My year 2022 in review

Photo by Mantas Hesthaven on Unsplash

Happy New Year!!!!!

2022 has ended, and it was a tough year for everyone. From my side, there it was difficult, but that doesn't mean there was nothing to celebrate.

In this post, I will share my review of the year 2022. Not a technical post, but I'm sure you will learn something. Also, sometimes, it is good to remind people I'm a human being who lives the same as you all and go through the same things.

Blogging

I started this blog in April 2021 to share my knowledge and help others with the content I would like to have when starting my software engineering career. Sharing is something I enjoy doing, and I categorize my blogging activity primarily as entertainment/discovery rather than a chore.

In 2021, I shared my blogging stats on Twitter, and I was already impressed by these results and the number of people my blog posts helped.

This result motivated me to continue and do more to help more people.

2022 stats

In 2022, more people read my blog posts, and here are some interesting stats:

In the comparison year 2021:

• I published two more articles
• The blog had 4.5 times more unique visitors
• The monthly views have been multiplied by 4.5
• My newsletter subscribers grew by 5 times

In addition, I received many DMs on Twitter and LinkedIn from people telling me how my posts helped them. This is very pleasant to realize people are learning from what you share.

All time stats

After almost two years of blogging, here are the  all-time stats of this blog:

Top 7 most read articles of 2022

Here are the posts that have the most read in 2022, and the first is also the most-read post on this blog since the beginning.

1. Validate Request Body and Parameter in Spring Boot [40604 views]
2. Create a replica set in MongoDB with Docker Compose [24,483 views]
3. Read CSV files in Node.js and Typescript [16,514 views]
4. Write custom validator for request body in Spring Boot [15,859 views]
5. Protect your API routes in Next.js with Middleware [11,491 views]
6. Create a Docker image of a Next.js application [10,761 views]
7. Deploy a Node.js application with PM2 and Nginx [8,650 views]

Goals for 2023

The main goal remains the same: continue to share knowledge while enjoying it, aka not feeling it is a chore.

Being someone who likes to add some spice to make things more challenging, here are other goals I want to achieve this year:

1. Publish 52 articles:  this means one article per week. I get inspiration from Allen Helton, who managed to write 5o posts this year on his blog Read set cloud. I highly recommend this blog if you want to learn about building applications in the Cloud and Serverless.
2. Have a 2 weeks batch of blog posts to publish: it means always having two articles ready to be published in advance. I got inspired by James Q. Quick, who has all his YouTube videos planned for January.
3. Take care of my Newsletter: although many people subscribed to my newsletter, I stopped publishing issues in March, and for this year, I want to engage and share more content with the subscribers.

Professional

My primary stack at work is Node.js, TypeScript, GraphQL, React, and AWS. We work with Serverless architecture, and his year, I learned a lot about building more efficient Even-Driven architectures.

The new thing I learned was Domain Driven Design, and it's been six months since I deployed features following this software design approach. From what I'm experiencing, it will take years to grasp all the subtlety, plus refactoring a code deployed in production takes time, so it is easier to use on brand-new features.

I'm improved in collaborating with teammates, whether engineers, product managers, or operations managers. I'm more present to share my thought, help junior developers and become more confident about being a Senior engineer.

A new adventure

2022 ended with a difficult decision because I left my current company to join a new one in April 2023. Throughout my time there, I added great teammates, a great engineering and people culture, an outstanding work/life balance, and good pay on top of the market. Leaving my current company is among the hardest decisions I had to make.

Personal

2022 started with a goal of losing weight because, in 2021, I took 23 kilograms in 6 months. I took a subscription at the gym and set a plan to go every week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

It was hard to stay consistent, but at the end of the year, I lost 9 kilograms, and my goal this year is to last 9 kilograms again while being more consistent.

Photo by Victor Freitas on Unsplash

2022 was very difficult mentally because of the many issues I had to deal with in my family. Also, the people surrounding me had to deal with that. I was on a roller coaster throughout the year, and my humor was hugely affected.

I made some decisions to apply in 2023 to be more mentally stable, such as: going outside more, avoiding being alone, meeting new people (especially non-tech people), and finally, spending time with my family.

During the summer of 2022, I spent four days in a city in the North of France called Douai. I enjoyed the time I spent there discovering the city; being in a less dense city like Paris gives me peace of mind and the ability to think about myself. Here are some pictures of the city:

Conclusion

2022 was difficult, but fortunately, I had something to celebrate, such as my blog growth and weight loss. If I rated the year over ten, I would give a five (5/10).

I'm more confident for this year, and the main focus will be working on my mental health and enjoying life more. Remember that blogging is among my entertainment, so don't worry; I will still care to publish more content for you and have many topics in my backlog.

Happy New Year to you all, and see you next week for the first technical topic.