---
title: '2021 - A year in review'
slug: 'year-in-review-2021'
date: '2021-12-31'
thumbnail: '/thumbnails/writing.png'
tag: 'year-review'
canonicalUrl: 'https://amanhimself.dev/blog/year-in-review-2021/'
---

As we transition to 2022 and leave 2021 behind, it's a great time to reflect on the year passing by. It is my second year writing a ["year review"](https://amanhimself.dev/blog/year-rewind-2020/). It's fun for me to look back over what I did and what I focused on last year. I want to continue the tradition this year as well.

I started this year in a burnout phase. I didn't feel like doing things that generally excite me. It took me a while to realize that I was in the phase. If you don't realize it, you won't know what hit you. Getting burned out from last year was not over. It takes time to accept it and get out of it. That's okay, and I'm glad I took my time.

That said, I focused on the areas I could or had the energy to do so. And I'm happy with the choices I've made so far.

## Working as a Developer Advocate 🥑

I got my first role in DevRel early this year from a career perspective. I started [working as a Developer Advocate at Draftbit](https://amanhimself.dev/blog/first-three-months-as-developer-advocate/). It was not something I was actively looking for, but I couldn't say no to it when the opportunity arrived. It was a significant change for me, the kind of change I needed without knowing.

Working as a Developer Advocate allowed me to learn a lot about different things, majorly about documentation and working in a fast-paced environment. Working closely with a team with a lot of experience and learning about moving pieces of a business is a precious addition to any technical career.

Most of my work time was spent on writing content and leading documentation. Picking up pieces and trying to recognize the gaps were challenging. That's still a work in progress. For me, technical writing and blogging have been an integral part of my career. This year was better because I used my skills and experience and acquired more knowledge.

## I wrote 43 articles ✍️

Writing tech articles or tutorials is a gateway for me to engage with the tech community and keep me indulging in upcoming updates, starting conversations with people, and meeting new folks. I enjoy the process of writing and everything that comes with it. I still get to learn and share many long-form tutorials, but I also tried publishing a few short notes on this blog. Something that I haven't done in a long time and turns out people like to read them too.

Here are some of the most popular posts I wrote this year:

- [Setup Macbook M1 for Web and React Native development](https://amanhimself.dev/blog/setup-macbook-m1/): one of the most read blog posts. I'm glad I wrote it. The process of setting up a new laptop thrice a year can be daunting (the laptop that I bought at the start of this year went dead for no apparent reason, and then I had to buy a replacement for it while it went for repair, fun times 😬). I'm also actively updating this post and will continue to do so for a while.

- [How to Create a Custom Image Gallery in React Native](https://amanhimself.dev/blog/custom-preview-image-gallery-in-react-native/) In this tutorial, I talk about how to create a custom gallery of images using react-native-snap-carousel and FlatList component from React Native. The FlatList is used to display the thumbnail view for each image below the carousel. The construction of the syncing part between the two is to add functionality such that when an image in the carousel is scrolled either left or right, the thumb in the FlatList is also going to be scrolled along with it. To achieve this synchronization between the two, I used React Hooks.

- [How to use shared element transitions in React Native](https://amanhimself.dev/blog/shared-element-transitions/) I learned a bit about using Shared Elements in React Native and React Navigation. Transitions in mobile applications provide design continuity. This continuity is provided by connecting common elements from one view to the next while navigating in the app. I wrote about the process of doing that in this post.

- [How to Create a Custom Tab Bar in React Native](https://amanhimself.dev/blog/create-custom-tab-bar-in-react-native/) Another post that I was excited to work on. Creating a custom tab bar using Bottom Tab Navigator from React Navigation and Blur View.

My personal blog is one of the most consistent things in my life. I didn't run experiments on it, move to a new framework, or try a complete overhaul. It is still flawed. I have an ongoing list of things that I'd like to implement as I find myself writing more active over the years. I also love that people like to visit it and read the content I share here.

