Merry christmas & happy new year

This is a crosspost from my blog?https://www.alltwincat.com/

Another year has passed by, and I thought I'd just share some thoughts.

There haven't really been many blog posts this year (as in pure blog texts), but rather blog posts with links to my YouTube videos. As you might already have guessed, all my spare-time went into finishing the free "PLC programming using TwinCAT 3" course on YouTube. I promised myself that I would finish this course this year, and I'm very happy to have delivered the last part just a few days ago.

The response to this course has been well beyond my imagination. I've on average probably received two dozen messages every week saying thank you from people all across the world. Many have started their careers thanks to my course, some have learned something new (for example, what TDD is). A few have written very angry/hateful e-mails stating that I'm destroying the automation industry and the job-market by putting out my course for free. I've realized you can't make everyone happy.

The most common feedback however has been requests for more videos. The demand is huge. I unfortunately can't possibly satisfy everyone's wishes for more courses, as every video is a lot of work (averaging about one hour of work for every minute of video). As this is fully unpaid work, I have to be very selective of what videos I will make in the future. There will with 100% certainty be more YouTube videos next year, but first I have to rest from making videos, as I've simply spent all my free/spare-time to finish the TwinCAT 3 course the last two years, and I need to think of other things for a while. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE making YouTube videos and sharing the wonders of software development with everyone. Content/video creation triggers a part of my brain that genuinely makes me happy. Compared to writing PLC-software, being creative and working with video and sound feels like using a completely different part of the brain that releases a lot of the happy-hormone-stuff (as you might notice, I'm not a doctor... but I'm sure this creativity enables some chemicals in my body). But sometimes too much of the funny stuff can be bad too. Thanks to all the feedback I've got, I think I have a pretty good understanding of what content is requested, and where there needs to be more education.

I want to take this opportunity and say that I hope there will be others joining and making PLC-programming courses (or just general videos) and sharing their knowledge on YouTube. YouTube is a great platform for sharing knowledge, and I myself follow many software developers on YouTube to get inspiration. There are a lot of very talented PLC/TwinCAT 3 developers out there, and I hope that more people will spend a little bit of their time to share their knowledge on this platform.

Other than finishing the TwinCAT 3 course, two more big things happened this year (in order of importance):

1. I received my Model F mechanical keyboard, after waiting for over five years since I ordered it
2. I quit my job and started working full-time with my own company. If you need any help with PLC software development (or generally any software actually), or want me to train you or your employees in TwinCAT 3, please check out my company's website

I want to finish by saying a huge thanks to everyone that has followed me, and especially my Patrons, YouTube members and GoFundMe donators. Thanks to you I have been able to pay for all the equipment and software that I had to buy in order to create my videos. Without your support none of this would be possible.

Merry christmas and a happy new 2023! See you in the next year!

ps. Will the year 2023 finally be the year when TwinCAT 4026 is released? What would you want me to do more content on? Let me know in the comments below! ds.