Learn a new language - Clojure
Functional programming looks like it will become more and more important, so I want to learn a functional language. I have dabbled with a little Clojure so I'll target it for learning well enough that I'd feel comfortable starting a work project with it.
Improve current skills - Grails, TDD, Estimating, Continuous Delivery
Everyone needs to improve. Specifically I plan to focus on coming to a deeper understanding of Grails 2, continue practicing test driven development (especially working with legacy code), finding more opportunities to estimate tasks on personal projects, and put together some posts and tutorials on continuous delivery.
I've been working with Grails lately and just want to dig into the details a little more and gain a better understanding of what's happening under the hood and the plugin ecosystem.
Test driven development still feels slow when trying to deal with existing code and in languages I'm less familiar with like javascript. But deliberate practice makes better so I'll make sure to do katas and examples to gain experience.
Coming up with accurate estimates is just hard, so more practice it is.
I believe continuous delivery and the build pipeline and surrounding practices lead to huge competitive advantages and generally superior work environments. So this year I hope to convert more projects to using the practices, get better at puppet/chef for setting up infrastructure, and get some practical experience creating automated acceptance tests.
I've been working with Grails lately and just want to dig into the details a little more and gain a better understanding of what's happening under the hood and the plugin ecosystem.
Test driven development still feels slow when trying to deal with existing code and in languages I'm less familiar with like javascript. But deliberate practice makes better so I'll make sure to do katas and examples to gain experience.
Coming up with accurate estimates is just hard, so more practice it is.
I believe continuous delivery and the build pipeline and surrounding practices lead to huge competitive advantages and generally superior work environments. So this year I hope to convert more projects to using the practices, get better at puppet/chef for setting up infrastructure, and get some practical experience creating automated acceptance tests.
Blog at least once a month
What better way to share knowledge with others, get better at writing, and create some social pressure to stick to the resolutions.
Present to local user groups at least twice
I presented a talk on continuous delivery to the local Java Users Group. I also enjoy presenting talks at work brown bags. So this year I plan to give at least 2 talks to local meetup groups.
Continue learning
Keep with the plan of reading books, blogs, and twitter feeds to keep up with new information, taking interesting classes on Coursera, EdX, and Code School.
Go to 3 conferences
Get healthier
Standard new years: eat better, exercise more, and work on meditating. So ask me regularly how I'm doing (I might even have graphs).
