Ask HN: What did you accomplish in 2010?
Now that the year is coming to an end, it's the perfect time to make a balance of what was and plans for what we hope will be.
What were your successes this year?
What did you learn?
What do you hope to achieve next year?
49 comments
[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 108 ms ] threadLanded a kick ass job at a boutique investment house in the City of London
Landed 3 Trustee positions
Fixed up my house which is an ongoing project for me
Returned 21% from my investment portfolio and cashed out immediately. Looking forward to starting 2011 from £0
I learnt that I had to keep a very loose structure throughout the year to achieve all these things as accidents were more frequent than I expected. Meticulous planning helped but it could not account for mishaps.
This year I hope to focus on the following areas
1) Improving my communication skills through toastmasters, blogging, writing industry reports/journals and offering my services as a public speaker
2) Taking more risks by playing poker, being more aggressive with my investments and approaching more women
3) Keeping my health in order by eating well, playing football 2x a week and running 3x per week
4) Networking alot more and penetrating specific areas in the City and specific groups/individuals. Starting of 2011 with drinks with several CEOs and a government minister.
* launched DNSimple (https://dnsimple.com/) and got my first 100 customers.
* moved to somewhere less expensive yet still quite comfortable and started reducing my personal debt.
I've learned...
* a ton about building and running a business on a bootstrap budget.
* that really working 8 hours of billable time is exhausting and that working as a salaried worker is way easier than working hourly.
Next year I hope to...
* make DNSimple take off and generate 10x the revenue it generates now so I can reduce the amount of time I need to spend on contract work.
* pay off all of my personal credit card debt.
* enjoy every day and make the most of life.
Good luck to everyone in 2011 and remember to do what makes you happy and enjoy your lives while you can.
He already had a pre-done Rail client, I made a Python one at:
https://github.com/mikemaccana/dnsimple-python
On the other hand, lost a lot of friends. Faced many of my limitations and discovered how lacking I was in many areas.
This year, I hope to focus on creating beautiful software. I'd also like to improve my general condition and health. And of course, I'll finish that degree.
I'm interested because one of my friends fell out with me this year sufficiently that he said "I don't want us to be friends any more". I was shocked and didn't know why. From what he told me it was the result of me making a few comments about his life in a flippant manner that I thought he was amused by, but actually he took it very very badly over the following few days and decided to not be friends any more. It's the only time I'd say I'd "lost" a friend.
If I worked in startups and business I think the chances of losing friends would explode though. It seems there's huge potential for making rational, business-motivated decisions that others perceive as immoral or backstabbing etc. Is that what happened to you?
Hired 6 developers and started a much more serious consulting company (with new clients),
Launched inboxSEO and got over 100 paying customers (when the trials run out),
Formed an Argentine SRL to pay those devs (like a US LLC but much harder to start)
I finally got over myself and released Hackety 1.0.
I've met tons of people, made a lot of new friends (through HN and non, in real life and outside of it), and improved myself a bunch.
I think next year will be better. I have three main goals:
* work for others at most two days out of every week, on average.
* Start taking better care of myself, via exercises and better eating.
* Write something every day.
* track my time every day, inspired by lionhearted
We do need to get coffee again soon.
And thanks; I really do need to learn more about Slovak culture someday...
-Turned 30
-Proposed to my girlfriend of 7 years
-Got a new job
-Wrote an app that was (briefly) #1 in the paid section of the Android Market
-Moved to New York
It's been a big year for me :-)
I stopped all traveling and moved into a house 4 blocks from my mother's nursing home. She has severe dementia and I visit her every night. She never remembers yesterday or plans for tomorrow, but knows me well, and we have a great time together. Jeopardy, the Simpsons, and Family Guy are now our common pursuits.
What did you learn?
No matter how wonderful our memories or ambitious our plans, all we ever really have is today, so make the most of it.
What do you hope to achieve next year?
Launching a start-up that will change the world, watching the Steelers win the Super Bowl, and playing Jeopardy with Mom every night.
Oh yeah, and I climbed a mountain this year. Next year I'm going to climb two.
Left a job which was nice, but not creating something. Launched http://imeveryone.com, got a couple of hundred thousand visitors in the first month, HN, TechCrunch, TechFluff coverage and a whole bunch of help from people who liked my idea.
- What did you learn?
MongoDB, Javascript programming and lots about PR.
- What do you hope to achieve next year?
Get more PR, specifically a major women's magazine. Fix my advertising system. Become revenue positive.
