With 2023 officially in the books, I figured it was time to do my annual article looking back over the year. Think of it as the Spotify Wrapped for the 3 people who read these articles!
Table of Contents
Accomplishments in 2023
2023 was an extremely tough year for me. As many of you know, I lost my mom in March at the young age of 53 to small cell lung cancer. As a result, I really didn’t approach this year in terms of accomplishments. That said, here are a few that I could think up (mostly because I stole them from last year):
- Became a Lecturer
- Continued my Duolingo streak to 2000+ days
- Visited family for the holidays
- Watched a lot of hockey
- Maintained a variety of open-source libraries
- Piloted my first educational project
- Mentored a hackathon
- Shifted to online exams
- Celebrated a few friends’ 30th birthdays
- Ate a lot of food
- Moved out of an apartment and into a house (still renting)
- Started preparing for our first kid
- Treated some warts
- Threw a celebration of life for my mom
- Finished my dissertation data collection
- Restored my parents’ deck
- Gave a presentation at Clemson
- Got stung by a wasp
- Attended my sister-in-law’s wedding
- Attended a friend’s wedding
- Attended my wife’s friend’s wedding
- Went to the Dayton Hamfest
Unfortunately, I didn’t quite hit my goal of finishing up my dissertation, but I’m planning to be done by next fall. Let’s hope that happens!
Favorite Photos of 2023
As I was curating the photos from this year, I realized that it’s probably not okay to post photos of someone else’s kids. As a result, I won’t be sharing all the cute photos of my niece and nephew. You’ll just have to imagine them. Otherwise, here are some of my favorites from the last year.
Definitely had a relationship heavy year, which was quite nice!
Favorite Creations of 2023
One of my favorite parts of these yearly reviews is looking over what I wrote this year and picking my favorites from each month. Let’s get into it!
- January 2023: There Has to Be a Better Way: Reflecting on My Automation Catchphrase
- As a STEM person, my brain is rotted by an obsession with efficiency. It’s no wonder it found its way into one of my catchphrases.
- February 2023: Why Is Adding Two Random Numbers Not the Same as Generating One in the Same Range?
- Did you know that rolling two dice is not the same as rolling one in the same range? Yeah, I didn’t really either until a student explained it to me. Now, I’m passing that knowledge to you.
- March 2023: The Renegade Coder Is Taking a Little Break
- In March, I took some time off to spend with my mom. I am so glad I did.
- April 2023: No One Uses Loop Invariants: Just Ask Google
- We teach loop invariants. It’s a fine concept, but it may just be the least practical subject we teach.
- May 2023: 5 Things You Should Know Before You Pick Up Python
- One of my previous students raised concerns about constantly recommending Python. Very early, they ran into some issues that I had not warned them about. This article is for anyone else planning to take my word at face value.
- June 2023: What Restoring a 20-Year-Old Deck Looks Like
- One of the coolest things I did this year was try to restore my parents’ deck. It’s quite old and should probably be replaced, but it looks much better now.
- July 2023: Abusing Python’s Operator Overloading Feature
- Who doesn’t love abusing programming language features? I sure do.
- August 2023: I Am Officially a Lecturer
- For all the negatives of this year, becoming a lecturer was a huge positive for me. I now have a much more stable position that I can grow.
- September 2023: Why I’m No Longer Giving Paper Exams in My Computer Science Courses
- Since becoming a lecturer, one of the smaller changes I’ve made is online exams. This article served as my justification for the change.
- October 2023: Students Should Be Able to Build a Portfolio From Their Coursework
- At some point, I had an epiphany that we should be helping students build out their professional presence. Now, I have a project that students can publish on GitHub!
- November 2023: The Difference Between str() and repr() in Python: A Design by Contract Perspective
- When it comes to writing content, I think a lot of folks prioritize what ranks on Google. Meanwhile, I write extremely specific articles that only interest me. This would be one of those articles.
- December 2023: Trust Me! Your Code Isn’t That Bad
- Of all the articles this year, this one is probably my favorite. I shared this initially as a story with my students, but I had to formalize it into an article.
