This is the first time that I do this type of year-end review post, and I hope to continue this tradition for some time.

I would like to summarize the things that I am proud of achieving throughout the year. This is for three reasons:

  1. I would like to look back and celebrate everything I have done over the year.
  2. I would like to review this post next year and see if I achieved my goals that I specified.
  3. As I continue this tradition in the future I may forget when and what I have learned over the years and I can come back and track my wins over the years by revisiting these posts.

I will split the review into two sections: Personal review and goals, and Professional review and goals.

Personal⌗

This personal section are things that I have learned and started doing in 2022 that are non-work related, and that I am proud of discovering and trying, and plan to continue doing in the new year.

Personal 2022 Review⌗

Cold Showers⌗

I started taking cold showers. I found them to be helpful for me in reducing inflammation in my sinuses, making me feel better in the mornings, and improving my sleep and metabolism. Sometimes I’ll just end a hot shower with a few minutes of cold water, and sometimes I’ll start the cold from the beginning.

Hot Yoga⌗

Hot Yoga has been an amazing discovery for me, initially it was an idea for staying active during the winter months when I can’t play tennis outdoors, but it evolved into being one of my favourite activities and I try to go two or three times per week. I find it helps with my flexibility, cardiovascular health, mood and general well-being.

Wim Hof Breathing⌗

If you don’t know Wim Hof, check him out, he is an incredible person that advocates cold water therapy and has a special breathing technique for improving the immune system. I found his breathing method to help improve my sinus health and it puts me in a calm mood.

Meditation⌗

I discovered Sam Harris’s meditation app called Waking Up and have really enjoyed learning about meditation and mindfulness, along with practising the techniques that he discusses in his lessons. Although I find it very difficult, I have begun to see and understand the benefits of being more mindful.

Fasting⌗

I started both intermittent fasting and prolonged fasting this year. Near the end of the year in December I finished my first 3 day water fast and loved it even more than intermittent fasting. There are just so many health benefits to fasting such as Autophagy, improved insulin sensitivity, and decreases in inflammation.

Biology⌗

I have been learning a lot about biology because my interest keeps growing in this field. Topics such as the nervous system, the endocrine system and the cardiovascular system were all at the top of my personal studies throughout the year. I learned a lot but only touched the tip of the iceberg.

Sauna⌗

After a trip to Finland in September to attend a conference for work, I rediscovered saunas and their benefits, especially when paired with cold water therapy. Cardiovascular health improvements are just a small slice of benefits that come from saunas.

Walking & Podcasts⌗

I often went on walks before 2022, but in 2022 I increased that and went at least once per day, sometimes twice, and found that podcasts are a great way to learn new things while walking. Some of my favourite podcasts I found this year:

  • Huberman Lab (Dr. Andrew Huberman)
  • The Peter Attia Drive (Dr. Peter Attia)
  • FoundMyFitness (Dr. Ronda Patrick)
  • Lifespan - (Dr. David Sinclair)
  • Lex Friedman Podcast
  • All In Podcast
  • Making Sense - Sam Harris
  • The Tim Ferriss Show
  • The Ben Shapiro Show
  • Wellness Unpacked - Ella Mills
  • Ear Biscuits - Rhett & Link

Mycology⌗

A new hobby of mycology has emerged for me, learning about different species of mushrooms, how mycelium works, growing my own mushrooms and learning how to clone and grow mushrooms from scratch in petri dishes. This hobby has also led me to eat more medicinal mushrooms such as Lion’s Mane, Reishi and Turkey Tail, and encouraged me to go for more walks in forests to try and identify wild mushrooms.

Adaptogens⌗

Related to medicinal mushrooms, I started learning more about the benefits of vitamins and other supplements such as adaptogens, mushroom supplements and the importance of Omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin D and the Vitamin B’s.

Carbohydrates⌗

I always knew about carbs but this year I did a deep dive on how they work and how they affect blood glucose, ketone production, metabolism, and how they can also affect mental disorders. The more I learn about carbs, the more I want to reduce my consumption of them.

Buddhism⌗

I am not a Buddhist but I have been learning about their ideologies and disciplines, especially in regards to meditation and mindfulness. I read some books about Buddhism and plan to continue this research as I find it interesting.

