Hi!

It’s time for the tradition of the yearly reflective summary, a wrap-up blog post on what I’ve achieved the past year, my biggest fails and what I am planning to do in 2017. Here it goes!

In 2016…

• I had my best year yet with my beautiful Malin. We are super happy in Stockholm, had an awesome trip to New York early in the year and we got engaged :). That was probably the highlight of the year and the beginning of a tonload of planning for the wedding this Spring. An intimate gathering that’ll bring people from Spain and the northmost part of Sweden to a teeny tiny island in the Stockholm archipelago. Excited!!!
• I started working at Google. This was a completely crazy and unexpected turn of events that started when I got an email from Microsoft and another one from Google within the same week of January. Nuts. I normally don’t share these things because I have this huge impostor syndrome that tells me that “things are just too good to be true”, “don’t dare to get your hopes too high”, “there’s probably been a mistake” (I think most of us do). I did give it my best shot anyhow, and studied before and after work, and in the weekends, went through the thorough and long interview process and finally got an offer in April. Today I’ve been at Google for a little bit more than 5 months, I work with an amazingly talented group of people as a Technical Account Manager for gTech Publishers and I’ve somehow become even more of a generalist than I was before. I do a 20% as a dev relations for Google and the Angular team and I’m looking forward to see what happens next year because working at Google is pretty awesome. By the by, one of my highlights this year was to meet the whole Angular team at Angular Connect and a lot of great community people (super thanks to Naomi for that).
• I completed my first book JavaScript-mancy: Getting Started and I’ve almost completed the second JavaScript-mancy: OOP. Writing was my number #1 priority at the beginning of 2016 and I really wanted to focus all my efforts in writing and launching my original book: JavaScript-mancy. Of course, I hadn’t factored the Google variable in this whole equation and, all of the sudden, I found myself struggling to write the book and study for the interviews, or write, review the book and try to survive the Nooglership period with the humongous amount of information it comes with. So I followed the advice of one of my technical reviewers (thx Nathan!) and broke the original book in smaller ones. After a long review process (that last 20% is arduous to say the least) I released JavaScript-mancy: Getting Started and even created a paperback version that is available on Amazon. Shortly afterwards I started writing another book focused on object oriented programming in JavaScript and I’m still working on that and aiming to have it completed early in Q1 2017.
• I created javascriptmancy.com a hub for all the JavaScript-mancy series. I envision it in the future as an awesome interactive learning platform where you can go and battle other wizards with JavaScript.
• I wrote 52 articles this year which surprises me a lot because I’ve had a nagging feeling throuhgout the whole year that I haven’t had so much time to write with all my other activities and commitments drawing my attention.
• I recorded a couple of videos which was a very fun and creative experience that I loved and that I’d love to do more this year.
• I talked at my first conference - Swetugg 2016 (super positive experience) and I was more actively engaged in the community as a speaker, organizing workshops and at conferences.
• I read forty-something books on fantasy, lots of sci-fi, programming, self-improvement, consulting, etc.
• I’ve learnt a ton of things. The life of a software developer is nothing but continuous learning and this year I focused mainly of front-end development with Angular and Rx.js as highlights. I also learnt a ton of Googley stuff and a great deal about the online adversiting domain which was completely unknown to me.
• I’ve led a healthy lifestyle with good work-life balance, meditation, prioritizing working out and eating healthy. I did fall off the horse some times but I think I’ve done a good job all things considered. (optimist XD)
• This is my fifth year as a proud non smoker! Hell yeah! You’ll often hear me grumbling like a rugged dwarf axeman when trapped in the deadly cloud of a smoker.

My Biggest Fails of 2016…

• I have only been moderately successful at marketing the javascript-mancy books even though they are truly awesome (quoting some of my readers).
• I am still too fond of starting too many things at the same time and spreading myself way too thin. I wonder if I should just embrace it, let go and stop worrying about it…
• I haven’t prioritized family and friends (aside from Malin). I’m pretty good at following up with the people that I have near, but with those abroad or far away I suck. I am definitely not the calling on the phone type and that’s something that I should fix.
• I still haven’t learned Haskell :)

In 2017 I Want To…

• Continue growing and building an awesome life with Malin :)
• Complete the JavaScript-mancy OOP and the original JavaScript-mancy books and release something truly beautiful into the world.
• Create an awesome interactive javascriptmancy.com website
• Improve thousandfold in marketing and copywriting
• Become an even more awesome software developer
• Continue writing, recording videos and creating awesome content for the community
• Have an awesome time at Google and do cool things that matter ^_^
• Continue being involved in the community via speaking in user groups and conferences
• Continue cultivating the magic habit of finishing things
• Invest more time in my drawing/design/art skills.
• Continue investing in a healthy lifestyle. Pay my duties to my body and mind before doing anything else. Workout and meditation are king.
• Believe more in myself and have more courage to speak up and share more stuff.
• And I’m spreading myself too thin again haha
• Ok one more, improve at focusing on one thing and learning how to say No.

What about you? What do you want to achieve in 2017? I wish you an awesome year ahead, may you fulfill all your goals and dreams! Oh, and if you need some help getting shit done, take a look at my “system”!