2020 In Retrospective
Tags: retrospective, yearinreview, career, productivity
Published: 2020-12-30 22:46:02

---
title: 2020 In Retrospective
published: true
date: 2020-12-30 10:01:22 UTC
tags: retrospective, yearinreview, career, productivity
canonical_url: https://blog.mphomphego.co.za/blog/2020/12/30/2020-In-Retrospective.html
---

![image](https://blog.mphomphego.co.za/assets/2020-12-30-2020-In-Retrospective.png)

# The Story

Well, that's a wrap. This has been one of the most unpredictable year ever. In this post, I look back at how 2020 was for me and this will just be a little retrospection summary of things that went well and things that did not. I am starting this new tradition of celebrating the end of year as I looking back at some of my highlights of that year.

![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/7910856/103358803-2b43ba80-4abf-11eb-9366-8444636c14d4.png)


## TL;DR

![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/7910856/103348815-d2b2f400-4aa3-11eb-8887-4761ea9f1637.png)

[https://twitter.com/MphoMphego/status/1341658595780386819?s=20](https://twitter.com/MphoMphego/status/1341658595780386819?s=20)

## What Went Well

Most of my other goals were financial and personal, however, I would like to reflect on some of my other goals I had set out for 2020.

- I was inspired by [Derek Sivers’ /now page movement](https://sivers.org/now3) and started documenting things I was focused on each month from January 2020. This is what I am doing [now.](https://blog.mphomphego.co.za/now)

- Got out of my comfort zone and **became a mentor** to an intern, which of course had its own challenges due to the working from home, apparently I'm brutal and tell it like it is (It's the ADD)!!! 
    One thing I learned from this experience was to be patient with myself and mostly others.

- One of my goals for 2020 was to at least blog twice per month and I managed to publish **17 posts** based on some of my experiences and things learned.

- I started being active on Twitter and some of the people I followed inspired me to take part in the [#100daysofcode challenge](https://www.100daysofcode.com/). 
    - You can read more about my experiences [here]({{ "/blog/2020/10/17/I-completed-my-100daysofcode-challenge-now-what.html" | absolute_url }} ) while you are at it follow me: @MphoMphego and consider doing the challenge in 2021.


- I wanted to make more YouTube videos this year but I hadn't put a number which I should have. However, I was able to make **3 YouTube video tutorials**: 
    -  If you are reading this please subscribe to my channel 2021 we going big: [https://www.youtube.com/mphomphego1](https://www.youtube.com/mphomphego1)

- Made over **2400+** [Github](www.github.com/mmphego) open&close source contributions (which was less than 2019 @ 2500+), **340+** PR's and **5+** projects

    ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/7910856/103354260-bfa82000-4ab3-11eb-95ca-7683327288af.png)

- Won an [Intel Neural Compute Stick](https://software.intel.com/content/www/us/en/develop/articles/intel-movidius-neural-compute-stick.html) from an [AI Face Mask Detection `33 GitHub Stars`](https://github.com/mmphego/face_mask_detection_openvino) project that won the [Deep Learning Superhero App Challenge on hackster.io](https://www.hackster.io/contests/DLSuperheroes)

