Reviewing the ups and downs of this year
This is the first time I'm writing an annual summary, and I don't know where to start. The purpose of building this website this year was to have a place to remember what I have done, the thoughts I have had, and to exchange ideas with others. Since June, I have written a total of 19 articles in half a year. It may not be a lot, but I hope to continue and record more next year. Keep it up! 💪🏻
Life#
Looking back on this year, the theme that runs through the whole year is the pandemic. After the Chinese New Year, I experienced a period of working from home, which lasted for a long time. It made me determined to buy an ergonomic chair. You should know that programmers are a profession that works sitting for a long time. Shenzhen just resumed normal work, and then Shanghai began a 3-month lockdown. From the initial 72 hours to 48 hours, and finally to 24 hours in June, we started daily nucleic acid testing for half a year. After work every day, I still worry that I haven't done the nucleic acid test... Although I have already gotten used to it, and even developed a habit, taking off the mask, opening my mouth, putting on the mask, these actions have become muscle memory.
In December, there was a major policy change in the country. Nucleic acid testing is no longer required, and even if the result is positive, isolation is not necessary. The result is the widespread spread of the virus. People in the company gradually got infected, and I recently got infected with COVID-19 as well. The antigen test result was positive, and I had a fever, runny nose, and cough. I experienced the typical symptoms. It was so uncomfortable to have a fever of 39 degrees. If young people feel so uncomfortable, what should the elderly with underlying diseases do?
After a whole year of nucleic acid testing and lockdown, it finally came to an end. But our direct confrontation with the virus has just begun. I hope that next year will be better!
Work#
This year can be said to be my first year as a formal programmer (last year was mainly in the internship stage, and the work was unrelated to coding). In this year, I started as a rookie in the team, and gradually became familiar with the team's operation, the operation of the work environment, and the coding through delivering one requirement after another. In the first half of the year, I switched from Scala to Java. Although I haven't been using Scala for long, the language transition and adjustment were quite significant because the overall code architecture framework within the team underwent major changes. But I quickly adapted and delivered the work quickly. Recently, during the project delivery at the end of the year, because the architect in the team was injured, I acted as the project leader. I felt the difficulties and challenges of coordinating work and learned a lot from it.
Overall, I am very satisfied with my professional growth this year, and I hope to deepen my knowledge next year.
Input#
Programming#
In terms of programming input this year, I wanted to learn everything, but I couldn't master anything. I only had a superficial understanding of everything, and when I delved deeper, I felt helpless. I know that the best way to learn a technology is to follow a book step by step, but I am afraid of the high sunk cost. I worry that if I invest too much time, the cycle will be too long, and what if I don't need it after I finish learning? These thoughts always interrupt my learning progress, and in the end, I only learn the content of the first few chapters. The later content is almost untouched.
Haste makes waste. I hope I can understand this point next year.
Books#
This year, I can say that my reading of books is the most in recent years, although the quantity is pitifully small. But reading books is not about quantity, it is about having in-depth communication with the author and understanding their thoughts. This year, I also bought a bookshelf with a total of 5 layers, and I put books on 3 layers. Among these 3 layers, 2 layers are programming-related books, and the remaining layer contains books of various genres.
In summary, I have started reading books, but I still need to cultivate my interest in reading.
Movies#
Due to the pandemic this year, the number of times I went to the cinema to watch movies was very few. Instead, I used a home theater system. Recently, I also set up my own library of movies and TV shows using Aliyun Drive + WebDAV (a service built using Docker on Aliyun servers) + Infuse. I also bought an Apple Studio Display monitor this year (the sound effect is very good). Watching movies at home with this setup is really enjoyable.
Music and Audio#
Music 🎵: This year, I switched from NetEase Cloud Music to Spotify. Although this platform doesn't have the listening history like before (it temporarily won't recommend the songs you want to listen to), it has a lot of resources for listening to music and has expanded the types of music I listen to. It feels great.
Audio: This year, I developed a new hobby, which is listening to podcasts. Listening to podcasts seems very retro now, just like using a radio 📻 in my parents' generation. One great advantage of listening to podcasts is that it accompanies you without disturbing you. You can listen while eating, riding a bike, exercising, and even taking a shower. It can truly be done anytime, anywhere. So what's the use of listening to so many podcasts? Let's not talk about whether the content is nutritious. Just considering the input time of information, it can surpass many video courses. This year, I listened to a total of 253 hours in the aforementioned scenarios, which is longer than many video tutorials. Moreover, listening to podcast content can cover a wide range of topics. Don't think about learning something specific while listening. Just treat it as a collection of fragmented time, which is much better than watching short videos. Accumulate the hidden time in each day (as mentioned in Liu Weipeng's "Hidden Time"), and it is also a great wealth. Moreover, podcasts have good continuity. You can continue listening where you left off in the morning when you finish work.
So I will continue to cultivate this hobby of listening to podcasts.
Outlook#
I hope that next year will go smoothly in terms of work, I can make progress in programming skills, have good health, enrich and persist in my hobbies. Ideally, I hope that the post-pandemic era will become better and better, and the world will be peaceful. That's all!