
Ask HN: 2020 goals and resolutions? - lookingforsome
Mine are to:
• read at least a book off of my reading list per month.
• AWS certs
• Write a blog post per month
• Save $X for a house per month<p>What are your goals&#x2F;resolutions for 2020?
or what have you learned in this past decade?
======
Ididntdothis
I am in my 50s and want to start working on Raspberry Pi and Arduino fun
projects. But this time do it with the mindset I had when I started out. Take
the sample code and modify it without thinking too much about consequences. In
many ways experience is good but I feel I have become too “professional” and
worry too much about things that aren’t really important in small projects. In
short, become a reckless programmer.

Also: don’t learn tech for tech’s sake but do what needs to be done to fulfill
a certain task. Projects are:

\- a better trail camera trigger that ignores grass and leaves

\- a dog door that opens for my dog but only for her

~~~
anotherevan
The dog door one is of interest to me. I've noodled over that one a bit at
times.

How do you propose to identify when your dog is in proximity? I've got a
Labrador and two cats, so the size differential was such that I was thinking I
could probably get away with an ultrasonic distance sensor.

Other possibilities would be a pressure mat (dog is 37kg) or RFID although I
never found a suitable RFID solution that had sufficient range.

I also plan on using a car door lock actuator[1] instead of a more
conventional solenoid as it can be left in either open or closed position "at
rest" without needing a voltage constantly applied.

[1] [https://www.jaycar.com.au/slave-door-lock-
actuator/p/LR8813](https://www.jaycar.com.au/slave-door-lock-
actuator/p/LR8813)

~~~
Ididntdothis
I hope to do something with PIR Sensors and then image recognition. This would
also be useful for my trail camera idea. Maybe I am totally off but I hope
with two or more sensors with small field of view that all have to trigger I
can reduce false detects. Once they have triggers then fire off image
recognition to see the dog. No idea if that will work :(

~~~
exikyut
Hmm. I thought about this for a minute, it's a good question.

First of all I realized that audio processing is at a really awesome point
right now: you could train a system to capture your dog's voiceprint when it
barks! I suspect that would be sufficiently unique to only match your own dog
in your neighborhood. But this could be attacked by recording the barks and
playing them back, means your dog is making noise every time it wants to be
let in, and also depends on the dog learning new tricks ;)

Then I wondered about GPS tracking, then realized that would be stupid since
this doesn't require absolute positioning.

So then I thought about Bluetooth LE. I _think_ this is reasonably short-
range(?).

Then I thought about those tiny 2.4GHz 2Mbps radio modules you can get on
eBay, and fiddling with one of those to set the output power weak enough so it
only works when really close. But that might be so close to "not transmitting
at all" it might be very flaky.

But the above 3 ideas all require battery replacement in a collar.

Image recognition does sound like the way to go. One thought that does come to
mind though - capturing a wide view of the environment and requiring _both_
"dog within small perimeter around dog door" AND "empty environment with no
additional objects in it", for additional security (especially if the dog door
is positioned such that it's not too hard to reach up through the hole to the
doorhandle). Some tweaking would probably be needed to make the system
resilient to birds and objects moved around the environment.

------
x2f10
I am working to improve self-discipline in almost all forms: diet, exercise,
reading, attention span, and even relaxation. I suffer a large amount of
anxiety from this. I don't do the things I need to and I do too much of the
things I shouldn't. I need a better balance or I will forever be disappointed
with what could have been.

~~~
jryan49
I used to think like this. You have it backwards. You're causing yourself
anxiety by setting unrealistic goals and expectations for yourself. Take some
time and chill out. Stop caring so much about what you do or don't do. Soon
enough you'll start just doing the things you want to do when the pressure is
gone.

~~~
physicles
Seriously. GP should take the time to read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a
Fuck. It got me out of that mindset a couple years ago.

------
lnalx
For 2019, I had set myself several objectives but the one I have respected the
most is to read 1 book/month (book or audiobook).

For 2020, I will:

\- Read 1.5 books a month.

\- Launch my startup while being employed (I am currently working on the
product).

\- Enjoy life and the people around me.

\- Less time on social network.

\- Travel to at least 3 new countries.

\- Develop my photography (and videography) skill.

\- Try to write more than I read on HN.

\- Propose to the most wonderful woman.

\- Save money, as always.

~~~
core-questions
> Propose to the most wonderful woman.

Best of luck, and congrats in advance.

~~~
lnalx
Thanks a lot !

------
scarface74
Goals for 2020:

Sharpening the Saw:

\- C# I haven’t kept up with the latest ASP.Net Core/Entity Framework Core
over the past two years.

\- Python: I first learned Python last year, but just enough for simple
scripts and AWS lambda. I want to learn “Advanced Python” and at least do a
hobby project with Django or Flask.

\- TypeScript - I’ve worked with Javascript for years, but just started
working with Node this year. I played with TS about 5 years ago but not since.

\- ElasticSearch work projects.

Health:

\- get off the soda and sweets and eat more fruits and vegetables.

\- lose 10 pounds

\- rebuild cardio and core strength

\- add more workout days. I can work out at home on my gym equipment while
watching educational videos to “Sharpen the Saw”

Relationships:

\- More quality time with my wife. I spent a lot of time this year focused on
work and getting a lot of practical experience with AWS and getting into shape
(health reasons).

\- Visit and call my parents more.

\- Spend more time with friends.

Finances:

\- spend less on junk food and eating out.

