I'll be finishing a very boring, but well paying contract at the end of this year. After that, I'll be taking time off (potentially forever, since I'm already FI) to focus on things I care about:
1. Try out Zig and go back into hobby graphics programming/gamedev.
2. Decrease dopamine chasing, increase focus. I hope to achieve it via treating my work as my fun - i.e. if I'm bored, I should just get back to the IDE or do some research, instead of mindlessly jumping on HN or other news sites. If I'm too tired to focus, I should either go outside or just lay down and rest - instead of my usual routine of using Internet content as a source of pleasure.
3. Lose weight that has crept on me in the past couple years of working full-time.
* Improve at digital art, and make more handmade illustrations for my website. Transition from drawing representative objects to drawing people doing things.
* Further move my focus away from income generation, and closer to building a public good.
- read more. Read a couple of books this year, but I just want more, and more deep reflections on them.
- knowledge base: have more trackability around the stuff I like. So I'm getting into knowledge base management so that I can have pre written ideas and have a more easy path towards some future projects. Having that become a habbit is a goal for me.
- learn react + d3. Being a data scientist, I've always loved the cool data viz projects I've seen around the web, so I'd like to get my feet wet in the world.
- masters degree: I have had as a goal to join a masters program in statistics because it is a discipline I really enjoy studying and feel I can actually enjoy my routine during the 2 years I would be locked into. Now that I have the financial stability to maybe quit work for a while (or have another less demanding type of work), I feel the could be feasable.
- To get better at basketball. I have always loved that sport and it helped me get fit. But I've never been particulary good at it, so I'd like to improve to have more fun at pickup games.
Neat project. For what it's worth I want to poke around at it to discover "what kind of places might you recommend near me" to find out if I'm interested but I don't want to sign up without any sense of its value so I just closed the page.
My everyday living today is waiting for the war to end.
Electricity cut offs, freezing cold, water shortage, rocket
terror and general unpredictability make it harder for me
to commit to some sort of a long term plan, much less
muster enough energy to do Leetcode style interviewing.
Although, I've started running for an hour per day,
which helps with bad mood and suicidal thoughts.
My goals for 2023 and beyond are: survive,
connect with people like me, transition, hopefully
find a new tech job, get into health/longevity.
I believe that logevity is the next big thing.
> - Make some more meaningful open source contributions
What kind of project are you planning on contributing to? I keep telling myself that I should contribute to some Linux desktop project, but the problem I have is that everything seems to just work and I don't run into many issues to fix... :)
Expressing curiosity regarding your third point: the time zones of Latin America are very friendly to USA work. How does the violence fare in more expat (pricier) locations?
I’m sorry for you that you and your friends(/family) have to deal with an unsafe environment. I’m curious what you mean by violence. I got into a database of potential consultants for a Latin American software company, and I’m open to input regarding the viability of this work life balance as a single male.
Making it through the year without big health and financial setbacks. Enjoying the presence of the people close and dear to me. Play with our dog and cat. Trying to put the finishing touches on some of my personal projects.
1. start beekeeping in spring
2. creating some web apps in spring boot/angular (i'm a full time on premise dev)
3. having fun with wife and daughter :)
I purposefully avoid setting yearly goals, as so much can happen during that time. My real goals can change (and make me feel bad for being so indecisive) or I could pass good opportunities by being too focused on a different goal. What I like is setting a direction or a topic and – in absence of surprise, good or bad – try to follow it. In 2022, it was setting up the processes to run my company as smoothly as possible. For 2023, I want to reach out and experiment. That means getting myself out there to connect with interesting people and maybe find new clients, employees, friends,... The world is a fascinating place and that's the year I want to experience it. Here are some of the goals that go in that general direction:
* Finish the setup of my blog and start publishing posts from my (too long) draft backlog.
* Back in October, I started doing 3-month experiments with my day-to-day life to try different structures and seek personal fulfillment. Thanks to being a freelancer/contractor/consultant, I worked for 6 months at 120% plus the overhead of running my company and at 10% the next 3 months. Neither have much room to construct a meaningful work-life balance: work too much and there is no life, work too little and there is no point. Now that I work between 40 and 80% and it's the most fulfilling life I've had so far. But the lines between work and life are still too fuzzy and I know I can improve both by finding the right structure, hence the experiments.
