
Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2018? - NinjaX
...and what did you learn in the process?
======
thanksDr
I stepped up and looked after my grandmother when no one else would.

Even if I was painted as a villain when her vulture children descended on her
for her assets, and even if no one will ever recognize it, I'm glad I did the
right thing, regardless of the personal cost.

------
franky47
I built a lightsaber for my sister.

I had been struggling with depression in the first half of the year after
quitting my job and deciding to try freelancing. I had very low motivation for
anything, maybe I was trying too hard to keep myself busy by inventing
problems for the sake of having something to try new web techs on (React,
GraphQL, TypeScript, and more recently Rust).

One summer day I found out there's a lightsaber duelling club in my hometown,
and I approached them to know more (being a Star Wars fan since an early age).
Joining the club got me back into sports (it's not just waving a glowing
stick, there's a lot of cardio, muscular reinforcement, and a bit of
meditation involved), which started to help with the focus and motivation, and
re-centering my priorities. It's also a lot of fun, and the members provided
kind of a social replacement for the lack of colleagues that comes with going
freelance.

Then I decided to build a lightsaber (as any Jedi wannabe with an engineering
degree would), but not for me, for my sister for Christmas. It took me 6
months and a lot of money, mostly as investment in machinery (3D printer, and
garage/workshop tools), but it was so worth it in the end. It allowed me to
focus on one large project, that did not relate to a computer, and get
something done as a result. It might seem like a pointless thing to do (it
won't help save the world from climate change or solve the ever increasing
issue of social divide), but it was something I think I needed.

Some photos:

[https://photos.app.goo.gl/i3b35NUyJLrQrnPB8](https://photos.app.goo.gl/i3b35NUyJLrQrnPB8)

[https://photos.app.goo.gl/Gz3iPcdRvDx4JHWG8](https://photos.app.goo.gl/Gz3iPcdRvDx4JHWG8)

[https://photos.app.goo.gl/D8MbBCFd1ujtHbYZA](https://photos.app.goo.gl/D8MbBCFd1ujtHbYZA)

With this project I learned a few things:

\- Taking a break from toxic things is a survival necessity sometimes (in my
case it was work and social networks' engineered attention-seeking
mechanisms).

\- Sport always has more of a positive effect than we think it will have on
us.

\- Not keeping up with the latest web tech is OK, it can be an addiction too.

Merry Christmas everyone !

~~~
bad_good_guy
That looks sick, very cool!

Merry Christmas to you too!

------
juhatl
Being able to say I’ve overcome my nearly 15 years of depression. I did some
pretty neat things in and out of work too, but none of them can really compare
to finally feeling happy and healthy again.

I learned that if I’m not happy, then nothing else in life will really matter
to me, and that my own happiness and health are the most important things that
I can have. I always knew this on some abstract intellectual level, but it
wasn’t until after I had actually gotten better that I truly, deeply
understood it.

Take care of yourselves out there. You’re the most important thing you’ve got.

~~~
theonething
Congratulations to you!

Would you mind sharing how you overcame it?

------
doe88
11,000 Km cycling. Not sure it is really an accomplishment nor that I'm really
proud of it, matter of fact it wasn't a goal to begin with, but it happened
naturally so it's all good I guess. One thing I learned is with all this time
spent on a bike your mind has plenty to reflect and even to debug and mentally
compile your code you struggled with before during the day. It's somehow often
diffcult to totally disconnect your mind from your day job.

I've also came to really appreciate the efforts done by endurance athletes.
It's so much more than just training, it's nutrition, sleep, rest, preventing
injuries, so it can be mentally exhausting. Recently I remember reading the
headline of an article stating that too much sport is as bad as too little on
the mind, there is truth in it I think. The (relative) difficulty of this kind
of endeavour is well summed up by Kipchoge: _motivation + discipline =
consistency_.

------
parvatzar
I started running a especially early in the morning. All this was to prepare
for a 10K (6.3 miles) run. The aim was to improve my time. I went from 56 mins
to 50 mins and finally achieved a Personal best of 47 minutes in the event I
trained for. I learnt a lot about discipline, running technique, nutrition and
fitness tips. I am now preparing for a half marathon i.e 21K (13.1 miles) and
aim to achieve a sub 2 hour finish. Planning to keep up the routine , train
harder and hopefully get there.

------
antibland
After abandoning drum playing for ten years, I picked it up again. It began by
watching some random YouTube video about developing paradiddle speed (RLRR
LRLL)[0]. I was intrigued by an approach to building speed I'd never
considered. I began noodling around on a practice pad, fifteen minutes here
and there. My speed increased.

