By freeCodeCamp
For 2014, I decided to simplify my life. Rather than pursuing a variety of human experiences, as I had previously, I wanted to focus my energy on a few key activities that gave me happiness: reading, running and coding.
Here’s my 2014 resolution post from Facebook:
Along the way, I spent a month capturing and transcribing 20,000 sound bytes for a movie line search engine that nobody ended up using. I also shut down an online course recommendation engine I’d built with my friends.
But good things happened, too. I built a lightning-fast academic citation engine. And more importantly, I helped kickstart a movement of busy people learning to code by building projects for nonprofits.
Could I have done this while working my old full-time corporate job?
Probably not. So I’m definitely grateful I saved every penny so that I could get out of there.
But enough talk. Let’s move on to what you’re really interested in — my 2014 data:
The Numbers
- Hackathons rocked: 7
- Hours on laptop: 3,221 (91% of which were somewhat productive or highly productive)
- Non-fiction books read: 17
- Kilometers run: 1,935
- Average hours slept: 7:35
Hackathons
Hackathons are a great way to:
- meet ambitious coders
- practice building and pitching products
- and familiarize yourself with new tools.
I participated in 7 hackathons and even won a few.
Hours on Laptop
Free Code Camp doesn’t have an office. Wherever I open my laptop is work. I read books off an iPad and don’t really attempt to do anything productive on my smart phone, so the hours with my laptop open are a decent proxy for hours worked.
Not counting in-person meetings, it seems I work about 55 hours per week. I know this because I use a tool called RescueTime to track exactly which applications or websites I have in focus.
For example, I know that I had either RubyMine (my IDE) or Terminal in focus for 1,288 hours in 2014, and that I spent about 290 hours doing entertainment-related activities like playing speed chess or watching YouTube.
The final RescueTime report for my laptop usage in 2014
My productivity seems to pick up around 10am after I’ve settled into my venue for the day and dealt with email and social media. I’m far less productive after 7pm.
I also know that, as a developer, I google a lot.
Google doesn’t provide annual stats, but this visualization gives you an idea of how dependent I am on the service.
Wellness
I know from my Sleep Cycle data that on average I went to bed at exactly midnight and woke up at 7:40, which comes out to slightly more than 5 full 90-minute sleep cycles.
So I met my sleep resolution. But what about the other key aspects of wellness, diet and exercise? I don’t track calories because I haven’t yet found a good passive way to do this. But I do track my running.
In August, I got distracted while crossing an intersection and landed on a curb the wrong way. I had to stop running for 6 weeks to let my foot heal. This, combined with travel, meant I only managed about 1935km for the entire year (the equivalent of 46 marathons). My goal was twice that.
I buy two pairs of Merrell Mix Master Move Minimalist shoes every Cyber Monday. Somehow they make it through the whole year.
Reading
As for reading, I decided to do tweet-length reviews for each of the nonfiction books I read this year:
#BookReview: The history of #InformationScience: #Shannon to #Lovelace to #Turing to #Dawkins http://t.co/FtWFXBXySl pic.twitter.com/F2Wwwqq1sg — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
#BookReview: curiousity + social engineering skills + technical skills = profit, then prison http://t.co/JtDAgNEmCy pic.twitter.com/y78g7zcHEM — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
#BookReview How #Apple created the modern smart phone and Google democratized it http://t.co/9Qw2XGQazB pic.twitter.com/o1bihZEG04 — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
#BookReview: This best book on #Google tells tales both embarrassing and triumphant http://t.co/EVkq2y5R1Y pic.twitter.com/p7e28GeEAY — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
#BookReview: Practical, hard-working academics created the Internet with public funds. http://t.co/hiL9XxpVys pic.twitter.com/OG79HLTM1U — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
#BookReview: You should only try to communicate one point, and do so in a fun, memorable way. http://t.co/PQrTLrxgcL pic.twitter.com/mKRleIxmCR — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
#BookReview: Automation drives costs asymptotically toward zero, and thus dooms capitalism http://t.co/9golBC2xm6 pic.twitter.com/O9w0g90lhs — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
#BookReview: What #HFT is, how it arose, why it’s a blight on finance, and how to mitigate it http://t.co/Ob9EnSIDWd pic.twitter.com/ipeud0bK2J — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
#BookReview: How to persuade by appealing instinct (the elephant) and reason (its rider) http://t.co/RQGvjHdHSe pic.twitter.com/Nu4Cnsda1V — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
#BookReview: Covers #Gamification, #ContentStrategy and #EmotionalDesign in a fun, fast way http://t.co/g0UcuciLyR pic.twitter.com/z5elEZAwHT — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
#BookReview: A rundown of 19 proven marketing channels and a simple exercise for choosing 3. http://t.co/lzP5JJyvlF pic.twitter.com/p5iS6DLPEl — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
#BookReview: How strange and messed up is humanity? Let’s analyze data from a dating website! http://t.co/oMOVk8jxHN pic.twitter.com/kt0wqVJYTp — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
#BookReview: This book has a chapter on turning your $500m app into a $1b app. APPlicable? http://t.co/HXyx4Wt3IY pic.twitter.com/1iefXwqcuj — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
#BookReview: Be bold and noncoformist. You too can find a #monopoly business like Google did. http://t.co/VbT2mPYYyA pic.twitter.com/jV7cCd6CH7 — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
#BookReview: Learn and apply #DataScience concepts with nothing more than a spreadsheet http://t.co/Ekq8cUrSuN pic.twitter.com/CLvtZjTlXp — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
#BookReview Kids can effectively teach one another with minimal outside help. #PeerLearning. http://t.co/eA661pxr7d pic.twitter.com/zfIRAtCleO — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
#BookReview: Argues that doing sales is a big chunk of your life, and how to do it better http://t.co/T8688vD4aR pic.twitter.com/cqkqsm1UmB — Quincy Larson (@ossia) January 3, 2015
Resolution for 2015
I’m pretty happy with my simple new lifestyle. Running is fun and free, and it gets me from meeting to meeting in the city. Great new books come out every week, and the quality of insights will only grow as authors apply more quantitative, Data Science-style approaches. Pair programming is an awesome way to get to know people. In fact, I rang in the new year while pair programming with another Code Camper in Korea.
So my 2015 resolution is to try and maintain these raised standards for myself. That said, I’m going to do my darndest to reach to 4,000 kilometers this year.