I found this line in an old blog post from 2013 in my drafts folder.<p>> But honestly, I've been thinking back, trying to remember the last time I felt like I was really in control and being the person I wanted to be.<p>That was 5 years ago and I now realize I've felt like that almost the whole time, with brief breaks. My goal is to treat this as a real problem and solve it.
I don't like resolutions. They are lies we tell ourselves, false promises from our present self about our future self. If you actually believe you can accomplish your resolutions, you don't need a manufactured holiday, like New Year's, to decide to change your life. Any day of the week should work. Don't wait until 2018 - start today.
I’ll be doing a slightly-silly personal challenge that I made up: walk 7,777,777 steps, write 777,777 words, do 77,777 jumping jacks, 7,777 press-ups, eat 777 different types of fruit, achieve target weight of 77kg, and run 7 10K races.<p><a href="https://medium.com/@7sevens/the-seven-sevens-challenge-c7b7d669bf95" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@7sevens/the-seven-sevens-challenge-c7b7d...</a>
* Exercise Everyday (intensity/duration may vary, but never ever miss)<p>* Make healthy diet changes one at a time (Very very hard to do. Try to do multiple stuff and drop them all. ) First change, start with raw veggies in the morning.<p>* Delta-debug how to get into flow state as many time and as fast as possible (Kramer's rule from below, couldn't be better stated). For starters, work on one and only one thing at a time. Suffering from analysis-paralysitis and spread-too-thiningitis
Learn new tech stacks , and get into Big data & ML. TO not be a generalist dev anymore, and get into either Amazon or Microsoft. May be find the right girl and get married. Lesser Netflix , more reading books and writing (blogs/Medium).Not to laze around on weekends and invest that time into building new skills and advance my career. As always lots of stuff to do and hope I can achieve the maximum possible till Jan 1 2019. Happy New Year HN !
Improve my Spanish vocabulary by extensively reading at least one million words of Spanish. I’m currently at the level where I can read about 12 pages of Harry Potter per hour without a dictionary, or faster with Readlang. One million words is about the length of the entire Harry Potter series.<p>Continue my porn-free streak to prioritize real life sexual experiences.
Health<p>- Undo minor case of hip impingement ( sitting down too much! )<p>- Connect with more people / foster better relationships. Who knew making friends in a city could be so hard?<p>Programming<p>- Finish SICP. Made it through four chapters with co-workers, and then everyone dropped off.<p>- Continue exploring functional programming<p>- Finish my homegrown Japanese kana / kanji language learning tool<p>Other:<p>- Take some of the wisdom from this thread[1], and make myself more "marketable" through blogging, giving talks, etc.<p>- Pass the JLPT 3 test<p>[1] - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15994410" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15994410</a>
Get a Higher resolution display (around 4k maybe) and be more ergonomic in general.<p>Release an Open Source Project and develop it for a year.<p>Turn my comments into blog posts instead of just comments.<p>But most important to have fun!
1. Ship every day - keep momentum going (talking to new customers, fixing bug, building new feature)<p>2. Be more accountable - write on Skype every day to my business partner what I will work on today.<p>3. Stay focused - Keep putting the gas on the 1 or 2 things taht work.<p>4. Stop seeking perfection - find 90% of results with 10% of efforts.<p>And of course:<p>5. Travel more - I plan to visit South Korea, Japan, China, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia this year!
Probably try for a Master's degree since my employer would essentially pay for it.<p>I've been wondering what the next step is for me after 5 years as a (professional) web developer. I still enjoy it but I can't help but think that there's something after. I work on a very modern stack (React, Redux, TypeScript, etc.) and I imagine many here would be satisfied with that. But lately I keep trying to define the value that I bring to the table and it's hard to verbalize, when it shouldn't be. So learning to express that is also on the table.<p>I've also been getting my feet wet with crypto, machine learning and FinTech. They may turn out to be 2017 fads but so was JavaScript and jQuery back in the day.
11 years ago my resolution was to stop making resolutions. So I've got some great resolution ideas but am screwed because I never fail to deliver on a new years resolution.
