Year in Review: 2024 — A Year of Transformation and Growth

As 2024 draws to a close, I find myself reflecting on a year of transformative personal achievements and professional milestones. From redefining my daily routine to mastering new technologies, this year has been one of growth, collaboration, and learning.

Generated by ChatGPT

Personal Growth: A Turning Point

This year, a pivotal moment came when Kevin Payne, one of our organization’s founders, urged us to start the day earlier for better collaborations. His advice pushed me to rethink my routine, leading to significant changes:

• Waking up at 6 AM.
• Working out regularly and achieved a weight loss of approximately 35 pounds, reducing from 202 pounds to 167 pounds.

This transformation was further guided by principles from Atomic Habits, particularly the idea of “never missing twice,” which reinforced consistency in my routine.

Memorable Travel Moments

• 🛫 Attended the React India conference in Goa, blending learning with networking in a vibrant setting.
• 🏏 Watched my first live cricket match at the iconic M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai with my mom — a cherished memory.

Returning to the office for my birthday celebration after eight years was nostalgic. Adding to the joy were team potlucks and rediscovering my creative side through drawing — a hobby I plan to explore further.

React India Conference: A Highlight in Goa

One of the standout moments of the year was attending the React India conference in Goa. This event was an enriching blend of learning, networking, and meaningful conversations with some of the brightest minds in the React ecosystem.

I had the privilege of engaging with:

• Kent C. Dodds, who shared invaluable insights about React’s best practices and provided actionable advice on implementing server components effectively.
• Sathya Gunasekaran, whose deep expertise in the React Compiler offered valuable guidance on integrating it into our application. Sathya also shared personal insights on contributing to open source projects and speaking at conferences, inspiring me to explore these avenues further.
• Aakansha Doshi, who delivered a fascinating deep dive into Crypto APIs, highlighting innovative use cases and exploring opportunities to utilize them for data storage in our application.

Professional Achievements: Driving Impact

Thinkmill Collaboration: The Catalyst for Transformation

Working with the Thinkmill team was a defining moment this year. Their knowledge-sharing sessions emphasized:

“Knowledge should flow, not stock.”

This mindset inspired me to move beyond immediate fixes and embrace a broader, more thoughtful approach to problem-solving.

Dinesh played a significant role in these sessions, teaching me industry standards and best practices. From writing clean, efficient code to prioritizing performance, supporting teammates, and cultivating a culture of learning and growth, his guidance was invaluable. These lessons have become a cornerstone of how I approach my work today.

Barnaby’s mentorship further enriched the experience, offering insights into leadership and people management. His advice on collaboration and clarity in communication has helped me become a more effective team member and leader.

The Thinkmill team didn’t just teach skills — they demonstrated how to grow and thrive together as a team. Their influence has been instrumental in shaping who I am today, both as a professional and as an individual.

Cloud Migration Mastery

This year, I played a critical role in two major migrations, both achieved with zero downtime:

App Engine to Vercel:

• Assisted in migrating our Next.js app from App Engine to Vercel.
• Participated in reverse-engineering Vercel’s revalidation mechanism, discovering its response cache stored in Vercel KV. This enabled the transition our app allowing dynamic booking pages to adapt to real-time data, enhancing performance and user experience.
• Documented action plans and collaborated with multiple teams to ensure seamless execution.

Vercel to Cloud Run:

• Set up workflows and deployed the application across multiple environments, ensuring seamless transitions between stages.
• Designed and implemented a weighted load-balancing strategy using Google Cloud Load Balancers, routing traffic effectively with request headers.

AI learning: Integrating AI in Everyday Work

• Regularly used ChatGPT, Co-Pilot, and Claude AI to enhance productivity and decision-making in everyday work.
• Explored open-source AI models and frameworks, including plans to leverage Hugging Face Transformers.js for potential future applications.

Optimizing Debugging and Sentry Implementation

One of my key learnings this year was about debugging systems efficiently. I explored the importance of structured logging, augmentation, and contexting, which made tracking and resolving errors significantly easier.

I also assisted a peer in improving their Sentry implementation, incorporating augmentation and contexting to enhance error traceability. This contribution not only streamlined debugging but also improved the overall reliability of the system.

Key Takeaways:

• “Don’t solve problems, build solution systems.”
• “Augmentation, contexting, and structured logging make debugging better.”

PWA Enhancements

Refined the Progressive Web App (PWA) implementation to let customers install booking pages as standalone apps. While working on custom splash screens using the Canvas API, I got a better understanding of how libraries impact performance. This also taught me how to take inspiration from libraries and adapt them to fit our specific needs.

Runtime Environment Configuration

Migrated build-time environment variables to runtime configurations, enabling dynamic server-side props based on request headers. This innovation was crucial for the GCP migration and opened up new opportunities for flexibility and efficiency.

Skill Development and Automation

Learned: TypeScript and GraphQL, enhancing scalability and maintainability.

Automated: Helped the testing team implement Playwright automation, reducing manual testing time from hours to minutes.

Key Lessons from 2024

1. Iterate for success: “Make it work. Make it right. Make it fast.”
2. Collaborate for impact: Mentorship and teamwork amplify results.
3. Discipline drives clarity: Consistency in routines enhances focus and productivity.
4. Adapt and learn: Growth comes from embracing change and learning continuously.
5. Build systems, not fixes: “Don’t solve problems, build solution systems.”

Looking Ahead: Goals for 2025

Generated by ChatGPT based on my Year in Review 😁

As I step into 2025, I aim to continue the journey of growth and exploration with these focused goals:

1. Explore: Learn to host apps on Raspberry Pi.
2. Advance AI skills: Leverage tools like ChatGPT and Hugging Face Transformers.js to build smarter systems.
3. Optimize reliability: Enhance debugging practices with better structured logging and contexting.
4. Expand boundaries: Continuous contribution and share knowledge at conferences.
5. Stay creative: Balance professional growth with personal creativity, like drawing and innovative problem-solving.

2024 has been a year of transformation, and 2025 promises to be even more rewarding with a focus on innovation, learning, and collaboration. Here’s to making the next year even better!