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The Developer's Dungeon
Hey guys, 2021 is finally here!. It has been a hard year but now so it is time to plan everything again, to write down on paper what I want to learn or do this year.
If you been following my blog posts for some time you will know that I am a big fan of setting goals, planning, tracking, and of course DOING.
Last year I focused on too many things and while I accomplished quite a few of the things I proposed to myself, I also noticed the pressure of not reaching what I was expecting was pushing me back. This year I am gonna go a little lighter, in the number of things but not on the effort, let's call it just having a "better" direction.
Let's start already, shall we?
1. Be comfortable writing at least in one functional programming language
Last year I spent quite a lot messing around, going from book to book, looking up languages, talking to people, doing small tests on different environments. For this year I have made the decision to focus on learning Haskell, at least first. This is gonna be my initial curriculum:
- Read Haskell Book.
- Read a Type of programming.
- Read Learn you a Haskell for great good.
- Read Category Theory for programmers.
- Do at least one big personal project with Haskell.
- Explore other languages like Elm, PureScript, F#, Clojure.
- Read Functional programming for the object-oriented programmer.
- Re-Read Structure and interpretation of computer programs.
By separating a big goal into smaller concise tasks I don't need to worry about what to do next, I just follow the plan, if something is not going right I solve the issue and continue.
2. Get better at software architecture and computer science
Last year I didn't focus on this at all, last year I had this idea that I wanted to learn more frontend, so I switched positions at my job and became a frontend developer. That taught me that I not really that interested in the frontend after all haha.
- Read The imposter’s handbook series.
- Read and study Clean Architecture.
- Read and study Domain Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the heart of software.
- Read and study Implementing Domain-Driven Design.
- Take on a project at work where I can design a system from scratch.
- Create a personal project using the concepts learned, while diagraming the architecture.
- Participate in architecture discussions at my new position to learn about distributed systems.
I started the year with a new position, a new job as a Senior Software Developer in a place with some complex architectural decisions and a lot of cools systems to play with. I am gonna use this opportunity to learn as much as I can from my new team members and at the same time try to boost my own knowledge on the subject.
3. Get better at writing
Last year I wrote a lot of blog posts, even a few that got me on the top of the list at awesome communities like CodeNewbie, but not nearly as much as I would like.
I started strong but in the end, the search for a new job, and my other goals got in the way. This year I am aiming to have fewer things to focus on, but do them with maximum effort!.
- Plan certain dates during the week where I am gonna write.
- Have a list of topics I can write about so I can just pick one from the pile when the time comes.
- Write at least 2 blog posts a week.
- Write about what I am learning to solidify knowledge.
4. Improve my involvement with the community
This year I joined a community called FrontendCafe, awesome people from Argentina and other countries of Latin America (and people from Spain too 😄 ). This year I want to continue meeting developers all over the world but I want to give special attention to people from the Spanish speaking community, specifically those who don't have the means to learn new things or that face some of the problems I faced when I was starting in this industry.
- Give more mentorships at FrontendCafe and outside the Spanish speaking community.
- Spend more time helping new users and using my role as a Staff member in FrontendCafe.
- Go to meetups (if they come back).
- Give a talk at a local meetup (if they come back).
As you may notice some of the things I already said in the planning of 2020 and that is perfectly fine. I didn't reach the level I want to achieve in many topics so this year I am gonna focus even more on those.
Other topics have disappeared completely, that is fine too. After 2020 I learned a few lessons about myself, about what I like, and in which topics I want to invest more of my time on.
I hope you like my planning for 2021, if so please share it and let me know below in the comments. Do you have a similar plan? I would like to read it, the comments is also the perfect place for that.
See you soon 😄
Top comments (19)
My plan for first quarter of 2021.
My current articles:
🕷 epsi.bitbucket.io/lambda/2020/11/0...
This is pretty intense. Before I go back to web development, and desktop customization in linux/BSD.
Dammm, only for the first quarter? how do you manage to get so much stuff in? why 18 languages? which ones? (out of curiosity)
I will also go into linux desktop customization btw, just waiting to buy a new laptop soon so I can start 😄
That link above.
Desktop Customization
epsi-rns.github.io/
Wow thank you very much for that :)
Thanks for sharing, this was a very enjoyable read! I especially liked the notion of shaping small curriculum, I might steal this idea from you and try it out myself too. 😅
Such a great mindset to have, I love hearing this from senior software developers as it shows that the process of learning truly never stops. Best of luck with this year's goals, you got this!
Hey Pauline, thank you very much for reading it, I am glad you liked it. If you build your curriculum for learning something don't doubt to share it here 😄 . Today I actually found out that my new team lead read this blog post, I felt a little embarrassed haha.
That is an awesome plan, I wish you the best for that intense year of code 🦾
Thanks man, as long as we keep coding everything will be fine :)
You plan to do many things, that's great!
If I was you, I would try to focus on some of these goals first, and try not to be deceived if I didn't do everything. I would try to reach my goals, but the result is not the most important. It's the way to go there, even if you stop half the way.
LOL! We work together at Aconcagua SF(Mendoza) on SUD project!
Best wishes and good luck with your plan!!
Hey Fernando how you been? So cool to find you here! Thank you very much, best wishes to you as well
My plans for January and February are to complete two certifications on freecodecamp and send out as many job applications as possible
Those are good plans, especially the sending of job applications, send as many as you can. Good luck finding that job, with that mindset I doubt is gonna take you a lot of time 😄
Hey dude that was great plan. I hope you keep blogging and sharing your knowledge
I will, tomorrow is my next blogging day 😄
Thanks for good pointers and the reading list for Software architecture is very interesting!
Hey, I am glad you liked them. I will let you know if I find something extra.
Thanks, is definitely one of the possibilities for the searching other languages part. We will see which language do I peek at after a season with Haskell.