Darren Hickling

Celebrating 2015, Anticipating 2016

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Last year was the most challenging but rewarding of my life. Among other achievements, I:

  • Became a Dad for a second (and last) time!
  • Celebrated one year as a married man.
  • Witnessed my little boy become less little and ever-more awesome.
  • Gave my second only joint best man's speech.
  • Successfully helped ship a large, complex project at Redweb.
  • Moved to Vitality to implement exciting new methodologies and technologies.

I've been (very) wrong before, but I cannot see this year being as busy as the last. With that in mind, I have only two important goals this time:

Understand and Plan Our Finances

I am terrible with money. That was almost acceptable as teenager, but is now unforgivable as father. Ideally, I'd like to automate the management of it as much as possible.

Learn and Use a Functional Language

Functional programming has interested me for years, but I have only ever had the opportunity to use a few techniques at work. This is the year that I finally learn and use a functional language, probably F#.

So, goodbye 2015: you have left me tired, sometimes broken, but stronger, happier and ready for 2016. Thank you to everyone who helped me through last year, and best of luck for this one!