What went well this year?

I got my driving license. I never cared because I never needed a car. After playing Euro Truck Simulator for a while, I decided that someday I wanted to do such a big trip, and then I started with the academy. It was such a ride… having my exam canceled just some days before due to the COVID-19 explosion.

I felt that my focus on the essentials was something I lived by. Examples like getting barely new clothes, focused on the ones that are cheap and neutral at the same time (I like to wear greay t-shirts). I also didn’t get much unnecesary things.

I spent a great time with Shei at Disneyland Paris. That was our only big trip for the year. We slept just a minutes away and visited both parks.

I grew professionaly at my PM role. 2020 was “the year” for Lang.ai. We got the biggest deals and completed a lot of milestones towards focusing the product for our customer and their real needs. I’m happy that we managed to keep it simple, being a challenge with different uses cases and such a technical core.

I gave the talk “From developer to Product Manager”. It went way better than expected, with a lot of people attending and asking questions.

Keeping my piano playing habit. It’s such a great habit to keep being creative and reduce stress. I really enjoy the time I spend playing.

Keeping my healthy habits and doing excercises. That’s why I bought the Apple Watch. It’s all about the motivation and habits game.

Journaling. A lot of entries during 2020 tracked in Notion.

Got back to friends from far away. I spent a lot of time talking and playing with friends via Discord. It’s a new habit that I really enjoy.

What didn’t go so well?

I published half the episodes from the podcast. I didn’t kept my habit of talking and learning from people as much as the last year. The year didn’t start that bad, with a good episode recorded at Carto, but after the COVID arrived, I think I got unmotivated as it had a big impact on me. I felt lazier than usual.

A global pandemic came in. This is a big deal. Thinking about it from an existencialest perspective, it’s insane to think how one person eating a vat (?) can have such a barcaric impact on every corner of the world.

I read barely nothing. I just went throug a few books I can enumerate:

• Sci-fi
  • Hitchickers Guide to the Galaxy I and II
  • Sci-fi — Do androings dream of electric sheep?
• Non-fiction
  • Never split the difference
  • Outcomes over output
  • Do nothing

I started a book about Epicuro and another one about the cynics but I didn’t finish either.

I had peaks of stress. I had a bad tim with some chest pain and I went to the doctor for a check. I stopped drinking coffee and go tthe habit of going for a walk every day, and to stop to play the piano a bit. This is also why I bought the Apple watch, in order to keep doing excercise to disconnect.

What did I learn?

I drastically improved my piano execution. Even thought I didn’t improve the musical theory side, I jammed A lot and now I feel more agile. I also got used to some chords progressions and techniques on my own.

I grew on my PM role, specially in team dynamics. Last year was the year of closing big deals and listening and participating with customers. We moved to a production-ready mode. I also learned a lot about observability and compliance, leading the SOC2 implementation in the company.

I learned to drive. I moved from driving inside Euro Truck Simulator 2 to real roads. I feel confident with being cautious, knowing I still have few experience drawing.

What’s next?

Personal

Keep the progressive minimalism spirit. By buying less and letting go of what is not essential.

Bring back philosophy into my reading habit. In the last few years I’ve been reading a lot of philosophy and it had a remarkable impact in my life. Lately I replaced this with more work-related topics. I’m starting this year with Popper’s “The Open Society and its Enemies”.

Keep my piano habit and take it to the next level. I would like to rotate jamming sessions and quick 20-minute lessons. I want to get the habit of piano learning along the years.

Professional

I am curious about the engineering manager role. I like that it connects tech with people in a deeper way than my current role, although the PM ingredientes of UX also resonate with me and it’s field I think I can be helpful.

I am considering formal education for my PM role. Specially to strengthen the strategy and business side of this role.

Improve my K8s knowledge. It might not be useful in another company, but while we don’t have another dedicated dev, I think it would be important to understand such a critical component from our infrastructure.

Habits to break

• Don’t spend a while day playing with barely one exercise
• Don’t start the day without a clear, small, scheduled MIT (most important task)

Habits to recover

• