Saturday, 6 January, 2024 UTC
Summary
At the end of each year, I try to do a personal annual review. At least a list of meaningful moments I should remember from that year.
I thought this year to do the same for this blog, given that it has become an important part of my life. Therefore this post contains the highlights of 2023.
The blog
This year was a busy year for the Js-Craft.io blog. Actually, it was the first full year I've taken blogging seriously.
I started the year with the goal of learning and exploring one Javascript or CSS topic every few days and writing a detailed blog post about it.
Happy to say that I was able to write over 181 posts in 2023.
What's more, no AI was used in writing these posts. All the content, images, code, and each and every word you see on this blog is researched and crafted by yours truly.
AI is great, have nothing against it. Just that the main idea for this blog and writing in public was to improve my writing and coding skills.
Some 📈 numbers:
- 181 posts published, getting the total number to 404 posts
- in total I've spent over 450 hours researching, coding, and writing this blog (still getting better at time tracking)
- 723 new subscribers to the newsletter
Not sure about the traffic because I don't track it. Found out, the hard way, that chasing visitor stats can make me dwell on Google Analytics charts instead of learning and writing. The only number I track is newsletter subscribers.
However, the real, intangible benefit is that I am a better developer than I was at the beginning of this year. I've read about stuff that I would not usually use at my day job, posted content, and got feedback and ideas.
Overall, 2023 has been a great year. Hopefully, I will get to write a few more words in 2024, so if you'd like to be part of the journey to not only learn and master but enjoy the process of writing Javascript and CSS, I hope you subscribe to the blog.
With that, here are some of the 🏆 best posts from 2023:
- Clamp numbers in JavaScript
- How to add debounce to useEffect() in React
- Javascript includes() multiple values
- React upload multiple files
- Generating black-white and grayscale images with Javascript and canvas
- React setState() update nested object
- Javascript – invert the colors of a picture on a canvas
- Using React Context in NextJs 13
By far the best thing about 2023 was the birth of our daughter. I have to admit that a few years ago I was not the biggest fan of the idea of having kids, but boy I was so wrong! She's the best and cutest thing ever. Kids are underrated 🙂
Also, I was lucky to be able to enjoy some great travels in 2023:
- a short trip to the Bulgarian seaside visiting the Balchik Palace, the ancient city of Nessebar (UNESCO heritage), and Sozopol
- spend 3 weeks on the island of Skiathos with a perfect mix of work and fun, and the best workplace ever
- got a chance to discover the beauty of Switzerland by visiting the surroundings of Lake Geneva and the Interlaken area.
For the next year will continue the publishing frequency of the articles, add the first few premium courses (hope to have the ReactJs course ready by the end of January), and also hope to to make this site more social with interviews and maybe even a Js-Craft podcast. Onwards!