Within a month, the practice pad felt limiting and I bought some V-Drums to
rebuild my chops on a full kit. I soon subscribed to some excellent drum
channels on YouTube and incorporated many of the lessons into my playing. Soon
I was getting faster and more accurate in many areas and playing 6-8 hours a
week became totally feasible. Anyone who's become disciplined at doing
anything has discovered that feeling of loss when you miss a day.

A year later, I am working towards starting a band, as playing drums is one of
the few consistent joys I have in life. Initially, this was not my goal, but
now feels attainable. I (re)learned a lesson I must have forgotten, which is
to make time in your schedule for something you've decided to master or
greatly improve upon. It's amazing where fifteen minutes a day can take you.

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1IQj83NCgI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1IQj83NCgI)

------
AbdessamadEl
Hey Franky47 i saw the lightsaber that you made, i like it very much, i learn
a lot from your story, thanks for sharing.

For me i think the greatest accomplishment in 2018 is that i took my diploma
in computer things, now i'm working on a project using Laravel && Vue as
freelance project i'm working on it all days, i learn a lot of thing every
day, sometimes i get depressed but it's normal i get up one more time and try
to keep working.

------
tdsamardzhiev
Got rid of my business that I absolutely hated and started work as a game
developer for a big AAA company.

I learned that I should try to be a better me instead of emulating somebody
else's success story.

------
jacob_rezi
I started my company the year after graduating in the middle of 2015, moved to
Korea to tackle Asia in late 2015.

Now in 2018, we were accepted as the first global startup in the most
competitive corporate incubator.

The highlight of 2018, was being accepted into a global expansion program
which gave us corporating backing to explore the Chinese market. Two weeks
ago, my founding Korean employee and I spent 2 days in Beijing introducing my
company to TusStar Accelerator, and Tsinghua University and 3 days meeting
business partners in Shanghai.

As someone who just turned 26, this is a tremendous accomplishment that
shattered my personal goals for 2018.

In the process, I realized how naive I am to think China would be easy. I also
it will not be impossible, and I very, very excited for 2019.

------
dkns
I'm starting to get my life on track.

I learned how insanely important initiative in life is. Being the guy who not
only comes up with idea but also says "I'll do it" has immense value. I
started leading a small team while being underqualified for the job and there
were two things that greatly helped me understand the value of initiative.
First was showing my boss a CI/CD pipeline that I implemented that everyone
was talking about. That made my boss believe that I can do what I was talking
about and consequently I have a free reign in implementing new changes (it
helps that we're small software house). Second thing was talking with
developers. A lot of them have ideas what they would like to see changed that
would help them in their daily work but they also claim that they do not have
time to make those changes (which is sometimes fair point). So we're sitting
at a lot of great ideas that need 'just' implementing.

Second thing I learned is the value of discipline and having a rhythm to your
day. Wake up, eat breakfast, run your morning routine, go to work, go to gym,
do evening stuff, run your before bed routine. Basically have a plan for your
day. Like they say 'Failing to plan is planning to fail'.

~~~
jpmelos
This is something I really want to implement in 2019: a routine, and a general
attitude, strategy, tactics and actions to "get my act together".

------
gaspoweredcat
sadly 2018 was basically a total write off for me, starting out great and
crashing down to me being left broke, homeless and jobless with nothing but
the things in my backpack to my name, but im still alive and things are
looking up for next year

~~~
smithmayowa
Hope you've still got your hopes up, never give up bro.

------
schappim
I built my own shopping cart and an omni-channel e-commerce order management
system that integrates with Australia Post, Amazon, Google, eBay, Neto, and
Shopify.

The net gain has been extreme automation. My shipping team's output has
doubled.

I've learned that whilst we talk about premature optimisation, there is also
lagging optimisation too!

------
mindcrime
Well, 2018 isn't over yet, so I'm still holding out hope that my big
accomplishment for this year will be launching our Fogcutter SaaS offering.
It's very close to ready to launch, at least in the "soft launch" sense. That
is, the site will be live and ready to accept customers. I don't know that
we'll do much promotion initially, as there are still a lot of rough edges I
want to polish.

OTOH, the old saying stands "if you aren't embarrassed to show your product to
your mother, you waited too late to launch". And I would probably be
embarrassed to show this stuff to my mom right now. I'd be embarrassed to do a
Show HN for sure.

