2021 Wrap Up
It's the end of 2021! For this post I wanted to take a moment to review what I've worked on this year and set some intentions for my efforts going into 2022. There won't be any programming involved here if that's what you came for.
Blog Posts and Series
I wrote a lot this year! 36 posts in total, including this post. Previously my most prolific year was 2019 when I published 29 posts. Most of those were pretty short posts on array and object methods. This year I feel like I went much deeper into certain topics and completed a number of series. I definitely feel like I've started to hit a stride in terms of cadence and quality, and I attribute that to picking a few good topics and spending a few posts going deep into every aspect of that topic that I can think of. Here are the series that I published this year:
Algorithms and Data Structures
- Big O Notation
- The Quadratic Sorting Algorithms
- Merge Sort
- Quicksort
- Radix Sort
- Singly Linked List
- Doubly Linked List
- Stack
- Queue
ES2021 Features
.replaceAll()String Method- Private Class Methods
- Private Accessors
Promise.any()- Logical Assignment Operators
JavaScript/Programming Fundamentals
- Loops in JavaScript
- Undefined vs. Null
- Passing a Variable by Value or Reference
- Dependency Injection
JavaScript Promises
PromisePromise.all()Promise.allSettled()Promise.any()Promise.race()Promise.reject()Promise.resolve()
Professional Development
I also went beyond web development and programming for a few posts, and ventured into more of what I like to call "professional development". Some of this was pretty cursory, like reviewing my participation in the 100 Days of Code Challenge (2021). It was my second time completing that challenge, and while it wasn't necessarily a bad experience, it just felt like too much of a grind. Doing a number of days of programming definitely didn't confer as much benefit toward learning and understanding as spending a week or two (sometimes more) doing lots of research into a topic then writing about that topic from the viewpoint of an instructor.
The other big professional development post I wrote this year was my Should I Do a Coding Bootcamp? post. Throughout the pandemic a bunch of friends messaged or texted me to tell me they were thinking about enrolling in a bootcamp and going for a career change and that they wanted to hear about my thoughts and experiences with the bootcamp that I did a few years ago. I found myself giving the same advice and hitting on the same points across a bunch of different threads, so I decided to consolidate all of my thoughts and experiences on the topic into one post. I've since been able to (kindly!) send a handful of friends and internet contacts to this post and so far the response has been pretty positive. If you're thinking about doing a coding bootcamp, I highly recommend reading this post.
Looking Forward to 2022
So what do I have in store for the coming year?
As far as blog posts go, my plan right now is to continue with the same approach: tackle some JavaScript fundamental topics through some well-researched posts that carry with them a lot of clear code examples. These would be posts that explore things like Strict Mode, var vs. let vs. const, Closures, Explicit and Implicit Coercion, and so on. If it makes sense to break some of these out into a series, I'll do that to give the topic the space it needs.
Otherwise I have a number of professional development-style posts that I want to solidify and publish. I've done a lot of research into Burnout and have a big, long post on that topic that has been sitting in the wings for a while. But other things like tips for keeping up with your blog or handling imposter syndrome are also top of mind.
As for my own learning roadmap, first and foremost I want to finish the JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures Masterclass on Udemy that I've been working through for the past year or two. I only have like six more units to do, but admittedly it's tough to find the motivation to focus on that. From there I have a few more tutorials that I've purchased but haven't started yet (again, because I'm trying to finish the Algorithms/Data Structures course first). These include Beginner JavaScript by WesBos, Just JavaScript by Dan Abramov, and CSS for JavaScript Developers by Josh W. Comeau.
Finally I want to take a moment to thank you, the reader. You have an infinite set of options of content to consume on the internet, and if you're on my website, I'm honestly just so happy that you're here. Whether you've skimmed a single blog post (maybe looking for a quick solution to something on LeetCode 👀) or you've voraciously gobbled up everything I've ever written, I'm so glad that you've found my little corner of the internet and I hope that I've helped you learn something. I really enjoy keeping up with this little website and plan to continue to do so. Millions of words have been published on content consolidation in the age of social media. When I first started using the internet, personal websites were more popular and there was just a different kind of connection to content focused on niche topics. The internet was just a weirder, stranger place. Even though this site is just a little portfolio and blog, that's the kind of spirit I want to carry on, and if I've connected with even a small handful of people who are interested in web development, then it's all been worth the effort. Thank you, and I'll see you in 2022.
Happy coding, Joey