Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2018?

...and what did you learn in the process?

Well, 2018 isn't over yet, so I'm still holding out hope that my big accomplishment for this year will be launching our Fogcutter SaaS offering. It's very close to ready to launch, at least in the "soft launch" sense. That is, the site will be live and ready to accept customers. I don't know that we'll do much promotion initially, as there are still a lot of rough edges I want to polish.

OTOH, the old saying stands "if you aren't embarrassed to show your product to your mother, you waited too late to launch". And I would probably be embarrassed to show this stuff to my mom right now. I'd be embarrassed to do a Show HN for sure.

Anyway, if we sneak that in before midnight on 12/31/2018, I'll call that my accomplishment. If not, I'll fall back to saying my biggest accomplishment of 2018 was going through the Startup School program.

What did I learn? Wow.. so much. I'd probably have to write a book. Or at least a few blog posts. Offhand though, I'd say two of the biggest things I learned were just reaffirmations of things I'd at least heard - if not internalized - before:

1. The toughest part of being a founder is managing your own internal mental/emotional state. I forget who originally said that, maybe pg, or pmarca or somebody of that ilk. But it's very true. My morale has sunk pretty low a few times over the last 12 months and I've spent moments here and there in a real funk. But I've managed to keep reminding myself to shut down the negative self-chatter, keep working, and push through the tough times. It's important to remember that things usually get better, and that being negative and depressed doesn't help. So when I start questioning myself, I try to redirect my thoughts to "how does all this negativity help? What if I just STFU and keep working and see what tomorrow brings?" And as it happens, usually by the next day the moment has passed and I'm back in the saddle.

2. Startup School really reminded me of the importance of focusing on the problem you're solving, and the idea of doing the smallest subset of what you're trying to build, and then putting that "out there". In a talk, pg (or one of the speakers, but I think it was pg) referred to finding the "minimum quantum of utility" of your idea.

So having that thinking beat into my head repeatedly throughout SS was valuable. As pg said (paraphrased) "As a developer you can sit in a coffee shop or cafe and write code and work on your 'vision' forever. You need to actually get your thing out in front of the people you want to sell it to, preferably sooner than later".

I started running a especially early in the morning. All this was to prepare for a 10K (6.3 miles) run. The aim was to improve my time. I went from 56 mins to 50 mins and finally achieved a Personal best of 47 minutes in the event I trained for. I learnt a lot about discipline, running technique, nutrition and fitness tips. I am now preparing for a half marathon i.e 21K (13.1 miles) and aim to achieve a sub 2 hour finish. Planning to keep up the routine , train harder and hopefully get there.

Got an offer to Singapore!

I built a lightsaber for my sister.

I had been struggling with depression in the first half of the year after quitting my job and deciding to try freelancing. I had very low motivation for anything, maybe I was trying too hard to keep myself busy by inventing problems for the sake of having something to try new web techs on (React, GraphQL, TypeScript, and more recently Rust).

One summer day I found out there's a lightsaber duelling club in my hometown, and I approached them to know more (being a Star Wars fan since an early age). Joining the club got me back into sports (it's not just waving a glowing stick, there's a lot of cardio, muscular reinforcement, and a bit of meditation involved), which started to help with the focus and motivation, and re-centering my priorities. It's also a lot of fun, and the members provided kind of a social replacement for the lack of colleagues that comes with going freelance.

Then I decided to build a lightsaber (as any Jedi wannabe with an engineering degree would), but not for me, for my sister for Christmas. It took me 6 months and a lot of money, mostly as investment in machinery (3D printer, and garage/workshop tools), but it was so worth it in the end. It allowed me to focus on one large project, that did not relate to a computer, and get something done as a result. It might seem like a pointless thing to do (it won't help save the world from climate change or solve the ever increasing issue of social divide), but it was something I think I needed.

Some photos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/i3b35NUyJLrQrnPB8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Gz3iPcdRvDx4JHWG8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/D8MbBCFd1ujtHbYZA

With this project I learned a few things:

- Taking a break from toxic things is a survival necessity sometimes (in my case it was work and social networks' engineered attention-seeking mechanisms).

- Sport always has more of a positive effect than we think it will have on us.

- Not keeping up with the latest web tech is OK, it can be an addiction too.

Merry Christmas everyone !