5-Year Metrics
Normally, I’d take a moment to talk about the projects I worked on this year, but I’m in a bit of a time crunch. As a result, let’s move on to the 5-year metrics.
Every year, I like to do a little data dump of all my stats for the year and compare them with previous years. I’ll say that I don’t really much pay attention to these anymore, but they’re fun to review at the end of each year.
Page Views: Months & Years
To kick things off, here are my page view stats over the last 5 years.
| Month | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 19.1k | 21.1k | 11.8k | 13.7k | 25.3k |
| Feb | 16.2k | 24.8k | 11.6k | 14k | 25.5k |
| Mar | 31.0k | 21.9k | 13.9k | 14.4k | 23.2k |
| Apr | 45.4k | 18.8k | 13.9k | 13.4k | 18.1k |
| May | 52.7k | 17k | 11.5k | 14.1k | 18.2k |
| Jun | 26.7k | 13.5k | 11.7k | 13.8k | 14.9k |
| Jul | 19.8k | 13.9k | 10.3k | 14.6k | 14.7k |
| Aug | 19.9k | 16k | 12.1k | 14.7k | 15.2k |
| Sep | 22.5k | 15.4k | 11.9k | 18.1k | 15.7k |
| Oct | 17.8k | 17.3k | 13.7k | 21k | 12.1k |
| Nov | 15.0k | 15.4k | 13.6k | 22.9k | 10.3k |
| Dec | 11.8k | 12.2k | 12.7k | 22.7k | 8.5k |
| Total | 298k | 208k | 149k | 198k | 202k |
As you can see, we’re back up over the last year. That said, we’re currently in free fall as far as views are concerned. December was the lowest page views I’ve gotten in a month in the last 5 years. So, I’m definitely concerned about that!
Top Posts & Pages
Moving on, we have the top posts from the last year.
In general, nothing is really new in the posts space. The same top 5 keeps showing up in different orders.
Top Sources of Traffic
Now, let’s take a look at where my traffic is coming from.
| Rank | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Google 259K views | Google 92.9k views | Google 74.8k views | Google 136k views | Google 152k views |
| #2 | DuckDuckGo 4.8k views | Bing 22.3k views | Bing 24.9k views | Bing 23k views | Direct 21.9k views |
| #3 | Bing 4.8k views | DuckDuckGo 19.2k views | DuckDuckGo 20.6k views | Direct 17.5k views | Bing 13.5k views |
| #4 | WordPress Android App 1.3k views | Yahoo 3.9k views | Ecosia 3.8k views | DuckDuckGo 11.1k views | DuckDuckGo 5.2k views |
| #5 | GitHub 967 views | Ecosia 3.1k views | Yahoo 3.5k views | Yahoo 2.7k views | Yandex 3.6k views |
| #6 | Yahoo Search 777 views | Dev 2.2k views | Dev 869 views | Yandex 2k views | Yahoo 1.8k |
| #7 | Ecosia 522 views | GitHub 1.3k views | GitHub 682 views | Ecosia 1.9k views | Ecosia 874 views |
| #8 | Twitter 289 views | TopDev 810 views | Yandex 557 views | GitHub 449 views | GitHub 320 views |
| #9 | Qwant 160 views | Edabit 550 views | Qwant 471 views | Qwant 370 views | Startpage 218 views |
| #10 | Yandex 144 views | Qwant 500 views | Edabit 216 views | StartPage 196 views | Qwant 161 views |
In general, you can see that Google is still my main source of traffic. It’s also the main source of my current downfall. At its peak this year, Google was bringing me about 18,000 visitors a month. In December, I’m down to 4,700 visitors. All else being roughly equal.
