Technologies I am learning in 2023

As the end of the year approaches, I like to take some time to reflect on how the year has gone for me. This allows me to think about what I could have done better and how I can improve in the coming year. As part of this reflection, I set some goals for the next year and identify the technologies that I want to learn. Some of these technologies are just for experimentation, while others are intended for use in production. This helps me focus my learning and ensure that I am constantly improving and growing as a developer. Here are some technologies that I will be learning in 2023:

Nestjs

I have been using Express as my go-to framework for developing Node.js APIs for a long time. While I am comfortable with the framework and appreciate the large community behind it, I decided to try a different framework in 2023. This is because I was recently working on a microservice project for a company where I was working, which involved creating a microservice that allowed users to trade cryptocurrency in the United States. My team and I debated which technologies to use and ultimately settled on Express, as it was already in use within the company. We also decided to implement the dependency injection pattern to make the software easier to test, make it modular, enforce reusability, and we found InversifyJS to be a perfect fit for our needs. However, while researching different technologies, I came across Nest.js, which offers the same benefits as InversifyJS out of the box. Unfortunately, our project was already well underway so we couldn't switch to Nest.js. Based on my experience with InversifyJS, I believe that Nest.js will be a pleasure to work with and I hope to convince my team at The Economist to use it when the opportunity arises.

PlanetScale

PlanetScale is a platform that has been gaining a lot of attention recently. It's a serverless database-as-a-service that is known for its developer experience (DX). I've been using AWS RDS recently, and it is not the most straightforward platform to work with. While I don't have a specific use case for PlanetScale at the moment, I'm excited to try it out in a side project and see how it compares to other database platforms I've used in the past.

Python

After managing to avoid learning Python for some time, I've decided to make it a priority for 2023. Every year, I try to learn a new programming language to see how it compares to languages I am already familiar with. I've wanted to learn Python for a long time but never had a good reason to do so until now. As part of my learning goals for the coming year, I have decided to start learning machine learning and have been told by many people that Python is the best language for this purpose. Not only is it well-suited for machine learning, but it also has excellent tooling available. I hope to find more opportunities to use Python regularly in the future.

Machine learning

In the coming year, I plan to finally dive into the world of machine learning. I've been interested in this subject for a long time but never took the steps to learn it. Recently, I've noticed that artificial intelligence (AI) is starting to mature and we're seeing more practical applications of it, which has sparked my curiosity even more. I found a highly-rated course on Udemy that I plan to start with and see where it leads me. I'm excited to finally start learning about machine learning.

Turborepo

Turborepo is a top-rated builder and bundler tool for monorepos in the JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystem. Monorepos are a topic that frequently comes up in my team at work, and I'm interested in learning more about them. From what I've heard from other developers who have used Turborepo, it is fast, reliable, and easy to use, which are all important qualities for any tool used on large-scale projects. I plan to start using Turborepo in my projects and possibly introduce it to my team at work if I think it would be a good fit for our applications.

OWASP

OWASP is a non-profit organisation that aims to improve the security of web applications and the internet through a global community of individuals, organisations, and corporations. This community collaborates to create and maintain open-source resources and tools for web application security, including guidelines, best practices, and tools that can help developers and security professionals build more secure applications. Recently, I attended a workshop organised by Snyk and realised just how much I still have to learn about web security. Many developers are aware of the most common vulnerabilities, but may not know how to prevent them in practice. My goal for next year is to learn more about the OWASP Top 10, which are the 10 most common vulnerabilities and how to prevent them.

Conclusion

Although I'm sure that this list will grow during the year, I have set some goals for myself for technologies that I want to learn and explore in 2023. These technologies include Nestjs, a framework for developing Node.js APIs; PlanetScale, a serverless database-as-a-service known for its developer experience; Python, a language that is well-suited for machine learning and has excellent tooling available; machine learning, a subject that I've been interested in for a long time but never took the steps to learn; Turborepo, a top-rated builder and bundler tool for monorepos in the JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystem; and OWASP, a non-profit organisation that aims to improve the security of web applications and the internet. I believe that learning these technologies will help me improve my skills as a developer and help me to grow in my career path.