Ask HN: 2018 resolutions? - justswim
======
mlmartin
Less consuming, more creating. Doesn't matter what it is, doesn't matter if
it's bad.

~~~
wallflower
Good luck! We can all do this. Create and create and you will eventually catch
up with your taste.

I have a personal theory that unhappiness is due to too much consumption, not
enough personal creation. Even if it just a sketchnote or a doodle... that is
enough.

> Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. I wish someone told me. All
> of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But
> there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not
> that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your
> taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste
> is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase.
> They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through
> years of this.

> We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We
> all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in
> this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can
> do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you
> will finish one story. It’s only by going through a volume of work that you
> will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I
> took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s
> gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your
> way through.

-Ira Glass

Video version:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wLP0izeJE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wLP0izeJE)

[https://youtu.be/E1oZhEIrer4](https://youtu.be/E1oZhEIrer4)

~~~
thidr0
This reminds me of a famous quote by Chuck Jones[1]: "Every artist has
thousands of bad drawings in them and the only way to get rid of them is to
draw them out."

In the same way, we probably all have thousands of bad
programs/scripts/classes in us. Code 'em out.

[1] I've also seen this attributed to others and phrased differently

------
Kluny
I found this line in an old blog post from 2013 in my drafts folder.

> 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.

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.

~~~
adamnemecek
Let me guess you are employed? I was in a similar situation and quitting my
job helped me get out of this. Beginning was bumpy and I regreted it somewhat
for some time, but I don’t even think about it anymore. It’s ok if you don’t
have a plan or a project, you need some curiosity and general area of what you
are interested in (a stack of unread books counts).

You aren’t betting on your project but on your skills. Like if you spend a
year doing a thing, you’ll be a beast. And even if your thing doesn’t work
out, you’ll be fine.

Email me (<my username>@gmail.com) if you need someone to help you plan it. I
don’t have all the answers but I have some. This counts for anyone else
reading this as well.

~~~
Kluny
I left my job early in 2017, did an internship for a few months, moved to
another country at the same time, lost the job I was supposed to get after the
internship, came back to my home country, and got another job. I'd say I've
done my "year off", looking for stability at the moment.

I like the idea though. The thing is, I'm not super self-motivated to work on
programming. It's fun when I'm getting paid, but when I'm not getting paid I'd
rather play outside. I'm a lot more interested in management-type stuff,
running projects and working at a higher level. Any idea how to practice that
on your own time? So far my best idea is to throw parties and activities for
my friends, which is fun, but hard to put on a resume.

~~~
adamnemecek
I know where you are coming from. Since quitting, I’ve been contributing to a
lot of open source on github. It solves the resume problem. And strangely
enough, these contributions turned into social events, I’ve met people working
on this one project called audiokit that I contribute to.

------
Afforess
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.

~~~
JSONwebtoken
If resolutions were so powerful, why not have monthly, weekly, daily, or
hourly resolutions? Imagine the things we could accomplish if all it took was
to attach a goal to a discrete unit of time. My new day resolution is to get
some more sleep.

~~~
kraftman
I set monthly reminders to keep me on track this year and they helped a bit, I
might try weekly too this year. Course correcting once a year is definitely
not enough.

------
jl6
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.

[https://medium.com/@7sevens/the-seven-sevens-
challenge-c7b7d...](https://medium.com/@7sevens/the-seven-sevens-
challenge-c7b7d669bf95)

~~~
briandear
Do subvarieties of apples count?

~~~
jl6
I'm counting species, not varieties. I wrote more here:
[https://medium.com/@7sevens/1st-january-2018-fruit-and-
runni...](https://medium.com/@7sevens/1st-january-2018-fruit-and-
running-f530333642b)

------
sharmi
* Exercise Everyday (intensity/duration may vary, but never ever miss)

* 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.

* 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

~~~
b0rsuk
I advise against daily workouts. You'll end up overtraining. You need days of
rest for your muscles to grow.

A common advice is either 3 days of general exercise, or 2 leg days + 2 upper
body days. Note some exercises can't be pidgeon-holed that way, like swimming.

