People often ask me what makes so many things every year. My answer is always, always, always: no overtime.

No overtime, less money, more x life. Life is full of choices, and for a poor person like me, the choices are even more limited. Last year’s income to help the family also money, this year down to earn not much, save the money is also 1120,000, barely all their money wealth. Even though he lent to a friend, he still managed to keep a few dollars. Although it is far less than a month’s income of “we media”, far less than the rise and fall of other people’s house, far less than Bill Gates/Bezos bent a bend, but still saved money, quite happy.

Looking at it, some people may say, “How proud you must be to write such a long article when you do so badly.” If you feel bad, it is not necessary to look down, time for you and I are very precious. For me, writing about the past — the good, the bad, the confusion — has been enormously helpful. The same goes for you, unless you’re already doing pretty well.

At certain times of the year, it reminds me of what’s getting better. Although far behind the level of others, there is no need and energy to catch up. And many things are constantly getting better, or unfortunately getting worse — like increasing age. To live, you need to live in your own feelings.

Programming: Think Big

Job: MOVE BIG

ONE. At the beginning of the year, I worked hard on an Android project for over a month. While it seems to me like a bit of a paddle, I’m actually writing energy code and fulfilling requirements. Say to be mixed, that in the end still regret own study; I mean, it’s a contribution. It’s not a great performance. In addition to being more familiar with Android, Java and Kotlin, the only commendable thing I did was to cut down the complex design of the pre-ordered Android and JavaScript Bridge to wake up with A URL Scheme, reducing unnecessary technical costs.

TWO. After Chinese New Year, I became a Tech Lead — back to the same pit after more than 2 years. For more than two long days, my advancement was technical; In terms of technical management, there was still not much improvement – there was a lack of communication with key stakeholders at the very beginning of the project. Can not say the lack of it, communication is still quite much, may not be the point. Fortunately, this problem has been improved more or less in later projects. It also convinced me of the importance of being certified. At the end of the project, I was finally trained (certified), and the theme of the training was: Team Lead. The same TL, the difference is quite big, although different, more or less can still learn something.

Coming back to the project, I have finally completed a project, Inception, Interation 0, delivery, and closure. In addition, I also got the skills of micro front-end — the architecture THAT I wanted to practice with all my heart in 2017 was barely put to full use. At present, according to the dimensions of our Tech Lead, I can be considered as a Tech SME (Subject Matter Expert).

THREE. In the project at the end of the year, I have gone through pre-sale, Inception and Iteration 0 stages. Having seven or eight hybrid apps on Google Play, I became the creator of a hybrid app framework, not the user; At the same time, further thinking about the big front-end related content, from scratch to create front-end related component library, scaffolding and a series of tools. According to the dimensions of our Tech Lead, such a project can be developed in the way of System Architecture. Several different experiences have made me rethink the definition of role. Inevitably, in the next project, I need to redefine myself at the beginning — what role I need to exist in.

Having experienced a series of native applications, hybrid applications, semi-hybrid applications and RN applications, I have gained deeper experience in how to integrate re-applications. At the same time, he had a deep understanding of internal politics, but could not yet understand why. I found doing the underlying framework support more interesting than I used to, but after a long time working on it, I found the business code to be more fulfilling — with a solid launch schedule.

Several projects with different gradients have different ways of thinking about problems. In the past, the focus was only on the ability to grow within the team, related architectural practices. In the second and third projects, we focused on higher dimensions of architecture to improve overall development efficiency. There are more non-technical factors to understand and a wider audience. In the near future, we need to think about the whole system from a higher, wider perspective.

Amateur programming: FOR LIFE

During the year, due to the amount of IoT related content translated and reviewed over the past few years, the resources were quite “scarce” — either repetitive or of low quality. I stopped translating articles and developing the Play app, but it was still getting a trickle of traffic — about 100 hits a day. The site remains promising for the foreseeable future. It’s just that in the years that the Internet giants have been promoting their own development communities, it’s probably going to slow down.

In this year, the investment on Serverless has decreased somewhat, but I still used Serverless architecture + wechat applet + AI to write some applications, such as CODE application. The number of users is still up about 8K, so a look, but also a good attempt. In the next year, maybe there will be more exploration in this area, targeting ordinary users rather than programmers — it’s hard to make money from programmers. Such as the development of small games, such a look is also rare valuable, to this age, and explore the curiosity of the computer. So that those older programmers, also can only think of cutting knowledge to pay leek.

Last year, I made a rough plan to replace some of the software I used to do everyday work. Tools like ADR (Architectural Decision Recording), which I wrote late last year, have become part of my daily management requirements for open source projects, not just architectural decisions. In this year, there are two new friends to join:

Mifa Design. The original intention of the design is to design the system for my open source project, and the initial form is UI framework (CSS architecture). For now, it’s the default GitHub Pages theme, the default GitHub ebook theme, and the default CSS framework for open source projects. I have no qualms about saying that it achieves extensive validation, Hiahia ~.

Phodit editor. It fulfills my daily writing needs, as well as serving as an editor for new books (TBD) as I write this article. Although the process is full of a considerable number of bugs, such as renaming files, will not replace the current window of the file – the need for small bugs, do not bother to change.

