Year in Review – The Renegade Coder

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! 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. Month20192020202120222023Jan19.1k21.1k11.8k13.7k25.3kFeb16.2k24.8k11.6k14k25.5kMar31.0k21.9k13.9k14.4k23.2kApr45.4k18.8k13.9k13.4k18.1kMay52.7k17k11.5k14.1k18.2kJun26.7k13.5k11.7k13.8k14.9kJul19.8k13.9k10.3k14.6k14.7kAug19.9k16k12.1k14.7k15.2kSep22.5k15.4k11.9k18.1k15.7kOct17.8k17.3k13.7k21k12.1kNov15.0k15.4k13.6k22.9k10.3kDec11.8k12.2k12.7k22.7k8.5kTotal298k208k149k198k202k 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. Rank20192020202120222023#1How to Check if a File Exists in Python148k viewsHow to Check if a List is Empty in Python 19.9k viewsHow to Increment a Number in Python 12.3k viewsHello World in Brainfuck22.9k viewsHow to Increment a Number in Python33.9k views#2How to Check if a List is Empty in Python65.6k viewsPython Code Snippets for Everyday Problems14.4k views How to Performance Test Python Code11.9k viewsHow to Performance Test Python Code17.6k viewsHello World in Brainfuck22.2k views#3How to Sum Elements of Two Lists in Python 14k viewsHow to Invert a Dictionary in Python 9.3k viewsPython Code Snippets for Everyday Problems11.4k viewsHow to Increment a Number in Python16.9k viewsHow to Performance Test Python Code9k views#4How to Invert a Dictionary in Python13.3k viewsHow to Performance Test Python Code 8.6k viewsHello World in Brainfuck10.6k viewsHow to Open a File in Python9.7k viewsHow to Open a File in Python7.4k views#5How to Convert Two Lists Into a Dictionary in Python10.1k viewsHow to Print on the Same Line in Python8.2k viewsHow to Open a File in Python4.9k viewsPython Code Snippets for Everyday Problems7.2k viewsPython Code Snippets for Everyday Problems6.5k views 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. Rank20192020202120222023#1Google259K viewsGoogle92.9k viewsGoogle74.8k viewsGoogle136k viewsGoogle152k views#2DuckDuckGo4.8k viewsBing22.3k views Bing24.9k views Bing23k viewsDirect21.9k views#3Bing4.8k viewsDuckDuckGo19.2k views DuckDuckGo20.6k views Direct17.5k viewsBing13.5k views#4WordPress Android App1.3k viewsYahoo3.9k views Ecosia3.8k viewsDuckDuckGo11.1k views DuckDuckGo5.2k views#5GitHub967 viewsEcosia3.1k views Yahoo3.5k viewsYahoo2.7k viewsYandex3.6k views#6Yahoo Search777 viewsDev2.2k viewsDev869 viewsYandex2k viewsYahoo1.8k#7Ecosia522 viewsGitHub1.3k viewsGitHub682 viewsEcosia1.9k viewsEcosia874 views#8Twitter289 viewsTopDev810 viewsYandex557 viewsGitHub449 viewsGitHub320 views#9Qwant160 viewsEdabit550 viewsQwant471 viewsQwant370 viewsStartpage218 views#10Yandex144 viewsQwant500 viewsEdabit216 viewsStartPage196 viewsQwant161 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. Rank20192020202120222023#1United States of America115,649 viewsUnited States of America57.6k views United States of America44.3k viewsUnited States of America61.3k viewsUnited States of America68k views#2India33,496 viewsIndia20.9k views India17.4k viewsIndia23.4k viewsIndia23.3k views#3United Kingdom14,206 viewsGermany14.2k views United Kingdom8.4k viewsUnited Kingdom10.2k viewsUnited Kingdom10.2k views#4Germany13,664 viewsUnited Kingdom10.5k views Germany8.2k viewsGermany9.8k viewsGermany9.7k views#5Canada11,003 viewsCanada7.7k views Canada5.7k viewsCanada8k viewsRussia8.1k views#6France8,636 viewsFrance5.3k views France4.4k viewsFrance5.5k viewsCanada7.1k views#7Brazil6,097 viewsAustralia3.8k viewsRussia3.8k viewsRussia5.4k viewsFrance5k views#8Australia5,445 viewsNetherlands3.6k viewsNetherlands2.9k viewsBrazil4.1k viewsBrazil3.9k views#9Netherlands4,847 viewsBrazil3.3k viewsAustralia2.9k