Projects

Being a specialist can be rewarding, but being a generalist is a necessity. You truly do need a bit of both; just remember not to sacrifice general knowledge in order to focus on your preference. Security, Machine Learning, and Dev/Tech Ops are the top 3 topics I believe have strong merit at the moment, but that list is certainly not exhaustive.

When doing side projects

1. Prioritize. What needs to be done right now and what can wait. Also, what do you actually want to do? Most of these side projects are completely optional, you get to decide if you want to spend your time on them or not. When you're starting things, they're shiny and new and fun. But will you still care about the project a year in the future? What is the time commitment still, then? How much time do you have consistently to spend on these it?

2. Focus on Building Habits. "Atomic Habits" discusses the idea of not having finite goals, and not focusing on one finite point in time as your goal. Instead, position yourself on a trajectory to reach an outcome. Position yourself in such a way that you’re always working towards a goal. So, if you want to become a senior engineer, blog about code instead of knitting cat sweaters.

3. Do what works for you. Try different systems and see what works for you and makes you the most productive.

4. Remember that everything your working on right now will be there tomorrow. Take some time off, spend it with your loved ones. It's too easy to forget about the world when your working on a passion project.