This is currently my favorite training program:
[http://www.50pullups.com/](http://www.50pullups.com/)

You get the essential exercises: pushups, squats, pullups, with advice how to
train, how to rest, how and when to advance.

~~~
minikomi
I'm only seeing a pullup training program on your link - is there a
supplemental program for the squats etc?

~~~
b0rsuk
There should be green icons on the left.

------
parvatzar
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 !

------
starpilot
Ask out a girl in person and forget about online dating.

Get my hiking rate of ascent to 2,500 ft/hr.

~~~
chillacy
I haven't found a greater thrill in life than meeting a girl in day-to-day
life (like at the supermarket). Always a mixture of deep fear and excitement,
despite any attempts to rationalize the heart-pounding away.

~~~
1337biz
I know. That's a bit of a problem. Once you get into it there is nothing that
can replace that adrenaline rush. You are getting so bored when you are in a
relationship and have to stop doing it.

------
jurassic
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.

Continue my porn-free streak to prioritize real life sexual experiences.

~~~
akkat
Good luck on learning a new language. Be careful that when writing in Spanish
you also have someone check that your Spanish is correct. Otherwise, you may
be practising something wrong.

~~~
jurassic
Thanks. I feel like the hard part is over now that I can read and watch
Spanish tv and follow enough to enjoy it. Bootstrapping myself by cramming the
first 1500-2000 words or so of vocabulary felt like a lot of work.

I almost never practice speaking and writing because I don’t want to become
fluent in my mistakes.

I like the way [antimoon]([http://www.antimoon.com/other/myths-
mistakesbeg.htm](http://www.antimoon.com/other/myths-mistakesbeg.htm)) writes
about this aspect of language learning.

------
olingern
Health

\- Undo minor case of hip impingement ( sitting down too much! )

\- Connect with more people / foster better relationships. Who knew making
friends in a city could be so hard?

Programming

\- Finish SICP. Made it through four chapters with co-workers, and then
everyone dropped off.

\- Continue exploring functional programming

\- Finish my homegrown Japanese kana / kanji language learning tool

Other:

\- Take some of the wisdom from this thread[1], and make myself more
"marketable" through blogging, giving talks, etc.

\- Pass the JLPT 3 test

[1] -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15994410](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15994410)

~~~
Broken_Hippo
"Who knew making friends in a city could be so hard?"

I've never found a place where it was easy to make friends, though the easiest
has seemed to be language class full of other immigrants. We all had that one
thing in common.

~~~
olingern
> I've never found a place where it was easy to make friends, though the
> easiest has seemed to be language class full of other immigrants. We all had
> that one thing in common.

Learning and/or shared discomfort has seemed to foster the closest
relationships I've had to date. Perhaps, it's time for more classes.

Coming from the countryside, it's such a strange paradox -- to be surrounded
by so many people, but alone at the same time.

------
zitterbewegung
Get a Higher resolution display (around 4k maybe) and be more ergonomic in
general.

Release an Open Source Project and develop it for a year.

Turn my comments into blog posts instead of just comments.

But most important to have fun!

~~~
danieka
So, is this a meta resolution? :)

~~~
zitterbewegung
Yes, thats the joke :)

I would like to get a 4k display and have it partition itself into a different
set of aspect ratios but I'm not sure that is possible.

------
vinrob92
1\. Ship every day - keep momentum going (talking to new customers, fixing
bug, building new feature)

2\. Be more accountable - write on Skype every day to my business partner what
I will work on today.

3\. Stay focused - Keep putting the gas on the 1 or 2 things taht work.

4\. Stop seeking perfection - find 90% of results with 10% of efforts.

And of course:

5\. Travel more - I plan to visit South Korea, Japan, China, Russia, Ukraine,
Estonia this year!

~~~
JSONwebtoken
How do you plan on shipping every day, being more accountable, and staying
focused when you take enough time off to visit 6 different countries in one
year? Sounds like resolution #6 should be to stop bullshitting yourself.

~~~
dang
We've banned this account for repeatedly violating the HN guidelines and
ignoring our requests to stop.

If you don't want to be banned on HN, you're welcome to email
hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules
in the future.

~~~
lma21
Honest question - if this user creates another account and keeps violating the
rules, how would he be stopped?

