Annual review

balance
reflexión
El año 2021 en la balanza
Author

sebastiandres

Published

December 31, 2021

This 2021 was surprisingly good in many aspects.

Reading

  • I went back to reading more often. I don’t keep a list, but among what I read I highlight: Project Hail Mary (Andy Weir), Matadero Franklin (Simón Soto), Trillion Dollar Coach (Eagle, Schmidt and Rosenberg), Never Split the Difference (Chriss Voss) and Range (David Epstein).

Writing

  • I picked the blog back up and started writing more regularly. I made several specific improvements to fastpages, as well as learning html, css and javascript in the process (or learning to google better).
  • One of my flash-fiction stories was selected among the 100 stories of Santiago en 100 palabras.

Sport

  • I lost weight. My trick: reducing calorie intake. Call it skipping breakfast or 16-8 fasting, it has worked well for me.
  • I completed a 10K Spartan Race. It was very hard but incredibly satisfying. Having signed up without being prepared forced me to exercise more and was very good motivation.
  • Trekking: we started going out to the hills with a hiking group. We’ve already done 2 outings, and we were surprised to find nature so close to the city.

Talks and Community

  • I took part in the Data Umbrella sprint, where I learned more about Open Source collaboration. They approved 2 of my pull requests and I ended up among the contributors of sklearn version 1.0.0.
  • I took part in PyLatam, with a talk about RISE.
  • I took part in PyCon Chile. Last year I had been left wanting more! The topic was “WebApps con Streamlit: ¡más fácil que la tabla del uno, poh!” and I used streamlit to present, which was very well received.
  • I recorded a panel De Argentina a México, Proyectos de IA Éticos y Responsables, which will be released in November at INC Monterrey.
  • A talk in a workshop for 1000 programmers in Salta, about libraries for different problems.
  • Workshop at PyCon Argentina: Programar y Reprogramar Recursos para Docentes, with Sofía Martin, Liliana Hurtado and Ariel Ramos.

Family and friends

  • I recommended an intern and they landed their dream job.
  • We took a short vacation in the Elqui valley.
  • We held 2 family bingos (Father’s Day and national holidays).
  • I reconnected with a French friend I hadn’t spoken to in about 6 years.
  • I learned to solve the Rubik’s cube.
  • We took a long vacation in the south of Chile.

Other projects

  • A planter made from a pallet

Fails

Not everything was positive. Some not-so-positive things were: * Failed attempt number 45682123 to climb Cerro La Campana. This time, we didn’t get the permits. * Fights, impatience, frustrations, because I find it hard to laugh at myself.

Some reflections

  • The COVID19 vaccines reflect the importance of a cross-cutting public health policy. The process has been (and continues to be) impeccable in Chile.
  • The importance of family over other things. When we’ve fought with Cote or had problems with Igna, everything else loses value.