Preface#
Time always flies, just like when I look back on yesterday, the memories that come to mind 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 action 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 occurred 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 a dashboard, secondary development of data management platforms, etc. I was also responsible for managing the company's reporting platform at that time. During that period, due to my limited frontend development skills, I found joy in working with data. There was a sense of accomplishment in doing this work, so I quietly considered "data analyst" as a development direction for myself, learning relevant knowledge and obtaining the corresponding certification. In 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 frontend 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 as I studied through a question-based approach in the month and a half 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 outside of work, I did not achieve a good result in the end. As for the other costs I paid for the failed exam, that's another story.
"Prepare for the worst, hope for the best." When doing something, on the 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 forward. When learning new knowledge, the only thing that needs to be kept in mind is to "develop your own understanding of what you have learned 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 at the moment.
However, I can start with translating some documents or content. By reading English original documents and technical articles, on the one hand, my English reading ability can improve, and 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 documentation in Chinese. Shortly after, while learning some basic knowledge through freeCodeCamp, I came across the work of localizing community content. I will discuss these two parts in detail below.
Translation of Astro Documentation in Chinese#
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 have errors 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 contribute and see what the contribution process was like and familiarize myself with the process of submitting pull requests on Github. I am grateful to liruifengv for helping me modify the PR title format and other details, allowing me to submit a standardized PR that was merged after being reviewed by the relevant maintainers. Participating in contributions always excites me, 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 i18n support. Although I am still using my Hexo-based blog for now, perhaps 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 to be the time when I planned to start learning React and needed to review the basics of web development. So I followed the course step by step, learning and writing 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 intention to join. A few days later, I received an email from Miya, a freeCodeCamp Chinese community ambassador, introducing me to the ways to participate in course and article translations. Course translation is done through Crowdin, while article translation is done through Github. In the issue list, I found an article related to JavaScript DOM manipulation, which I wanted to understand in detail at that time, so I chose that article as my first translation.
Fortunately, the article was written in a very understandable manner, so understanding and translating it was not difficult. After completing the translation and submitting it, my translation passed the proofreading process and Miya invited me to become a freeCodeCamp columnist, publishing 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 my own blog posts on freeCodeCamp, but as I read and translated more articles, I felt that my own writings were somewhat "not up to par." 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 contained many proprietary terms, and I had to frequently refer to the MDN documentation. Additionally, the article was long, and with some interruptions to handle 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 about topics that interest me, and improve my development skills, achieving multiple benefits.
Plans for the Future#
In the next three months, I have another important exam, and I also need to continue with my current tasks 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 to actual cases, hoping that this idea can be put into practice. I wish myself success in this exam.
Update Resume#
I need to take stock of the projects I have worked on over the past three years, focus on what technologies I specialize in, and what applications I have implemented in the relevant tech stack. On the other hand, updating my resume is also a way to "be prepared for unexpected opportunities." To "store up grain," it is not enough to simply reduce consumption; I need to find ways to explore more opportunities.
Read more books and start a new column#
I have seen articles on other developers' public accounts that make me think about whether I should increase my reading volume. After all, without receiving information, it is difficult to develop my own opinions and 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. Perhaps writing them down will leave a deeper impression and keep me constantly alert.
Procrastination and Giving Up Midway#
When starting something, it is full of novelty, but over time, it may lead to procrastination and ultimately giving up midway. Although it may seem natural, it is something that I need to be constantly vigilant about because the consequences of giving up midway can be like pouring water into a bamboo basket, and the efforts made earlier may go up in smoke.
Self-Enclosure and Self-Righteousness#
I often worry that I am trapped in my own "assumptions." I may think that things should be a certain way or that doing something in a certain way is fine, but the reality may not be the same. 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 their perspectives, reduce "information gaps" in various situations, 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 location around the Qingming Festival. Within the foreseeable future, each of my days will still be very fulfilling 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. I need to figure out what I need to do at this moment. Constantly observing the external situation, embracing change, storing up grain, accumulating, and taking on new challenges that I haven't encountered before.
I hope everything goes smoothly in the future.