~~~
novisse
Blacklisting their IP address would be my guess.

------
hguhghuff
I'm not going to burn my personal life programming any more.

------
arenaninja
Probably try for a Master's degree since my employer would essentially pay for
it.

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.

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.

------
emerged
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.

------
kramer1416
\- Continue with habit forming practice

\- Run and exercise at least 3 times a week

\- Delta-debug how to get into flow state as many time and as fast as possible

~~~
RickJWag
Good post-- looks like a recipe for success to me.

------
PascLeRasc
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.

I'd also like to get my bench press up from 170 to 225 and cut carbs down, but
not eliminate them.

------
smilesnd
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.

------
ruxkor
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.

[1]: [https://alexvermeer.com/8760hours/](https://alexvermeer.com/8760hours/)

HN post:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13249796](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13249796)

------
maxdeviant
Here is what I'm going to focus on in 2018:

\- Work less, achieve more

\- No alcohol

\- Read more

\- Write more

\- Practice my Mandarin

\- Produce 1 song/week ([https://weeklybeats.com/](https://weeklybeats.com/))

\- Continue to make one thing every day

~~~
thecupisblue
You know what, screw it, I'm joining weekly beats. Thanks for this. I always
wanted to learn to produce music, let's try it.

------
keithwhor
\- Introduce at least another 30,000 developers to StdLib [1]

\- 1,000lbs combined 1RM on Squat, Bench, Deadlift

\- Run two half-marathons

\- Spend more time with my girlfriend and my dog

Hold me to it, HackerNews.

[1] [https://stdlib.com/](https://stdlib.com/)

~~~
poyu
Just signed up for StdLib! Looks cool, so it's basically a streamlined version
of AWS Lambda + API Gateway?

~~~
keithwhor
Thanks! Yep, you can think of us like that. Our first prototype (launched in
August 2016) was really just a shim layer on Lambda, but we’ve grown to much
more in a really short amount of time. Developer response has been nothing
short of amazing. Tens of thousands of developers and growing rapidly.

Our core thesis is we aim to turn remote function calls into first-class
citizens of your development environment, with all that entails. We’ll have
some _very_ exciting news in the New Year about this, so definitely stay
tuned!

------
dillon
#1 Blog more

#2 Work on my book

#3 Grow all my own food

#4 Sell everything (already in motion)

#5 Backpack in Europe for 90 days: Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavia

Optional:

#6 Interview at a bunch of places abroad

#7 Work in a language I enjoy (Clojure, Erlang, ect ect)

------
b3b0p
1\. Get a job

2\. Finish a side project

3\. Go on a date with a girl

4\. Finish an NES game on my backlog

5\. Read the second book in The Chronicles of Narnia (I've only read The Lion,
The Witch, and The Wardrobe)

6\. Relax

~~~
xrisk
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is actually the second book in the
series, even though it was written first :)

~~~
b3b0p
Thank you as I didn't know this. I guess I need to read the first book in the
series. Should I read them in chronological or publication order? Perhaps I'll
stick with publication order since I've already started that way.

I found this link: [http://www.narniaweb.com/resources-links/in-what-order-
shoul...](http://www.narniaweb.com/resources-links/in-what-order-should-the-
narnia-books-be-read/)

It reminds me of Haruhi Suzumiya
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruhi_Suzumiya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruhi_Suzumiya)
(also excellent series)

------
Trundle
No porn

Less comment reading, more article reading.

~~~
adamnemecek
Comments aren’t as bad as you think and articles aren’t as good as you think.

~~~
Trundle
Given that I read both I find that hard to believe.

------
koevet
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.

I want to continue with this trend and read 50 books and write a review for
each of them.

Additionally, as I just moved to Berlin, I want to make new friends here.

------
FLUX-YOU
Die a bit more slowly

------
yza
No alcohol for a year.

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.

Edit: formatting

~~~
canadiancreed
Ran into something like this with caffeine. I used to drink four to six pops a
day. You wouldn't think it'd be a big deal, but cutting that out for a month
took me from being tired all the time and getting up twice a night to take a
piss, to sleeping through the night and actually feeling decent in the
morning.

While I'm sure doing the same with alcohol would be different and potentially
deadly (so I've read anyways), it couldn't hurt to cut it back or out
completely. Livers definitely like it according to my doctor.

