at a bodyweight of 191 lbs.
Hiked 5 14ers.
This coming year I will get my startup off the ground even if I have to do it completely solo. I'd also like to hike another 5-6 14ers. Finally, I will hit my long term strength goal of 500/400/300 deadlift/squat/bench. I would have hit it last year, but twisted my ankle playing basketball and that kept me from making my squat :)
[+] [-] abyssknight|15 years ago|reply
* Joined a leadership program to get out of a dead end position
* Co-coordinated the local DEFCON group
* Completed the first semester of my Master's degree program
* Broke into the infosec field through my first "rotation" for my new job
What I learned:
* Learned that I can communicate ideas through writing quite a bit better than I thought, and my presentation skills aren't half bad either
* Everyone could achieve so much more if they stopped reading job descriptions and got to work. This year I did so many things I was unqualified for, and it rocked.
* People's academic demeanor is often directly linked to their work performance. Cheaters cheat, liars lie, and procrastinators procrastinate. You never know when you're being watched, and I strongly believe school is one place you can't afford to screw up.
Next year:
* Stay in infosec, but learn a lot more
* Build something. Anything.
* Complete a few more semesters, and do my time while learning more.
* Patch, patch, and patch. I forget to patch too often. For this I am ashamed.
* Have a child. Scary, but awesome and probable.
[+] [-] AN447|15 years ago|reply
Landed a kick ass job at a boutique investment house in the City of London
Landed 3 Trustee positions
Fixed up my house which is an ongoing project for me
Returned 21% from my investment portfolio and cashed out immediately. Looking forward to starting 2011 from £0
I learnt that I had to keep a very loose structure throughout the year to achieve all these things as accidents were more frequent than I expected. Meticulous planning helped but it could not account for mishaps.
This year I hope to focus on the following areas
1) Improving my communication skills through toastmasters, blogging, writing industry reports/journals and offering my services as a public speaker
2) Taking more risks by playing poker, being more aggressive with my investments and approaching more women
3) Keeping my health in order by eating well, playing football 2x a week and running 3x per week
4) Networking alot more and penetrating specific areas in the City and specific groups/individuals. Starting of 2011 with drinks with several CEOs and a government minister.
[+] [-] unknown|15 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] benologist|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] allwein|15 years ago|reply
* I self-taught myself iOS programming and got my first app on the App Store.
* I made five figures from my app store sales for the year.
* Started a successful freelancing business on the side.
* This included doing my first contract iOS app.
* Did not come off of unemployment until I found a job I really wanted instead of taking any old job that came along.
* Got a full time job doing iOS hacking.
* Read a book a week.
* Downsized my stuff by getting rid of at least one thing a week, and keeping parity when getting new stuff. (One thing in, one thing out)
What I have planned for the next year is to buy a house, lose 50 pounds, and up my app store take to six figures.
[+] [-] mailarchis|15 years ago|reply
For someone coming from tech background, is introvert and has never sold anything in life before, I took up the responsibility of handling sales and marketing for our start up, did cold calling and sales meetings and signed up our first two customers.
What did you learn?
Like everything, you need to persevere and stay patient to succeed in selling. However there is still a lot I need to learn to do sales better. I often find myself looking back at the sales meeting and cold calls that fail thinking i should have handled it a bit differently
What do you hope to achieve next year?
I hope to do better in sales and get our startup from customer 1 to customer 100 hopefully
[+] [-] haseman|15 years ago|reply
-Turned 30
-Proposed to my girlfriend of 7 years
-Got a new job
-Wrote an app that was (briefly) #1 in the paid section of the Android Market
-Moved to New York
It's been a big year for me :-)