In October of 2022, hundreds of Gophers flocked to Chicago to celebrate their love of Golang and the Go community for the first time since 2019. The entire experience was an absolute blast. I enjoyed all of the presentations, the lightning talks, having chats with the sponsors, and meeting so many passionate engineers from around the world. Here I summarize some of my key takeaways, insights, and things that I want to take back with me to my own Go programming experience.

For 2022 I made a goal to get a new job. I loved working at Hippo Education. The team was like working with a family, and I loved getting to work on a project doing good in the world with highly-passionate individuals. While it was a bit hectic at times, I enjoyed the many hats that came with the role. But I was ready for something new. There were several things that I was looking for in a new role.

Get it here This was a truly excellent book that I have had on my list to read for a very long time. The Pragmatic Programmer is a book of programming best practices, learned from years of experience. The two authors of the book thoughtfully combined the best nuggets of wisdom from their time building software on how to be a “good” programmer. Note that some of the content is their opinion, but they are generally opinions that are widely held by the software community.

George R.R. Martin said that “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies,” while “the man who never reads lives only one”. I would like to know, who is this reader who has the time to read 1000 books? I love reading. There’s so much to learn in the world. Particularly around technical topics that can be best learned from the experts that wrote books on it. Reading is my favorite thing to do to unwind after the day, and on a good day I get in one to two hours of reading before falling asleep.

Get it Here There are few books out there that I consider life-changing. That I come back to again and again, continuously gaining wisdom from them. Atomic Habits is one of them. I don’t think I’ve gone a day without thinking about this book since I read it in November. It has had a tremendous impact on my life, and I recommend it to almost anyone looking for a new book to read.

Once upon a time, I was a paper to-do list person. I would spend the beginning of my work day sipping coffee and carefully crafting boxes for each of my to-do list items for the day in my minimalist Moleskine squared notebook, basking in the feeling of being so put-together. And then I had a child. Suddenly, my to-do list wasn’t just for myself. It had expanded to encompass an entire other human, with all of her appointments and daily needs such as taking vitamins or dropping her off at daycare.