2021 Was a Good Year — Keep It Up in 2022

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DevOps, Cloud, Kubernetes — personal tech notes by ChengQing Su

2021 was a year of tremendous change for me. The overall trajectory was positive — I saw more possibilities and more hope than before.

Paid off my loan.

Changed jobs. Left ThoughtWorks and joined SAP.

Delivered my first fully English-language tech session (October 28, 2021).

Learned how to swim.

Gave my desk setup a complete makeover.

Got vaccinated against COVID-19. This was my first vaccination since elementary school. After my childhood vaccination I came down with meningitis not long after — no causal link, but the memory still made me nervous.

Bought a robot vacuum cleaner.

Built a desktop PC. Assembled it in June, only for Intel to launch its 12th-generation CPUs by year end — felt like arriving at the party just as it ends.

Got a new NAS. Total storage should now exceed 30 TB.

……

2021

Goals Achieved

  • Certification plan. Passed the Azure Developer Associate exam.
  • Watch a movie in Singapore. Done — though I’ve already forgotten the title (I guess I really am getting old).
  • Novels. Finished following Lin Yuan Xing and Shuai Jiaoguan (both ended as abruptly as ever). No web novels left on my reading list for now.
  • Bilibili. Starting to become more selective about content there; the gap in educational quality compared to YouTube is still significant. Discovered a solid content creator this year: 先看测评.
  • Return to China. Packed up and headed back — much earlier than I had originally planned.

Goals Not Achieved

  • 52 blog posts. Counted them up — only managed 17.
  • Finish reading Chinese Village. Social science books are genuinely hard going. This year I read On Practice and On Contradiction instead — the greats really are on another level.

Gripes

I left my previous employer right before they went public.

This was not a good year for my investments — or more accurately, I’m just not cut out for investing.

When I was in Singapore I felt like there was nowhere to go; back in China it turned out I still didn’t go anywhere (one trip home and one trip to Shenzhen, that’s it).

Still can’t afford a graphics card. The current GPU market can’t even run Age of Empires smoothly.

2022

In 2022, I want to be more disciplined. Sleep early, rise early, stay healthy.
In 2022, I want to bring more energy and enthusiasm.
In 2022, I want to get out and explore more.

New Goals

  1. Lose 20 jin (about 10 kg): 76 kg → 66 kg. Lose 4 jin per month from January to May, maintain from June to August, aim to lose 1 jin per month from September to December.
  2. Strengthen Python, Java, Ruby, TypeScript, and PHP skills; learn Go.
  3. Read one social science or humanities book per quarter.
  4. Publish 3–4 quality blog posts per month.
  5. Read one technical book per month.
  6. Certification goals: Azure DevOps (Jan–Feb), Azure Solutions Architect Expert (May–Jun), AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional (Mar–Apr).
  7. Keep a daily journal.
  8. Cook at least one proper meal per week.