~~~
lookingforsome
all excellent goals scarface, may you meet these resolutions this upcoming
year!

------
iammiles
I have a few goals in mind:

1\. Get more flexible. I'd like to be able to touch my toes. Stretch goal (pun
slightly intended): palms to the ground

2\. Finish 3 (BotW, Doom, and Celeste) of my Switch games. I've done a good
job of playing a few hours of some great games, but I'd really like to see
some of them through.

3\. Deep dive into Clojure. For someone that uses it daily at work, I really
feel like I ought to know it better.

4\. Complete the Rust book and explore some ideas using WASM and WASI.

5\. Another triathlon. I did one (slowly) 3 years ago. It'd be fun to train
again and try to better my time.

~~~
Swtrz
On touching your toes > hamstrings, work on them liberally but try not to make
them too sore.

~~~
hanniabu
What do you mean by work on them?

~~~
Swtrz
Any action taken to mobilize or stretch the muscles of the hamstring.

Or were you asking for methods specifically?

~~~
hanniabu
I'm not really sure lol, I took "work on them" as meaning either work them out
or stretch regularly. Didn't think you meant both.

------
simonsarris
I'm a big fan of committing publicly. I posted a number of goals on twitter,
so I can hold myself accountable and see how I did at the end of the year:
[https://twitter.com/simonsarris/status/1205178408344457217](https://twitter.com/simonsarris/status/1205178408344457217)

I'll post only a few here so I don't pollute the space too much.

4\. build dry stone arch bridge with remaining granite to the 2nd field over
the big stream

7\. Turn the entire front lawn into a crazy field of poppies, probably a mix
of shirley, california, and icelandic. The california poppies experient grew
really well this year but we'll see how they do year over year.

8\. Have a baby

9\. Design some cottages. It may be many years before we're able to build one,
though [note: one year ago we designed and built and moved into our house]

13\. Make a few more "for fun" websites

14\. Make a small LLC? And sell some art stuff? I'm not sure what yet, maybe
pottery or wood things, just for fun.

16\. On the 3rd field, start to build a temple to Artemis or Apollo, or the
sun. It will almost certainly have to be timber, not stone. Also build a small
temple or shrine to Christ. Probably won't be done in 2020.

18\. Start a book of fables, try to self-publish it before the end of 2021? I
have only some notes for this so far, I really don't know how long it will
take.

------
cosmodisk
Substantially reduce alcohol consumption. Quit Smoking. Bring 20-40% of my
income from initiatives not related to my current work. Build profitable side
project. Join Toastmasters.

~~~
throw51319
Alcohol is a killer. I'm thinking more and more that without cutting it out
after you realize you've "been there done that", a person will never reach
their potential.

------
fedorova
* Consume less. Do something good for the planet.

* Rekindle my career now that I’m done having kids. Start a new research project, submit ~5 good papers.

* Help my husband with his career transition.

* Figure out how to have more impact in my consulting gig.

* Learn how to match flavors in food and how to pair food and wine.

------
rusty__
I have a few various things I'm trying to achieve in 2020.

\- Reduce meat consumption significantly. I do enjoy meat and cooking dishes
like slow roasted meats but I started eating beyond meat/fake meats in 2019
and loved them. In a couple of dishes I literally couldnt tell the difference.
I think when things get to the point where they taste as good/better than the
product they're intended to replace, why not embrace them? I still like meat
and am not seeking to become fully vegetarian but will definitely cut down to
just 1-2 times a week, high quality butcher/organic meat and reduce my impact
on the planet in some small way.

\- Go completely cashless. I was just about there in achieving this in a
couple of months in 2019. It's not a hugely difficult challenge but I think
it's a fun one to try and it's very doable these days. Starting Jan 1st I'm
going to see how far I can make it without holding real money.

\- Take more 3-4 day weekends and travel more. I live in a city with great
public transport and don't own a car so it can be tough to travel without
thinking you have to take 2+ weeks off from work, but renting a car for a
weekend is trivially cheap if you plan ahead a little bit (<$100 including
gas).

\- The usuals of trying to get fit, lose a few pounds, more regular gym. Need
to find some way of making the gym fun as I really don't have any interest in
it even though I know it's good for me.

\- Make more music. I'm really getting in to Ableton and Maschine and whilst
I'm really 'level 1' at the moment I enjoy it loads and want to dedicate 2-3
nights a week to just making tunes, it's very relaxing and it's great to be
doing something that's more actively producing something rather than passively
consuming yet more netflix, HBO etc.

~~~
stockkid
Thanks for sharing. You have goals similar to mine, including travel and music
production.

