Well, they say confession is good for the soul...

I've got four great kids. They're bright, curious, fun and I love 'em to bits. Thing is, I absolutely suck at being a Dad. I'm lazy, vague, inconsistent, moody and I find it all to easy to go hide in the study and respond to interruptions with "Go and play. Can't you see I'm busy".

I don't want to be like this, not one little bit, so my one goal for this year is - no excuses, work at becoming a better Dad.

Wasn't your dad like this sometimes? Mine was. I'm the same way sometimes too. Not that I'm arguing with you. Spend more time with your kids. But don't beat yourself up. Are your kids happy? Good on you.

2010 is my year of teaching my kids to play Go.

Yeah, he was. There's lots more I'd like to add, but it's well after midnight here. Just done stuffing stockings and finishing wrapping presents, then there's only about an hours work remaining till we can hit the sack for a few hours until the kids invade. Better run before my wife finds me in here again :)

Happy Christmas to you all

Teaching your kids to play Go or teaching them to code in Go?

The game.

Hey, I suck at it too. And it's hard to make yourself spend a lot of time and effort on something that you're not really good at, when there are other things you really excel at.

So my theory is that I suck because I suck.

Quit the day job. Use the 70 hours freed up and 15 hours of negacommute (weekly) to launch a new product, find a nice young lass, and do some travelling.

I'm handing in my one month notice on the fourth, and I'm both excited and apprehensive about the future. But yeah, 2010 will be an exciting year no matter what happens. Good luck to you too!

I plan to end 2010 with 10x as many customers as I start it with.

The prototype of the perfect goal: simple, clear, measurable, achievable.

... unless you start with zero customers :)

Seems eminently more achievable in that case.

Or infinitely more achievable.

LESS achievable. Multiplication by zero still gives a product of zero in the real number system.

>> Multiplication by zero still gives a product of zero in the real number system.

Yeah which is why its more achievable:

  factor = final / initial

         = 3 customers / 0 customers = ZOMGx more customers

Ah, the usual division by zero error.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_by_zero

http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.divideby0.html

http://www.math.utah.edu/~pa/math/0by0.html

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/DivisionbyZero.html

Perhaps more to my original point is that cperciva replied to the thread-opening post

I plan to end 2010 with 10x as many customers as I start it with.

so the the comment by woid (grandchild comment to cperciva's comment) is CORRECT that such a goal is not achievable if

you start with zero customers

because there isn't any defined number of customers that is exactly ten times as many customers as zero customers.

It's funny that this isn't taught in all mathematics classes.

I understand the math; sure, 10*0=0. Looking lim a->0: x/a, though, which goes to infinity, I was implying it was easier to achieve because mathematically he'd be way past his target of 10x. But you're right that it's impossible to hit exactly 10x.

I've opened an account and deposited $5 on a whim but haven't made any use of it. Would you count me as a customer?

I have a few different metrics I look at; the big ones (in terms of the number of customers) are # of customers with positive balances, # of customers with data stored, # of customers with bandwidth usage in the past month.

Generally for each 100 accounts created, there are ~80 accounts with positive balances, ~75 with data stored, and ~50 with bandwidth usage in any given month.

Existing things: MobileFolk - my current project / startup. Swim, run, workout. Keep learning Spanish and practicing guitar. Read books.

New things: Learn basic Romanian. Meet more iPhone (and Android) developers in the Bay Area and in / around Toronto / GTAA - always looking to grab a beer or lunch :). Learn more about market research (you can never learn enough).

I'd replace Russian with Spanish in that list.

Romanian is very useful though, because of its reasonably strong ties to latin. If you know Romanian then Italian, Spanish and French are more accessible.

Sure. Spanish is also a good choice. I could have went on and on enumerating interesting languages and interesting reasons to learn them (like reading history, philosophy, or great literature in their original form).

As for your second point, as far as I know, Romanian's ties to Latin aren't only reasonably strong; Romanian is actually the most like-Latin language that is still spoken -- however, Spanish and French still sound horrible to me (and I took French for 11 years, in school).

Also -- and I just couldn't resist making this point -- do you really think that the French or the Italians are ever going to do something interesting enough to warrant learning their language? -- please note that I'm not saying anything bad about their past (that's awesome); but, if you're forward thinking, I think you're pretty safe assuming that they're glory days are (long) over.

I think any language is worth learning.

Right now I'm at 5, Dutch (my mother tongue), Polish, German, English and French (the latter poorly through inactivity).

I very much want to learn more languages and I find that with every language added the next one becomes easier.

