2011 Retrospective And 2012 Goals

Posted Date: 1/19/2012 2:25:45 AM by Dan Martin

After a fairly active 2010, I set several important goals for myself in 2011. So how well did I do in accomplishing those goals? To be honest, I am pretty disappointed in myself but I remain hopeful and excited for 2012. Anyway, here are the results for 2011.

2011 Goals

• Read 12 technical books
  • Started off strong and managed to read 5 books within the first 3 months! Unfortunately, I only managed to read one more book the rest of the year. I’d like to say that I had a good reason for not reaching this goal, but the truth is I got lazy and couldn’t stay consistent.
• Contribute to an OSS project
  • Epic fail. I didn’t even attempt this one. I kept putting it off, just like last year, and still never took the dive.
• Attend a conference
  • I did not attend any conferences in 2011. However, I did order tickets for CodeMash 2012 and am glad to say that I attended and had a great time. (Expect some follow up posts soon)
• Learn a new language
  • I played with ruby a bit earlier in the year, but the language I learned the most would have to be JavaScript. I still have a lot to learn, but I got in some good practice with this language over the summer.
• Get involved in the dev community
  • Another epic fail. I’m located in north east Ohio, where there are plenty of interesting user groups and various meetings and I did not manage to attend a single one of them. I have been attending some development & learning sessions with co-workers outside of work hours, but still not the same.
• Personal projects
  • I worked on a couple projects again this year, but just like last year I failed to produce anything worthwhile. I have several projects that are in limbo, and have yet to properly finish and release them.

As I said, I’m pretty disappointed in 2011. I know I could have accomplished a lot more in regards to software development. I started off strong, but have little to show for the second half of the year. On the other hand, I did focus quite a bit on some personal matters, specifically health, which may have been for the best (I will post more info on this later).  So how do I plan to redeem myself in 2012?

2012 Goals

• Read 12 technical books
  • Big surprise. There are so many books that I want to read and/or should have already read, so I fully expect this to be a goal for a long time.
• Contribute to an OSS project
  • This is a must. I have to put aside ego, fear, & laziness and get more involved this year. The benefits are too great to ignore any longer.
• Attend a  conference
  • I’ve already accomplished this one. Although I’m looking to attend another conference later this year if possible.
• Learn a new language
  • This is another goal that I expect to repeat for a long time. There are a lot of interesting languages/frameworks that I want to learn. I need to continue mastering the languages I already know, but I still think it is important to gain other perspectives.
• Get involved in the dev community
  • This is also a must. It is absolutely facepalm worthy that I have remained as inactive in the community as I have so far. There are so many talented developers in this area and I have nothing to lose by getting more involved.
• Release personal projects
  • Another must. I have to finish some of these little projects. I don’t want to be the LeBron James of software development. 75% done is not acceptable, so I plan to get back to work and release at least 3 projects this year. They probably won’t be great or that ambitious, but it’s a good first step.

Looks pretty familiar, huh? I’m a big fan of redemption, so my goal this year is to essentially correct the sins of last year. January is already half over, but I feel good about this year. My desire to get better as a developer is as high as it has been in a long time, so I’m really looking forward to a nice year!