> Go completely cashless

Just curious, could you explain your motivation behind it? In my case, I was
actually thinking about doing the opposite, because I rarely use cash and feel
like I spend more than I should due to not seeing the actual money leaving the
wallet.

~~~
hanniabu
I'm a cash guy. It certainly easier to be more conscious of how much you're
spending. I withdraw $200 from the bank roughly every 2 weeks so when I'm
going to the bank sooner then I'm obviously aware I'm spending more. Since
I've moved my bank is also further away which helps because as my cash on hand
lessens I become more critical of the things I'm spending my money on because
it'll mean I'll need to make a trip soon and many times it's just not
convenient.

------
AlchemistCamp
In 2019, I built Alchemist Camp into a decent side-business (see
[https://questinglog.com/2019-year-in-
review/](https://questinglog.com/2019-year-in-review/)).

In 2020, my goals are:

\- Double gross subscription sales

\- Keep lifetime retention above 60%

\- Launch product #2 by the first of March

\- Finally travel to the US for an Elixir conference

~~~
bdibs
Back when I was first learning Phoenix, I watched a couple of your videos! The
one I can remember is about using edeliver to deploy, which I'm using right
now for my little project, Podalong.

Just wanted to thank you for them, it's a solid resource for anyone interested
in Elixir/Phoenix. I hope you reach and exceed your goals!

~~~
AlchemistCamp
Thanks and that's great to hear the videos were useful!

------
markosaric
My primary goal is to make more environmentally conscious decisions whenever
possible. I'm thinking along these lines:

\- buy minimal necessary amount of stuff in general

\- choose local, seasonal and less-packaged stuff when buying groceries

\- choose independent and environmentally conscious producers over large
multinationals

\- drink tap water and loose leaf tea instead of drinks packaged in plastic
bottles

\- consume minimal amount of meat/milk/cheese/fish/eggs

\- walk and run

\- take buses and trains instead of a personal car, cab or plane

~~~
mapandey
very impressive and motivating (Y)

------
nunodonato
* Start (and finish) another hobby game dev / app dev

* Finish cutting my ties with Google services

* Finalize my solar offgrid system with a tiny bit of home automation

* Focus more (professionally) instead of spreading myself thing over so many areas and interests (so hard to do...)

* Read/study the Bhagavad Gita

~~~
Swtrz
Is there a mapping system close to being as reliable as Google Maps?

~~~
andrewkdinh
Open Street Map is getting there:
[https://openstreetmap.org](https://openstreetmap.org)

~~~
nunodonato
yep! and OsmAnd for android. I just miss the traffic info

------
nyxtom
I like to use dimensional analysis when setting goals, so in that spirit:

Health:

\- Get better at cooking meals from basic ingredients. This year I cut back
eating out for financial reasons. I now incorporate intermittent fasting,
smoothies, lots of veggies, some meat. Cold potatoes are a staple for satiety.
I would like to continue exploring different vegetables variety with a single
new recipe based on a given veggie/root at least each week.

\- Do a sunrise hike at a state park

\- Incorporate yoga as pre routine to workout regiment in the early morning.
Incorporate body weight workout into running routine.

\- Sleep in once a week

\- Stop work at 4pm

Joy/Relationships:

\- Play and finish existing games I own: Witcher 3, BoTW.

\- Plan for and invest in the romance of my relationship. Get better at dating
wife

\- Take dog out to walks at parks more

\- Introduce and invest in game night with family

\- Invite family over and cook for them

Home/Finances:

\- Work towards purchasing a home this year

\- Make one room in the home as beautiful as possible.

Work/Skills:

\- Build a game with webgl, wasm, rust

\- Finish rust book, rustwasm

\- Attend Meetups, make a presentation at one

\- Stay consistent with focused time. I got really good at eliminating all
distractions this year, would like that to continue into next year.

\- stay consistent with one pull request a day.

\- play piano at public gig, be able to play through first movement at least
in Mozart’s sonata

------
SkyTreasure
My goals: 1\. Do one Himalayan trek 2\. Visit one country abroad. 3\. Run 12
Half marathons, one every month. 4\. Run 1 HM with timing of less than 2hrs
30mins (current best 2:45) 5\. Read 25 books 6\. Double my focused work from
4hrs/day to 10hrs/day 7\. Keep building, irrespective of failure and keep
improving and learning from it.

------
raghavkukreti
\- stop messing up at Uni

\- stop distancing everyone due to my anger issues

\- do everything I can to make the people I love happy

\- learn haskell

\- patch things up with my family

\- go backpacking with my brother

------
arthtyagi
In this past decade, I went from being a naive 7 year old who had a vague idea
of programming to a developer who is investing his time in his startup, i love
doing it so im gonna keep doing it and as for resolutions, i guess i might try
to get in good shape ( probably on the list of 1 in 3 people ), try out for Y
Combinator Startup School Summer, keep building the services I'm building
except get some more traction. :) that's probably it. simple. oh and also, get
away from MacOS. I'm starting to like Windows again after that 1909 update, i
just realized after years of using MacOS that Windows had simply more
flexibility than MacOS while at the same time not being unsupportive of game
development as Linux ( Ik i can do game development on linux with extra effort
but i don't wanna do that :) ).

~~~
fyfy18
I'd highly suggest focussing time to build a routine to keep yourself active
while you are still young. Either get used to working out / going to the gym,
or even better find a hobby that keeps you active.

I'm in my early 30s and pretty much avoided any sort of fitness when I was
younger. I cycled to get from A to B and walked a fair bit but that was it.
Now my body is starting to complain from a decade of sitting at a desk.