- One thing about me is that when I get bored I get the urge to learn something new even if I hadn't mastered the last one I previously learned (It's the ADD without the H hahaha), with that being said I proudly finished and evolved my skills:
    - 3x Udacity Nanodegrees Certificates:
        - [AWS Cloud Developer](https://bit.ly/3bDW1Tx)
        - [Intel Edge AI for IoT Developers](https://bit.ly/3hlU9Rx)
        - [Udacity Mentorship](https://confirm.udacity.com/CR7THQTA)
    - 2x DataCamp Certificates:
        - [Data Engineering for Everyone](https://www.datacamp.com/statement-of-accomplishment/course/d4b904060f7b8f9cc09108d67e8b38090e5366ea)
        - [Image Processing in Python](https://www.datacamp.com/statement-of-accomplishment/course/83dd4580afecb275fc8bbc3b33e9c2b37d1b0941?raw=1)
    - 2x IBM/Cognitive.ai Certificates
        + [Deep Learning Essentials](https://www.youracclaim.com/badges/ad832d4d-1fd9-414c-8a15-c7bb785c7ff8)
        + [Docker Essentials: A Developer Introduction](https://courses.cognitiveclass.ai/certificates/1cc20979bb2541b98ebe89b7dddba922)
    - 1x Coursera Specialization Certificate:
        + [Deep Learning Specialization](https://www.coursera.org/account/accomplishments/specialization/certificate/G56VYEEUA74F)
    - 9x Coursera Certificates:
        + [SQL for Data Science](https://www.coursera.org/account/accomplishments/certificate/7CHG32GPG87F)
        + [Computer Vision Basics](https://www.coursera.org/account/accomplishments/records/AU55ZKBNNWV8)
        + [Neural Networks and Deep Learning](https://bit.ly/2Qxyo65)
        + [Structuring Machine Learning Projects](https://www.coursera.org/account/accomplishments/verify/BAYZTYTQ8HL9)
        + [Improving Deep Neural Networks: Hyperparameter tuning, Regularization and Optimization](https://www.coursera.org/account/accomplishments/verify/ZURGHWGGD5UD)
        + [Convolutional Neural Networks](https://coursera.org/share/ed8ab98d1f10d6bf93b611d03da65ddc)
        + [Sequential Models](https://www.coursera.org/account/accomplishments/certificate/DSDUZ8J6S7RC)
        + [Exploratory Data Analysis for Machine Learning](https://coursera.org/share/1c238ff3b9ffd2b3162716eaa0daed78)
        + [Supervised Learning: Regression](https://www.coursera.org/account/accomplishments/certificate/JTVYGECVVQTQ)

## What Didn't go well

- The sudden change of environment from working in the office and working from home with my wife and 2 kids at home, I had mental health issues, Dude it wasn't fun!!!
- One of my goals was to exercise at least 3 times a week, this didn't go well for obvious reasons my health deteriorated.
- Struggled to split time between learning, working and spending time with my family.
- I felt burnout during the COVID19 lockdown which caused me a lot of stress and sleeps deprivation; but looking on the bright-side I learned new skills while up all night ;-)
- The list goes on and on ...


# My Goals for 2021

I am looking forward to 2021 (2020 won!) with a different perspective and expecting a lot from myself. Some of my tech-related goals for 2021 entails:

- Continue to advance my career at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) and my goal is to become a **Snr. Software Engineer**.
- Completing **#100DaysOfML challenge** with the primary focus on the [Hands-on Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow - Concepts, Tools, and Techniques to Build Intelligent Systems](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40363665-hands-on-machine-learning-with-scikit-learn-keras-and-tensorflow) book I recently bought.
- Work with my son on building and programming the [AlphaBot2 and Raspberry Pi Zero](https://twitter.com/MphoMphego/status/1338402741685727234?s=20) together with the [Intel Neural Compute Stick 2](https://twitter.com/MphoMphego/status/1324097569417560078?s=20) I won.
- Learn more about the fundamentals of MLOps and how to integrate it with software engineering.
- Revive TechTalk Tuesday which is an informal meeting (Meetup), where colleagues/external talent prepares a Tech Talk on Tuesdays during lunchtime.
- Be present on user groups around the world through virtual presentations.

# Conclusion

This was the year of Deep Learning for me, one of the skills I gained was to be patient with myself, to take it easy and always remember that the meaning of life is; If you think about it, is that on the very beginning, the development of the first cell divided into two cells - the sole purposes of life has been to pass on what was learned. There is no higher purpose. So, this year I learned to start passing on the knowledge I have accumulated. 

![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/7910856/103353089-8f12b700-4ab0-11eb-89dd-535a767c1871.png)