Section I: SUMMARIZATION
Look back at 2018, I would say I have achieved quite some goals but also missed some of them.
Section II: SUCCEED TO FULFILL IN 2018
- Being an independent engineer It is my first year working as a full-time software engineer. Surprisingly, I won’t say there is too much difference from being a student: I still need to code, research, communicate with teammates, and propose my thoughts anytime needed. The most significant difference might be the fact that I am now totally economically independent?
- Keep sharp at coding skills I am still active in practicing coding skill, i.e. joining LeetCode competition weekly, even though my score most of the time sucks.
- Keep budget on-track With spreadsheet, I keep track on my spendings in different categories. It is in fact very time-consuming but beneficial to me, so that I could build up some financial intuition.
- Spend time in investing/learning stock market I spent quite some time and money in stock market in order to get some sense of the market dynamics. Though I didn’t earn as much because of the market drops in the last few months, those experience are still very valuable to me. I always believe the best way of learning one game is to join the game~
- Keep regular exercises / social events I tried different kinds of exercises, such as running, bouldering, top-roping, snowboarding, and Kung-fu. They are really good events to keep me fit and let me know more people in Bay Area.
Section III: FAIL TO FULFILL IN 2018
- Fail to do more research independently In fact, I did try to do some research by myself, such as deriving some creative way to learn interactive terms or join 1-2 Kaggle competitions. However, there wasn’t any concrete result: I just didn’t push anything all the way to the end… My failure also includes one paper that I have finished writing since the start of this year but failed to publish.
- Fail to keep diary I once convinced myself with all the pros of keeping a diary.. but I was just too lazy to do it..
- Fail to write articles Apart from dairy, I also wanted to write some articles either weekly or bi-weekly. In this way, I could force myself to learn something new in the world and interpret them in my own language on my website.
- Fail to learn driving Almost all of my friends could drive, and they all suggest me learning driving.. but again I was too lazy to do it.
On top of keeping what I am doing great and improving what I am bad at, I also want to achieve something more in the following year. They are listed below.
Section IV: TO BE FULFILLED IN 2019
- Pass CFA Level 1 It is actually a quite random event to me… Anyways, I think it is cool to collect more skills in my life. Additional to new entertainments, such as bouldering, snowboarding, or Kung-fu, I also want to learn something that is more theoretical. One should always be prepared when opportunity comes, doesn’t he?
- Gain more cross-domain knowledge After getting deeper in my own domain, I realize the importance to gain cross-domain knowledge. Even if I cannot learn all the details by myself, I should still try to acknowledge the big picture behind each domain. In this way, I could have a clearer picture of what is happening in the next 10, 20, or 30 years. These intuitions might become crucial to me if I decide to join/found startup-like company in the future.
- TBD