As well as avoiding pain, I find exercise helps to reduce stress, which means
you can work more effectively, so I wouldn't even consider it lost time (vs
working).

------
jborichevskiy
As far as past learnings go I did a year in review but it's the first one I've
done so it encompassed a little more than 2019:

[https://jborichevskiy.com/posts/year-in-
review-2019/](https://jborichevskiy.com/posts/year-in-review-2019/)

As far as the next year goes, the important ones are:

* write - at least one in-depth blog post per month

* read - ideally an hour a day

* dive into org-mode and replace my most annoying tools with it

* start hosting regular dinners - just giving curious/motivated a people a space to talk, brainstorm, and discuss the world

* more hikes, dancing, painting, and sunsets

------
535188B17C93743
2020 Goals:

\- Start freelancing. I'd like to both write independently and do development
work.

\- Get back into running (XC in high school, but I'm out of practice). Run _at
least_ a 5k (preferably longer, like a half marathon) and run _at least_ 500
miles in the year.

\- Visit three more National Parks.

\- Start blogging (informally or formally, whichever) about personal finance

\- Travel more. I took two international trips in 2019, but they were both to
places I'd already been. I'd like to go to the Baltic states in 2020 (plans
maybe in process...) and possibly somewhere in South America or Africa?

~~~
lookingforsome
any personal finance top tips?

------
shadow-banned
\- Stop smoking so much weed \- Read regularly every night or at least 4-6
times a night \- Exercise 4 times a week (I already do, just gotta keep it up)
\- Remain positive \- Leave Silicon Valley

~~~
gubsz
Hah I feel you on the smoking, with vape pens it's almost too easy to take a
quick hit here and there. Cutting back weed is probably number 1 on my
resolutions for next year.

~~~
dajohnson89
what are the main reasons for you wishing to cut back?

~~~
gubsz
I'd like to cut back due to the negative impact it's had on my sleep and
general motivation. I've found that daily smoking really reduces the quality
of my sleep, which means 8 hours of sleep with THC in my system is closer to
5-6 hours. As far as motivation goes, the dopamine release from THC really
reduces my drive and makes me more content/complacent than I would like to be.
As a note, my total intake is really low (less than 1 gram every three
months), but I still feel like I shouldn't feel obligated to smoke on a
daily/weekly basis.

------
Impossible
In 2020 I'd like to complete the goal I've set for myself for the last 8 years
or so, complete and release a small game by myself as a side/hobby project.
This has never been a skill challenge, I'm a professional game developer and
I've shipped multiple games, both on small indie teams and large AAA teams in
that time period. It's a challenge of motivation and time management. It's
important that I do everything myself for personal reasons.

------
scarface74
Someone else said that they were all for committing publicly.

In that vein, I guess I should do a retrospective:

Last year I said.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18766071](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18766071)

 _I am in the middle of a technology pivot - moving away from the on-prem
/Microsoft stack to AWS development/Devops/networking and the $cool_kids
JavaScript full stack along with Python. Also adding on Docker/Kubernetes and
ElasticSearch. Finally, I’ve railed against the need for LeetCode style
studying and I haven’t had an interview in almost 20 years that has required
it, but I guess I will get back to basics and start working through it._

So how did I do?

\+ Reviewed JS and did my first Node API that is being used by four new front
end features.

\+ Networking outside of AWS was a real weakness. I studied for and passed the
AWS Advanced Networking Certification to learn how AWS fits into the larger
networking world and hybrid environments.

\+ Decided not to focus on Kubernetes/Docker and started moving some services
over to AWS/Elastic Container Services/Docker.

\+ Created processes to start moving the company over to AWS CodeBuild +
OctopusDeploy.

\- Didn’t get a chance to do any ElasticSearch projects. Hopefully in 2020.

\- I really hate front end development and the latest frameworks. My trying to
do a React project was a complete failure. I think I’ll do a small Angular
project just for a bullet point on my resume.

\- Not doing leetCode or algorithms in 2020. Maybe in 2021 if necessary.

\- Didn’t get any better with Python.

~~~
bubba1236
if I may ask what didnt you like about react? Id never used it or js a few
months ago and I found it nice to learn.

~~~
scarface74
It doesn’t fit my mental model. MVC type frameworks do. The first front end
framework I used was Angular. I immediately “got it”.

But, unlike the back end, making a good, consistent, usable website especially
as part of a team is much harder than backend work.

On the backend, a RESTful API has simple well known semantics. It also either
processes the request correctly or it doesn’t. There is no nuance. The same is
true for ETL type jobs.