- Continue with habit forming practice<p>- Run and exercise at least 3 times a week<p>- Delta-debug how to get into flow state as many time and as fast as possible
I'm spending more time working on things that I can touch. That means more woodworking, electronics projects without any software attached, and customizing real-world tools like my desk, coffeemaker, and bass amp for what I want them to do.<p>I'd also like to get my bench press up from 170 to 225 and cut carbs down, but not eliminate them.
1. Build a 2d side scroller.
2. Build the website currently codename saw.
3. Up my CS game.
4. Build a robot that will at least pickup one object.
5. It is time I buy that school bus to live in for a while.
Alex Vermeer's guide "8,760 hours" [1] could be helpful if you didn't already come up with your resolutions: Its method gives you a framework how to analyze and prioritize your long term goals for this or the next year.<p>[1]: <a href="https://alexvermeer.com/8760hours/" rel="nofollow">https://alexvermeer.com/8760hours/</a><p>HN post: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13249796" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13249796</a>
Here is what I'm going to focus on in 2018:<p>- Work less, achieve more<p>- No alcohol<p>- Read more<p>- Write more<p>- Practice my Mandarin<p>- Produce 1 song/week (<a href="https://weeklybeats.com/" rel="nofollow">https://weeklybeats.com/</a>)<p>- Continue to make one thing every day
- Introduce at least another 30,000 developers to StdLib [1]<p>- 1,000lbs combined 1RM on Squat, Bench, Deadlift<p>- Run two half-marathons<p>- Spend more time with my girlfriend and my dog<p>Hold me to it, HackerNews.<p>[1] <a href="https://stdlib.com/" rel="nofollow">https://stdlib.com/</a>
#1 Blog more<p>#2 Work on my book<p>#3 Grow all my own food<p>#4 Sell everything (already in motion)<p>#5 Backpack in Europe for 90 days: Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavia<p>Optional:<p>#6 Interview at a bunch of places abroad<p>#7 Work in a language I enjoy (Clojure, Erlang, ect ect)
1. Get a job<p>2. Finish a side project<p>3. Go on a date with a girl<p>4. Finish an NES game on my backlog<p>5. Read the second book in The Chronicles of Narnia (I've only read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe)<p>6. Relax
Mid 2017 I started reading more and I ended up reading 30 books. It has been incredibly fulfilling, my head is constantly full of new ideas and I find myself a better person.<p>I want to continue with this trend and read 50 books and write a review for each of them.<p>Additionally, as I just moved to Berlin, I want to make new friends here.
No alcohol for a year.<p>While getting ready for exams this november-december, I had to quit all social activities and as a side effect, I haven't had any drinks for a month or so. While it did not improve my studying or sleep significantly, it helped me realize the effect alcohol has on my body. Couple of drinks after the last exam gave me quite a hangover, something i did not experience much before. Now the interesting observation is that my hangovers got much easier to a point of almost disappearing as I got into drinking again. The realization of this semi-permanent effect combined with studies showing connection to cognitive impairment (memory, concentration etc.) got me into trying a year without alcohol.<p>Edit: formatting
1. Complete my SaaS projects and generate enough revenue to become ramen-profitable.<p>2. Keep up the habits I have finally developed:<p>- Clean diet - staying away from bad food, coffee, nootropics.<p>- Exercise - running every day.<p>- Coding every day - learning from courses or adding features to my projects.<p>- Writing every day - working on blog posts, video scripts, or at least writing quora answers.<p>- Writing at least 4 jokes per day. Striving to post them regularly (tweet, use them in my articles, write routines).<p>- Info diet - reading, staying away from reddit, consuming news only through RSS and HN.<p>That's pretty much it. I want to stay healthy, make money, and get better at my craft. Nothing else needed.