viewsAustralia3.9k viewsAustralia3.8k views#10Spain4,237 viewsRussia2.7k viewsBrazil2.5k viewsNetherlands3.6k viewsNetherlands3.3k 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. Rank20192020202120222023#13 Ways to Check If a List Is Empty in Python232 views3 Ways to Element-Wise Sum Two Lists in Python974 views3 Ways to Map Two Lists to a Dict in Python876 views3 Ways to Map Two Lists to a Dict in Python704 views3 Ways to Element-Wise Sum Two Lists in Python196 views#24 Ways to Reverse a Dictionary in Python146 views4 Ways to Reverse a Dictionary in Python571 views3 Ways to Element-Wise Sum Two Lists in Python592 views4 Ways to Reverse a Dictionary in Python489 views4 Ways to Reverse a Dictionary in Python180 views#33 Ways to Element-Wise Sum Two Lists in Python142 views3 Ways to Map Two Lists to a Dict in Python353 views4 Ways to Reverse a Dictionary in Python511 views3 Ways to Element-Wise Sum Two Lists in Python434 views3 Ways to Compare Strings in Python156 views#43 Ways to Map Two Lists to a Dict in Python44 views3 Ways to Check If a List Is Empty in Python214 views3 Ways to Compare Strings in Python457 views3 Ways to Compare Strings in Python423 views3 Ways to Map Two Lists to a Dict in Python135 views#5The Definitive Guide to List Comprehensions in Python37 views4 Ways to Get the Last Element of a List in Python143 views4 Ways to Get the Last Element of a List in Python408 views 4 Ways to Get the Last Element of a List in Python316 views4 Ways to Get the Last Element of a List in Python89 views 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. Month20192020202120222023Jan$0.00$17.37$18.14$13.99$9.07Feb$0.00$17.37$18.14 $13.99$9.07Mar$0.00$17.37$18.14 $13.99$9.07Apr$0.00$17.37$18.14 $13.99$9.07May$0.00$23.75$18.14 $13.22$9.07Jun$0.00$23.75$18.14 $9.07$4.92Jul$8.30$23.74$18.14 $9.07$4.92Aug$22.72$23.74$18.14 $9.07$9.07Sep$22.72$23.75$18.14 $9.07$9.07Oct$22.72$23.75$18.14 $9.07$9.07Nov$22.72$18.14$9.84$9.07$9.07Dec$22.72$18.14$9.84$9.07$9.07Total$121.90$248.24$201.08$132.67$100.54Revenue from Patreon by month and year Overall, Patreon is my most stable form of income, but it's also not scaling at all. Fortunately, Amazon revenue is doing extremely well. Month20192020202120222023Jan$0.00$1.49$4.23$20.51$20.62Feb$0.00$0.00$14.30$11.03$12.53Mar$0.00$12.70$8.51$9.53$14.62Apr$0.00$11.63$8.18$4.71$7.47May$0.00$0.90$6.09$7.50$8.53Jun$0.00$12.78$4.12$2.82$0.28Jul$0.00$0.98$2.66$0.37$9.27Aug$0.00$0.94$2.20$12.21$26.95Sep$0.00$0.62$4.37$8.97$19.71Oct$0.20$0.38$9.84$34.35$31.02Nov$0.00$8.59$10.84$18.70$28.19Dec$0.00$7.24$4.39$18.47$85.76Total$0.20$58.25$79.73$149.17$264.95Revenue from Amazon by month and year 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. Month20192020202120222023Jan$12.84$0.00$2.72$7.91$9.20Feb$8.93$0.00$8.34$12.37$11.55Mar$21.71$0.00$9.23$12.61$9.01Apr$28.18$0.00$8.76$2.48$12.59May$30.53$0.00$6.27$4.40$7.35Jun$17.00$0.00$10.98$9.19$9.34Jul$10.67$0.00$7.67$5.64$11.46Aug$9.78$0.00$7.23$6.23$4.60Sep$4.99$0.00$14.55$8.41$11.25Oct$0.00$0.00$18.63$12.09$3.12Nov$0.00$0.00$18.99$10.37$4.95Dec$0.00$0.00$10.89$9.78$5.53Total$144.63$0.00$124.26$101.50$99.95Revenue from ads by month and year 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. Month2023January$0.00February$87.00March$0.00April$100.00May$410.23June$34.00July$0.00August$17.00September$0.00October$0.00November$0.00December$0.00Total$648.23Expenses by month and year 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. YearRevenueExpensesNet Income2023$465.44$(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)$1,258.8Income by year 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!