Top Countries
Here are my top countries for the last 5 years.
| Rank | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | United States of America 115,649 views | United States of America 57.6k views | United States of America 44.3k views | United States of America 61.3k views | United States of America 68k views |
| #2 | India 33,496 views | India 20.9k views | India 17.4k views | India 23.4k views | India 23.3k views |
| #3 | United Kingdom 14,206 views | Germany 14.2k views | United Kingdom 8.4k views | United Kingdom 10.2k views | United Kingdom 10.2k views |
| #4 | Germany 13,664 views | United Kingdom 10.5k views | Germany 8.2k views | Germany 9.8k views | Germany 9.7k views |
| #5 | Canada 11,003 views | Canada 7.7k views | Canada 5.7k views | Canada 8k views | Russia 8.1k views |
| #6 | France 8,636 views | France 5.3k views | France 4.4k views | France 5.5k views | Canada 7.1k views |
| #7 | Brazil 6,097 views | Australia 3.8k views | Russia 3.8k views | Russia 5.4k views | France 5k views |
| #8 | Australia 5,445 views | Netherlands 3.6k views | Netherlands 2.9k views | Brazil 4.1k views | Brazil 3.9k views |
| #9 | Netherlands 4,847 views | Brazil 3.3k views | Australia 2.9k views | Australia 3.9k views | Australia 3.8k views |
| #10 | Spain 4,237 views | Russia 2.7k views | Brazil 2.5k views | Netherlands 3.6k views | Netherlands 3.3k views |
Nothing really of note here! Everything is as it always is.
Top YouTube Videos
As you probably know, I haven’t published a YouTube video in over two years now. The YouTube algorithm seems to be taking note of that.
Overall, video views are down almost 70% in the last year!
Total Revenue
Now, we get into the good stuff: money! As usual, I have revenue broken down into three different sources. The first source being Patreon.
| Month | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | $0.00 | $17.37 | $18.14 | $13.99 | $9.07 |
| Feb | $0.00 | $17.37 | $18.14 | $13.99 | $9.07 |
| Mar | $0.00 | $17.37 | $18.14 | $13.99 | $9.07 |
| Apr | $0.00 | $17.37 | $18.14 | $13.99 | $9.07 |
| May | $0.00 | $23.75 | $18.14 | $13.22 | $9.07 |
| Jun | $0.00 | $23.75 | $18.14 | $9.07 | $4.92 |
| Jul | $8.30 | $23.74 | $18.14 | $9.07 | $4.92 |
| Aug | $22.72 | $23.74 | $18.14 | $9.07 | $9.07 |
| Sep | $22.72 | $23.75 | $18.14 | $9.07 | $9.07 |
| Oct | $22.72 | $23.75 | $18.14 | $9.07 | $9.07 |
| Nov | $22.72 | $18.14 | $9.84 | $9.07 | $9.07 |
| Dec | $22.72 | $18.14 | $9.84 | $9.07 | $9.07 |
| Total | $121.90 | $248.24 | $201.08 | $132.67 | $100.54 |
Overall, Patreon is my most stable form of income, but it’s also not scaling at all. Fortunately, Amazon revenue is doing extremely well.
| Month | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | $0.00 | $1.49 | $4.23 | $20.51 | $20.62 |
| Feb | $0.00 | $0.00 | $14.30 | $11.03 | $12.53 |
| Mar | $0.00 | $12.70 | $8.51 | $9.53 | $14.62 |
| Apr | $0.00 | $11.63 | $8.18 | $4.71 | $7.47 |
| May | $0.00 | $0.90 | $6.09 | $7.50 | $8.53 |
| Jun | $0.00 | $12.78 | $4.12 | $2.82 | $0.28 |
| Jul | $0.00 | $0.98 | $2.66 | $0.37 | $9.27 |
| Aug | $0.00 | $0.94 | $2.20 | $12.21 | $26.95 |
| Sep | $0.00 | $0.62 | $4.37 | $8.97 | $19.71 |
| Oct | $0.20 | $0.38 | $9.84 | $34.35 | $31.02 |
| Nov | $0.00 | $8.59 | $10.84 | $18.70 | $28.19 |
| Dec | $0.00 | $7.24 | $4.39 | $18.47 | $85.76 |
| Total | $0.20 | $58.25 | $79.73 | $149.17 | $264.95 |
We’re almost up double over last year in terms of Amazon income. However, I’m almost certain all of this income is from the trombone site I set and forgot ages ago. I sure wish the site I spend all my time on would do the same!
