2019-01-20-2018-year-review.org (8591B)
1 #+title: 2018 year review 2 #+date: <2019-01-20 Sun> 3 #+filetags: review 4 5 * Introduction 6 7 Here is my review of 2018, the first of its kind, hopefully not the last 👼. I saw 8 some[fn:1] /2018[fn:2] reviews/[fn:3] articles[fn:4] in my Feedly feed and I thought it 9 would be a good idea to write my own too. 10 11 I'll try in the next year — maybe month if I ever want to do monthly reviews — to automate 12 some of it ; using the beloved =org-mode=. 13 14 [fn:1] [[https://punchagan.muse-amuse.in/blog/2018-in-review/][2018 in Review - Noetic Nought]] 15 [fn:2] [[https://medium.com/@buster/42-dig-deeper-e2278d1fe015][42 — Dig deeper – Buster Benson – Medium]] 16 [fn:3] [[https://jvns.ca/blog/2018/12/23/2018--year-in-review/][2018: Year in review - Julia Evans]] 17 [fn:4] [[https://writing.natwelch.com/post/685][Nat? Nat. Nat! | #685 2018 Year in Review]] 18 19 * Work 20 21 The big change this year is : I changed job 👼. I went from Docker Inc. to Red Hat. I 22 needed a change and 5 month in, I think it was the *best choice I made in my life* so far 23 💃. I'm doing open-source for a living and best part, I am working remotely (more on that 24 later). 25 26 Before that, at Docker Inc., I continued the work I started years before, 27 a.k.a. maintaining the Moby project and the docker engine, among other Docker project 28 (both open-source and closed-source). I also helped the work on the compose side, from the 29 root of =docker/compose-on-kubernetes= (before it got open-sourced), to the =docker/app= 30 experiments. 31 32 At Red Hat, I started to work upstream in the Kubernetes community, mainly on the Knative 33 projects. I also work on the Openshift Cloud Function project (and thus team), and those 34 fellows are awesome ! Digging more into Openshift, and other part of the Red Hat portfolio 35 is a really good learning experience, and it's just the start ! 36 37 As stated above, I am now working home, full-time. I could work from home from time to 38 time when I was at Docker inc, but working home full-time is another kind of beast. So far 39 it is really good, some adjustments were needed but it's for the best. Here is a small 40 take on "working from home": 41 42 - It's easy to have *no distraction*, thus having *really productive* piece of time 43 - It's also *really easy to work long day or really long period of time*. It's especially 44 true if, like me, you work on a distributed team (across multiple timezones). 45 - I ended up using the Pomodoro technique to make sure I move at least few times a day 46 - I try to make sure I don't make an habits of checking out work code, email and other 47 material after a certain hour in the evening. It's ok to do it sometimes, but for your 48 sanity, you need some rest time. 49 - It's easy to adapt your day to circumstance. If you got to run errands in the middle of 50 the day, it's no big deal. You can take the time back later on. 51 - It's so good to have *no* commmute time. That said I end up /walking or taking the bike/ 52 early morning to clear my head before work 😝. 53 54 * Personal 55 56 Health wise, it's a mix of good and bad year. The first half was really good, the second 57 way less. End of august, I felt something weird in the right knee, and well, turns out my 58 internal meniscus is in a real bad shape. Just as before joining Docker, I'm gonna need a 59 surgery, on the right knee that time. It's gonna affect 2019 (the first half, I'm not 60 gonna be able to move around much but.. meh, it's life). 61 62 Now that I work from home, I'm really glad I got a standing desk at the end of 2017. I 63 tend to work standing most of the time -- except when my knee hurts (and most likely for 64 few months after the surgery 😅). I invested on a ultrawide screen, to get the same 65 experience I had at Docker. And oh boy those screens are good ! 