Preface#
Time always flies, just like when I look back at yesterday, the memories that come up are of Monday; when I recall the New Year's Eve of 2024, it still feels like just an afternoon not long ago, when I took a high-speed train to Qiandao Lake to avoid the exorbitant hotel prices in Hangzhou that night.
The first quarter of 2024 has seen many changes, and I have taken some actions based on the outlook of the previous year and implemented many things. Each day has been more tiring compared to the past, but fulfilling. I am still trying many new things while also circling back to do some familiar things.
I have decided to briefly record a few milestone-like events that have happened in this quarter: a failed CDA LEVEL II certification exam, contributions to open-source communities, and my plans for the future.
Failed CDA LEVEL II Certification Exam#
Although my position is "Software Development Engineer," there was a time when I was doing work related to data: data governance, DCMM certification, building dashboards, secondary development of data management platforms, etc. I was also responsible for managing the company's reporting platform at that time. Due to my limited front-end development skills, I found joy in working with data, and doing these tasks gave me a sense of accomplishment. Therefore, I quietly considered "data analyst" as a development direction for myself, learning relevant knowledge and obtaining corresponding certifications. During this process, I gained some basic analysis methods and obtained the LEVEL I certificate.
However, due to a change in job responsibilities, I returned to front-end development tasks for a long period of time, and the learning of LEVEL II knowledge was put on hold. This laid hidden dangers for me in the month and a half of studying and practicing through a large number of exercises before the exam. Statistical knowledge cannot be firmly grasped overnight through extensive practice and experience. Once the examination method changes, accumulated experience can lead to making wrong choices. Therefore, although during that time, I was constantly doing exercises and studying related knowledge, I did not achieve a good result in the end. As for the other costs I paid for the failed exam, that is another matter.
"Prepare for the worst, hope for the best." When doing something, on one hand, you need to give yourself enough preparation time, on the other hand, you need to make relevant plans, and most importantly, you need to keep pushing yourself. When learning new knowledge, the only thing that needs to be kept in mind is to "have your own understanding of what you have learned, in order to deepen your mastery of the knowledge."
Active Participation in Open Source Contributions on Github#
Although I have nearly three years of work experience, I am most aware of my own level of technical skills. With my current level, it is almost impossible for me to contribute to code-related aspects of well-known projects. Both reading English and understanding code are still difficult for me.
However, I can start with translating some documents or content. By reading English original documents and technical articles, on one hand, my English reading ability can improve, and at the same time, I can have a deeper understanding of how to use this technology. On the other hand, I can contribute to the development of the entire project or community through my own contributions, achieving a win-win situation.
By chance, I came across the translation and proofreading of the Astro Chinese documentation. Soon after, while learning some basic knowledge through freeCodeCamp, I came across the localization work related to the community content. I will discuss these two parts in detail below.
Astro Chinese Documentation Translation#
One day, I saw a message saying, "Recently, many contributors from China have made contributions to the Chinese documentation of Astro. There are still many sentences that are not smooth or incorrect in the documentation. Everyone is welcome to contribute."
Although I was not familiar with Astro at that time, I had participated in the localization translation work of NextCloud and WordPress before, so I wanted to participate and see what the contribution process was like and familiarize myself with the process of submitting a PR on Github. I would like to thank liruifengv for helping me with details such as modifying the PR title format, which allowed me to complete a PR that met the standards and was merged after being reviewed by the relevant maintainers. Participating in contributions always makes me excited, as I feel that I have done something I wanted to do and helped others.
Of course, as I read the Astro documentation, I also started creating my first Astro project to evaluate its performance in a blog scenario and its support for i18n. Although I am still using my Hexo-based blog for now, maybe in a short period of time, I will start to refactor my blog based on Astro, hoping to bring a more elegant design to the new blog.
Contributor to the freeCodeCamp Chinese Community#
I saw on LinkedIn that some users included their freeCodeCamp certifications in their profiles, which sparked my interest in the website. It happened that I planned to start learning React and needed to review the basics of web development, so I followed the course step by step and learned and wrote code. During the learning process, I found that most of the course content was in Chinese, but there were some parts in English. I thought that maybe the localization was not complete, so I looked for information on how to contribute to localization.