------
synthc
Sports:

\- start mountainbiking again (carry over from last year, got inspired after
riding Slick Rock on a vacation)

\- climb a 7b grade bouldering route (attained 7a as a goal for 2019)

\- be able to do 20 consecutive pullups

\- be able to do 40 consecutive pushups

\- run a half marathon (attained 18k as a goal for 2019)

Career:

\- go to more meetups and networkings events

\- start blogging

\- keep in touch with old co-workers

\- prepare to start working as freelancer/consultant

Other:

\- meet up with friends more

\- fix my RSI issues

\- change my diet to be more plant-based

\- pick up some creative non-computer hobby

~~~
bad_good_guy
is your bouldering grade goal indoors or outdoors?

------
istinetz
Hi, I'm not that great with goals, but let me write down a few:

\- stay at the same workplace for 1 year, OR \- start startup #2, OR \- be
accepted for the London School of Economics, or a comparable degree, OR \-
start a VC analyst job

\- work on my reading list, finish the books I have at home. 2 books / month

\- work out! I've put in less effort than I could have, and I'm in the golden
years of my life (26). I'd like to be hot, at least for a short while.

\- finish my BA, which I've been postponing for too many years

\- I'm pretty happy with my mental health so far, but I don't want to slip
back

\- kiss a panda

\- fuck around with investing

\- travel to two countries I haven't been before

\- create 12 very high quality youtube videos on development economics

------
z3le
I had a baby this year and my life is mostly out of control. My 202 goals are:
* Get back into the game. Babe is already sleeping 6 hours so I have no
excuses. * Start being more organized. Put down what should be done and when.
* Lose the baby weight. Looking at the mirror gives me anxiety.

~~~
igotsideas
Everything you typed is how I feel. 2020 will be great.

------
truebosko
Continue reducing my anxiety to improve physical and mental health.

In 2019, I peaked. I did an international move with my family (wife, 3yr old)
while working on a major project which was ultimately setting us all up to
fail

Since that move, I've begun running 5km 2-3 times a week, and improving how I
focus my time. I am a workaholic, but now redirecting that time to work on (or
for) myself, rather than for the company I work for (I love my job, but I was
spending an inordinate amount of time for it)

Next steps are to continue reducing my caffeine intake. I don't know if it'll
help but caffeine can increase anxiety. I'm working on going down from two
double-shot espressos and a tea in the evening to one cup a day. I'm much
better off here than others but again -- it's about reducing that anxiety!

A work in progress, never overnight :)

------
dvh
Not to publish another game.

~~~
oAlbe
May I ask you to elaborate? I'm curious what's the story here.

~~~
dvh
The story is always the same. I get an idea for game or app, work on it for
month or so full time, plow through hardest last 20%, publish it. Even if it's
free it have few installs and that's it, in the worst case scenario I now have
to moderate it, do updates. So I said enough!, no more of my own games in
2020. I'm bad game developer, I will never make a hit. I don't want players I
want customers. Paying customers. I need $3700 per year and despite 10x
increase in income from my games ($180 in 2019 vs $17 in 2018) I'm still in
red and people don't want my games. I will do games as a freelancer but not my
own games. I may do quick demos for myself but I will not publish them because
going from barely working demo to publishable game is the hardest and most
time consuming part with no reward for me.

------
muzani
I'm going more monastic.

Eat more boring, cheaper food. Spend less, or rather enjoy the free things
more, like fresh air and kids.

Career wise, I make enough now to not need to make more.

So I want to stop marketing myself so much, especially writing, blogs, social
media - used to freelance where excessive posting was part of the job scope. I
want to pick up programming languages that are genuinely useful and
interesting, and not necessarily the ones that are easier to get jobs in.

Now that I no longer get paid hourly, I want to pick up a hobby. Philosophy is
tempting. Maybe read all the big books like The Origin of Species, Das
Kapital, Wealth of Nations. Probably learn swimming or a martial art.

This seems impossible, but the resolution is not a fixed SMART goal, but
rather a direction and process.

------
analreceiver
Learn to consistently enter and remain in the 1st jhāna:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhy%C4%81na_in_Buddhism#The_ru...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhy%C4%81na_in_Buddhism#The_rupa_jh%C4%81nas)

------
thiago_fm
\- learn a new technology, can be something random, it doesn't need to be
anything professional or usable in the short-term timeframe

\- hit the gym 100 times in 2020

\- eat healthy, but do not freak out about a pizza or two

\- do a regular checkup

\- go to the dentist

\- travel 2x to a new country

\- read at least a book in german of moderate difficulty

\- progress in the german language, I can already somewhat speak/read but
there is so much vocabulary to learn

\- learn how to cook a new dish or bake something new

\- play games, do silly stuff and don't be too extreme about my professional
life

\- give a lot of attention to my SO, doing the things she likes such as going
to the movies or just walking around, same for my dog

\- try to play a bit of guitar and learn a cool song

\- try a new physical activity(or revive an old one, such as swimming)

------
147
In 2020 I would like to read more, study Japanese, and start consulting.

Also I’ll toss in learn how to swim.

------
throwaway8879
Really want to push my bass playing into "primary instrument" territory this
year. Will probably just spend a lot of time learning Gary Willis/Tribal Tech
songs, and other great jazz fusion players.

