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2019 In Review

Posted on:December 8, 2019personal4 min read

So not only is the end of 2019 quickly approaching, but so is the end of a decade. The 2010s are drawing to a close. An entire decade is over, and we’re just about to enter the 2020s. What an amazing time to be alive.

I wanted to take a few moments to reflect on the past year. Quite a lot happened and I would be remiss if I didn’t reflect on the growth and exciting events that happened to me in 2019.

I’ve also made a video talking about my 2019 in case you want to see this post in video form:

2019 Most Watched Videos

Last year I was used to getting between 300-500 views per video. If a video cracked more than 500 views I was ecstatic. It meant people were actually watching what I was creating.

This year could not have been more different. This year I regularly had videos cross over 1000 views, a fact I am still not quite used to.

Getting so many people watching my videos is such a wonderful progression for my YouTube channel. It’s so encouraging and helps me keep going.

I went through all the videos I made in 2019 and sorted them by most viewed. Here’s that list:

  1. Why I Love useReducer (11943)
  2. Async React Hooks (5710)
  3. How to useContext with useReducer (4754)
  4. Testing React Hooks (4586)
  5. A Svelte Chat with Rich Harris! (4347)
  6. TypeScript and React (3768)
  7. Playing with Svelte 3 (3215)
  8. Getting Dapper with Sapper (3089)
  9. Level Up useReducer with Immer (2975)
  10. What’s New with React Dev Tools 4 (2579)
  11. Overview of React Concurrent Mode (2499)
  12. What are TypeScript Generics? (2411)
  13. My Visual Studio Code Extensions, 2019 Edition (1908)
  14. What is React Ink? (1846)
  15. What is TypeScript? (1624)
  16. CSS in JS: My favorite (1459)
  17. How to use the GitHub Package Registry (1423)
  18. Playing with Framer Motion (1412)
  19. What is CodeSandbox? (1220)
  20. Setting Up TypeScript w/ Babel (1215)

Other 2019 Milestones

Some really exciting things happened in 2019!

I spoke at a conference, React Alicante 2019! It was really fun getting to present to people in person. Getting to share my ideas in real time was a lot of fun. I love feeling the audience listen while I talk, and adjusting how I present to make it the most entertaining and informational.

I was also a guest on FreeCodeCamp’s Podcast where I got to talk about myself for an hour straight. It was fun sharing my history: how I got my start in the industry, what my progression looked like, how I got to be who I am today. If you’re curious about that backstory then that is definitely the best place to start.

And also…if you’re reading these words…I started blogging again! 2018 was a very light year for blog posts but I was able to actually get myself back into the writer’s seat and put some “ink to papper” so to speak. I hope to keep that up going into 2020.

The Future

I have quite a few projects I want to take on in 2019 (like I don’t have enough, wth Harry).

The first one has already begun: I started a newsletter!. This is the direct result of ending the podcast I created but it has nearly the same format and content. Want to stay up to date on the latest JavaScript news? Subscribe!

A big project I want to take on next year is create a full-fledged course. Probably it’ll be to teach React but there’s no certainty about the topic. However I do want to make a full length course that lets me dive deep into a subject and teach it as well as possible. Stay tuned as that project progresses!

I also want to do more for my Patreon patrons, make that even more of a valuable membership. I recently started a Discord server for my Patrons, such that if you become a Patron you get to talk to me in real time! It’s so real you can practically touch me!

Here’s to next year and the next decade! Happy New Year!