~~~
0xcde4c3db
> getting up twice a night to take a piss

Highlighting this for a quick PSA: _this is not normal_. People (at least
Americans) seem very eager to dismiss this as a thing that just happens for no
particular reason, or because you dared to have a small glass of water within
4 hours of going to bed. It's not highly specific to any condition, but it
points to an abnormality in some physiological process [1]. It can be anything
from lifestyle factors (e.g. high caffeine or alcohol use, or unusually high
sensitivity to them) to chronic disorders, to having no identifiable cause.
For me it was sleep apnea.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturia#Causes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturia#Causes)

~~~
canadiancreed
Oh no I totally agree with you that you are right it's not normal at all. For
myself lowering my sugar levels (my diet consisted of high amounts of sugars
and salts....a great combo I know), more psychial activity, and lowering
caffeine levels resolved the issue. This was after doing a few checkups
including dealing with a urologist (not pleseant at all, but better safe then
sorry)

So ya in a nutshell, if this is happening to you, dont' ignore it. Because
your'e right, it's not normal.

------
booleandilemma
Learn things that benefit me, not my employer.

------
rayalez
1\. Complete my SaaS projects and generate enough revenue to become ramen-
profitable.

2\. Keep up the habits I have finally developed:

\- Clean diet - staying away from bad food, coffee, nootropics.

\- Exercise - running every day.

\- Coding every day - learning from courses or adding features to my projects.

\- Writing every day - working on blog posts, video scripts, or at least
writing quora answers.

\- Writing at least 4 jokes per day. Striving to post them regularly (tweet,
use them in my articles, write routines).

\- Info diet - reading, staying away from reddit, consuming news only through
RSS and HN.

That's pretty much it. I want to stay healthy, make money, and get better at
my craft. Nothing else needed.

~~~
arkona
> staying away from coffee

Huh? Why?

~~~
rayalez
I was drinking too much of it, it became a problem - tolerance, withdrawal,
messed up sleep cycles. Also I've read that it stresses adrenal glands and may
cause cortisol issues.

Bottomline is - I want a sustainable lifestyle, and with coffee it became
unsustainable.

This year I've learned that to achieve my goals I have to learn to think long
term, treat it as a marathon, not a sprint. From a big picture point of view,
steady, measured, consistent pace is better than short term highs followed by
inevitable lows.

Green tea is fine tho =)

------
gkya
\- 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.

\- 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.

\- Learn at least one of French or Portuguese. Certify my knowledge of English
and Italian (both foreign languages I know).

\- Do some travelling, both to shake off some stress and to find a cosy place
for my PhD.

------
ogdoad
Less HN!

~~~
coding123
Seriously, it's so addicting.

~~~
mbrock
Coding as a vocation is somewhat unique because of our access to high quality
global discussion forums. It can be a bit too much fun, but it's also a really
interesting part of life.

------
raawlls
"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:

\- Contribute to Swift

\- Finish 6 books

\- Ship 2 iOS apps

\- Run 10km in under 50 minutes

\- 195 lbs

------
IgorPartola
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.

------
faebi
bash-scripting:

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.

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.

23:56, I give up.

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".

~~~
mbrock
Your "watch" command didn't work because the first thing that happens is that
your shell expands the $(date) word into the current date, and then it runs
"watch -n1 echo 'Mon Jan 1 ...'".

You should have just done "watch -n1 date".

BTW, the manual for bash is really good:
[https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.pdf](https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.pdf)

------
skwb
To host more dinner parties!

------
t2riRXawYxLGGYb
\- Self study cryptography, algorithms, linear algebra, machine learning

\- 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

\- Get a treadmill so I can run every morning when it's too cold to go outside

\- Hit savings goals for retirement and buying a home

\- Spend some time abroad

\- Do a combination train/biking/camping trip

------
snarfy
If you forget the grandiose ideas and keep them simple they are more likely to
happen.

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.

Keep them simple.

~~~
ambivalents
Did you notice any benefits from doing this? I imagine challenging yourself to
do familiar things in an unfamiliar way has some cognitive benefits, but I'm
curious about specific examples.

------
meddlepal
1\. Get back under 200 lbs (~225 right now so should be doable with some diet
and routine changes)...

2\. Create a money generating side project.

------
t176
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.