Overall, I got a pretty consistent readership this year with over 90k+ views:

![ss1](https://i.imgur.com/0gGHK68.png)

It is also interesting to see that what’s driving most of the traffic is old articles:

![ss3](https://i.imgur.com/msuWpjr.png)

And, also that visitors are coming mostly through organic search:

![ss4](https://i.imgur.com/xErLMj1.png)

I still cross-post stuff at times on [Medium](https://medium.com/@amanhimself), [Dev.to](https://dev.to/amanhimself) and [Hashnode](https://amanhimself.hashnode.dev/). Not as much as I would like to, but I am eager to explore Hashnode more next year.

Dev.to has been my focus on cross-posting this year. I did manage to get 70k+ views and 15k followers.

![ss2](https://i.imgur.com/B8tQxBN.png)

## I spoke at a few events 🗣

Giving talks or speaking is not my strongest asset, and I used to find it quite challenging (at least in my head). Although, after going through some appearances, I did find it quite satisfying.

Thanks to React Day Bangalore for inviting me for a panel discussion on React Native. It's on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HKzhe8f47Y). I also [gave workshops](https://amanhimself.dev/speaking) due to my role of working as a Developer Advocate.

I also got invited [to speak at a Twitter space](https://twitter.com/TheAnkurTyagi/status/1465624585773228034). Thanks to my friend Ankur ([@TheAnkurTyagi](https://twitter.com/TheAnkurTyagi/)) for the invitation and hosting it. We talked about tech writing and its impact on being a Developer Advocate role and working with startups.

## Highlights from my GitHub 🐙

Last year, I started to maintain [a single GitHub repo](https://github.com/amandeepmittal/react-native-examples) for all the demos and example apps I write using React Native and Expo. These example apps are part of the tutorials you see on this blog. I continued to do it this year as well.

Another thing I maintain is an [Expo Community project](https://github.com/expo-community/expo-firebase-starter) that integrates Firebase JS SDK in an Expo app. Since the Expo SDK's exponential growth in the past year with the awesome tooling, Developer Experience (DX), and support for native modules, I have some thoughts on what changes I'll be doing next year. Keep an eye on this [GitHub repo](https://github.com/expo-community/expo-firebase-starter).

I also got my first [GitHub sponsor](https://twitter.com/amanhimself/status/1454352509124820994) this year 🤩

## Newsletter saga continues 💌

I failed to run my [weekly newsletter](https://www.getrevue.co/profile/amanhimself). First, it became bi-weekly and then monthly. It's all due to my inconsistency in sending out and not managing my time with publishing posts. However, it did grow to 1319 subscribers from 1201 last year. I appreciate folks who stick around after me being inconsistent enough to deliver.

I did move it from Substack to Revue after Twitter acquired Revue. With Revue, I like the experience so far. I've been using it for three months and have sent three newsletters. Anyone using Twitter can now easily subscribe from [my Twitter profile](https://twitter.com/amanhimself). Thanks to my buddy [Scott Spence](https://twitter.com/spences10) who showed me how easy it was to migrate to Revue. If you're on Twitter, then give Scott a follow. He's an amazing person, an experienced developer, and he creates awesome content in the Web Dev space.

## Reading 📚

I did manage to go through some good books this year. Here are some of my picks that I enjoyed reading:

- [Getting Started in Developer Relations by Sam Julien](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57735972-getting-started-in-developer-relations) - One of the best resources I read starting out. Sam concisely talks about what a Dev Rel/Advocacy role is about, the skillset, the mindset, and some red flags when seeking a role like this one. I highly recommend this book.
- [The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key to Your Success](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40167835-the-business-value-of-developer-relations) - It goes more in-depth and talks about the importance of nurturing a community, maintaining positive relations, building a team of DevRels, and much more.
- [Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54373691-before-the-coffee-gets-cold) - I've only one word for it: mesmerizing!