Drinking⌗

Alcohol has always been known to me to be bad for both physical and mental health. I have not eliminated it completely from my life but drastically reduced my consumption and have noticed great benefits already, especially in regards to weight loss, mood improvements, sleep improvements and general health improvements.

Books⌗

I’ve read a handful of books this year, some better than others, but my two favourite books of the year are:

  1. The China Study - Dr. T. Colin Campbell
  2. Brain Energy - Dr. Chris M. Palmer (Reading in progress but very good so far)

Personal 2023 Goals⌗

Retreat⌗

I would like to attend a 7-10 day vipassana meditation retreat to gain a better understanding of meditation and mindfulness.

Fasting⌗

I would like to do a 3 to 5 day fast every few months. At least 3 times in the new year.

Mushroom Identification Certificate⌗

I would like to continue to study more mycology and take some exams for obtaining a mushroom identification certificate for indentifying wild mushrooms.

Monitor Ketones and Blood Glucose⌗

To better understand how my body reacts to different foods and exercises, I would like to obtain a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) to be able to always track my blood glucose levels. Even though I am not a diabetic I still find these tools insightful. I would also like a ketone monitor to be able to measure the amount of ketones that are being produced in my system, which will give me a better understanding on where the source of my energy is originating (food or personal fat reserves).

Politics⌗

I have always considered myself left-of-center leaning, if not completely left, but as I learn new things about conservative and liberal policies I realize that I know very little and I would like to learn more from both sides to better be able to understand our political climate and be more informed.

Philosophy⌗

I would like to learn more about different philosophical topics such as stoicism, hedonism and epicureanism.

Read at least 25 books⌗

I would like to read at least 25 books and have a breakdown by subject that will help achieve my other goals, so I would like to read at least:

  • 2 books about politics, 1 for conservatism, 1 for liberalism, and maybe an extra about libertarianism.
  • 2 books about Buddhism or mindfulness.
  • 3 books about philosophy (stoicism, hedonism, epicureanism).
  • Books about mycology and adaptogens.
  • Books about metabolism, immune systems, autophagy, and general physiology.

Professional⌗

Professional 2022 Review⌗

Open Source Work⌗

In 2022 I have some notable accomplishments with the open source libraries I have created.

  • Pratica library that I created now has around 350 github stars!
  • All my github libraries and tools have surpassed 500 stars combined.
  • Created my most useful library yet called Rapini that is a code generator that combines OpenAPI, React, React Query, Typescript, and Axios.
  • I started sponsoring someone on github because they work on open source projects than I rely upon.
  • Contributed to my favourite haskell open source project called IHP.

Unity⌗

I have surpassed my 2.5 year point at Unity. I have worked on a lot of great projects there, including Unity Reflect, Game Growth, Unity Dashboard, and User Generated Content. I have given internal presentations on topics that I find interesting and that are useful for others and I mentor lower level engineers on how to write systems and grow as a software engineer.

Hugo Mini Course Income⌗

My mini course that I created about the Hugo static site generator has now started providing some passive income through ad revenue.

Professional 2023 Goals⌗

Kubernetes Certificate⌗

I’ve been using Kubernetes for years at work to build large scale microservices but never completed my understanding of all it’s concepts, I would like to finish that by getting a certificate such as CKAD

Conference Presentation⌗

In 2023 I would like to give my first public conference talk about a topic of my choosing. Most likely codegen and the typescript compiler API, as it is my specialty. This talk should ideally be in Montreal.

AI & Tensorflow⌗

I would like to start learning Tensorflow for handling the processing of data with AI models. I would also like to deep dive into Stable Diffusion, Dreambooth, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Multiplayer⌗

As I work at a gaming company, I would like to gain a better understanding of the different multiplayer aspects of large scale multiplayer games. Right now I work on multiplayer concepts such as UGC but I have knowledge gaps in networking concepts such as jitter buffers, state synchronization, priority accumulators, NAT punch-through, and visual smoothing. I would like to increase knowledge in these areas to be able to build better tools for unity developers.

Big Data Processing⌗

When working with large scale microservice systems, we inevitably have large amounts of data to sift through. I know a few techniques for processing data that leverage Google’s BigQuery but I would like to learn how to set up full ETL systems with tools such as Apache Airflow, or other similar tools.

Open Source⌗

I would like to become a maintainer for an open source library that I have not created, but rely upon. I hope to become a maintainer for an F# library called SwaggerProvider