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2021 Year in Review

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2021

This year feels like a blur. I keep thinking 2021 and 2020 were actually the same year due to the pandemic. 2020 was a wild year because I joined Facebook/Meta, moved the entire family to Seattle, moved back to Arizona, left Facebook/Meta, bought a house and started at Coder.

Even writing that last sentence feels tiring.

There was a lot happening. But fast-forward to 2021 and it was actually a wonderful year.

Working Full-Time on Open Source for Coder

I joined Coder in December 2020 as an Open Source TypeScript Engineer. My responsibility was and still is to maintain an open source project called code-server, which is VS Code in the browser.

I feel very grateful to have this job and work on open source every day. My work is all public on GitHub and anyone can go see it. And I get to interact with the community on a regular basis. Sometimes people help us debug issues. Other times they raise PRs and fix issues for us. It’s amazing!

And I’ve really been enjoying my time at Coder. It’s one of the first places where I look forward to going to work and I’m learning new things everyday. I would say I looked forward to work 90% of the year. Yes, I had bad days. But I also have many many days where I am thinking about work on the weekend because I’m so excited about this space.

DevTools, specifically IDEs, is an exciting space. I do genuinely believe remote development is the future and I’m happy I get to contribute to it.

Becoming a Dad

The other amazing part of the year was becoming a dad! In October, our first daughter (and first kid) was born. I really didn’t know what to expect becoming a parent, but now I’m starting to understand what it means.

The biggest realization is how much attention I paid to things that don’t matter before she was born. Now, I realize all I want is to take care of my family (wife, daughter and two dogs) and have a job that I enjoy. That’s basically it. Everything else is icing on the cake.

I also have a ton of respect for single parents. How do you do it?! I could never. It takes a village to raise a child. Thankfully we have lots of family here in Arizona to help us.

2021 Highlights

Here are some of my other highlights for the year:

Goals for 2022

I try to practice systems over goals but I have 3 main things I’m focusing on for 2022.

1. Be the Best Dad and Husband

I feel very fortunate that we had our first baby in 2021. Now I want to do everything I can to be the best dad for her and the best husband for my wife. I will be mindful when I’m with them. Protect them, love them and take care of them.

One of this biggest things I’d like to do is generate wealth so they have long-term financial support. Since I’m the breadwinner in the family, I’d like to earn and save enough so that if something terrible happens, money isn’t an issue for them.

2. Launch TS Course

I launched my first course - Vim for VSCode - in 2020. I started working on a TypeScript course in 2021. In 2022, I will partner with egghead and launch the TypeScript course. The goal is to have industry-level impact akin to Testing JavaScript or Epic React.

3. Double Side-Project Income (> $50k)

I’d like to double my side-project income. On the low-end, it should be over $50k. To actually double it though, it should be closer to $75k. I plan to do this through my courses (Vim & TypeScript) and job board & job referrals. We’ll see. It feels like I’m shooting for the moon, but it can’t hurt to try.

Conclusion

That’s all! Thanks for reading. If you have questions or comments, or just want to say hey, shoot me a DM on Twitter!