At the beginning of year 2021, my professional goal was to write blogs as well as to work on designing a software system.

Luckily, at work, I got an opportunity to design a library using a programming language, design that I never used before, and I am happy about that. In addition, I joined a new team of nine members in early 2021 and at end of year 2021 the team is grown to fifteen members. It was an enjoyable year where I interacted with new hires every month and learned something new from every team member.

The book How to Win Friends and Influence People Paperback – Dale Carnegie helped me a lot to build a great relationship with team members. After reading book, I learned a way to respect the quality and positives in an individual by not comparing to someone else.

This year, while reading book The Design of Everyday Things - Don Norman I realized that if I am not able to operate or confused to achieve desired result using any device instead of blaming my capabilities, I can say it is bad design and it is true.

The most important realization that I have this year is to not use my existing skills to achieve something and learning new skills without even knowing where I am going to leverage them.

In upcoming years, I would like to have a roadmap to leverage my existing skills to build something and then expand my skillset as required. In addition, I want to be mindful while speaking to make sure to let only appropriate words as in remote meeting every word changes the conversation to different direction.

Hopefully, next year, I will be able to visit my parent and hometown (Punjab, India). The book list that I would like to complete next year includes The Pragmatic Programmer - Andrew, David, Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems - Martin, and The Art of Communication – Teri.