So there is no such thing as a language 'not worth learning', almost all of the languages spoken on the European continent are related in some way or other anyway (even Hungarian and Finnish).

Whether a language is 'ascending' or 'descending' in influence can certainly guide your priorities but I'd definitely not rule them out simply on that basis.

That's actually a rather cool point of view.

However, I don't share it. I believe that one should spend most of one's time trying to do something awesome in one language -- as opposed to wasting time by learning 5.

Now, don't get me wrong, the fact that you now 5 languages is very cool; however, I don't think I'll ever use up that much time to gain those particular skills.

You see, I believe that if one were to draw a graph illustrating the relationship between the "awesomeness" of what one has done and the effort one has put in, the effort axis would be on an geometric scale, while the "awesomeness" one would be on a linear one. In other words, one has to put in a hell of a lot more effort to get something just a little more "awesome".

On the other hand, maybe learning languages is an integral part of what you "do"; or, maybe, it helps you relax.

Either way, and as in most arguments between somewhat-intelligent people, I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree -- please note that I'm using the "somewhat" prefix as it pertains to me; I'm pretty sure that you're just plain intelligent.

Oh, and: Merry Christmas. And a very happy New Year.

The idea of it being cool or awesome never crossed my mind, to me languages are tools and knowing how to use more tools gives me more opportunities.

Dutch was unavoidable, English at 10 in grade school, working for a US based bank (but in Europe), French and German you get in high school in NL and Polish because I lived there and had a relationship with somone from Poland.

Currently Spanish is very high on the wish list because of spending some time in Panama.

My reason for wanting to learn more Romanian is that it is a natural side effect of having Romanian friends. It always gets a good laugh anyway.

Yeah, that pretty much makes sense.

However, if they're already your friends, you probably communicate just fine in (most likely) English.

My (unsolicited) advice: keep it that way, and spend the time you were going to spend learning Romanian by doing something way cooler.

Anyway, ... Merry Christmas. And a very happy New Year.

I like Romanians. Always gotten along with em'. Never met one I didn't like (seriously). So I figured, why not ;)

you know what its right wt you were saying but i have my reason i don't wanna be stupid in a gathering of Romanian husbands friends and i would be like an outsider you know how it feels its horrible that's why i need this language even if i don't like it at all .

My goals so far for the year 2010:

1) Relearn how to eat. Do not eat just to eat, but eat for a reason.

2) Actually write a useful application.

3) Perhaps most importantly, be a creator and not just be a consumer.

>1) Relearn how to eat. Do not eat just to eat, but eat for a reason.

Is this, "God I'm starving after that trek through the woods, this pasta is delicious!" Or, "Boy this braised rabbit with wine reduction turned out well."

It's more of an, 'I'm feeling full. Why must I still eat the delicious cookie right in front of me!?'

My "plan" for 2010 is to make a lot of ambitious goals, fail on most of them, but accomplish some good regardless.

Also, I am pretty sure that I will have my first amateur Muay Thai fight. I'm excited about that.

Eat healthier and become more active. I spend way too much time sitting on my ass.

I wish they had derivatives with your plans as the underlying asset. I'd leverage myself, go short and make a killing.

In other words OP, you'll fail and it'll happen because of your ridiculously ambitious goals. Let me break it down:

1 and 2: If by "learn a language" you mean gain some proficiency in it and not just run through the introductory tutorial, then you're gonna have to spend a fair amount of time writing a reasonably big project. I would say, spread out, about 1hr a day every single day for each language, so that makes it about 2-3hrs/day.

3. Unless you're already proficient in some instrument (preferably stringed), you're gonna need several hundred hours of solid practice to learn, so plan for about 2hrs a day,every single day.

4. That would mean a serious workout, 3-4 times a week, so average that out to 0.5hrs a day, every single day.

5. That's pretty vague, but I'll put you down for 0.5hrs a day averaged as well.

6. that's too vague

7. If you're speaking in the sense that Mathieu Ricard talks about, again you're looking at at least 1hr day.

So in order to achieve your goals, you're looking at a commitment of about 8hrs/day. And that's 8hrs of hard work where you are pushing yourself, so unless you have nothing going on in your life and have amazing power of will, you will fail.

You should instead pick 1 or 2 of those goals and follow up. Start working out and learn Clojure. You can manage that and a year from now you'll have 2 solid achievements behind your back, rather than 7 failures.

Last year, my goals were: (1) learn to program Mac OS X (2) get better at maths, basic data structures and algorithms (3) write more stuff on my blog.

