It's not that I hate year reviews, but let's be honest - a stereotypical year summary is very "me"-centric, so why bore you folks with scribblings that are mainly relevant to myself only? That would be selfish and egotistical, don't you think? That's why this post is NOT "my personal summary of 2024" (by implication, of my successes, failures, and learnings). What I decided to do instead is to filter my observations, findings & conclusions and share just the part that YOU (a reader) may find helpful. Let me know if I did well on that.

Books

If it's not your first visit here, you probably already know I'm a bookworm. Unsurprisingly, my list of books read in 2024 is quite long, but if I had to recommend just five (of the ones I've read in the last 12 months), they'd be:

1. "Kaput" - Why? Because it's one of the books that explain (in simple words) how fragile were (are?) the foundations of Western civilization's (past?) economic superiority.
2. "Die with Zero" - Why? Because it teaches you what's essential in life once you realize it's not infinite. This book should be an obligatory read for everyone 40+.
3. "The Engineering Executive's Primer" - Why? Because no one captures different aspects of engineering leadership better than Will Larson. Yes, I am jealous (in case you're wondering).
4. "Broken Money" - Why? It doesn't matter whether you like it or not - decentralized finance will (eventually) change the world & 2025 is likely to be a breakthrough year (when it's integrated into the mainstream, e.g., backbones of financial settlements).
5. "Magic Pill" - Why? Because it's an excellent study of how innovations change the world - across all possible dimensions. It also serves as a great case study to prove that such changes are never 100% black/white.

Tools

My tolerance for change was always crazy-high & I used to try new things out of curiosity. Nevertheless, 2024 was surprisingly stable - I can't recall any utterly new tool I started to use. Actually, I've given up on many tools I used to pay for, and some of my usage patterns have changed surprisingly across the last 12 months:

Relying on high-quality newsletters

Substack has been "promoted" to one of my primary sources of knowledge. I have a bunch of paid subscriptions (5, if I'm not mistaken) & some unpaid ones as well, and they've all collectively replaced all of the expensive e-learning subscriptions/tech news feeds I used to rely on. Substack newsletters are more focused (on what matters), and the quality of knowledge shared is undoubtedly higher (than in the case of typical MOOCs). Some newsletters I recommend to you are Stratechery, The Pragmatic Engineer, Big Technology, and Lenny's Newsletter.

Selective podcasting

When writing these words, I am subscribed to 34 podcasts. That's A LOT, and listening to all the episodes they release is not feasible. How do I decide which episodes (or even - which sections) to listen to then? Snipd to the rescue - this application is an example of how smartly applied Gen AI can bring a lot of value. How come? Snipd generates episode summaries, annotates them with important information you can use for filtering (names of the guests invited, books mentioned, etc.), and splits them into sections dedicated to different topics. It takes me just a glance or two & I already know if the given episode (or its particular section) is how I want to spend my time. I enjoyed Snipd earlier, but now, with all the product improvements, I find it indispensable.

Expanding the brain with Gen AI

I don't know about you, but Gen AI "knowledge black boxes" are now inherent parts of my flows (work and personal development). I use Perplexity as an ad-hoc sidekick to answer quick questions or validate/challenge topics I'm unsure about. To be clear - I don't use it for purely creative work ("create me a plan") but rather double-check my work-in-progress to ensure I don't miss anything significant. As Gen AI tools have their drawbacks as well, I always have two at my disposal (to compare their output against each other) - at the moment, my second tool of choice is ChatGPT (but Claude would be a valid pick as well). Such modus operandi (IMHO) maximizes the benefits LLM can bring.

Crowdsourcing works (better than personalization)

My activity habits have changed a lot in 2024. Until then, I used to run regularly (~14km per session, mostly tarmac/sidewalks/parks in the city or on its outskirts), but in March, I finally bought a decent gravel bike. My effective distance increased to 60-100 km, and the variety of acceptable riding surfaces has expanded significantly (gravel, dirt, compacted forest floor). As a result, choosing an enjoyable route became quite a challenge (to make sure I don't get lost, get stuck in a sand pit, or get bored with re-visiting the same segments repeatedly). I decided that the best solution would be ... crowd-sourcing (instead of algorithmic personalization). The idea was to rely on the choices/opinions/recommendations of people who face the same challenge (in my vicinity). Fortunately, some applications offer precisely that, and the best one I've found (for my geography) is Komoot, of which I became a dedicated user. Recommended.