## Travelling

During the end of the year, I managed to get out of New Delhi for the first time in two years for a [weekend trip](https://www.instagram.com/p/CXsVqr9lJyY/):

![ss5](https://i.imgur.com/qRBwCNO.jpg)

## Wrapping up

Even though I have been inconsistent with my personal goals this year, failing to achieve many of them, yet, there is a lot of things when I look back at this year that I did and the choices I made, I am glad it happened.

Thank you for reading this post and reading any other post, opening and reading email newsletters, reading my tweets on Twitter, and listening to me 🙏

Have a great 2022!


2021 - A year in review

---
title: 'Year Rewind: 2020'
date: '2020-12-23'
slug: 'year-rewind-2020'
thumbnail: '/thumbnails/writing.png'
tag: 'year-review'
canonicalUrl: 'https://amanhimself.dev/blog/year-rewind-2020/'
---

![cover](https://i.imgur.com/Qfd1K4M.png)

The year 2020 is coming to an end. The Earth is completing one more revolution around the Sun.

I am not a big fan of new year's resolutions since I never end up completing or even following one for a long time. However, I do like to introspect on the year passing by 😬.

## How the year was? 🎢

The thing is, just like the Earth’s revolution, this year, I feel like I have also gone around a circle and completed one or two revolutions myself. When the year started I had plans. I wanted to write code (as usual), learn some new things, and travel. The way it turned out to be is quite different from where it started.

I am glad and feel lucky that I did not lose my source of income from my day job and was fortunate enough to get a few opportunities. I am glad I did not lose touch with my network and made new connections.

Things I am not glad about this year include anxiety attacks and getting burned out. I have never felt how or what burning out looks like but only after going through it, I did realize what is happening with me. For me, in life in general, curiosity is one of the most important things in life. Without being curious, I won’t be writing this post, and you won’t be reading it. However, when I lost the ability to be curious about things around me both in the personal and professional world, onwards started a downward spiral.

I did not pursue anything else other than spending my time on a laptop that could help me take my mind off things or be a fruitful distraction. I wanted to do too many things but without planning on how to accomplish them and divide them into doable modular tasks. I lost interest in reading books for a while (an activity that I value most in my life and have been practicing for the last decade) and am still trying to cope or find a way to get back to my usual routine.

After this kind of experience, something did not feel right. And no, it did not get better after that. Not until I started to accept the fact that what I have gone through is the actual burn out. No, the lockdown or the pandemic wasn’t the major cause of it. They sure did contribute but I think if they were not part of the equation, I might still have gone through a similar phase. One thing lockdown or the pandemic brought out for me is to spend time together with my parents.

The safe way I have found is to make small changes and stick to them and then decide whether the things are working out for good or not. The lesson I would like to learn from this is to be organized with one's routine, being consistent while one can is better than anything out there, don’t try to change everything all at once, rather, make small changes and stick to them. Take breaks, mental health is an important aspect of being human, and right now is the perfect time to start talking about it and embrace it and experience the things that are not in my control even though they try to entwine with the stuff that is in my control.

## I wrote 75 articles 📝

I believe to get better at something is to do it regularly and especially, if one enjoys it. I do enjoy writing blog posts and being able to do it consistently helps me learn new things, update my existing spectrum of knowledge, and share what I know. It also keeps my life engaging.

There is also the other side that says “quality over quantity”. For me, it does not work that way. Writing, just like any other thing, is something one has to practice to write a “quality” post. How about practicing it in public?

Most of the posts I wrote are in the long form of tutorials to accomplish one thing by using a multitude of things. I am always surprised by the things that happened after I publish a post. Usually, the post I am expecting a lot from is never read by more than 100 people. The feedback sometimes I get on a post I wrote months ago is absolutely wonderful.