I accomplished: (1) learned to program the Haiku OS (2) got better at C++ and OO design (3) met a bunch of awesome people in the FOSS community (4) learned version control (5) gained enough confidence to start a small FOSS project with some friends.

I still suck at programming Mac OS X (even though I've made some progress), still suck at maths and my blog is updated about once a month. I learned a little something about data structures and algorithms, but only because I took that class at college.

Moral of the story: you usually end up accomplishing something completely different from what you initially plan. The trick is to just go with it and let good stuff happen.

That said, I still have some plans for 2010: (1) learn Haskell and x86_64 assembly (2) release the FOSS project I've been working on (3) contribute more code to Haiku (4) get better at socializing (5) write a lot of stuff on my blog (for real this time).

I know I'll end up accomplishing a completely different set of goals, but it's still nice to have a roadmap :)

1. Write an academic paper (getting one published would be cool, but let's start with things within my control).

2. Get my research project up to where I want it.

3. Sweet Internship in a sweet city *

* sweet city matters because I'm going to be 21. Work hard, play hard :)

Stop slacking.

My new year begins with one month of semester holidays.

Plan:

Release one app every 15 days and spend 1hr a day iterating the app I created in the previous 15-day session.

That'll make 2 apps in one month of holidays. while the rest of the year I release one app every month to manage college and freelance work (to support the side projects).

At the end of the year I should have close to 10 apps (or maybe only 5 if i take regular breaks). And atleast one of them I hope succeeds. I took this lesson from the 2D BOY studio guys who developed World of Goo. They prototyped a new idea every week until they found a nice prototyped idea.

May I ask if these are going to be game projects? I'm very interested in people's experiences doing rapid game development.

No. All web apps. But sometime one of them might be a game. Coz I've always wanted to get into game dev. SInce I dont have a Mac or iphone and I'm not a pro, I won't try the PC game market. I'll start off with the Android market. Small Android games seems like my piece of cake :)

Let's see. 356 days ago here, I said "The math behind signal processing; curing and drying ham and salami.".

This year, let's call it "The math behind signal processing; write a book."

You can begin to learn to play the violin in a year, but it is a dedication of a lifetime to really learn to play the violin.

Noble causes though, I wish you much good luck!

Depending on the OP's expectations and attitude, saying that it will take a lifetime could be a bit discouraging. Some say that seven years of dedication is all that is really needed to reach "mastery" in most subjects ("mastery" is of course subjective), and I tend to agree. Hardly a lifetime!

Seven years was roughly how long I took lessons on the piano, and later on the violin, and that, along with a knack for music, was enough to reach an advanced level and be able to play most of the standard classical repertoire.

Hooray for learning the violin! It is one of the most difficult instruments, but also one of the most rewarding.

Spend more time with my wife.

That's my goal too! Your wife is awesome.

Go full-time.

Launch my startup no matter what.

For the year 2010 I plan to finally release a constant stream of documentation, both text and videos, along with numerous screencasts.

There's no point in having cool technology if it's not easily accessible, easy to learn, and demonstrable. There's only so many times you can have one on one conversations to get the wow across.

I just wish writing documentation didn't take so long, and video shoots didn't eat up whole days. It's so much nicer to work on a new feature than to re-shoot a section of a code demonstration what often seems like 100 times.

"Complete" my key research goals and write a draft of my dissertation.

Plans: (1) Add a few more members to the team. (2) Lease our own office instead of sublease. (3) Release the new version of our app. (4) Expand two more verticals. (5) Get more mainstream press. (6) Finish moving our core team to New York City. We're currently 2 of 4 in NYC. (7) Start our newsletter. (8) Do more charity work. (9) Start a meetup. (10) Get involved in local NYC art/design scene more than I already am.

Not to self-promote, since I pretty much abandoned that site more than a year ago, but back in a day I wrote an article on this topic that was somewhat popular, and I think will be useful to a lot of HN'ers.

http://www.alexanderkharlamov.com/2006/12/24/how-to-make-and...

Anyone want to read through these replies and place some bets on how many goals will have markedly progressed by this time next year?

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/08/how-to-set-goals-yo...

"work at becoming a better Dad" - Unspecific. Should being a better dad have the same negative connotations as work?

"Release one app every 15 days and spend 1hr a day..." - Specific, determined. I'd bet on this.

"Stop slacking" - Vague, phrased in the negative, no chance.

"Launch my startup no matter what" - Also vague, low chance.

"I plan to end 2010 with 10x as many customers as I start it with." - Great. I bet he will progress this.