Learnings

What has worked yesterday ...

I've found that the existing ways to decompress (emotionally) & reset my mind stopped working. I've broken all of them in some way - e.g., I've moved meditation to late evenings (just before going to bed) & that's the part of the day I need a mindfulness moment the least. Or all my running sessions were accompanied by listening to audiobooks - which meant that my mind never had "idle time" to think about ... nothing & simply chill. That was an important realization (just to make myself aware of the problem) & I've applied corrections (that's one of the reasons why I've started gravel riding). Conclusion? It's good to occasionally re-visit your prior life-related assumptions & routines: do they still work as intended?

Social media are not social

I've nearly completely given up on social media. I used to use Twitter, BlueSky, and LinkedIn only (& non-extensively), but in 2024, they all completely lost their appeal to me. You still can see me pasting links to Goodreads reviews, No Kill Switch posts, or CTO Morning Coffee sessions, but that's about it - I rarely read anything in their feeds. It was not a conscious decision but happened spontaneously. I guess I got tired of all the biased content, marketing, fake news & outrage-optimized exaggerations. To be frank, I had my fingers crossed for Airchat (voice conversations in topic-related rooms) & I think the vibe was there initially, but the product is pretty much dead at the moment - maybe it was ahead of its time?

Job market rebound

2024 was rough for many people in software engineering. With all the layoffs, limited investments, the challenging geopolitical situation, and the increasing RTO trend, many folks faced difficulties finding new jobs - something that would appear completely unthinkable just 2-3 years ago. My initial plan was to jump ships around Jan 2024, but seeing how the job market looks like, I delayed the move until the worst period was over. But even in late Q3/early Q4, finding an interesting position was far from a piece of cake. I was lucky (or was it about determination?) to get enough decent offers to land a fitting job quickly (in this case - 3 months of intensive searching & interviewing), but many smart folks have been struggling with that for many months now, being essentially "unemployable" in the market where employers can snub & be picky ... What learning comes out of that? I have three:

1. If you're a niche player specializing in a single technology, a narrow domain, or some unorthodox role - hedge your options. Really. Having a 'B' plan may be insufficient - you should aim for at least 'A', 'B' & 'Z'.
2. It's not possible to make your career 100% future-proof, but the closest thing to making it so is repeatedly asking yourself a self-critical question: "What VALUE are you really creating?". Here are some supplementary questions you could use to dig deeper:
   1. Can you explain (succinctly) to others what you're doing and why it's essential (& for whom)? (yes, the "elevator pitch" of yourself)
   2. What have you BUILT (changed/fixed/created) recently? Do you have any tangible accomplishments? How could one measure their outcome?
   3. Can you compare where you are today against where you were one year ago? How is "now" more/better/higher/stronger than "then"?
3. If you want real control over your career, you need a "high impact" role (that does not necessarily mean a flashy job title or a mahogany desk). If your role is a cog (with limited scope) in a larger machine & your skills are commodity (in the context of your whole job market, which can be, e.g., the EU!) - you're fully replaceable and absolutely NOT in control.

Tracer bullet effect

I think I had recklessly underestimated the importance of the flock effect. In many cases, it's enough if just one highly visible, notable player decides to adopt an idea OR when such a player publicly drops an idea (withdraws from it) - the rest will eagerly follow. We have had many examples of such behavior recently: ESG, DEI, Green IT/Sustainable Tech, and return to office.

It seems that with the rise of deglobalization, more aggressive economic politics (among former partners), and increased popularity of libertarian doctrine, the global appetite for risk also rises. We'll likely have more "tracer bullets" (daring entities, not afraid to make bold moves with possible high rewards), creating corresponding flock effects - in such fields as robotics, decentralized finance, med-tech, and education. I believe that it means the beginning of an aggressive de-regulation era. Whoever sleeps through this trend will be left far behind.

OK, enough of that. I've you managed to get up to this point, congratulations & ... thank you 🫡. All the best in 2025 - may it be a year of sustainable growth, stability, and reason 🍾.