Anyway, if we sneak that in before midnight on 12/31/2018, I'll call that my
accomplishment. If not, I'll fall back to saying my biggest accomplishment of
2018 was going through the Startup School program.

What did I learn? Wow.. so much. I'd probably have to write a book. Or at
least a few blog posts. Offhand though, I'd say two of the biggest things I
learned were just reaffirmations of things I'd at least heard - if not
internalized - before:

1\. The toughest part of being a founder is managing your own internal
mental/emotional state. I forget who originally said that, maybe pg, or pmarca
or somebody of that ilk. But it's very true. My morale has sunk pretty low a
few times over the last 12 months and I've spent moments here and there in a
real funk. But I've managed to keep reminding myself to shut down the negative
self-chatter, keep working, and push through the tough times. It's important
to remember that things usually get better, and that being negative and
depressed doesn't help. So when I start questioning myself, I try to redirect
my thoughts to "how does all this negativity help? What if I just STFU and
keep working and see what tomorrow brings?" And as it happens, usually by the
next day the moment has passed and I'm back in the saddle.

2\. Startup School really reminded me of the importance of focusing on the
problem you're solving, and the idea of doing the smallest subset of what
you're trying to build, and then putting that "out there". In a talk, pg (or
one of the speakers, but I think it was pg) referred to finding the "minimum
quantum of utility" of your idea.

So having that thinking beat into my head repeatedly throughout SS was
valuable. As pg said (paraphrased) "As a developer you can sit in a coffee
shop or cafe and write code and work on your 'vision' forever. You need to
actually get your thing out in front of the people you want to sell it to,
preferably sooner than later".

~~~
superasn
One word of advice from someone who has seen little success with Saas
businesses, you gotta keep at it for at least one year or more.

Once you're done with the development don't make the mistake of focusing more
energy on your coding or product features but rather give everything to
market.

Focus on SEO, content marketing, list building and forums (the niche the
better). If you are able to show it this year then spend all 2019 promoting
and building traffic. Then you really have a chance at making it.

I wish you all the best. Merry Christmas! :)

~~~
mindcrime
_Once you 're done with the development don't make the mistake of focusing
more energy on your coding or product features but rather give everything to
market._

Yeah, that's pretty much the plan. "2018: ship. 2019: accelerate". That's been
the mantra here. Of course in the strictest sense, the 2018 deadline isn't
essential. If we ship on January 4th, or January 15th, or whatever, it doesn't
change the overall plan. But I like having a milestone target to shoot for.

Merry Christmas!

------
csomar
\- I visited 9 new countries (14 new cities).

\- I started learning Chinese.

\- I tried my hand at DevOps, Rust and Machine Learning.

What I learned?

\- Countries and cultures are very different. Environments can affect you in a
big deal. The city, the people, the weather, the system, etc...

\- Travelling is hard. But rewarding.

\- Learning Chinese with Anki seems like it increases your brain capabilities.
I'm not certain about that but suggests you try it and see for yourself.

\- Rust is Hard. It is eloquent and right. But it is hard.

\- Rust is unfinished business if you are looking to ship software. Many
things are not ready yet or mass-tested/used.

\- Machine Learning is a huge topic.

------
sys_64738
I left Facebook and learned there is life beyond Zuck's universe.

------
gremlinsinc
Overcame suicidal ideation/depression...by starting therapy, ADHD meds, and
CrossFit --as a side effect I lost 85 pounds (515 down to 430). I'm happy now
for the first time in my life and I feel I have a good trajectory.

------
pusv
I disconnected myself from social media, and smartphone. I am using feature
phone, and laptop only for work.

------
tangue
I learned to swim breaststroke and freestyle and realised swimming in open
water and learned that nothing can be perfect the first time, discovered the
value of repeating drills and hard worrk and learning from my mistakes.

------
kronos_vano
Got an offer to Singapore!

------
InGodsName
Converted whole ad network to Serverless.

Used Rust Lambda runtime for CPU intensive tasks.

Using Go for the rest of the Lambdas.

I love Go and Rust and optimizing just one Lambda at a time brought back the
programme joy in my life

Used Apex+Terrform to manage whole infra for the ad network.

We managed to deploy Lambda in all AWS regions ensuring minium latency for the
ad viewers.

The thing which took over 50 (tech side only) person team, now takes 10 people
to run the whole ad network.

Network is doing 20M profit per year.

It's my greatest achievement so far because we made it from scratch without
any investor money.

But one the other side, we'll have to shrink our team size next year as growth
opportunity is limited and we want to optimize efficiency further.