"Go full-time", "Eat healthier and become more active", no and no, bet against these.

"Start eating a proper breakfast" - What, when will you prepare it, how will you stick to it?

Go to work for Google. Learn at least one new computer language. (These plans are pretty concrete at this point.)

1. Become better at programming. 2. Write a killer webapp with Django. 3. Learn very well one of these: JavaScript, Clojure, Ruby. (Current level for all: 0) 4. Graduate. 5. Start contributing to an open-source project, probably only casually. 6. Be insanely curious. 7. Read at least 5 SF books.

Are you me? =]

Hell yes, I finish my contract this year so I am going to regain my mind, catch up with .NET, sleep a lot, finish reading my LISP booky and I must code one thing this year that I would naturally be uncomfortable with, be it LISP, C or Ruby/Python.

Maybe start a business (if certain conditions evaluate to true)! :)

Launch this and get it paying the bills:

http://www.fairtutor.com/

Try again and again to launch something that would be useful and popular. Failed twice this year...

Well, if you can learn from your mistakes, it will not have been a waste of time. You can use the experience of failure... or so I have heard. I have been failing as well.

i doubt anyone's that interested in my personal plans, but this is perhaps a useful exercise anyway :o)

- improve lepl: simplify configuration; better logging showing how values are bound; possibly automate tokenisation; possibly improve speed.

- return to an idea i worked on years ago to generate synthetic rhythms. at the time i didn't have enough cpu power; now i think i can use a gpu.

- long shot: develop a small language that targets the llvm and opencl (gpus) in a simple way.

- improve my web site (already 90% done). motivated by people laughing at it on reddit a couple of days ago :o(

looks like i will be spending 4 months in the usa, on a tourist visa (partner has a sabbatical), so i should have time for some of this. i also plan to visit icfp for the first time.

Start eating a proper breakfast.

Develop a non-work life, if only for balance. I'd like to expand my ruby skills, too.

8. I plan on being happy as much as I can and maintain a positive demeanor.

- move back to NY or bay area

- climb regular northwest face of half dome (currently planned for august)

- finish my data visualization project/start a new one depending on feed back

- implement an idea i've been carrying for over two years

- decide what makes me happy.

Stop "waiting" and start "living." Help people have meaningful online conversations with Ask My BrainTrust (http://AskMyBrainTrust.com)

Build a spin-off line of business from my existing business that is SCALABLE, so that I move from the sole-proprietorship personal service business world into the true start-up world.

1. Improve my piano, harmonica, and musical ear. 2. Release my social networking app that I've been slacking on for a year. 3. Quit smoking. 4. Finish college (not graduate, finish).

I plan to launch a project related to URL shorteners early in the year and continue work on my startup into the first quarter.

My resolution though is to ship/launch more code. "Real artists ship" :)

My most important goal for 2010 is to create a partnership with a co-founder who is fun to work with, and who has the skills I lack, and begin working together.

Close some of the prospects we have; lock-in our angel round (we've been talking to them for months) and get well down the path towards series a.

Now that would be a good year.

Being very close to graduate in the end of the year, run a half-marathon, try to not be a complete slacker and play with my recently purchased VPS.

Graduate school and start working on startup fulltime.

9. Finally launch 2 projects that I have been working on. 10. Chronicle each day of the year 2010 on my blog.

Finally crack the 100k a year barrier. This means either get that raise that I totally deserve or move on.

Don't wait until next year.

- continue to get customer feedback - launch trial service - start charging early customer base

get laid a bit more often. Two girls a year is not enough. Seriously, all work and no play make no fun life.

While I probably want something good for the long term, I have given up on finding it. Unfortunately SV/SF area is horrible place to find quality girls.

Get married. (the most ignored part while hacking away with work & startup alone)

Getting married is the easy part. The challenge is in staying.

1. Try and actually write my fiction book (finally)

2. Sell a company

3. Work less and spend more time doing "fun" :)

1. Get into and go to law school.

2. Get into shape (again).

3. Eat better.

4. Learn economics.

5. Learn more about algorithms.

i have just one, the same i set for 2009 but failed to do so: to live here and now, in the moment. without past or future worries. i hope i make it this time.

You've probably seen this video, but I found watching it has helped me become better at living in the here and now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNVPalNZD_I

Graduate from College, Make money and Achieve.

grow my company from 1 to 6 employees and have 10 times more profit.

7. try to find inner peace and purpose. - SHOULDN'T THAT BE NO:1, and probably the only one ?. Just joking :)