2010: Year In Review
Career:
I was employed full-time 7 months out of the year which is a one-month improvement from 2009. I was supposed to work for Movity (Winter 2009 -YCombinator) and be their first employee. But right before the YC session started, I got offered a job by another startup. I consider the Movity founders good friends but I had to make an objective decision and joined Mingle.com instead. I felt bad backing out at the last-minute but it turned out really well for Movity since they got a more talented developer in Zain (@zainy).
I didn’t leave Movity completely. I helped them out during the YC session. On weekends, there were seven of us cramped in a very small office. It’s one of my most enjoyable coding experiences where I was surrounded by people who are focused on one goal.
I worked for Mingle.com for seven months. I learned a lot more about Django since I was surrounded by smart & experienced Django developers (e.g. @david_ziegler). I left Mingle last July when I decided I need to do my own startup. To pay the bills, I did a short-term, part-time gig for Votizen.com.
Health & Fitness:
Working a lot has taken a toll on my health earlier this year. Working full-time at Mingle and part-time for Movity stressed me out a lot. It weakened my immune system and this led me to get shingles. Fortunately, it wasn’t a painful experience and I just had to rest for a week.
Despite that, I was generally healthy in 2010 and able to play sports a lot. I had the motivation to work out a lot even just by myself. I don’t have the workout regimen I had back in 2008 though when I was doing ActiveX at my old company in San Diego.
I started playing water polo again but my stamina wasn’t there. I ended up ruining the game for other people. I quit after a month but I plan to be back sometime in 2011.
I did Mission Bay Tri again (my second sprint race) and improved by almost 10 minutes (From 1:29:29 to 1:20:10).
I joined the Palo Alto soccer league in the summer and started running with Burt (@burtherman) & Brian (@dustball). I had to stop running though after having some foot problems. I got an Xray and found no broken bones. Therapy helped a little bit but I basically can’t run more than 5 miles now.
Bay Area:
Hacker Dojo in Mountain View is my second home. Well, actually, I spend a lot more time there than at home. The place has great energy and I became friends with a lot of good people.
I got sick of the Bay Area for a little bit. This area is inside a bubble in both good and bad ways. Bay Area sets a lot of technology trends but it is not mainstream. What happens here is very different from the rest of the US and even the world but Bay Area people think that it is the same everywhere else.
This has led me to shun a lot of networking events because of the group-think. This is also why I decided to travel to Argentina, to get away from the area for a bit.
I still love the Bay Area though. This is where I belong and I can’t imagine being anywhere else.
Travel:
The only travel I did was Buenos Aires. I went with my cofounder Dan Kwon (@dankwonjr) for a month. It was more of a team-building for us. I learned a lot about my cofounder and also about myself. I have been a loner for the past few years and it’s refreshing to hang out with somebody a lot and hear what they think about me.
Lessons Learned:
Never settle: Time and time again, settling for something has brought me unhappiness. I have always wanted to have my own company but I tried to convince myself to stay at Mingle instead. This has led me to be unhappy at work. I finally came to my senses and resigned. I’ve been happier since. I work on projects I’m passionate about and started building a startup with @dankwonjr. There are some financial uncertainties though since I don’t have a lot of liquid savings so I do some part-time work from time to time.
Always Be Positive: It’s been tough for me since I moved from DC to the West Coast. I became a bit negative and it has held me back on a lot of things. Lately though, I make it a point to be more positive. I always try not to get angry and not complain. This is largely influenced by the people I surround myself with. I plan to continue this habit indefinitely.
Believing in Myself: I doubt myself a lot. It has gotten worse when I moved to the Bay Area. I’m surrounded by more intelligent and more experienced developers. The good thing is this motivated me to get better by learning new things. I picked up Python/Django in 2009 and it paid off for me in 2010. I also have been doing a lot of Android development. Learning a new programming language or framework doesn’t intimidate me anymore. I’m also not scared to take on projects that maybe over my head. I know that I can figure out a way to build it.
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2010 was a good year for me but it is actually more of a build-up for the great years to come. For the next few years, my plan is to continue learning and be more open to new experiences.