In the coming year, still want to continue to create their own tools. Concerns about privacy, for example, as public opinion tightens. I have some more thoughts on privacy:

  • The input method is a very dangerous tool, it can give you away at any time. Either go native open source or use the cloud.
  • Physical password generators, such as Raspberry Pi Zero, do some understanding, but need to be portable.
  • IOS or Android? Unfortunately, Ubuntu Touch is still half-dead and doesn’t support mainstream devices.

It’s not that I’m worried about what I say or being held accountable — I don’t naturally like feeling watched. Yield or be free, that is a question worth considering. China’s chat tools are being scrutinized all the time, and I feel like the sword of Damocles. If you can do a physical input method, it will be more convenient.

Writing: HIGH QUALITY -> Non-technical writing

Still, I was doing cheap technical reviews for Packt, They published two more books with my name on them, Mastering Angular Components – Second Edition and Angular 6 by Example – Third Edition. You get to read technical books for free, practice your English, and sometimes get paid. It’s a good deal.

The book I had intended to finish in this year was not finished after all, two years later. However, the traditional version of “Do-it-yourself Design Internet of Things” — “Internet of Things Is so Close: Implement one Manually now” can add a lot of color to the dull life. From China to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, it is also a good step forward. If one sees one’s own books in Malaysia or Singapore, one can boast that he has gone global. In the future, if a book can be written and published in the West, it will be an even bigger breakthrough. Let’s hope so.

In 2017, I wrote a series of hot articles, and by the end of the year, I began to realize the problem with these articles — they didn’t help me become a better programmer. At the same time, articles that rely on heat will have no value when the heat is gone. So, in 2018, I changed my writing strategy — trying to balance reading volume with quality, moving away from higher reading volume and toward what I consider “quality writing.”

For one thing, it takes a day to write an article, and the length of the article is often too long for everyone to read. Secondly, high-quality articles do not necessarily bring good reading volume, but for themselves, the heart is satisfied — to write for their own reading articles, to their own greater help.

I tried to use The title Architecture Collection as one of the directions to document what I saw and heard about using architecture as a repository of my knowledge. Practice them and then write down the key parts, the relevant core ideas. If growth is anything to go by, it’s also relevant, poking fun at “bad” architecture implementations. Too often, we talk about the benefits of an architecture while ignoring some of its drawbacks. In the process of use, because some improper use, but bring more problems. Examples of these issues include “Micro” Architecture and “The Waste of Resources in Front and back End Separation”. If directly magnifies the shortcoming, makes fun of some, that is quite good.

Just write more technical articles, write general articles have a little inappropriate. Technical articles, characteristic is concise, dry lian, little nonsense, there is no human touch. Condensing the essence also means that you have to think it over and over again, and the time passes — the pleasure of writing is gone. Gradually become no own style, cookie-cutter, also lost their own personality.

Every night before going to bed, I read literature books outside of technology, looking for some new writing techniques. These days, there is not a big breakthrough, maybe the quantitative change is not enough, or need more practice, writing non-technical articles.

PRACTISE -> MORE PRACTISE

In response to the regrets left in 2017, I practiced a lot of design-related work during this year.

The biggest improvement in Design is that Mifa Design is designed (copied) with the knowledge related to programming. Promotion in the open source project, the public number typesetting, their own blog…… . At present, it is just a general layout and style, not a rich personal style, but a bit of extensive application. At first, it was intended to be used as a Design System, but the Design and technology related to the Design System did not fall into practice. It is a pity that this inference is applied only to the art, but not to the Tao.

I started sketching flow charts for the article, which was fun, but a little cumbersome. The flow chart is drawn on a Wacom Folio device and then synchronized to the cloud, where it can be edited and colored on a computer or tablet. Good (and expensive) Wacom equipment that can be drawn, colored, and exported directly, saving a little trouble in the conversion process. The first step in the design is to draw the corresponding draft on paper.

When I am in a good mood, or in my spare time, I will draw something as a cover. It’s just a doodle, but as a cover, it’s got a bit of personality — it’s not the same. Occasionally, I also participated in the company’s weekend activities with @Huadongma, and tried to draw an oil painting, although I drew the feeling of ink painting. More or less, I still have some confidence in the future when the time is right, but will play a greater value. Just for myself, or quite lack of practice. In the coming year, when writing tired code, you can put some energy into it to relax your nerves. Master the way, practice, quickly draw a picture, but also quite exciting. Maybe some AI graphics related content can be combined to improve the relevant personal stylized graphics.

In addition, during the trip to Malaysia with @Huadongma, I also acquired a photography related skill: continuous photography — there is always one suitable picture in a thousand pictures. Photography, cartoon and film, there are similarities, for the grasp of the lens, it is also a skill worth mastering. If you know more and pay more attention, you will GET new features.

You have to try something new, break your cravings, to know what you’re capable of.

other

This year, I read a few books about life literature, people talk about books. It is also understood that a basic truth, want to do in a certain industry, not by staying up late, learning, but to maintain stable input and stable output, that is, long-term career. Do what you love to do, look for heights, and keep pushing yourself. There are scenarios, applications, rules, and plans for programming-design-writing. As time goes on, the problems are not big, and each has its own room to play.

But life and work, not only these personal interests, but also spend time on other aspects, such as a variety of soft skills.

For example, communication, how to achieve convincing communication skills.

For example, become a grower, Coach, mentor.

For example, influence, technical and non-technical influence for higher title people.

When it comes to thinking about the future, it’s always about being a freelancer, not a screw.

Hello, 2019

2019 is likely to get off to a rough start.