- Read a ton. In about six months I'll be applying for a masters degree programme in literary studies, and from this year september I'll have about an academic year to stabilise the topic of my thesis. But as a rather late-comer to literature (I was all about IT my late teens, interested in humanities when I was 19-20, and re-started undergrad education in the faculty of letters a bit later), I find my knowledge rather shallow. I've been reading lots of books, both fiction and things like major philosophical works, ancient literature, the scriptures, art history, theory of art, etc., but much slower than the rate I'd like to maintain. This year I'd like to read about a hundred books, and complete reading the scriptures (I'm reading it cover to cover, takes some time...), the Odyssey, the Histories, and maybe a couple more. The coming 6-7 months will probably be the last ones where I can postpone working as a 24-yrs-old, so I must make good use of them.<p>- Fix my sleep cycle. For lots of time I've been sleeping every now and then, randomly, and the last months I feel like I can't do so anymore, especially can't wake up with little sleep. I should get to sleep more regularly.<p>- Learn at least one of French or Portuguese. Certify my knowledge of English and Italian (both foreign languages I know).<p>- Do some travelling, both to shake off some stress and to find a cosy place for my PhD.
"I don't make resolutions, I set goals" (TM) (A purposely eye-roll inducing quote I've been saying to myself for a few years). But:<p>- Contribute to Swift<p>- Finish 6 books<p>- Ship 2 iOS apps<p>- Run 10km in under 50 minutes<p>- 195 lbs
My 2017 resolution was to become involved with my local and regional community (outside of tech). It has been a tremendously fulfilling experience. My 2018 resolution is to do more public speaking/teaching in it. I am done doing the usual fitness, diet, etc. ones. I either do them already or not at all. But these new ones that took me three decades to try have been more fulfilling and more fun than anything else.
bash-scripting:<p>23:20, I was waiting on a public event for new year to happen. There was no big countdown screen visible. I checked my android phone if there is any clock with seconds, nope (iOS has something I think). I usually would download an app but I am on holidays and there was no Wifi. So I thought, 40 minutes to go, lets fire up termux with ruby and make a oneliner. I discovered that I didn't install ruby yet. Ok, I need to use bash. MAN is also not installed yet. Termux thankfully has a 'help' command. It offers for "while": "while COMMANDS; do COMMANDS;> { COMMANDS ; }". I tried for 30 minutes, but there was always a syntax error.<p>Another solution would be "watch -n1 echo $(date)", but then I would have an update only every second. Also this somehow didn't work because of some buffer issues. It always showed the same time.<p>23:56, I give up.<p>Now at home, I lookup the syntax for while and here it is: "done" was missing. Easy to find out, unless you never use bash for scripting. I tried tons of keywords and combinations, but just couldn't remember that it was "done".
- Self study cryptography, algorithms, linear algebra, machine learning<p>- Work on some side project either being a startup or open source project - this will take priority over self-studying if I can find the right thing to work on<p>- Get a treadmill so I can run every morning when it's too cold to go outside<p>- Hit savings goals for retirement and buying a home<p>- Spend some time abroad<p>- Do a combination train/biking/camping trip
If you forget the grandiose ideas and keep them simple they are more likely to happen.<p>I'm left handed and my resolution last year was to use my right hand more. I had to make a conscience effort to do so, but that effort has stuck with me. I still think about which hand to use before performing a task, something I didn't do before the resolution.<p>Keep them simple.
no alcohol before breakfast and try to remember to change my underpants at least once a week.
no seriously, I like kramer1416 idea of figuring out how to get into flow state on a regular basis. I reckon that would be an overall win for personal productivity.
Also, lose weight through exercise and learn how to brew cider.
Work on my health, release an application, hopefully have some stability life and employment wise, maybe do some talks at a conference or two. Hell maybe release a book.<p>Depending on how all that goes, maybe i'll go back to school. Maybe I'll see the world. Hell maybe I'll get married. Stranger things have happened.
This year I sat down to write some 2018 resolutions and realized that I've either already been successfully beeminding them for a few months, or am waiting to add beeminder goals in the next few months.<p>I wrote down resolutions before and never stuck to them. Beeminder is a gamechanger.
- Finish two intermediate songs I've been trying to cover on guitar and vocals by 2019, and create some of my own.<p>- Do a grocery shopping every week and spend less on food/eating out.<p>- Finish a side project related to application of AWS and GCP deployment strategies and put it on GitHub.<p>- Get promoted at current job.
