Problem with good intention

If road to hell is paved with good intentions then it must be a pretty solid detour. I think the amount of good intentions all around us is so high that this road has been already rebuilt into 8-lane high capacity highway a long time ago. And considering that there are only stairways to heaven can give you some idea about anticipated traffic numbers!

And this highway is getting extra walls and roof during New Year eve period when everyone is making personal commitments of how they want to improve their lives in the next coming year. First week of the new years is usually the time when most of people already realize then will not act upon resolutions they made.

So obviously there's a problem with good intentions. Maybe the trick is that start off with something simple. Something that you can easily plan for the coming weeks or even start implementing right away into your daily routine. So what are some of the commitments we can recommend to all programmers?

We've compiled a quick list for you:

1. Visit country you have never been to before! (Looking back into the 2.8 million years of humankind history it turns out that airplane tickets have never been cheaper before!)

2. Start documenting your code. (that includes self-documenting code).

3. Call your mum more often (unless you're busy writing documentation)

4. Learn functional programming (at least one!)

5. Get yourself a pet.

6. Donate to charity.

7. Get yourself RaspberryPi (then you can use it to build a sensor-controlled mini door for your pet).

8. Spend quality time with your friends and family (but not too much. Keep priorities right. Remember friends come and go. But programming languages you learn stay with you forever!).

9. Start using good security habits (that will make bad hackers life a little bit more difficult).

10. Adopt unit testing.

11. Do more sport!

12. Start a personal project. Announce it in your ChallengeRocket portfolio!

13. Donate to Wikipedia.

14. Go analog from time to time (but not too often. The real 'proper' life is in the Internet!)

and the last one: CHALLENGE YOURSELVES AT ALL THE TIME! In fact we will help you to do it. Stay tuned for new exciting competitions to come!