By David Hennessy
That sound of wailing you hear in the distance could in fact be the Baby New Year, newly dropped off in swaddling clothes on our doorstep. (It could also be all those people looking at their post-holiday bank account balances for the first time.) But as 2015 fades into a hazy memory and we struggle to date everything “2016,” it’s time once again for that time-honored tradition: New Year’s resolutions!
Since New Relic is a software company, we skipped all those predictable ambitions to “join a gym” or “give up smoking” to focus instead on what we know best: saving the world from bad software. We invited the various members of our engineering and related teams (in both our Portland, Ore., and San Francisco offices) to weigh in with the resolutions they are making for 2016. Here are some of our favorites:
“I will count to 10 before responding when someone says, ‘It’s probably the network.’” —Alice Goldfuss, Site Reliability Engineer, New Relic
“I will unsubscribe from mailing lists I don’t talk in, and I will reduce automated emails from taking over my inbox.” —Belinda Runkle, Director of Engineering, New Relic
“In 2016, I resolve to never travel to tech conferences without a personal hotspot.” —Clay Smith, Developer Advocate, New Relic
“In 2016, I resolve to write a highly observable JavaScript VM in Rust as a proof of concept and debugging tool.” —Wraithan McCarroll, Software Engineer, Node.js Agent, New Relic
“In 2016, I resolve to talk to other engineers and engineering managers about things that are not code, systems, or technical dystopian futures.” —Laura Cassell, Engineering Manager, New Relic
“I resolve to no longer conflate containers and the cloud.” —Tori Wieldt, Developer Advocate, New Relic
“In 2016, I resolve to improve my Agile skills as well as share more about New Relic’s engineering culture with the rest of the world. Oh, also 73.44% world domination.” —Balki Kodarapu, Engineering Manager, .NET Agent
“In 2016, I want to stay better hydrated while I’m working. And also talk with others more about how functional programming can make UI development easier.” —Ted Pennings, thirsty software engineer, APM UI
“In 2016, I will work harder on ‘open sourcing my life’ so that I can share what I love with family and friends while learning and growing from their perspectives and knowledge. Make things together!” —Nick Floyd, Nerd Life Engineer, New Relic
“As a domain name server, in 2016 I resolve addresses. Beep boop.” —Karl Sandwich, Software Engineer, New Relic
“In 2016, I resolve to run a mile for each piece of Lauretta Jean’s pie I eat. Obviously I will be running marathons” —Bojana Skarich, Technical Support Engineer, New Relic
And what about me, seeing as how I’m an editor and as much a “word nerd” as a “data nerd”?
“This year I resolve to better align my career trajectory with my facial hair choices and become a developer.” —David Hennessy, budding Software Engineer, New Relic
Got a New Year’s resolution of your own to share? (You know, that whole “accountability” thing and all…) Tweet it with hashtag #ResolutionsFor2016