Most likely: raise money, start a business and spend the rest of the year dealing with GERD.<p>I don't know how people do such things so nonchalantly, so oblivious to the near-certainty of total failure. I never feel ready enough for anything. There is always more to check, elaborate, investigate, experiment, compare, prepare, plan, ponder, defend ... I am never ready enough. Never.<p>But I also don't feel like playing "what if?" for the rest of my life. I've already spent a lot of it spinning wheels and I currently have relatively little to lose. If not this year: when? There's no less-shittier time, really.<p>So if you were sick of me talking about BOSH, Cloud Foundry and Pivotal, buckle up. At some point you'll be sick of me talking about Robojar.
Leave the house at least five days a week. Previous years I was going to the gym every workday but that gym is now closed and I plan to continue exercising with my trainer in the modest exercise room of our condo and I am really scared of becoming a total recluse.
Have a better relationship with my dad by being more kind and accepting.<p>Proper exercise 2-3 times a week.<p>Less time reading random stuff online and social media, more time writing and learning.<p>Switch jobs to learn more and progress in my career, don't get comfortable and stuck in one place.
To stop consuming and start creating. Also to actually interact with people online. I haven't really commented online or been social online since the late 90's and I want to try and change that and actually create and interact again.
I'm trying to take a middle of the road approach to resolutions. They aren't the most important things, because it should go without saying that I should try to do them, regardless of what year it is, but they aren't frivolous either. Mine are:<p><pre><code> 1. Go for a 10 mile run each month
2. Study Spanish for at least 10 hours each month
3. Run my first triathlon
</code></pre>
I posted them to my blog several days ago: <a href="https://benatkin.com/2017/12/28/2018-new-years-resolutions/" rel="nofollow">https://benatkin.com/2017/12/28/2018-new-years-resolutions/</a>
Eat almost no sugar
<a href="http://www.theage.com.au/interactive/2017/what-sugar-does-to-your-brain/" rel="nofollow">http://www.theage.com.au/interactive/2017/what-sugar-does-to...</a>
Figure out how to get more consistent freelance work and then do that. Keeping it simple -- 2017 was a pretty good year for me otherwise so I don't need to really add anything to the mix so to speak other than this.<p>Share more things that I create.
Personal:<p>Watch less TV and read more. I have a list of books to read, and shows I'd like to keep at/below 2 half hour, 2 hour long per week.<p>Complete /r/photoclass_2018<p>Learn Swedish spoon carving. Make at least one spoon I'm happy with using. Get good enough to attempt a dala horse.<p>Relearn Spanish using Fluent Forever ideas/products. Get good enough to help translate for Spanish speakers in stores.<p>Lose weight. At 260, my goal is 199. Going to use a mix of weightlifting and metcon-style workouts.<p>Work:<p>Focus more a la Deep Work<p>Learn more AWS and Docker stuff<p>Lead refactoring of our code base<p>Help guide the core philosophy changes we need to move from survival mode startup to strong engineering culture<p>Edited to put some more specific targets around my personal goals.
1. Expand my development horizons. I've been a .NET developer for most of my career, and I've recently taken a job at a company that is mostly Node/Ruby. This year, I want to learn enough RoR, Django, and Node to be able to contribute wherever needed.<p>2. Compete at blue belt at a BJJ competition. I've a fresh blue belt, so my training needs to be more consistent in order to hang at that level.<p>3. Learn to enjoy travelling more. For the first time in my life I've got the money to travel and see the world, and rather than being constantly anxious of being somewhere different I want to embrace it.
Remain committed to reason, especially when emotions run high.<p>Grow more willing to stand up to bullies, including on HN.<p>Be kind to people, including myself.<p>Cause 10% less animal suffering through my eating habits.<p>Spend at least one week in a country and culture I don't understand.
