My breakthrough this year has been working on a side project that really really isn't just me. It's a collaboration with a small research group at a university.

My breakthrough this year has been working on a side project that really really isn't just me. It's a collaboration with a small research group at a university. I do my stuff mainly outside of work, and generally am improving the group's overall research bandwidth, rather than taking a full project on all by myself. Having some social obligation to keep the relationship going is enough to overcome a lot of the little hurdles, and having some excited feedback when I make some genuine progress is super helpful. It's also been a great chance to just meet lots of lovely people in the community, and having the communication has helped me make progress much faster than I would have on my own. And best of all, I get to have the feeling of doing some real Science, in an important but generally underfunded problem space. It's been great.