Year in Review: 2023

> Solid year
Cover Image for Year in Review: 2023

Notable Happenings in 2023

Hardware Hacks

This year I switched my keyboard to an Advantage360 Professional by Kinesis. It took some time to get used to, but the tented and split keyboard design has been a game changer for keeping my wrists and hands in a more natural position.

I also switched to a Logitech MX Ergo trackball mouse which reduces repetitive motion significantly. I'm a trackball believer now. I 3D printed a custom stand for the mouse so that the mouse sits almost vertically.

Review of Last Year's Goals

  • Continue to build expertise in the following technologies:
    • ✅ XP / XM 10.x
    • ✅ XM Cloud
    • ✅ Sitecore JSS
    • ✅ C#
    • ✅ React
    • ✅ NextJS
    • ✅ GraphQL
    • ✅ TypeScript
    • ❌ Svelte
    • ✅ Cloudflare
    • ✅ Blockchain
    • ❌ Machine Learning
  • ❌ Complete at least one Udemy course related to the above
  • ✅ Continue working on side projects that leverage the above
  • ✅ Compose 12 long form blog posts
  • ✅ Compose at least 12 short / medium blog posts
  • ✅ Attend Symposium 2023 and take more photos of people in the Sitecore community
  • ✅ Continue contributing on Sitecore Stack Exchange
  • ✅ Earn 2023 Sitecore Technology MVP
  • 🤔 Compete in the 2023 Sitecore Hackathon
  • ❌ Earn least 1 new Sitecore certification
  • 🤔 Share at least one code gist / repo on GitHub
  • ✅ Continue to research cutting edge memes

Favorite Quotes

This year, the quote theme is technology:

Raise your quality standards as high as you can live with, avoid wasting your time on routine problems, and always try to work as closely as possible at the boundary of your abilities. Do this, because it is the only way of discovering how that boundary should be moved forward.

-Edsger W. Dijkstra

If we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as “lines produced” but as “lines spent.

-Edsger W. Dijkstra

Clean code always looks like it was written by someone who cares.

-Michael Feathers

The older I get, the more I realize the biggest problem to solve in tech is to get people to stop making things harder than they have to be.

-Chad Fowler

There is never enough time to do it right, but there is always enough time to fix it or to do it over.

-Daniel T. Barry

What I Learned in 2023

Good habits carry you. Gamification is the real deal. Time is precious.

Goals for 2024

Here's how I'm planning to spend some of my time next year.

  • Compose around 20 blog posts
  • Continue to contribute on Stack Overflow and Sitecore Stack Exchange
  • Get certified in at least one of the following:
    • XM Cloud
    • Sitecore 10 System Administrator Certification
  • Continue to build expertise in modern web technologies
  • Attend Symposium and MVP Summit 2024 and take more great photos of people in the Sitecore community
  • Earn MVP status once again

Keep going,

MG


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