Blog much more, especially in a exploratory, engineering-notebook-y kind of way, detailing my thoughts, ideas, and failures. I've found those kinds of articles fun to write and even more fun to read.<p>I think this is because code doesn't live in a vacuum–it has a story behind it. Sometimes I like to read git histories of people's personal projects, to see how some of the stuff I use daily came to be. That's the kind of stuff I want to share with people.
I put together a list of questions to ask yourself questions about your past year, and the new year<p><a href="https://www.deepthoughtapp.com/packages/130/new-years-reflections/" rel="nofollow">https://www.deepthoughtapp.com/packages/130/new-years-reflec...</a><p>This is a site I developed to really help me understand myself better
A few things I want to try to accomplish this year:<p>1. Read fiction slower. Sometimes I just read to get to the ending and I miss _a lot_.<p>2. Read more non fiction. I read 1 or 2 non fiction books in 2017. I want around 30% of my reading to be non fiction in 2018.<p>3. Go to the gym at least 3 times a week. I've started this two weeks ago and I hope to keep going :)<p>4. Finish a side project.
Contribute to an open-source Project.<p>Read at least 30 books from my reading-list (mostly non-fiction).<p>Run a half-marathon by mid-year.<p>Travel to an unknown place unplanned.
Working on my amount of energy i put into answering to other people when i'm irritated by there 'stupid/simple/obvious' questions.<p>I have that sometime, that i'm answering to short (=properly harsh?) but i do think i have the time to answer someone else properly and spend more energy in doing so.
- make my company profitable by focusing more on sales and marketing<p>- build new winery (building for production, lab and so)<p>- extend my body flexibility: after decades of sitting I am able to just reach my knees while standing. I want to be able to reach toes by the end of this year. Also work on my posture and remove my back pain.
Make an effort to say something nice to someone on the internet every day.<p>I have never been uncivil online however I've also never been especially good at voice my positive feelings either. Therefore I will make the effort of putting mentioning positive things and not just nod approvingly at home.
I'm resolving to produce a lot less garbage, cardboard, and plastic recycling, and plant 50 trees. Probably the biggest problem is going to be my Amazon habit. Does anybody have suggestions for reducing packaging from Amazon?
1. Spend less time on binance.com<p>2. Spend more time on a side project I have that solves a real problem and that I've been neglecting<p>3. Commit new code every day<p>4. Decide whether dating a current girl should continue or not.<p>5. Talk to your family members more, especially grandma and sister
Make a success of my website, WikiFork[1], an inclusionist fork of Wikipedia.<p>1: <a href="http://wikifork.org/mw/index.php/Main_Page" rel="nofollow">http://wikifork.org/mw/index.php/Main_Page</a>
I want to leave my teaching job and work as a developer full-time: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16042744" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16042744</a>
Try to keep my add in check even more. Less smartphone use(that is a though one, I get crabby and irritated if I don't look at it every few minutes...). Try to draw every day for at least 30 minutes.
Hike again this year, and hike beyond 150 KM.<p>Positively impact at least 50 people. I'm not sure how to measure that, be it teaching a thing or two, helping homeless people, or talking to friends...
Get some IT/programming certificates, skill up to a job with a wage to get out of debt faster, and start a side project I've been wanting to get off the ground for a while.
Talk to more customers, at the same time as building. The first couple of versions are really a glorified mailing list, for people to talk to you about what they really want.
I quit my job yesterday, going to start working full-time on a personal project of mine. Got a two-year long runway, looking to have my first customer in 6 months...
- Complete my IT Diploma with Cum Laude. 5 Subjects left out of 30
- Lose 10kg
- Grow my side project which is currently making $1,000, to make at least $10,000.
No buying books on Google Play. All the books I read will come from the library this year.<p>Get back into a weight lifting program.<p>Revive some of my open source projects that I've abandoned.
Same resolution I've made every year for the past ten years: when I see a way to change my life for the better, make the change as soon as reasonable
* Read more.<p>* Become more fit.<p>* Travel more.<p>* Avoid sugar, caffeine, social media.<p>* Take meaningful conversations offline.<p>* Help more.<p>* Get better at Spanish.<p>* Become more aware of passing time.