Reflection on 2024 and Goals for Next Year

This year, I reflect on the past year and write my goals for next year. This is the seventh time I've written a reflection blog.

Personal

This year, I achieved my long-held dream of buying a house. I regularly and meticulously manage my household budget and life planning, and with a solid financial plan in place, I found a property I liked under good conditions, leading to a satisfactory purchase.

Good properties are highly liquid, so it's wise to complete pre-approval and budget adjustments before searching for a house, allowing you to act quickly (i.e., apply for a contract) when you come across a good property.

If I have the opportunity to buy a house again, I want to keep this in mind.

This year, I focused on the following learning keywords:

Code reading skills (ability to understand specifications by reading implementations)
Coding skills (ability to improve existing implementations)
System design
Database
Computer science
Development and feature addition of a Go-based reverse proxy
Redesign and development of a CMS (rebuilding the current bmf-tech blog system)
Input in the areas of Agile, Scrum, project management, and development productivity
Kubernetes

While I was able to do various inputs, I felt I couldn't output much, leading to a sense of disappointment about what I accomplished this year.

Looking at my Trello tasks, many were theoretical study tasks.

I feel that my disposable time has been decreasing year by year, so I am consciously trying to focus and produce results in shorter periods. However, I still feel a limit to what I can achieve.

That said, there still seems to be room to utilize time more effectively in both work and personal life, so I want to explore that further next year.

Work

After a six-month parental leave, I was able to work full-time this year, which felt like regaining my sense of work. However, I wasn't just idly waiting; I changed jobs. It was my first job change in 5-6 years, and given the important timing in my life stage, there was considerable pressure, but I managed to get through it. Since joining, I have been enjoying my work.

This job change has been a good opportunity for me to gain confidence in my career. I have passed the age and experience level where I can rely solely on potential, so I need to refine my performance further. That pressure has been present.

While I have done various things in my previous and current jobs, I don't feel like I have significantly grown this year, so there's nothing particularly noteworthy to mention. Rather, I focused on maximizing the use of my past experiences and knowledge, so I haven't yet felt any new learning or skill improvement. While there have been some, I might be becoming desensitized to stimulation year by year...

Perhaps I need a significant impact, such as focusing deeply on one thing, achieving overwhelming results, or solving difficult challenges, to feel my growth.

Reflection on Goals

My goal was to "create weapons."

While I couldn't create new weapons, it may have been a year where I confirmed that I could fight with the weapons I already have. In other words, I didn't achieve my goal.

I believe it's always important to refine the weapons I have and create new ones, but I plan to boldly forget this unachieved goal.

This is because I feel that generative AI, as a supplementary weapon, may change the way I choose my weapons.

Goals for Next Year

I plan to make "choosing weapons" my goal for next year.

Every year, I have set goals related to my career and skill development, which is something I always continue to do. This year, I thought I would change my approach and set a goal that questions my own sense.

I have a part of me that feels like I came up with a clever idea, but I also feel like I haven't thought it through at all.