Here are some of the posts that I wrote this year:

- [Styling the React Native Way](https://amanhimself.dev/blog/styling-the-react-native-way/). I revamped this post, which I originally published in 2019. React Native has changed quite a bit since this year started and I thought it was the right time to update one of my most-read posts.
- [React Native and Firebase Chat app series](https://amanhimself.dev/blog/chat-app-with-react-native-part-2/). With an introduction to React Hooks last year, and the react-navigation library being updated to `v5`, I wanted to cover both of them in some detail. Thus, I ended up writing a series of six blog posts.
- Writing and taking steps in the Animation side of React Native is fun. There is a lot to do and a lot is happening when it comes to animations but I did a fair job on the usage of React Native's Animated API from a beginner's point of view in these two posts:
  - [How to create a custom scrollbar with React Native Animated API](https://amanhimself.dev/blog/custom-scroll-bar-indicator-with-react-native-animated-api/)
  - [How to Animate a Header View on Scroll With React Native Animated](https://amanhimself.dev/blog/animate-header-view-on-scroll-with-react-native-animated-api/)
- Serverless databases or tech stacks excite me. Don't get me wrong here. I am not against the idea of writing an API from scratch. In fact, I started my career on the backend side of JavaScript. But seeing the line of serverless architectures getting advance and trying to fulfill most of our needs is exciting. Thus, I was introduced to HarperDB this year. A database service that supports both SQL and NoSQL queries for CRUD operations. I ended up writing two posts, covering [the API part with Node.js](https://amanhimself.dev/blog/build-rest-api-with-nodejs-harperdb/) and using it with a frontend [library like React](https://amanhimself.dev/blog/harperdb-with-react-hooks/).
- I am not using React Hooks that much at work, but I did try to explore hooks from my own perspective. I wrote two posts, one on explaining how [`useState` hook works](https://amanhimself.dev/blog/react-app-with-localstorage-api-and-hooks/) and another on [managing state in React apps with `useReducer` and `useContext` hooks](https://amanhimself.dev/blog/manage-state-with-usecontext-usereducer-in-react-apps/).
- Expo came out with ease of [using fonts as hook](https://github.com/byCedric/use-expo/blob/main/packages/font/docs/use-fonts.md). I shared using it in [Creating "Quarantine Pro" — A Fun Learning Experiment in React Native](https://amanhimself.dev/blog/quarantine-pro-app/).

## I moved my blog from Gatsby to Next.js and back to Gatsby again 🤪

My personal blog has been the most consistent thing over course of these 12 months in my life. It deserves more credit than I give it. Also, I never planned to have a self-hosted blog until a friend of mine, [Valentin](https://twitter.com/RadValentin), casually suggested its importance. I started writing on [Medium](https://medium.com/@amanhimself) when I was getting into web development back in late 2016 and early 2017. At that time, I did not think much about pursuing writing posts or the importance of sharing via creating content. It was all new to me. I was just exploring horizons and wanted to document the good things about it.

![ss4](https://i.imgur.com/Yf8jr0o.png)

Three years forward, in 2020, I did not give much emphasis on Medium this year as my primary blog publishing platform. Even though I did reach an exploding [2 million views](https://twitter.com/amanhimself/status/1285554115464982528), I do not like how some publications (that I think have an impact in terms of audience) are forcing down to have a payment wall associated with a post published under their publication. I am not against getting the original author paid for their work but as a popular publication with a significant audience, it should not force a contributing writer and be open about it. That said, some publications are not forcing down and are still enjoyable to write for.

This gave me an opportunity to continue to build and maintain my own blog which was initially created using [Gatsby](https://www.gatsbyjs.com/). However, in the desire to explore things, I migrated my blog to [Next.js](https://nextjs.org/) in the middle of the year. I wanted to continue using it. As a framework built over React, I think Next.js is more flexible than Gatsby but in the month of November, I decided to migrate back to Gatsby since I feel more comfortable using it since I have been closely following its development for quite some years, and I was able to cut down the 10 minutes of build time that was happening with Next.js by 70% with Gatsby. I am sure that it was my fault that the build time was around 10 minutes with Next.js and I was too lazy and uninterested to actually debug it. Nonetheless, I am glad for the opportunity to try out Next.js for the first time and will try to use it in some other projects next year.