~~~
Broken_Hippo
Ritual. Some of this helps with sleep, too, if you do it before bed.

Choose a smell, music, a special way of sitting. A cup of coffee, a snack. A
combination of things. Perhaps use headphones. The more often you do this
before time you have flow, the more likely it is that your body and mind will
view that ritual as a signal to get into a flow state.

Resource: Occultism. Some mind states used with occultism are likened to the
state of flow and folks work some time getting to those states faster.

------
canadiancreed
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.

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.

------
coffeemug
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.

I wrote down resolutions before and never stuck to them. Beeminder is a
gamechanger.

------
autotune
\- Finish two intermediate songs I've been trying to cover on guitar and
vocals by 2019, and create some of my own.

\- Do a grocery shopping every week and spend less on food/eating out.

\- Finish a side project related to application of AWS and GCP deployment
strategies and put it on GitHub.

\- Get promoted at current job.

------
jacques_chester
Most likely: raise money, start a business and spend the rest of the year
dealing with GERD.

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.

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.

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.

~~~
sgarman
Any tips for dealing with GERD? My doctor hasn't really helped at all.

~~~
jacques_chester
I may have been using poetic license. For me it's usually responded to
medication.

------
chx
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.

~~~
PascLeRasc
Do you work from home? If you do just find a different gym on the way to/from
work; if not can you find a gym near a good workspace (like a library or good
coffeeshop)?

------
inv
Have a better relationship with my dad by being more kind and accepting.

Proper exercise 2-3 times a week.

Less time reading random stuff online and social media, more time writing and
learning.

Switch jobs to learn more and progress in my career, don't get comfortable and
stuck in one place.

------
GreyZephyr
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.

------
benatkin
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:

    
    
        1. Go for a 10 mile run each month
        2. Study Spanish for at least 10 hours each month  
        3. Run my first triathlon
    

I posted them to my blog several days ago:
[https://benatkin.com/2017/12/28/2018-new-years-
resolutions/](https://benatkin.com/2017/12/28/2018-new-years-resolutions/)

------
edude03
Ship something written in Scala, Rust and Haskell.

~~~
vortico
All three for one project?

------
S7012MY
Eat almost no sugar [http://www.theage.com.au/interactive/2017/what-sugar-
does-to...](http://www.theage.com.au/interactive/2017/what-sugar-does-to-your-
brain/)

------
ioddly
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.

Share more things that I create.

------
ryanchants
Personal:

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.

Complete /r/photoclass_2018

Learn Swedish spoon carving. Make at least one spoon I'm happy with using. Get
good enough to attempt a dala horse.

Relearn Spanish using Fluent Forever ideas/products. Get good enough to help
translate for Spanish speakers in stores.

Lose weight. At 260, my goal is 199. Going to use a mix of weightlifting and
metcon-style workouts.

Work:

Focus more a la Deep Work

Learn more AWS and Docker stuff

Lead refactoring of our code base

Help guide the core philosophy changes we need to move from survival mode
startup to strong engineering culture

Edited to put some more specific targets around my personal goals.

------
EnderMB
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.

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.

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.

------
whatyoucantsay
Remain committed to reason, especially when emotions run high.

Grow more willing to stand up to bullies, including on HN.

Be kind to people, including myself.

Cause 10% less animal suffering through my eating habits.

Spend at least one week in a country and culture I don't understand.

~~~
whamlastxmas
By standing up to bullies you're likely to become one yourself. Maybe consider
trying to have more empathy towards others and realize their opinions and
behavior are formed largely by their own life experiences. Learn to accept
people will be wrong often and you'll be happier.

~~~
whatyoucantsay
> "By standing up to bullies you're likely to become one yourself."

I don't subscribe to that point of view. I believe it is those who submit to
being victimized by bullies who are most likely to become bullies themselves.

> "Maybe consider trying to have more empathy towards others and realize their
> opinions and behavior are formed largely by their own life experiences."

Please don't be condescending. My biggest pursuit in life has been learning,
understanding and empathizing with others.

