2020 in Review
I have been postponing publishing this post for a long time now. I have finished reviewing my achievements, goals, and other events of the past year on January 2nd. For some mysterious reason have not published anything.
I am procrastinating out of fear, probably, but it feels that I can’t start doing anything meaningful before I publish this review. So here it goes…
The goal of this post is to compare the goals I had for 2020 with the actual results.
If you enjoy this post you may look at my Annual Review for 2019
Become a better Data Analyst - Great
This is a goal related to my professional career. I got my first full-time job as a data analyst, and I wanted to become much better at it. This is a vague goal, but I did not know what exactly getting better would mean for me. At the end of the year, I can say that I have become much better.
I am a much better Python programmer than I was at the start of the year. On top of that, I have learned a lot about processing large data sizes with parallel computing (spark, dask). I was more focused on data engineering, than analysis. I learned how to write Azure ARM templates, to deploy Data Lakes, VMs, and other resources. Given my experience learning Django, I was able to impress my management with a small web app, which has a lot of potential of becoming a real product at my firm. I am now planning to transition to a web dev role.
Learning - Good
In my spare time, I have learned a lot of web technologies, such as Django, Javascript, and its children (StimulusJS, Vue, React). I had a lot of other interests at the beginning of the year, like LaTeX, GraphQL, ArcGIS, and other fun things. Unfortunately, I only had the capacity and discipline to learn web dev.
On the web dev side, I have rebuilt my site with Gridsome, and am very happy with it. My site will be a perfect sandbox for my Vue (Javascript) learning. I have also built a small note-taking application for an interview at Mailbrew. Will continue on that front this year.
Become the master of my mind and life - Bad
This was a complete miss, unfortunately.
At the start of the year I had a mild depression.
At the end of the year, I have gained a lot of weight. My diet consisted of sweets and other junk food. This will be a big goal for 2021.
Regarding exercise and meditation, I’d say it is also a fail. Even though I did do some exercise and meditation it was not enough to make an impact. This will also transition into next year’s goals.
Earn some cash from a side hustle - Fail
$0. This year I’ll make it happen!
Become more sociable - Good
This year I was active on Twitter. I found a few cool people and even managed to talk founders of Readwise (Tristan Homsi and Daniel Doyon) and Mailbrew (Francesco Di Lorenzo and Fabrizio Rinaldi) through Twitter. This was an insane experience.
Become a more loving husband - Good-ish
This is hard to quantifн, but I can say that in general my wife and I had a good year. We had some ups and downs, but the general direction is good.
Write more often - OK
I had a goal of writing 50 posts. The goal was too ambitious. However I did manage to write a couple of posts that resonated with people a bit. How to Save Emails to Pocket and Managing a Django Project with Poetry are the first that come to mind.
Additionally, if you consider a newsletter issue as a post then I might be very close to 50.
I wish to continue this trend further. I am much more comfortable with putting my thoughts out there.
Start a podcast - Meh
I have recorded interviews but did not publish them. Thus, it is a fail. Still a goal for 2021.
Get out of debt - Good
Almost done. Will complete in 2021.
Buy an existing company - Fail
Failed. Migrating to 2021.
Other achievements
- Started a Zettelkasten with Obsidian
- Read a few fantastic, potentially life-changing books
- How to Take a Smart Note
- How to Read a Book
- Atomic Habits
- The Pragmatic Programmer
- Pragmatic Thinking and Learning
- Started newsletter this year
- sent 22 letters
- got 25 subscribers