------
victorkab
In 2019, I

\- Grew the startup from 3 to 15 engineers

\- Learned a ton about systems and people

\- Failed on my resolution to read more books than before

In 2020 I hope to

\- Write one blog post per week (or more realistically per month)

\- Mentor 3 to 5 people or startups

\- Become even better at cooking

\- Continue growing the team and hire more amazing new people

Cheers

~~~
lookingforsome
looking for a mentor, what are your areas of expertise?

------
bedah
Like 2019, my resolution for 2020 is not to have a resolution. Though this is
not much, I still expect to fail like this year. Or didn't I?

Important things are health, family, and a nice, friendly society in general.

------
dejv
\- keep improving my flexibility: after 25 years of sitting in front of
computer my back is a mess. I've started stretching during 2019 but progress
is slooooow

\- get back to doing more independent development after one year of working
for an agency

\- rewrite my SAAS. Right now it feels like it hit plateau and I need to
change few major things to get it to next level and hopefully get it to the
stage to sustain me full time

\- build new building for wine production: it took me 4 years to get all
paperwork done, now I hope construction is going to be faster

~~~
ratsimihah
Yoga would be great for your first point. Dynamic vinyasa is a good workout
for the mind and body, and it can be complemented with yin yoga to focus on
flexibility even more.

~~~
dejv
Yeah, yoga is something I am going to do, not sure which kind yet or if I want
to attend classes or just do it solo.

~~~
Swtrz
I cant recommend Omstars enough for solo work. They have tons of material to
help develop fundamentals, though Id encourage you to use the videos to build
a habit and then seek out a teacher.

------
daji
I guess the main resolution would be finishing projects that I started long
time ago and never finished. Figure out which are the most important and then
dedicate hours free from work.

Planning to get more into shaders, lighting and rendering so that would be a
good thing to focus on studying. Maybe I will finally get enough skill to find
a good job in that field.

And, well, important things like investments, mental health, more gym. I am
happy with some progress I made in 2019, just gotta step up next year

------
DrNuke
Lesson from past decade: use new technologies for profit within your applied /
industrial domain instead of searching suitable domains for the profitable use
of any new technology.

------
saagarjha
I learned how to program in the last decade, and it’d be nice to find a full
time job in 2020. I’m have a bunch of smaller nice-to-haves but I’m fairly
sure they’re not as important ;)

------
ambivalents
I have a few 30 day experiments I am setting out to do this year:

\- No sugar

\- Daily journal writing

\- Sweat every day (via exercise and/or sauna)

\- Contact one friend/acquaintance I haven't spoken to in a while every day

------
pesfandiar
The past decade contained most of my professional software engineering career,
so I basically went from a hobbyist to a senior engineer that can use
technology to solve business problems.

We have a toddler without any of our families in town, so my goal for 2020
would be to (at least to some extent) get back into more healthy life style
including eating well and more regular exercise. That leaves pretty much no
time outside of the 9-5 hours at my day job.

------
kavinskyy
I wanted to keep 2020 goals succinct because last year I struggled to meet
most of them.

\- Finish the distant learning program which I'm currently undertaking

\- Get into the best shape possible and drop body fat percentage by 3-4%
(already lost 22lbs/10kgs this year, so this seems achievable)

\- Move to a different country and get a better job working with Flutter or
Native App Development

\- Focus on my mental health

\- Figure out my future with my girlfriend

\- Learn to invest wisely

~~~
totaldex
With respect to body fat percentage, I would caution being conservative with
your goals. I don't know your personal situation, but my experience with this
area led me to a powerful conclusion in 2019: Fitness has diminishing returns
as you get to the more extreme ends.

For me, getting from 20% to 15% body fat was straightforward, and took 3
months. I figured 15% to 10% was achievable in a similar timeframe, but it
ended up taking twice as long, even with careful dieting and exercise. I would
imagine 10% to 8% or 7% is even more difficult to achieve (and maintain).

Fitness is strange - everyone's bodies are different, so your mileage may
vary. Although I do believe the concept of diminishing returns plays out in a
general manner. Good luck on your goals!

~~~
kavinskyy
Yes, it was very similar for me too. Getting from 23% to 18% wasn't difficult
at all.

Moving from 18% to 13-14% and maintaining it is going to be difficult but I
will proceed with caution and monitor the progress diligently.

Thanks for the advice!

------
nyrulez
1\. Learn Go for building my startup.

2\. Learn everything I can do build and run a decent software startup.

3\. More regular and well-defined Strength training, intermittent fasting and
meditation practice.

4\. Be less distracted by video games and focus on self and professional
development.

5\. Higher quality time with my partner and family, more mutual and outdoor
activities, less screen time.

6\. Write/start a blog to share my ideas on focus and productivity. (A hobby
of mine)

~~~
gonzalocasas
Assuming you already know another programming language, learning a new one to
build a software startup might not be the optimal option, as you'll be
competing with others with more experience than you. Instead, build it on what
you currently use (unless that is PHP, in which case, I back your decision
150%!)

------
rayhendricks
2020 goals as of 12/27:

-Get accepted to or start gradschool. -Get a gf again. -Be able to do at least 5 pull-ups with correct form.

