The Pragmatic Craftsman :: Simplicity from complexity : by Stanley Kubasek ::

I’ve been quiet on this blog lately. I’ve been quiet in 2010 as a whole! Only 5 blog posts during the year. That does not make it too active, I must say. As new year’s resolutions go, I plan to change that.

Starting from this week, I set a goal to write a blog post per week. But wait, I have 4 blogs (click Home to see them). So that’s roughly 1 post a month. That should at least double the postings in 2011.

In 2010 I changed jobs. I am now involved with pure Java development, which I love. But it’s also a nice change from using Java sparingly, mostly coding Velocity templates — not too say you cannot get creative, but it’s a “contained” circle. I am now “free” and that should lead to more interesting ideas and topics.

What am I up to lately? Deepening my Java threading knowledge, and Java in general. (I just got an idea for a separate post on this subject. )

What are my plans for 2011? I plan to deepen my Java skills. Java 7 is around the corner (finally!). I’d like to improve my Spring knowledge — if you don’t use it you lose it. Guava — a google collections library. I’d like to learn that as well. I mean, I’d like to find uses for it. I also want to learn bash scripting. Never learned it, but coming across it very often. Time to dig deeper. If time allows, I also want to learn Python. Seems like it should be in my toolbox. I can perhaps combine it with Google App Engine application. Sounds cool.

2011 should be a busy year.

How am I doing it? How do I find the time? Early to bed, early to rise… said Benjamin Franklin. And that’s exactly how. I wake up at 5:15am everyday. And I try to collect at least 2 pomodoros (25 minute sessions, with 5 a minute break; check out ChromoDoro in Chrome) reading, practicing — doing dev-improvement stuff. That’s how. It works for me.