Nik Kantar

Wednesday, December 29, 2021
3 min read

Goals for 2021 in Review

Half a dozen years later, another wrap-up.

Last December I set some goals, and it’s time to take a gander at how they went.

First, the scorecard:

  1. Writing: Publish Four Featured Posts: ✗
  2. Reading: Read at Least Two Books About Software: ✗
  3. Software: Project Housekeeping: ✗✓✓✓

Score: 0/3 or 3/6

1. Writing: Publish Four Featured Posts: ✗

Interestingly enough, my writing here went in the exact opposite direction: more but shorter pieces. I’m quite alright with that—it’s still a net positive, and perhaps even better overall.

2. Reading: Read at Least Two Books About Software: ✗

While it’s not really even close to finishing two books, I have actually made some headway on one. Given how much of a struggle reading has been for years, I don’t care about the lost point—it’s a huge personal win.

3. Software: Project Housekeeping: ✗✓✓✓/✓✓✓✓

Rather predictably, what went best was the actual software writing part of the whole deal. I effectively moved on from one project and completed the other three, which feels pretty great.

3.a. Launch Microblot v1: ✗

Microblot was a somewhat manufactured need, apparently, as I eventually realized I no longer cared about it. I’ve unchecked automatic renewal for all four domains and don’t expect to get back to the project as it stands.

And that’s OK.

3.b. Launch Starminder v2: ✓

Starminder got the v2 rebirth it deserved. It turned out rather differently than I initially anticipated, but I’m super happy with it!

3.c. Publish Parsenvy v3: ✓

While I was debating whether Parsenvy was worth keeping around, a whole bunch of lovely people decided for me by contributing to v3. So that’s a thing that happened.

3.d. Rebuild nkantar.com: ✓

I haven’t quite gotten around to writing it up, but this very site got its promised update as well. Since it deserves its own post, I’ll leave it at that for now.

Conclusion

While the score—0/3 or 3/6—is nothing to write home about, I’m not disappointed. It’s been quite a year in ways not covered in this post, and far from unconstructive professionally. However, I think it really cemented my conclusion that how I’ve approached these annual goals isn’t really all that valuable beyond giving me something to write about twice per year.

That’s why this sixth edition is the last in this format. I’m still thinking through the details, but starting with 2022 I’ll be doing something different, which will hopefully encourage a more concerted effort to own up to these ideas.

But that’s another post already. ;) Happy New Year!


Tags: goals

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