After finding the entry point, I submitted a form expressing my willingness to join. A few days later, I received an email from Miya, the ambassador of the freeCodeCamp Chinese community, introducing me to the ways to participate in course and article translation. Course translation is done through Crowdin, while article translation is done through Github. I found an article related to JavaScript DOM manipulation in the issue list, and I wanted to delve into this topic, so I chose that article as my first translation.
Fortunately, the article was written in a very easy-to-understand manner, so understanding it and completing the translation was not difficult. After submitting the translation, it passed the proofreading process, and Miya invited me to become a freeCodeCamp columnist and published my translation on freeCodeCamp.
I was very excited when I officially became a freeCodeCamp columnist and made a post to commemorate it. Initially, I planned to republish some of the blog posts I had written on freeCodeCamp, but as I read and translated more articles, I felt that what I had written was not suitable for a wider audience. Perhaps in the future, I need to carefully consider the content of my own articles and provide more comprehensive discussions on the issues.
So far, I have completed the translation of two articles and proofread one article. The biggest challenge I encountered was translating the article "Regular Expressions (RegEx) in JavaScript - Beginner's Guide." This article contains many proprietary terms and requires frequent reference to the MDN documentation. Moreover, the article is quite long, and with some interruptions to deal with other matters, it took me two weeks to complete the translation. Even after reading it several times from start to finish, there were still some overlooked areas. I am very grateful to Miya for patiently providing improvement suggestions during the proofreading process.
Next, I will continue to participate in translations, learn some knowledge that interests me, and improve my development skills, achieving multiple benefits.
Plans for the Future#
In the next three months, I have another important exam, and at the same time, I need to continue with what I am currently doing while starting two other things as soon as possible.
PMP Certification Exam#
The PMP exam originally scheduled for June has been moved up to June 1st, leaving me with limited time. Simply following the training course linearly may not provide a comprehensive understanding of the knowledge. Therefore, I plan to write articles that apply the relevant knowledge based on actual case studies. I hope this idea can be put into practice, and I wish myself success in this exam.
Update Resume#
I need to review the projects I have worked on over the past three years, focus on the technologies I specialize in, and highlight the applications I have built using those technologies. On the other hand, updating my resume is also a way to be prepared for unexpected opportunities. Saving alone is not enough; I need to find ways to create more opportunities for myself.
Read More Books and Start a New Column#
I have seen other developers' public accounts, and they always have articles about "reading every half month," which made me think about whether I should increase my reading volume. After all, without receiving information, it is difficult to form my own opinions and then share new information with others. Therefore, as a first step, I need to read one book per month and write down my thoughts. I already have an idea for the column name, so stay tuned.
Lingering Worries and Concerns#
Perhaps because I know myself too well, I always have some lingering worries and concerns about myself. Maybe writing them down will leave a deeper impression and constantly remind me.
Procrastination and Giving Up Halfway#
When starting something, it is full of novelty, but over time, I may become lazy and eventually give up halfway. Although it may sound natural, it is something I need to be constantly vigilant about because the consequences of giving up halfway may mean that all previous efforts were in vain.
Self-Enclosure and Self-Righteousness#
I often worry that I have fallen into a "thinking for myself" loop. I may think that things should be a certain way or that doing something in a certain way is fine, but the reality may be different. If I become self-enclosed, I may miss some key information and make "efforts in the wrong direction." I need to listen to others' opinions more, understand different perspectives, reduce "information gaps" in various situations, and ensure that I make the right judgments and take the right actions.
Afterword#
I recently signed a lease agreement with my landlord, and I will move to a more convenient place around the Qingming Festival. In the foreseeable future, each day will still be very fulfilling for me because many things are fleeting, and I need to speed up while taking each step solidly.
I still need to be honest with myself because I am the only one who truly knows the real reasons and my own state and feelings. What I need to figure out is what I need to do most at this moment. Constantly observing the external situation, embracing change, accumulating resources, and challenging myself in ways I haven't before.
I hope everything goes smoothly in the future.