What past experience has lead you to believe submitting to bullies makes the
world a better place? Do you find yourself bullying others after resisting
bullies?

------
applecrazy
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.

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.

------
nitins
Be more mindful. Try to smile more.

------
aizatto
I put together a list of questions to ask yourself questions about your past
year, and the new year

[https://www.deepthoughtapp.com/packages/130/new-years-
reflec...](https://www.deepthoughtapp.com/packages/130/new-years-reflections/)

This is a site I developed to really help me understand myself better

------
isthisnagee
A few things I want to try to accomplish this year:

1\. Read fiction slower. Sometimes I just read to get to the ending and I miss
_a lot_.

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.

3\. Go to the gym at least 3 times a week. I've started this two weeks ago and
I hope to keep going :)

4\. Finish a side project.

------
shubh2336
Contribute to an open-source Project.

Read at least 30 books from my reading-list (mostly non-fiction).

Run a half-marathon by mid-year.

Travel to an unknown place unplanned.

------
sigi45
Working on my amount of energy i put into answering to other people when i'm
irritated by there 'stupid/simple/obvious' questions.

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.

------
Karupan
\- minimise food wastage (realised that I throw away a lot of food but still
keep buying stuff)

\- no gadget purchases (I have enough)

------
dejv
\- make my company profitable by focusing more on sales and marketing

\- build new winery (building for production, lab and so)

\- 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.

~~~
prashant10
Build new winery? Can you please explain this a bit more? how are you planning
to achieve this?

~~~
dejv
I am making wine for 5 years. During this time I was subletting small part of
another winery, but now it is time to move to my own place.

Winery can have many different forms, mine is going to be oversized
garage/small warehouse. I hired architect who did many of those projects and
we are currently waiting for building permission, which is very tricky. After
that I will simply pay contractor to build whole thing and then move in my
equipment.

As you see it is not that complicated, it just cost a lot of money. There is
also going to be phase two which will add tasting room and underground cellar
for aging and storing wine, but thats a project for another year.

------
senjindarashiva
Make an effort to say something nice to someone on the internet every day.

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.

------
rct42
Socialise more. Get a girlfriend. Commercialize a side project. Run the New
York Marathon!

------
jerkstate
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?

~~~
ranveeraggarwal
Use the waste packaging to craft stuff for your home and workplace. Start a
forum/slack with makers interested in stuff like this and share ideas. You can
probably build a lot of eco friendly solutions to your everyday problems with
the high quality packaging.

~~~
davnicwil
This is an excellent idea! I often 'save' packaging from Amazon in case it
comes in handy but honestly don't usually find a use for it. The best I've
done is to reuse the thin packages as padding for devices in backpacks and
cases when travelling.

If this forum existed I would definitely use it.

------
rxever
1\. Spend less time on binance.com

2\. Spend more time on a side project I have that solves a real problem and
that I've been neglecting

3\. Commit new code every day

4\. Decide whether dating a current girl should continue or not.

5\. Talk to your family members more, especially grandma and sister

------
cabalamat
Make a success of my website, WikiFork[1], an inclusionist fork of Wikipedia.

1:
[http://wikifork.org/mw/index.php/Main_Page](http://wikifork.org/mw/index.php/Main_Page)

------
mikelj99
A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other

------
mcrdev
I want to leave my teaching job and work as a developer full-time:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16042744](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16042744)

------
kuerbel
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.

------
lma21
Hike again this year, and hike beyond 150 KM.

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...

------
desaiguddu
\- Provide mentorship to 4 Students

\- Support a non-profit with technology

\- Travel to 14 new places

\- Write 40+ blog posts

------
kregasaurusrex
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.

~~~
adventured
What's the gist of the side project? If you don't mind answering of course.

~~~
kregasaurusrex
Go-playing robot. I'd gotten some parts about a year ago but fell short on
cash so it's been sitting in my brain for a while. Should revisit it around
tax return time.

------
iamwil
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.

------
Mouse47
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...

------
madiathomas
\- 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.

------
nicolewhite
No buying books on Google Play. All the books I read will come from the
library this year.

Get back into a weight lifting program.

Revive some of my open source projects that I've abandoned.