~~~
thunderrabbit
There's a correct form for pull-ups??

~~~
adventured
There is. If you watch someone without an enforced form do them, their body
will tend to flail all over the place, especially as they struggle. Not only
is that going to be less effective at generating the desired results over
time, it can be physically dangerous.

------
skinnyarms
Technical goals: Double down on existing investments, with a focus on real-
time analytics and user experiences.

Desired results: • Cloud Certifications (provider TBD) • Competent in Spring
and React • Major side projects stable, documented: • Grafka v1.0 • QIT v2.0

Systems • 1 hour every morning, 5 days / week • 4 hour scheduled block 1 day /
month

------
sys_64738
The only resolution I ever did was to never make New Year resolutions. I did
that back in 1976 and it’s worked so far!

------
Zaskoda
In 2020 I would like to reach beta with my blockchain game project release a
full feature demo, and establish a studio around the game. If the whole thing
works out, I would love to be able to say that my company was established in
2020.

Also: I would like to release something good enough that you guys will upvote
me into existence.

------
tryptophan
Ive been a hobbyist programmer for years, but have never done a larger
project. I want to get to the next level, and learn about building larger
apps, and I figure I will do this by contributing to an open source app I use.
And so my goal is to ship a feature or improvement to this project in 2020!

------
4d66ba06
Try getting approval to reduce my weekly hours at work (currently thinking by
just 10% so aiming for 36 vs 40) due to working for flexible company and
wanting to spend more time on house projects (my wife likes them and we just
moved to a house at end of half mile dirt road)

------
ryanchants
Get an apartment big enough to squeeze in an 8 shaft loom in an extra room.

Read at least as many books as this year (50+).

Try dating again, I've been running on my own for a while. I'm in a good place
with my life where I'd like someone to share it all with.

Go mostly vegetarian (aiming for 80%).

------
janee
2020 resolutions: ween myself off chrome and improve my online privacy + learn
basic vehicle maintenance

------
jenkinstrigger
In 2019 I

* became a father

* gained a lot of Python/Devops/AWS skills, another AWS cert, and a Linux cert

* finished one OSS project (Terraparty.com)

In 2020 I'd like to

* Gain a Pro-level AWS cert

* Learn ML and React Native (like Not Hotdog)

* Try to build a solution, or a dozen solutions, that finally appeal to real markets

* Finish learning to crochet!

* Play less video games, though we live in an Indie golden age imo

~~~
dominotw
how do AWS certs help you?

------
pythonbase
\- Delve more into Python, with emphasis on ML part.

\- Pick up some JS, enough to build steady UIs

\- Read 20 books during the year.

\- Take at least 15 days trip preferably out of country, or in the remote
parts locally. Planning to do this at least twice in the year ;)

\- Spend more time with the family, take kids out more.

------
GoldenMonkey
3 Daily Intentions:

1) Avoidance - do what I have been avoiding OR want to avoid doing

2) Connecting - connect with a person on a meaningful level

3) Water/Giving - Give encouragement, time, or mentorship to another

2 Daily Feelings I want to cultivate in my life:

1) Gratitude - being grateful

2) Value - Did I add value in my work?

------
ipodopt
I will spend less time browsing reddit and hacker news to spend more time
focused on my interests.

~~~
abootstrapper
Last year I deleted my Reddit account. Now I just browse r/all. _facepalm_ But
at least I don’t spend hours commenting. We won’t discuss Hacker News habits.

------
yulaow
\- Give everything in trying to get a master degree while working full time
(30yo). Consider only at the end of the year if it is good to continue or
better to stop.

\- Join some pilates/yoga group/course to do together with powerlifting

\- Keep improving emotionally

\- Be far more assertive

\- Have far more fun in life

------
mudlus
-Get better at Ruby and Ruby on Rails. -Make parts of my private work repositories public, open source. -Continue to build and grow and have fun programming (that means being reckless and breaking stuff). -Have fun with my kid and spouse.

~~~
ralphc
Why Ruby on Rails? Perhaps I'm hanging out in the wrong places, but the
hotness seems to be with JS/Node or Python/Django/Flask.

------
Vargas
Escape from my golden handcuffs

~~~
zrkrlc
That's an interesting problem. Maybe keep launching side projects until you
can recoup what you can live on?

------
flarg
Support my wife in building an agency to connect charitable donors with
educational recipients, switch from enterprise architecture to project
management, teach my 3 year old some maths and letters

------
winrid
Bring two of my projects to a certain revenue goals. Try to prepare for having
a kid in a couple years. Help spouse and I get healthier. Finish the new rally
car (1982 Scirocco).

~~~
winrid
Oh and I'd like to get to #10 in Screeps. I'm currently #20.

------
Havoc
Learn French.

Set up a blog w/ something more sophisticated than WP. (Probably wagtail)

Improve my webdev skills on Python/CSS/Regex/Docker/Azure.

Run more. Drink less. Sleep more consistently.

~~~
curiousgal
Bonne chance!

------
liamcardenas
This may sound weird, but my goal is to smile at people more. For some reason,
I am not completely comfortable doing this, and it is a nice, friendly thing
to do.

------
zrkrlc
Two things: get my personal website off the ground (zrkrlc.com) and this tool
I'm working on for learning skills with spaced repetition.

------
mapandey
1)Want to work in a good project in Clojure. 2)Getting married in 2020, want
to explore few places with my wife. 3)Hands on ML

------
h3ctic
* Spend more time with my partner, friends and prevent a work/university overflow * Graduate * Create an MVP and release it for Android

------
mistermatt
\- keep a daily journal, to be able to look back on the elapsed year

\- write more blog posts

\- learn, learn and learn new technologies

\- try to raise correctly my newborn

\- read books

------
gunnr15
1) Research + decide on a GTM strategy for our Open Source Project

2) Develop and launch a progressive ‘employee-first’ ESOP

3) Join a local tech community

~~~
bryanmgreen
A progressive ESOP sounds intriguing!

