94 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
94 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
title: 2024 Year in Review
|
|
date: 2024-12-28
|
|
tags: [Career, Productivity]
|
|
excerpt: Reflecting on 2024 - the projects I built, lessons I learned, and goals for 2025. A year of growth, challenges, and accomplishments.
|
|
draft: false
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
# 2024 Year in Review!
|
|
|
|
As 2024 comes to a close, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the year. It's been a year of significant growth, both professionally and personally.
|
|
|
|
## Professional Highlights
|
|
|
|
### Projects
|
|
|
|
This year, I worked on several exciting projects:
|
|
|
|
**E-commerce Platform**: Led the frontend architecture for a new e-commerce platform serving 100k+ daily users. We achieved a 40% improvement in page load times through careful optimization.
|
|
|
|
**Design System**: Built a comprehensive design system from scratch, complete with documentation and Storybook. This is now used across 5 different products.
|
|
|
|
**Open Source**: Made my first significant open source contributions! Contributed to several Bun-related projects and created a few small utilities that others found useful.
|
|
|
|
### Skills Developed
|
|
|
|
- **Performance Optimization**: Learned a ton about web performance, Core Web Vitals, and how to actually make sites fast
|
|
- **System Design**: Started thinking more about architecture and scalability
|
|
- **TypeScript**: Became much more proficient with advanced TypeScript patterns
|
|
- **Testing**: Finally built a solid testing practice
|
|
|
|
## Personal Growth
|
|
|
|
### Writing
|
|
|
|
Started this blog! Writing has helped me:
|
|
- Clarify my thinking
|
|
- Learn more deeply
|
|
- Connect with others in the community
|
|
|
|
### Work-Life Balance
|
|
|
|
Made a conscious effort to improve work-life balance:
|
|
- Implemented a hard stop at 6 PM
|
|
- Started exercising regularly (3x per week)
|
|
- Picked up reading again (finished 12 books!)
|
|
|
|
## Challenges
|
|
|
|
Not everything was smooth sailing:
|
|
|
|
**Burnout**: Hit a rough patch in Q2 where I was working too much. Learned the importance of rest and boundaries.
|
|
|
|
**Imposter Syndrome**: Still struggles with this occasionally, but getting better at recognizing it and pushing through.
|
|
|
|
**Saying No**: Learned that saying no to some opportunities is necessary to say yes to the right ones.
|
|
|
|
## Lessons Learned
|
|
|
|
1. **Quality > Quantity**: Better to do fewer things well than many things poorly
|
|
2. **Ask for Help**: Nobody knows everything, and asking for help is a strength
|
|
3. **Document Everything**: Future you will thank present you
|
|
4. **Take Breaks**: Rest isn't laziness - it's necessary for sustained performance
|
|
5. **Community Matters**: Connecting with other developers has been invaluable
|
|
|
|
## Goals for 2025
|
|
|
|
Looking ahead to 2025:
|
|
|
|
### Professional
|
|
- Contribute to a major open source project
|
|
- Speak at a local meetup or conference
|
|
- Learn Rust (for real this time)
|
|
- Build and launch a side project
|
|
|
|
### Personal
|
|
- Write 24 blog posts (2 per month)
|
|
- Read 20 books
|
|
- Maintain exercise routine
|
|
- Learn to cook 10 new recipes
|
|
|
|
### Learning
|
|
- Deep dive into system design
|
|
- Master web performance
|
|
- Learn more about databases
|
|
- Get better at writing
|
|
|
|
## Thank You
|
|
|
|
Thanks to everyone who supported me this year - colleagues, friends, family, and the online tech community. Looking forward to 2025!
|
|
|
|
What were your highlights from 2024? What are you looking forward to in 2025?
|
|
|