Software Engineering Goals

I've decided to break down my learning goals for this upcoming year into three quarters since there's 9 months left. 

Q1: Fundamentals - April - June:

  • Practice TDD and BDD (when possible)
  • Practice refactoring and documenting (comments & wiki)
  • Learn Python
  • Fluent in RegEx
  • Proficient in testing tools & framework (selenium, cucumber, visual/ui)
  • Read books:
    • Introducing Python
    • Refactoring
    • Don't make me think
    • Clean Code
    • Code Complete
    • The Mythical Man-Month

Q2: Patterns - July - September:

  • Fluent in Python for data analysis (Pandas)
  • Typescript
  • Read the classics:
    • Rapid Development
    • Implementing Domain-Driven Design
    • Phoenix Project
    • Essential Scrum
    • Kanban

Q3: Systems-level - October - December:

  • Learn Go and create a simple project / web service
    • Do a toy project (HTTP server for a simplified GitHub)
    • Contribute to Docker & Hashicorp's projects
  • Read systems / cloud books:
    • Go Language
    • Cloud Architecture Patterns
    • Working with Unix process
    • Web Services, SOA
    • DevOps trouble shooting

De-prioritize the following topics:

  • Languages outside of Javascript variants (e.g. Coffeescript, Typescript), Python, and Go
  • Only focus on these 3 major Javascript libraries: Angular, React, and Meteor
    • Not worth spending time reading about various MVC frameworks, Derby, Sails, etc.
  • Not too much on database - just maintain a basic working knowledge of SQL (Postgres) and MongoDB
  • Just learn basic design, CSS, and Sass
  • awk & sed - just don't think I'll use it that much
  • Vim - takes way to much time to create and maintain vimrc (and using other people's still takes a lot of time to familiarize). Just stick with Webstorm
    • Along that note, I don't think tmux is really worth it for me to use as well
  • Don't spend too much time reading Hacker news
  • Avoid proactively searching out chances to respond to Stack Overflow responses - only do it if you happen to come across it
  • Stick with Bootstrap - by far the most popular CSS framework
  • Until the last quarter, don't spend time on DevOps topics like Mesos, Kafka, Storm, etc
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