* Publish some open source utils that I've created to scratch an itch and found no good alternative to – think Home Assistant / IFTTT but for commands on your own computer.
* I work on using technology to bring innovative solutions to SMEs (it won't awe the average HNer though...) and I used to organize hackathons. So I'm thinking about offering summer internships to build a Proof-of-Concept showing the value technology can bring.
I'd like to pivot in the opposite direction as you, from DevOps to software engineering.
I'd like to get more personal project done. I started many this year, but never finished most. (Friends have told me to seek ADHD diagnosis and treatment.)
I find myself wanting to do something entrepreneurial, but I very consistently talk myself out of any ideas I have for for moral/ethical reasons. I'd like to find something that doesn't involve some race to the bottom and also promotes some kind of, idk how to put this, rejuvenation of the commons. I used to daydream about starting a WISP and bootstrapping it into a FTTH provider, but I find I was mostly interested in the fiddling with and improving administrative/management software suites for WISPs and traditional ISPs. (I worked my way into tech from being a wisp/fttx technician for a summer job.)
Honestly? the main goal is surviving. 2022 fucked me so hard: my mental health was going downhill, my marriage is not in the best state, a war nearby, inflation, job issues, etc. I wasn't even recovering from 2021/2020. I really need a break.
1. Resume seeing the world. I haven't taken a trip abroad since the tail end of 2019.
2. Cultivate a mutual and meaningful friendship with someone. A non-existent social circle and approaching my fourth decade doesn't make this any easier.
[+] [-] badpun|3 years ago|reply
1. Try out Zig and go back into hobby graphics programming/gamedev.
2. Decrease dopamine chasing, increase focus. I hope to achieve it via treating my work as my fun - i.e. if I'm bored, I should just get back to the IDE or do some research, instead of mindlessly jumping on HN or other news sites. If I'm too tired to focus, I should either go outside or just lay down and rest - instead of my usual routine of using Internet content as a source of pleasure.
3. Lose weight that has crept on me in the past couple years of working full-time.
[+] [-] smcl|3 years ago|reply
- learn to drive then drive to the sea somewhere with my dog
- renovate flat
- start citizenship process
- become fluent in Czech, instead of my current level of "awkward and nervous"
- be as nice online as I am in real life
- rejoin badminton league and start playing football again
[+] [-] looph0le|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nicbou|3 years ago|reply
* Further move my focus away from income generation, and closer to building a public good.
* Cook more, better Indian food
[+] [-] in9|3 years ago|reply
- read more. Read a couple of books this year, but I just want more, and more deep reflections on them.
- knowledge base: have more trackability around the stuff I like. So I'm getting into knowledge base management so that I can have pre written ideas and have a more easy path towards some future projects. Having that become a habbit is a goal for me.
- learn react + d3. Being a data scientist, I've always loved the cool data viz projects I've seen around the web, so I'd like to get my feet wet in the world.
- masters degree: I have had as a goal to join a masters program in statistics because it is a discipline I really enjoy studying and feel I can actually enjoy my routine during the 2 years I would be locked into. Now that I have the financial stability to maybe quit work for a while (or have another less demanding type of work), I feel the could be feasable.
- To get better at basketball. I have always loved that sport and it helped me get fit. But I've never been particulary good at it, so I'd like to improve to have more fun at pickup games.
[+] [-] sigriv|3 years ago|reply
2 play more, more humor, more laughs
3 expand social circle, make new friends
[+] [-] Huggernaut|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anotherevan|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PainfullyNormal|3 years ago|reply
2. Tell people about them.
3. Stay away from any glowing screen unless I'm doing 1 or 2.
[+] [-] martin_a|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] texasbigdata|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] glth|3 years ago|reply
- Learn more about software architecture
- Publish on my website the solution to a fantastic 20th-century literary puzzle (https://glthr.com/cj)
[+] [-] michael_leachim|3 years ago|reply
Electricity cut offs, freezing cold, water shortage, rocket terror and general unpredictability make it harder for me to commit to some sort of a long term plan, much less muster enough energy to do Leetcode style interviewing.