Finally, we have ad revenue, which is roughly the same as always.
| Month | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | $12.84 | $0.00 | $2.72 | $7.91 | $9.20 |
| Feb | $8.93 | $0.00 | $8.34 | $12.37 | $11.55 |
| Mar | $21.71 | $0.00 | $9.23 | $12.61 | $9.01 |
| Apr | $28.18 | $0.00 | $8.76 | $2.48 | $12.59 |
| May | $30.53 | $0.00 | $6.27 | $4.40 | $7.35 |
| Jun | $17.00 | $0.00 | $10.98 | $9.19 | $9.34 |
| Jul | $10.67 | $0.00 | $7.67 | $5.64 | $11.46 |
| Aug | $9.78 | $0.00 | $7.23 | $6.23 | $4.60 |
| Sep | $4.99 | $0.00 | $14.55 | $8.41 | $11.25 |
| Oct | $0.00 | $0.00 | $18.63 | $12.09 | $3.12 |
| Nov | $0.00 | $0.00 | $18.99 | $10.37 | $4.95 |
| Dec | $0.00 | $0.00 | $10.89 | $9.78 | $5.53 |
| Total | $144.63 | $0.00 | $124.26 | $101.50 | $99.95 |
Not bad for only having a couple sidebar and footer ads.
Total Expenses
Last year, I broke down the expenses in detail. I had to do that for taxes anyway. However, since I won’t be doing taxes for a bit, I figured I’d just share the expenses in aggregate from my business account.
| Month | 2023 |
|---|---|
| January | $0.00 |
| February | $87.00 |
| March | $0.00 |
| April | $100.00 |
| May | $410.23 |
| June | $34.00 |
| July | $0.00 |
| August | $17.00 |
| September | $0.00 |
| October | $0.00 |
| November | $0.00 |
| December | $0.00 |
| Total | $648.23 |
It’s quite fun seeing how much I spend and when. April and May are big dollar months for me. Can you guess why?
Net Income
Given that I’m not tracking every year anymore, I figured it might be cool to just track net income over the years. I haven’t totaled up expenses other than for taxes in previous years, so I’ll have to dig that data up at some point.
| Year | Revenue | Expenses | Net Income |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | $465.44 | $(648.23) | $(182.79) |
| 2022 | $383.34 | – | – |
| 2021 | $405.07 | – | – |
| 2020 | $306.49 | – | – |
| 2019 | $266.73 | – | – |
| 2018 | $49.96 | – | – |
| Total | $1,907.03 | $(648.23) | $1,258.8 |
Overall, it’s always interesting to see how little, if any, I actually make in a year. That said, it’s a pretty cheap hobby given that it practically pays for itself.
A Look into 2024
With all that out of the way, let’s talk 2024! Normally, I don’t have a ton of plans. I sort of go with the flow. Well, that’s not me anymore! I have serious plans. Let’s start with a list:
- I plan to finish and defend my dissertation by fall of this year
- I plan to start the road to clinical faculty this year as well
- I plan to have my first kid this March!
- I plan to host my friend’s bachelor party
- I plan to attend my friends wedding
- I plan to get into some new music
There are also a variety of things I plan to do in my classroom, but I see this article more as a form of personal growth. So, I’ll leave that stuff out for now.
With all that said, 2024 is going to be tough. I’m ready to buckle down and make some more serious progress in my life. I’m sure my mom would be proud!
As always, if you enjoyed this article, well you’ll have to wait until next year to get another one. However, in the meantime, here are a few recent pieces you might check out:
- Reflecting on Two More Semesters of Teaching: Spring & Autumn 2023
- Brainstorming An Algorithm for Shuffling a Queue of Songs
- Trust Me! Your Code Isn’t That Bad
Alternatively, you can help pump up my numbers by heading over to my list of ways to grow the site. There, you’ll find my things like my Discord and Patreon. Otherwise, take care and Happy New Year!
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