------
thatthatis
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

------
ochronus
3840 x 2160

~~~
tonyedgecombe
I hope you aren't planning to combine that with Linux because they don't mix
that well yet.

------
seanmcdirmid
\- Abstain from sugar (already into week 3!).

\- Release a new programming experience that can at least make me more
productive (if no one else).

------
amirouche
My resolution is to stop worrying about my career and stop doing Python in my
spare time and instead focus on GNU Guile code!

------
purplepilot
My new years resolution was not to make a new years resolution. Hmmmmmm maybe
i need to think about that a bit more.

------
rayj
Less carbs. Study for GRE every day until I take it. No reddit. No
procrastination. Make my GF smile every day.

------
kampsy
1) Grow my Search startup company cognifly.com 2) Learn Rust and Kotlin. 3)
Contribute more to open source projects

------
cylinder
I'd like to slow down time but that's definitely not going to happen in 18.
Routine = quick time passage

------
danharaj
Implement a Haskell compiler from scratch.

------
derekp7
1) Freshen up my open source backup system (Snebu) 2) Take a second shot at
creating a programming language

------
arawde
I'd like to play more guitar. Get a better grip on my habits and my health.
Graduate university.

------
bibryam
2018: #Blockchain 2017: #CloudNative 2016: #Kubernetes 2015: #Microservices
2014: #ApacheCamel

------
wannabebarista
Put work into starting a podcast.

Make some progress on my reading list (just kidding, it'll grow forever)

------
ctrlrsf
Eat less sugar. Drink less coffee.

------
fillskills
\- Learn: Machine learning, Deep learning

\- Build: Plant 100 trees

\- Teach: Programming lessons for parents

\- Be: Healthy. Workout 3 times a weeks

------
aaronbrethorst
Run a 5k, help flip Washington’s 5th and 8th congressional districts, get
better at baking.

------
pranitbauva1997
Smoke weed and find recursive patters in music and nature! ;)

Also finish Godel, Escher and Bach

------
kiba
New Year resolution? Keep to goals I already kept and started from last year.

------
zengid
-Learn how to finish things.

-Be on time more often.

-Walk more.

------
pruthvishetty
* Read more.

* Become more fit.

* Travel more.

* Avoid sugar, caffeine, social media.

* Take meaningful conversations offline.

* Help more.

* Get better at Spanish.

* Become more aware of passing time.

------
vvdcect
Sorry

~~~
DoreenMichele
Comments from a couple of people who left tech and started life over:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16043552](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16043552)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16043669](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16043669)

Offered as food for thought from someone who has spent a lot of time suicidal.
Maybe part 1 of your goal can negate part 2.

------
pacomerh
Write a short tech book and publish on github. Related to front-end dev

------
drdrey
No more push notifications

~~~
kbyatnal
This really is a great one. Life feels so much calmer without constant
notifications.

------
taway_1212
Don't quit my (shitty) job, and bank the (awesome) money.

------
playing_colours
1\. lose 15 kilo,

2\. keep doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, ideally, get a blue belt,

3\. learn Clojure.

------
0b01
Start planning my time in blocks.

Don't spread myself too thin

Start commenting on HN

Sleep before 12am

------
estomagordo
Still 1920x1080 :(

------
diegoperini
* Clean up what's left from my dead startup.

* Get a job.

------
crypticlizard
Work consistently on my startup.

------
thdn
Get certified RHCSA - RHCE

------
arca_vorago
Audentes Fortuna Iuvat

------
brango
Start teaching yoga.

------
drakonka
Eat less sugar.

------
icpmacdo
abs, 100k in the bank

------
ronilan
2018 will be 1334-by-750-pixels at 326 ppi for me. Same as last year. No real
need for upgrade.

~~~
taneq
Oh you poor thing, at least invest in an external monitor!

------
xstartup
1\. Stop chasing girls 2\. Complete projects 3\. Stop paying bonus to people
in my company, just because I like their attitude or face.

------
senatorobama
Improve attractiveness by 10x

~~~
ronnier
Why?

~~~
akhilcacharya
Maybe he wants to run for President?

~~~
tehlike
I don't think that's a criterion now.

------
123ol12313
run a half marathon