Although, I've started running for an hour per day, which helps with bad mood and suicidal thoughts.
My goals for 2023 and beyond are: survive, connect with people like me, transition, hopefully find a new tech job, get into health/longevity. I believe that logevity is the next big thing.
[+] [-] eande|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] martin_a|3 years ago|reply
- lose weight, get fit
- build a successful side business
- maybe find a new (main) job
- spend more time with my cats
- better work-life balance
- treat myself better
- spend more time with my family (father was diagnosed with dementia last week)
- watch more sunsets
edit: lots of good things in this thread, some more ideas/goals for me
- make a barista course/certification (love making coffee)
- contribute to some piece of FOSS
- support university students in my field through a lecture or otherwise
[+] [-] fnands|3 years ago|reply
- See if I can squeeze a publication or two out of the stuff we're doing at work.
- Make some more meaningful open source contributions
[+] [-] matthews2|3 years ago|reply
What kind of project are you planning on contributing to? I keep telling myself that I should contribute to some Linux desktop project, but the problem I have is that everything seems to just work and I don't run into many issues to fix... :)
[+] [-] cpp_frog|3 years ago|reply
2. Get a job, start a small side business, grow my online presence.
3. Get the hell out of Latin America, this continent is far too violent.
[+] [-] comfypotato|3 years ago|reply
I’m sorry for you that you and your friends(/family) have to deal with an unsafe environment. I’m curious what you mean by violence. I got into a database of potential consultants for a Latin American software company, and I’m open to input regarding the viability of this work life balance as a single male.
[+] [-] paganel|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] onion2k|3 years ago|reply
Not sure what I'll do on January 2nd yet.
[+] [-] MrksHfmn|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cranium|3 years ago|reply
* Finish the setup of my blog and start publishing posts from my (too long) draft backlog.
* Back in October, I started doing 3-month experiments with my day-to-day life to try different structures and seek personal fulfillment. Thanks to being a freelancer/contractor/consultant, I worked for 6 months at 120% plus the overhead of running my company and at 10% the next 3 months. Neither have much room to construct a meaningful work-life balance: work too much and there is no life, work too little and there is no point. Now that I work between 40 and 80% and it's the most fulfilling life I've had so far. But the lines between work and life are still too fuzzy and I know I can improve both by finding the right structure, hence the experiments.
* Publish some open source utils that I've created to scratch an itch and found no good alternative to – think Home Assistant / IFTTT but for commands on your own computer.
* I work on using technology to bring innovative solutions to SMEs (it won't awe the average HNer though...) and I used to organize hackathons. So I'm thinking about offering summer internships to build a Proof-of-Concept showing the value technology can bring.
[+] [-] solarpunk|3 years ago|reply
I'd like to get more personal project done. I started many this year, but never finished most. (Friends have told me to seek ADHD diagnosis and treatment.)
I find myself wanting to do something entrepreneurial, but I very consistently talk myself out of any ideas I have for for moral/ethical reasons. I'd like to find something that doesn't involve some race to the bottom and also promotes some kind of, idk how to put this, rejuvenation of the commons. I used to daydream about starting a WISP and bootstrapping it into a FTTH provider, but I find I was mostly interested in the fiddling with and improving administrative/management software suites for WISPs and traditional ISPs. (I worked my way into tech from being a wisp/fttx technician for a summer job.)
[+] [-] atemerev|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shaolinspirit|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DrinkWater|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jstx1|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] miqkt|3 years ago|reply
2. Cultivate a mutual and meaningful friendship with someone. A non-existent social circle and approaching my fourth decade doesn't make this any easier.
[+] [-] asicsp|3 years ago|reply
* Start updating all my published ebooks (will probably take more than a year)
* Create apps for interactive exercises
* Contribute to FOSS a lot more than I've been doing so far
* Start trekking regularly again, perhaps get into cycling too