Thursday 31 December 2015

2015 in review – a comparative edition

Last year I wrote a “2014 in review – number edition”, and I thought I’d write a comparative one to see how the year changed and what that means.

Words written on the blog: 18,240 (2014) vs 18,376 (2015)

This was something of a surprise, mostly because I’m not very good at remembering how much or how little I write on here. More surprising was the fact that 2015 saw the highest pages views of any year.

Here’s a selection of my favourite/the most popular posts from 2015:

Make or Steal
My Favourite Question
The Cappuccino Index
The Price of Coffee in London (2015)
An Analysis of Nespresso Part 1 1
The Coffee Professional Beginners Guide
The State of Espresso (2015)
Part 1: The Lull
Part 2: The Bubble
Part 3: Implications and Predictions

Flights Taken: 44 (2014) vs 51 (2015) Distance Travelled: 69,788 miles (2014) vs 98,562 miles (2015)

In the past I had mixed feelings about the amount I travel. I don’t anymore, I have no doubts that I travelled too much this year. I know this because I really don’t want to travel this much next year. (It probably didn’t help that my average flight distance went from 1,586 miles to 1,932 – a 22% jump).

When travel is considered aspirational, I’m aware that complaining about too much of it is like complaining about too many meals in good restaurants. However, I don’t want to complain – I just want to try and learn my lessons about what makes me happy and what doesn’t. I have no intention of consigning my passport to a drawer and not leaving the UK for the foreseeable – I just intent to be a bit smarter about the travel I do.

Applications through Coffee Jobs Board: 14,905 (2014) vs ~30k (2015)

I don’t actually know the real number here as we now have to purge older applications from the server, because there were too many and they were taking up unnecessary space. This is a guess based on what I can see now. I’m investing a lot into making the site better, and version 2 should launch in the next 4-5 weeks. I want it to be a better service, and to be more useful to the industry, more valuable. It is an enjoyable challenge.

Plans for 2016

I seem to alternate between years in which I plan, and years in which I do. I get a growing feeling of frustration and dissatisfaction when I don’t finish things – and 2015 has been a frustrating year that way.

I want 2016 to be a year of narrowing focus; a year of finishing off things that I’ve started, and doing more of the work I enjoy.

  1. I know, I know – I will continue this series in 2016, I promise!  ↩︎

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