2021 - A Year In Review

Disclaimer: I mostly wrote this blog post for myself. Writing my Year in review helps me to celebrate my biggest wins, see what was wrong and define goals for the upcoming year.

👨‍💻 Work

After 3y at VSware, I felt it was time for me to move on. Less than 6 months after joining this company, they allowed me to be remote and work wherever I wanted. It allows me to travel the world while working. I am forever thankful!

Last May, I joined Orderfox as a Senior Software Engineer. During the interview, I was seduced by the idea of working for a company that might not reach the end of the year. I thought it could be a good opportunity to learn more about startups and how to focus on what matters. 3 months later, the company got a 9.3€ million investment!
I work with technologies I like. React on the frontend and Node.js on the backend. A month ago, we started adding TypeScript and GraphQL.

Oh, I forgot, it’s a fully remote job 🥳
To be honest, I don’t see myself going back to an office anytime soon.

✍️ Blog & Side projects

This year wasn’t very prolific, but I did write 5 posts. Well, 4 if I remove my 2020 Year in Review post! But I had pretty decent feedback from Reddit. My post about “Lessons Learned by Maintaining a Large Codebase” reached the top page of Reddit.

I also did some improvements to my blog:

• ditched Disqus in favour of webmentions;
• ditched Google Analytics in favour of Plausible. A privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative. If you want to have a look, my data are now public (plausible.io/maxpou.fr).

✨ Random stuff

• 🤥 Almost got scammed (4 985€) - it was by far the most sophisticated/targetted scam I’ve ever seen.
• 🤕 Got RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury)
• 👨‍🏫 The person I mentored got his first job!
• 🍵 Did another dry January
• 🚂 Spent most of my time between Paris and Berlin
• 👨‍🍳 My cooking skills stepped up, especially my Indian dishes!
• 🏃‍♂️ I started running again
• 🇨🇭 Visited my colleagues in Zurich
• 🐦 reached 700 followers on Twitter

Focus for 2022

Early 2021, I kind of abandoned all the goals I set for the remaining year. I started focusing on myself. For 2022, I got a similar mindset:

• spending more time with the people I care about;
• exercise more;
• work smarter - Better invest my time, get better ergonomics.