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Jaime González García
Jaime González García

Posted on • Originally published at barbarianmeetscoding.com

Goodbye 2019! Hello 2020 Holy Shit!

This article was originally posted in barbarianmeetscoding.com. 😊

I cannot believe another year has passed! And I really can't believe that 2020 is upon us. The 2020 of flying cars, hoverboards and deep space exploration. But indeed it has, and that means that it is time for the traditional reflective year summary, a wrap-up blog, retrospective of sorts, on what I've achieved the past year, my biggest fails, what I've learned and what I am planning to do in 2020.

One of the best things about writing this article is that I will go back and read the ones I wrote the previous years. Which is really, really cool. It's like having a conversation with past Jaime. And it's also really surprising to see how many things happen and can be achieved within the space of a year. Just for these reasons, I encourage you to follow the same practice, even if you don't publish it and it is for your eyes only. It's a really enjoyable habit.

So! Let's get to it then: In 2019...

In 2019...

2019 was a very interesting and quite atypical year1 in many different ways both in my personal life and at work. If I had to summarize it in a single sentence it would be: super cozy family year, lots of fun at work, sick and exhausted most of the time yet I got lots of stuff done.

I started the year on parental leave up until the end of March beginning of April when Teo started going to kindergarten and I went back to work. It was sad and a relief at the same time. I really enjoyed spending so much quality time with my son, but having him start kindergarten was a great experience for the both of us. He got to develop a lot in a very short amount of time, he had a lot of fun meeting new friends and being in a new and very engaging environment, and I got more time for myself and to go back to coding full time which is something I really enjoy doing.

I rejoined the Hangouts Meet team at Google after ~10 months of parental leave with lots of energy and enthusiasm, and it's been a blast to go back to doing software development full time. It took me a while to regain my confidence as a software engineer, but every day, week and month that passed increased my confidence and contributions to the team. By the end of the year, I feel like I became a very strong contributor, leading a lot of initiatives and having a strong impact in what we have delivered. I even started a front-end guild to create a local community around front-end software development in our office in Stockholm, because I love hanging out, sharing ideas about code and encouraging people to learn from each other.

I am so very grateful to all the people (my wife Malin and my colleagues at Google) that supported me in me coming back to Software Development. I'm so much more happy and at peace working on something I really enjoy doing and having all the bits within my life align so much better. Thank you!. (If you're curious about this I wrote about it in this article).

It was a surprisingly tough year as a parent, even though it wasn't as utterly exhausting as the first year it was difficult in a different way. I think the trickiest part has been to balance work and life as a parent and having those two responsibilities weighting on me throughout the day. That plus being sick really, really often with Teo bringing ultrapowerful germs from kindergarten into the holy sanctuary of our home (It is crazy, I've never been so sick, so often in my life, and I used to be one of those persons who never got sick). In an ideal world I would have plenty of energy for both but I haven't yet cracked that problem and I'd often pass out on the couch now and then after work and after spending some time with Teo. Malin has far more energy than I do, and is a constant inspiration on what it means to be an awesome parent. Malin is awesome.

As tough as it is, it is also wonderful to spend time with my Malin and Teo, and following along as Teo grows into an awesome person. The development he's experienced throughout this year has been amazing to behold and ~2 years is my favorite age of his thus far. It has also been really cool to be support him along the way, teach him new things and give him lots of love.

Jaime and Teo on parental leave drawing star wars with crayons

Jaime and Teo being crazy

Malin and Teo love love

Jaime and Teo on a bench eating oranges under the sun

Teo being cool with sunglasses

Malin in Gotland

Malin and Teo reading

Malin, Jaime and Teo hanging out

Work, parenting and exhaustion leave few time and energy to do anything else but I somehow managed to work on some side projects and community contributions. I think that the secret here is that even when the conditions and the environment for doing stuff are quite adverse, a little bit of consistent work over time produces great results.

Writing

Boost Your Coding Fu With Visual Studio Code and Vim The Book

Blogging

My favorite articles this year were:

YouTube

  • I created more YouTube content this year that any other year up until now with 18 videos. Creating videos is a ton of fun but it has proved really challenging. Mainly because I've found very hard to find a suitable time to record videos given that I have a toddler around with massive powers of mayhem and destruction, and a light sleep.
  • My channel grew to 278 subscribers. Wiho!
  • I also tweaked the design of my channel.

Podcasting

Speaking and Dev Relations

  • My speaking contributions in 2019 were very small. This hasn't changed so much since I became a dad. This year I spoke on two events:

In the olden days I didn't have a problem participating or organizing events after work hours, but today with the life of a parent it becomes harder and harder to justify. I just enjoy spending time with my family too much, and supporting my wife in taking care of Teo who can be quite a handful. I think that's a very strong reason why I haven't been doing more of these in-person speaking thingies, it is far easier and more convenient for me to just write or record something when Teo is sleeping.

Reading

  • In 2019 I read 48 books. I also started and didn't finish dozens more. I wrote an article about my favorite books in 2019, so if you're looking for new books to read you may want to take a look at that.
  • In addition to the above, I also "read 23 books" on blinkist. If you haven't heard about blinkist it's a service where they summarize the most important ideas in very diverse and popular books. I'm not sure if I quite like it yet, sometimes it can feel very superficial, but one thing that I like about it is that it exposes me to lots of ideas that I wouldn't peruse normally because I'd never prioritize that time investment.

My Biggest Fails of 2019

  • Even though it has been a great year overall, this year I felt very often that I was in survival mode, being sick and/or exhausted for long periods of the year. I felt very often that, just as I was about to come back to a good spot of working out, having energy, doing things, something would happen that would knock me back down.
  • I left lots of things half-started and unfinished: The Wizards Use Vim book jumps right into my mind but also the JavaScript-mancy series have been lacking a lot of attention.
  • I tend to spread myself too thin over too many activities and projects.
  • Exercising and working out hasn't been great this year. I've had some good runs throughout the year but combining work, family and working out hasn't really worked out. I so need to get better at this.
  • I still downprioritize sleep when I shouldn't. This is a constant struggle as a parent when stealing time from sleep hours is the only way you can find some time to invest in yourself.
  • We used to travel a lot, but we haven't done much of that this year. That's something that I definitely want to go back next year, because it is very enjoyable and I think it's great for Teo to get exposed to different cultures.

In 2020 I want to...

In 2020 I want to kick ass even more! But we'll talk about that tomorrow. Now it's time to cook a great New Year's Eve dinner. Happy 2019! And an even happier 2020!


  1. The life of a first-time parent is likely very atypical year after year as your child develops and you get confronted with new challenges and life routines. 

  2. Subscribers are often referred to as followers. But I am not Jesus Christ so I prefer to call them subscribers. e.g. people that are interested in the content that I write and find that content helpful and useful enough to subscribe for more. 

Top comments (8)

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wrldwzrd89 profile image
Eric Ahnell

Nice summary, Jaime! Those "biggest fails" affect me to some extent as well.

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vintharas profile image
Jaime González García

Thank you! Yeah, I feel like a lot of those are very common in our modern times :D

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helenanders26 profile image
Helen Anderson

What a year! Thanks for sharing what you’ve been up to

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vintharas profile image
Jaime González García

Thank you Helen!! 😀

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piotrmurach profile image
Piotr Murach

Despite increased life responsibilities, your year looks very impressive! All the best in 2020!

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vintharas profile image
Jaime González García

Thank youuu!! :D All the best to you as well! :)

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nguyenquangtin profile image
Tony Tin Nguyen

Thanks for your hard works in tough time, Jaime. :D

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vintharas profile image
Jaime González García

Thank you Tony! I really appreciate it :D