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Targets for 2004

Looking back on 2003, one thing really stuck out for me: I didn’t learn a new programming language. The Pragmatic Programmers recommend learning at least one new language every year, and I’ve heard similar advice from other notable authorities; Ruby’s Matz made a similar point in an article published just the other day.

I learned a number of new skills and technologies in 2003, and improved on my existing knowledge in more ways than I can count. Unfortunately, everything was building on stuff I already had experience with: I didn’t really learn anything completely new.

2004 will be very different, mainly because I will finally have access to a Mac. Objective C and AppleScript are both on my list, and I’m looking forward to doing some serious messing around with GUIs as well.

Other than that, my two main geeky goals for this year are to become more active in the open source world (hopefully contributing some useful code) and to do a lot more writing outside of my blog. On a personal note, I plan to see at least some of America outside of Kansas. I’m only here until October and I want to make the most of it.

Posted 1st January 2004 at 10:55 pm

This is Targets for 2004 by Simon Willison, posted on 1st January 2004.

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13 comments

  1. You could have tried your hands at Perl... again ;)

    Should be easy to pick it up since you appear to be quite good with Python and PHP.

    Kayode Okeyode - 1st January 2004 23:28 - #

  2. I'd disagree with the learn a language a year bit. If you want to improve or remain proficient with any of the languages, then after a few years you're looking at devoting most of your free time to programming.

    Allyn Edwards - 2nd January 2004 09:24 - #

  3. You should think about coming down to Austin for South by Southwest Interactive. It's a really great experience.

    Matt - 2nd January 2004 21:29 - #

  4. OK, it's really weird that you should say that because I've just been looking in to doing exactly that in the past 15 minutes. There are two conferences I really want to get to this year: PyCon DC and SXSW. The problem is that they're both in March - in fact, they're within a week of each other and take place at opposite ends of the country! (Washington DC and Austin, Texas respectively).

    Simon Willison - 2nd January 2004 21:58 - #

  5. For a more tourist-oriented trip, I recommend going out to Colorado and spending a little time in the mountains. Rocky Mountain National park is gorgeous, and there's plenty of hiking, camping, or even car touring to do.

    Nathan W. - 2nd January 2004 22:19 - #

  6. "I'm only here until October" Where are you going?

    Jane - 2nd January 2004 22:58 - #

  7. Back home to England :) I'm in the USA for a year on placement.

    Simon Willison - 2nd January 2004 23:10 - #

  8. I live in Dallas, and want to go to SXSW for the 2nd time, but the chances look slim since I'm tight at the moment.

    There's not much nature-wise to see in Dallas, but if you're looking for a layover on the way to or from Austin, I've got a guest bedroom.

    Jeremy Dunck - 3rd January 2004 07:46 - #

  9. How about Mexico Simon? A lot of Americans go to Mexico for some reason :) Amit

    Amit - 3rd January 2004 11:34 - #

  10. Si, be careful about Mexico. I know when I was in Texas my crazy aunties wanted to take me over the border, but there is some issue with visas and stuff. Just check first ;-) I know some great tattoo places in Austin, TX and Pasadena California, if you're interested and some of the good places to go. Not sure if it's the season for them, but if you go Austin you MUST go see the bats leaving from the massive bridge they live under near the river...

    Meri - 3rd January 2004 12:14 - #

  11. Wow, learn one new language a year. Can't ever see myself having TIME for that for starters! I like learning new things but at what point does the stuff start to be clutter in your head? I'm to the point now where unless it directly relates to my everyday work, I can't see spending the time learning C# or whatever. Now I'm not as "hardcore" a programmer as some folks, I'm more front end than back end so for what its worth! P.S. Love the Beeker image!

    Tom - 5th January 2004 14:02 - #

  12. Well, I plan to be bolstering my XML skills this year and get around to learning how to interrogate data with MySQL.

    Robert Wellock - 5th January 2004 16:23 - #

  13. This year, try your hand at REBOL ( REBOL ), a productive, platform-independent interpreted language festooned with built-in network protocols, a GUI, BNF- style parsing, and other goodies.

    Ed - 8th January 2004 15:53 - #

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