Lows:
- Was made redundant
- messed up with a few incredible girls through apathy or equally stupid things
Highs\Successes:
- immediately found better paying job
- started playing football again
- paid off overdraft and CC debts
- resolved to move away from the UK
Next year:
- turn 25 (this is an achievable goal)
- act more\quicker\at all on any software ideas I have
- save money and
- decide where I want to go (Canada, Aus, NZ, elsewhere in the EU) then just pack up do it
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I learned that my strength is into diving into something with accountability and public commitment as my flotation devices.
In 2011, I hope to build one or two quality iPhone apps in niches dear to me. And to talk to more women. And to practice Stoicism. And to socialize again. Life is too short for just Xcode.
For aspiring iOS developers, it takes about 100-150 hours of concerted focus - after that Objective-C/Cocoa starts becoming the solution, not the problem.
2011 is my year.
I finally worked up the courage to leave the PhD program that had been making me miserable for the past two years (of the three I'd been pursuing the degree), and look for something better. I joined a supercomputing-services company which is doing some really exciting work, and has a very startup-ish feel. And I've built a fun, happy life with my awesome girlfriend, who supported all of the above.
- What did you learn?
There is no reason to keep doing something that makes you feel horrible, and if the end result holds no appeal any more. There are a lot of exciting things to do out there, especially if you're willing to leave your comfort zone.
- What do you hope to achieve next year?
Build some awesome things at work, and learn more about high-performance computing. Get back into fencing. And enjoy life.
It's terrifying, and I'm broke, but I have learned I am infinitely happier when I'm calling my own shots.
My hope for 2011 is to have a business which is profitable enough for me to carry on working for myself, and not look for another job.
Good luck everyone in 2011.
I ran a marathon. I was overweight and out of shape in January. At the encouragement of a coworker, I ran 5 days a week from March to November, and successfully completed the Philly Marathon in 4h10m10s.
That same week, I landed an awesome job, and hopefully left the Military-Industrial Complex for good.
What did you learn?
A little work every day adds up to a hurricane. The value of getting nudged in the right direction, and by extension, the value of surrounding yourself with people who will nudge you in the right direction. And hitting the wall is about as painful as I remember appendicitis to be.
What do you hope to achieve next year?
I want to run two marathons. I want to run one of them in under 3h45m. I want to create something that lots of people use. I want to make a name for myself.
* Joined a leadership program to get out of a dead end position
* Co-coordinated the local DEFCON group
* Completed the first semester of my Master's degree program
* Broke into the infosec field through my first "rotation" for my new job
What I learned:
* Learned that I can communicate ideas through writing quite a bit better than I thought, and my presentation skills aren't half bad either
* Everyone could achieve so much more if they stopped reading job descriptions and got to work. This year I did so many things I was unqualified for, and it rocked.
* People's academic demeanor is often directly linked to their work performance. Cheaters cheat, liars lie, and procrastinators procrastinate. You never know when you're being watched, and I strongly believe school is one place you can't afford to screw up.
Next year:
* Stay in infosec, but learn a lot more
* Build something. Anything.
* Complete a few more semesters, and do my time while learning more.
* Patch, patch, and patch. I forget to patch too often. For this I am ashamed.
* Have a child. Scary, but awesome and probable.
* Broke up with gf after 5 yrs.
* Met new girl, together for a month.
* Turned 30.
* Went back to school (nursing) and finished year one successfully.
* Still with one foot in web development and liking it, too.
* Went to huge festival for the first time in 10 years.
* Spent more time with good friends.
* Did a 5000km motorcycle trip to Spain.
* Surfed for the first time.
* Picked up CrossFit again, set some PRs.
* Dropped flour, wheat and sugar consumption almost completely.
* Dropped my entrepeneurial ventures. I'm not the type for it.
* I learned to follow my intuitions and to not take everyones advice for truth.
* In 2011, I hope to successfully finish my internship at a psycho-geriatric clinic. I've never been further away from the computer than that.
Wish me luck :) I wish you all the same.
Moved in with my girlfriend. Asked her to marry me, she said yes! Went through a lot of drama with my family to accept her. Patience paid off, wedding next year woohoo!
Started my first startup, launched the first product. Progress has been slow, but I'm keeping at it.
Wrote my first book. Coming out in January.
What did you learn?
Patience can get you surprisingly far.
Working alone is hard and boring.
Startup porn is the single biggest time sink in my life and probably a lot of people's lives here. I need to get rid of it.
What do you hope to achieve next year?
In 2011, I hope to:
Get profitable.
Get some great people to work with me on my startup.
Make a really good quality product that people love and use.
Learned node.js as as3. Made a flashgame and a webapp to paypal dev challange, then got a consulting job.
Successes:
All of these plus finally getting healthier again. (knock, knock)
Plans:
Move, find new friends, make some money from my new android phone, finish a novell, start a business and iterate as much of my ideas I can.
next year i'll launch the start-up!