Nate recently posted a bit on his blog about personal goals and accomplishments. It’s pretty good food for thought.
I have to disagree with Nate a bit. I do think there is a matter of realistic goalsetting. To me we tend to get in phases of setting out to accomplish realistic things without factoring in the natural need for R&R, thus setting the “target date” for our goals too aggressively. Then when we see that the goal will never be accomplished in the time we deemed appropriate, we get down on ourselves and simply drop the project (or whatever) altogether.
Starting several weeks ago I began planning some pretty lofty career goals for myself. These career goals, interestingly enough, have no expectation of changing jobs or changing responsibilities. They are more goals to keep my own knowledge base jiving with my chosen career. Whether these actions lead to me gaining more responsibilities in my job, pursuing another position, joining an open source development project, or simply being happier with my state of mind I don’t currently know.
What I do know is that I’ve gone stale. Technical things that led me toward the field of computer science have gone by the way side - almost immediately after college graduation. I miss knowing details. I don’t need to know all details, but I’d like to have the faculties to discuss them when given the chance.
Additionally, I wished to simplify my life. I love content - movies, music, etc. I have collected loads of content over the years, not the least of which includes personal photos and home movies. Rarely do I consume it. I’m always monkeying and improving and reading about improving.
So why not use my desire to simplify my life with my desire to get back into technical thought? I am now on the road to “life hacking” (I think, anyway - I should really read the article). I am going to centralize all of my content on a single server (see, computers!). I am going to access the content on one or more clients (Xboxes, for now). It’s going to be available for all to see. The Wife is going to be able to use it. Yippee! And then I will pray to all that is holy I will need to touch the whole set-up only rarely.
Home movies will be accessible at the touch of a button. Photos? Right there. And now I have the time to edit the home movies, no? I certainly hope so.
More computer-based solutions will follow. I’ll build an automated backup system to backup all personal files and media (photos, home movies). With luck I’ll build into that system the ability to backup this very site. And then I’m done.
All of this and I have not set a goal beyond “I hope the framework is completed by spring.” I won’t have all my DVD’s on hard drives by then. No way. And do I really need a copy of Sweethome Alabama to be instantly accessible? Couldn’t tell you yet. (Well, I know I don’t need it.)
If I can see this thing through to completion, I’ll have learned a valuable lesson. I don’t like to complete large-scale things. I like things completed, but I rarely see them through. This would be a very good lesson for me.
Without strict goals, I’m still working on the project too often. My spare time is filled with working on the project (relearning Linux, learning new concepts, practicing hardware installs, and researching, researching, researching). The project is big enough, though, that if I said “this needs to be completed by February” I know I would have just given up by now and responded “impossible.”
But it is possible, and the more I learn the easier it will be for me to make more things possible. After completing the “life hacking” projects described above, I will progress into the book Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. This is basically a computer science book MIT has used to weed out non-computer-science students that are in their department. I was clued into the book by the Joel on Software site. I’m going to tie the reading of this book into my development plan at work to give me a little more accountability. (This is a stretch, but if anyone wants to go through the book with me, I’d be happy to structure a study group or blog note sharing configuration to help us help each other learn.)
After trudging through that book I will either have a renewed faith in my chosen profession or I’ll wish to pick up a more broad alternate hobby than computers. Assuming I still like computers and programming, I will go ahead and find an open source programming project to join. This could happen in August, October, or January 2007. All of those times sound good. The idea would be to work on something that introduces me to a different type of industry and different type of collaboration. This work would be free, but the experience will again be fairly important to me.
All of the above could lead to another job and move, sure. But it could just as likely (perhaps more likely) lead to me pursuing alternatives to keeping me happy in my chosen field. Other open source projects, small pay projects, whatever. Perhaps I just need to scratch an itch.
Even more importantly, it could lead to me separating my hobbies from my day job. Maybe I just don’t feel the passion I assumed I would for computing and programming. My outside guess is all of the above would then lead me to more fervently pursue something along a creative route, like writing. (Incidentally, the above doesn’t mean I’ll close the writing door, either. Even if “computing is for me”, achieving goals could do wonders for my creative output, which is currently non-existent.)
So there you have it, my true introduction to 2007 2006. I don’t make resolutions or anything, but every year it seems I get a smack in the ass about this time of year. I think it has more to do with tax season approaching and my performance review at work falling around this time. Here’s hoping at least one of these goals are seen through.