------
mythrwy
Be a kinder and more patient person.

------
mtreis86
My goal for 2019 was to keep learning Common Lisp.

My goal for 2020 will be to build something with it.

------
TuringNYC
_New Year’s Resolutions 2020_

 _Family_

2019: Dinner with family 4/7 nights a week (success, mostly)

2020: Continue status quo

2019: 10 vacations and/or road-trips and/or weekend get-aways (success)

2020: Increase to 14

2019: Park/Recreation together 20 of 40 non-winter weekends (success)

2020: Continue status quo

2019: No non-emergency office work on weekends (complete failure)

2020: Aim for more realistic 8 or less weekends in office spent on non-
emergency work

 _Health_

2019: BMI 30 → 25 (complete failure)

2020: BMI 30 → 25

2020: 25% reduction in triglycerides

2019: Gym 3x week (success)

2020: Gym 3x week -- but with HR reaching cardio zone at least 30 cumulative
min each visit

2019: Bike/Walk to Work at least 20% non rainy/snowy days (success)

2020: Bike/Walk to Work at least 40% non rainy/snowy days (success)

2020: Added Goal: Cumulative Bike+Walk+Peloton mileage of 1000mi for the year

2019: Track all meals with data (failure, tracked ~20%)

2020: Track all meals with data

2019: Sleep no later than 3am every day except 5/yr (failure)

2020: Sleep no later than 2am every day except 5/yr, use weight training to
force exhaustion

 _Personal Growth_

2019: 12 books for the year (wild success)

2020: 24 books for the year (audio or dead-tree), double-time with exercise
hours

2020: Added Goal: 24 long-form articles (audio or dead-tree), double-time with
exercise hours

2019: Write 5 blog posts (failure)

2020: Write 12 blog posts

2020: Create Podcast Series with at least 5 episodes

2003-2019: Read Atlas Shrugged (failure)

2020: Read Atlas Shrugged

 _Training_

2019 Three certifications in tech I want (failure -- did only 1 -- on NVIDIA
RAPIDS)

2020 Certifications: Fast.ai; Azure Cloud (any 2 certs); Google Cloud (any 2
certs)

2020 One CGE at grad school with credit

2020 One CGE at grad school just auditing

 _Career and Networking_

2019: 3 talks/presentations at conferences (success)

2020: Continue status quo + 1 major main-line talk

2020: 3x/month talks/meetups

2020: 2/year meetups speaker/presenter

2020: Meet 2/month new interesting people

2020: Dinner with former work colleague 1/month

2020: Phone catch-up with former work colleague 2/month

 _Job_

2019: Mentor 3 interns (success)

2020: Mentor 3 interns

2020: Three brand new demos for marketing Achieve 95% test coverage on my code

 _Family Office_

2019: 5 deals (failure)

2020: 52 in-person meets with angel-stage teams

2020: 10 deals (albeit smaller dollar amount) or high-conviction PME, if that
is better

 _Side Hustle_

Convert 3 of my graduate school projects into working projects (not business
successes, just working projects to ensure I have the tech process locked
down.) Outsourcing and managing is OK, delivery is the key here.

 _Tinkering_

2019: Play with Jetson Nano (failure)

2020: One mini-demo with RPI

2020: One mini-demo with Jetson Nano (colab w/ friends OK)

2020: One mini-demo with Google Coral (colab w/ friends OK)

2020: One mini-demo with Azure Kinect DK (colab w/ friends OK)

 _Arts_

2020: Discover 5 new amazing artists i’ll listen to forever

2020: Finally finish watching series I love (The Americans, The Good Wife)

 _Self Organization_

2019: No loose articles (everything in Evernote/Pocket) (FAILURE)

2020: No loose articles (everything in Evernote/Pocket)

2020: No one-off reading -- everything through RSS reader or tracked

~~~
lookingforsome
you sound like a smart successful individual, do you have a blog/website to
follow?

------
theSealedTanker
stop tinkering emacs and vim and instead do some actual coding

------
Redoubts
Leave the Bay Area

~~~
zrkrlc
We have the opposite goal. Mind sharing why? (I mean, aside from skyrocketing
rent and the shifting startup tide)

------
infogulch
Figure out how to want to do things again.

------
dominotw
leetcode everyday for 2 hrs

increase my current comp by 30% minimum.

save 100k/yr into my index fund

------
ArtWomb
Spend more Time in Nature ;)

------
hn3333
* become skilful with C++

------
Antoninus
Spend less time on HN, Lobste.rs and various subreddits. Focus on improving as
developer. Maybe learn Python and learn some red hat skills. I should write
more as well.

------
DevX101
Launch

------
shayanjavadi
In 2020 I want to:

\- Develop my cooking skills. I need to stop living off of Central Market
meals.

\- Get better at hybrid picking (guitar)

\- Quit my 9-5 and go full time on my side hustle Solfej (Check it out if
you're interested in learning music theory
[https://www.solfej.io/](https://www.solfej.io/))

\- Save more! I bought way too much dumb stuff from Amazon in 2018

\- Lose 1-2% body fat while staying at my current weight

\- Practice empathy to the max

