Looking Back on 2022 and Goals for Next Year

Writing about my annual reflections and goals has become a tradition.

Personal

Achievements

One of the most fulfilling accomplishments for me this year was completing the replacement of this bmf-tech site, which had been a significant challenge. It felt like enjoying a comprehensive martial arts competition in software engineering.

bmf-tech Technology

This was a long-term effort, so it felt great to finally bring it to a close. There were times when I was overly fixated on it, but this system provided me with opportunities to learn many things, making the time spent worthwhile.

Aside from that, I did the usual activities like creating tools, writing blog posts, reading books, and participating in study sessions with friends.

In terms of learning, I had many opportunities to catch up on specific technologies related to my work, which was great.

Additionally, as a continuation of last year's study on data structures and algorithms, I spent some time focusing on HackerRank. It was a valuable experience that helped me improve my coding skills and learn algorithms, so I plan to resume it in the future.

I also put considerable effort into studying system architecture. Although this mostly involved reading various materials, I found many useful articles and plan to write about them in the future. There’s still a lot I haven’t finished reading yet...

While just reading doesn’t necessarily build skills, I felt that creating a repository of knowledge isn’t a waste. I aim to finish reading the collected articles by the end of the year.

Things I Couldn’t Accomplish

Here are the things I intended to do but couldn’t:

Kubernetes
- I’ve learned the basics but lack practical experience. I feel it’s time to address this (strong determination).
Expanding knowledge of AWS and GCP
- I wanted to work towards professional certifications but couldn’t allocate time.
- While I’ve had opportunities to learn through work, I want to broaden my knowledge systematically.
ISUCON
- I missed participating due to a scheduling mistake on my part...
Speaking at external conferences
- I didn’t present at any external conferences this year. I’d like to prepare and present at least once a year, but I’ll blame my busyness for now...

Work

The biggest achievement this year was successfully releasing a project that lasted nearly a year as a team leader. While there were technical learnings, gaining experience as a lead engineer was a significant takeaway.

Apart from the main team project, I was involved in two side projects, completed Scrum Master training and certification, created internal tools, hosted book reading sessions, gave internal lightning talks, participated in Advent Calendar events, and accidentally deleted an Advent Calendar post. It was a year where I got to engage in many things I wanted to do.

There’s still so much I want to do, and I found the work fulfilling and enjoyable this year. I’m grateful to everyone who supported me and hope to continue working healthily and happily next year.

Reflection on Last Year’s Goals

My 2021 goal was to "increase the number of clear answers to the question: What can I do?"

I feel I’ve gained some vague answers, but if I had to name one clear achievement, it would be the soft skill of "leading a team from its inception to operation as a lead engineer."

It’s still challenging to articulate this properly, but the experience and achievements have boosted my confidence. I’d like to count this as one of the values I bring to my work.

There may be times in the future when my confidence is shaken, but I’ll do my best when that happens.

Goals for Next Year

I want my goal to be "creating a weapon."

This is somewhat an extension of my 2021 goal but with a slightly different focus. Instead of soft skills, I want to focus on developing hard skills and establishing expertise in a specific area. While I don’t expect to become a pioneer or expert in a year, I aim to have at least one area where I can confidently say I excel.

This also ties into the question of which technology I’ll invest in the most next year. I plan to spend some time at the beginning of the year deciding this. Currently, I’m considering areas like programming languages, container technologies, or specific system architectures that interest me.

Next year marks a milestone for me as I turn 30. I’ve been reflecting on how I want to navigate the next decade.

Here’s a rough memo of my vision for the next 5–10 years (still needs more articulation):

Final Thoughts

For several years, I’ve been organizing my learning goals by aligning them with my "will" (things I want to do, interests), "can" (things I can do, a mix of will and must), and "must" (things necessary for work or career). I’ve also been setting goals and reflecting monthly. I feel that my thoughts on my career and skills have become more consistent over the years.

While I’m not entirely satisfied with how much I’ve achieved, it ultimately comes down to how efficiently I use my available time, which is always a challenge.

This year has been tough and challenging in terms of society and the economy. I feel more uncertainty about the future than usual, but I want to stay positive and keep doing my best.

Miscellaneous

This year’s hot topics:

Slides I prepared for an internal lightning talk... w https://b.hatena.ne.jp/entrylist?url=https%3A%2F%2Fspeakerdeck.com%2Fbmf_san%2Ftian-xia-httprouterwu-dou-hui

Last year, it was the book I published on Zenn. https://b.hatena.ne.jp/entry/s/zenn.dev/bmf_san/books/3f41c5cd34ec3f

I hope to have something trending again next year as well.