66 67 I also try to clean my desk and it's "neighboorhood". As I get older, I want less messy 68 stuuf (desk, flat, ...). I'm leaning towards having less stuff, being commputer related or 69 not. It's not minimalism, but it feel good to have less stuff, but stuff that you actually 70 use. I still have trouble throwing old computer away, mainly because I fell they can be 71 useful in some way. 72 73 [[/images/2019/01/desk1.jpg]] 74 75 This year I migrate all of my "infrastructure" computer to NixOS. I learned a lot of Nix, 76 reworked my configuration multiple time to end up with a [[https://github.com/vdemeester/nixos-configuration.git][system configuration repository]] 77 that uses modules, and a [[https://github.com/vdemeester/home.git][/home configuration repository/]] (for user configuration). The 78 [[https://github.com/vdemeester/home.git][home]] repository uses [[https://github.com/rycee/home-manager.git][=home-manager=]] and thus doesn't make any assumption of running on top 79 of NixOS. This allows me to have an /easy to get/ setup on any system that =nixpkgs= 80 supports (any Linux distribution, Mac OSX, Windows Subsystem Linux). The current 81 configuration is not yet optimal but I'm pretty happy about what I got : 82 83 - Custom DNS server @home to make it easier to target local hosts. 84 - Local proxies and mirrors for docker images, nixpkgs binary package and go modules to 85 eat less bandwidth. 86 - Easy to setup VPN using [[https://www.wireguard.com/][WireGuard]]. 87 - File replication using =syncthing= and automatic backup on my local NAS. 88 - Automatic system upgrade, thanks to NixOS. I'll probably write an article about that 89 later on this year. 90 91 I started to use =todoist= in 2017, and boy, oh boy, it helped me quite a lot ! I'm using 92 it daily to organize my work and quickly get idea, and /todos/ out of my head. The main 93 problem with it is it's not integrated with another tool I'm using daily : Emacs and 94 =org-mode=. =org-mode= is a fantastic piece of software and is, on its own, the main 95 reason for me to invest time in Emacs. I'm taking note in =org-mode=, I write my daily 96 standup notes in there too. I end up going back and forth between =org-mode= and =todoist= 97 for those daily standup. I am lazy, I want to automate that. And the best way to do it, is 98 to also use =org-mode= for task management. I'm in a /transition/ mode right now, but my 99 goal for 2019 is to use todoist to take quick note/todo(s) on the move (aka on the phone) 100 and use =org-mode= for the rest. 101 102 103 * Reading & Writing 104 105 I used to like reading, but the past years, I didn't really read that much, except some 106 technical books. 2018 in, that respect, is not an exception, I didn't read too much. Worse 107 than that, I started some book and stopped at some point, for no apparent reason ; and 108 now, I need to start back from the beginning, which, well, is not helping me want to read 109 them again. 110 111 I'm trying two thing to counter that and consume more books for the years to come. 112 113 1. I now have a reading list on my =org-mode= files, where I track which one I read and 114 when I read them ; and maybe notes too. I have a lot of book on my kindle, that only 115 wait for one thing, being read.. 116 2. I subscribed to [[https://www.audible.fr][Audible]] 👼. Working from home, I tend to take a long break after lunch, 117 where I'm going for a walk, for around an hour. I can't read while walking but I 118 definitely can listen - that make audio books perfect for these moments. I also 119 alternate between audio books and non-musical podcasts. 120 121 On the writing side, 2017 was a slow year in terms of writing (only 2 posts), 2018 was a 122 bit better, 6 posts -- it's a bit cheating, as it was mainly between changing jobs, and 123 on a series I still need to finish. I'm hoping to write more this year, hence the goals 124 I've set to myself below. 125 126 * 2019 Goals 127 128 - *Get back on my feet after knee surgery (exercices, …)* 🏃 129 - *Read at least one book per month (be audible, ebook or paper)* 📖 130 - *Giving at least a talk (on Knative, containers, nixos, ..)* 🙊 131 132 I didn't give too much talk in 2018 (at least less than 2017). I'm gonna try to get back 133 at it this year. The surgery won't help but it's just few months. 134 135 - *At least 1 video per month* 📹 136 137 I want to start recording some video, as I feel it's an easier medium than writing and, 138 well, I wanna try ! 139 140 - *At least 1 post per month* ✍️ 141 - *Enhance my emacs skills (aka don't be afraid of the lisp)* ⌨️ 142 143 I'm using Emacs for almost anything that doesn't happen in a web browser. But I still 144 feel like a newbie. I want to learn more, to write more lisp that help me being even 145 more lazier (aka achieve more doing less 😝) 146 147 - *Enhance my Nix(OS) skills* 🐧 148 - *Learn / master a new language* 🎽 149 150 I'm working with Go 90% of my time. I want to master and learn more language. On my list 151 are Emacs Lisp, Rust, Typescript and Haskell.