I also realized that Markdown is definitely one of the best things to happen in the dev world. I cannot imagine any other way to write. I did try MDX with Next.js but the maintenance and time spent on converting an MDX post to a normal markdown to cross-post on popular blogging platforms is too much for me.

Not focusing on Medium enough, also gave me the opportunity to explore two awesome blogging platforms that are meant for developers:

- [Dev.to](https://dev.to/amanhimself)
- [Hashnode](https://hashnode.com/@amanhimself)

I started cross-posting on Dev.to [last year](https://dev.to/amanhimself/getting-started-with-react-native-in-2019-build-your-first-app-542d) and in this year I have managed to get around 100k+ views.

![ss1](https://i.imgur.com/3PmkutV.png)

I am excited to publish more on Hashnode. Only in the month of December, I started publishing there. I think it is different from a usual blogging platform and one thing that excites me is how community-driven it is. Developers and the whole at Hashnode are always closely listening to the wants and needs of their users and this is something I have not seen much of. It's like building in public. The ability to have a hosted newsletter and use your own domain is somewhat unusual for a platform. I like where they are going with it and would be love to see how it happens. It's a high time we need a consistent platform that could be the "YouTube" for technical writers and publications (it might sound ambitious but it is not!).

## A Big Thank You to all the editors 🙏

Writing a blog post and publishing is just one aspect. Since the year 2018, I have worked with quite a few awesome editors and content managers at different publications.

Thus, I'd like to thank from the bottom of my heart, these awesome human beings for always listening to my ideas and not taking my mistakes too seriously, and sharing their insight and unique perspective which has helped me not only write but grow as a person.

- [Filipe Lima](https://twitter.com/filipeslima) at Jscrambler
- [Kate Trahan](https://twitter.com/Katerade4) at Logrocket
- [Austin Kodra](https://twitter.com/austin_kodra) at Fritz AI & Heartbeat
- [Nick Selman](https://twitter.com/nickselman) at Draftbit
- [Margo McCabe](https://twitter.com/margo_hdb) at HarperDB

Without their feedback and honest review, their perspective on what works and what doesn't, I would have never been able to improve in the skill of writing. Most blog posts that you get to read on this blog or on their publications would never have been in the readable format and would have never seen the light of getting published.

## I did one presentation 💬

This happened by just a Twitter DM. I never expected that I would be able to speak in front of an audience, even in an online, remote event. This year, I got the opportunity to speak about [How to write consistently](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIRxTUCY0NQ) at [Hashnode's Technical Writing Bootcamp](https://hashnode.com/bootcamp/batch-2), a free virtual Bootcamp to help developers who are getting started in technical writing.

## I made 1541 commits 👨‍💻

Personally, this statistic does not matter but the GitHub's commit graph is fun. It is also great to see that I have less green or empty blocks on weekends which is a good sign.

![ss2](https://i.imgur.com/CYOY8G8.png)

In 2019, I made 939 commits. What changed this year? I started using GitHub at my day job for some projects.

![ss3](https://i.imgur.com/nGRynbX.png)

### Highlights from my GitHub 🙀

I have also started maintaining [one single GitHub repo](https://github.com/amandeepmittal/react-native-examples) for all the demos and examples I write using React Native and Expo blog posts.

Continued to maintain the [expo-community project on integrating Firebase SDK in an Expo app](https://github.com/expo-community/expo-firebase-starter), thanks to my friend [Cedric](https://github.com/byCedric) and awesome people at Expo. I have seen it was helpful to some folks as they were getting started with Expo and Firebase. Will try continue maintaining it over the next and year include more Expo related stuff.

