It's almost at the end of 2021 and I am left with a decision on what should I be exploring next year.

I have been doing this one-year-exploration-kind-of-thing for the past 3 years. The rule is simple, stick with one area for the rest of the year.

Here are the areas that I've explored for the past 3 years.

• 2019 - Going deeper in functional programming techniques. I learned a lot about Haskell type systems which I may or may not use at work.
• 2020 - Learning about RC hobbies where I built my own RC planes and learned how to fly them. Also got into learning how to fly FPV quads in the same year. Still having fun with this hobby.
• 2021 - Learning how to bootstrap a SaaS product. I built Stencil and will continue working on this project for the years to come. There are still a lot features that I intend to develop in 2022.
• 2022 - Still undecided.

Why am I doing this?

As mentioned in my twitter thread above, I have an issue with having too many interests and they ranged significantly but generally they revolved around tech.

By spending a year learning a specific topic, I get a chance to learn about the topic in depth rather than just scratching the surface. I also found that trying to focus on multiple topics at the same time lead to nowhere usually.

Limitation

Since I have a full time day job and I am also planning to still continue with Stencil development, my hours are certainly limited to weekends and any other free time that I could manage.

Area of Interest

Computer Vision

This has been my interest for a while but I didn't have a proper time to really explore this area. I bought several books from https://www.pyimagesearch.com/ few years ago and really would like to go through them if I decide this should be the area to focus on next year.

Pros

• Since Stencil is image related project, some of these skills might be applicable to implement in Stencil (maybe)
• I also have this idea where I could strap additional processing unit and camera to do image detection on my RC plane. I have an OpenCV AI Kit which is collecting dust at the moment.

Cons

• Realistically, I don't think I could be really good in this area (both ML and CV). It's going to take more than a year to be at a pro level. Not sure if I am motivated enough to sustain this.
• It could be costly to train ML model and I don't have that sort of resources to do this for fun.

Web3

I honestly believe this could be the future and the next big thing. I have around 35% of my net worth invested in crypto since 2015 (not much lol). I'd YOLO 100% if I don't have commitments.

I am really interested in learning smart contracts and the security aspect of it. I had several years of trading experience and market has always piqued my interest.

Pros

• I already know Haskell so Cardano smart contract could be a good start.
• Potential jobs in the future as I've been seeing more jobs related to smart contract development recently.

Cons

• Need to learn Solidity if going with Ethereum smart contract.
• Unsure exactly what to build and I am mostly like to learn by developing a project.

Electronics side project

I have this ambitious project where I want to build a system to stream videos from DJI Air Unit to DJI Goggle through 4G instead of its usual radio signal. I want to fly further (5+KM) without the signal restriction.

Pros

• Got to learn electronics which I have always wanted to explore.
• It's a gateway to robotics and other hardware automations.
• An excuse to learn Rust more.

Cons

• I really have no idea where to start. This is a really daunting project.
• Hardware project usually takes more time than software project and I am not sure if working on weekends are enough to do this especially with a toddler at home. Most of hardware projects require a longer span of focus compared to software project due to its nature.