Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

I've spent the last year+ hanging out in the Reactiflux chat rooms, and apparently have consistently been the top contributor by message volume every month - and not by small margins, either ([0]). At a conservative estimate of 3 people helped a night, that's somewhere over 1000 people I've helped there, which is pretty cool.

In March-ish, I created a links list for tutorials, articles, and other resources related to React and Redux ([1]). I've continued to add links on a weekly basis, and that list recently hit 5500 stars. I've also maintained a Redux addons catalog ([2]), which just hit 1500 stars.

I wrote two major sections for the Redux docs: the FAQ page ([3]), and the "Structuring Reducers" how-to/recipe section ([4]). Those have been very well received. As a result, Dan Abramov added me as a contributor to the Redux repo, and eventually handed the keys to me and Tim Dorr as the official maintainers. I also helped offer advice and critiques for Jim Bolla as he built the new React-Redux v5 implementation ([5])

Finally, I started up a dev blog, where I've been writing about use of React and Redux ([6]). In particular, I've been writing a tutorial series called "Practical Redux" ([7]), which is intended to demonstrate some useful techniques I've come up with in the context of a sample app that's _not_ yet another TodoMVC clone :) I also wrote a recap of how I got involved in Redux in the first place ([8]).

So yeah, it's been a pretty crazy last year, but I love being able to help people learn how to use React and Redux.

[0] https://twitter.com/reactiflux/status/743880425576103936

[1] https://github.com/markerikson/react-redux-links

[2] https://github.com/markerikson/redux-ecosystem-links

[3] http://redux.js.org/docs/FAQ.html

[4] http://redux.js.org/docs/recipes/StructuringReducers.html

[5] https://github.com/reactjs/react-redux/pull/416

[6] http://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/

[7] http://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/series/practical-redux

[8] http://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2016/09/how-i-got-here-my-j...

This was very difficult for me. I love working, but I'd been doing startups for a little more than a decade, and startups require lots of attention. When I had my first child 2 years ago, I thought I could do both. I was wrong.

My family and I moved to the wife's home country where it is very cheap and I'm spending 6 months just being "dad." In my downtime, I'm working on some residual income side projects (I've already got one going that brings in $2k a month).

It's an inflection point in my life. Truly unknown future. When I go back to the workforce, what lies ahead?

PS - I also lost 8kg. :)

I still remember my profound sense of shock when I realised software development involved a great deal of communicating with other people and not just cutting code. Fortunately I got over it.

Recently eclipsed $100k in ARR as a solopreneur. Goal is $1 million in 2017 and to hire a full-time dev and a couple support staff.

My biggest lesson is that email marketing is the real deal.