## Newsletter saga continues 💌

I run [a weekly newsletter](https://www.getrevue.co/profile/amanhimself) that is of late, has become a bi-weekly newsletter due to my inconsistency of publishing blog posts. I don't send out newsletters when I don't have anything to share in terms of blog articles or tutorials. I don't like getting spam and I don't want to spam anyone. I started taking sending out newsletters seriously in 2019 and at the end of that year, I had [845 subscribers](https://twitter.com/amanhimself/status/1201933182070874112). This year, it did manage to grow to 1201 subscribers. I did not count how many newsletters in total I send out and now it's too late.

I did move from [Tinyletter](http://tinyletter.com/) to [Substack](https://substack.com/). After using Tinyletter for 22 months, I was missing out on somethings, but importantly, I was not able to provide a good reading experience to my readers who open the email they receive and spend time reading it. Both are free, but I find Substack has a more modern UI and a pleasing to the eye approach. Thanks to my friend [Alex Kallaway](https://twitter.com/ka11away) for making me realize this and convincing me to make the move.

I also took a free seven day email course called [**Blogging for Devs**](https://bloggingfordevs.com/) created [Monica Lent](https://twitter.com/monicalent). Without giving too much away, I learned a great deal from it. She is an inspiration to me because, in 2019, her income from blogging enabled her to quit her day job and pursue her own journey of bootstrapping a SaaS company. Reading her emails made me realize what I was doing wrong and how can I improve on some of the things I do.

## Coffee ☕️

I have received a lifetime of **26** coffee donations on [**Ko-Fi**](https://ko-fi.com/amanhimself). Thank you so much 🙏 .

## Reading 📚

I think that if a book is able to offer at least one new idea from what I already know, is a good book.

I did manage to scrape through some good books this year. Here some of my picks that I enjoyed reading:

### The Unicorn Project by Gene Kim

I like to read about the world of technology whether it is written from a perspective of fiction narrative or non-fiction. The Unicorn Project is one of the first books I read this year and it definitely goes in-depth about the process of what goes into a tech company and the importance of communication. The narrative might not be too true but overall it resonates.

- [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45293317-the-unicorn-project)

### The Developer's Guide to Content Creation by Stephanie Morillo

This book resonated with me a lot. It offers good insights and guidance for a developer who is interested in creating content.

- [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50996057-the-developer-s-guide-to-content-creation)

### The Company of One by Paul Jarvis

This book is about the mindset of working for oneself and I would add that it's a semi-autobiography of Paul's own journey of what he did when he left the traditional corporate world and how scaling and growth from an individual's perspective or for small-scaled bootstrapped business are not what it seems or the perception I had.

- [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38922272-company-of-one)

### Writing for Software Developers by Philip Kiely

This book goes in-depth about being a technical writer from a software developer's point of view. It offers great guidance on how to get started, managing one's workflow and where can one find publications to publish their own piece of posts and articles. It also discusses the business aspect of being a technical writer.

- [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53466825-writing-for-software-developers)

### The Practice by Seth Godin

This book by Seth Godin is all about why practice is important and how quantity helps one sustain that quality of work in their own domain.

- [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53479927-the-practice)

### The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

My favorite fiction read of the year and why experiencing life matters.

- [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53568397-the-midnight-library)

## What I want to learn in 2021 🤔

Learning is one of the few constants in our lives. There are a few things that I've learned this year but I am going to share a list of new things that I want to learn next year:

- GraphQL and Amplify AppSync
- More of TypeScript
- Different UI and animation patterns in React Native apps
- More on React Hooks
- Delve more in [Expo](https://docs.expo.io/guides/) that is always improving and it's always helpful API.

## Conclusion

I am planning to write blog posts that are in short format next year or may be add another way to share content 👀. There is a lot of stuff that I miss out on sharing since I am always thinking of connecting things.

Thank you all for reading this post and reading any other post, opening and reading email newsletters, reading my tweets on Twitter, and listening to me 🙏 .

Have a great 2021!


🔥 2 Posts filtered by tag "year-review"

2021 - A year in review

Year Rewind: 2020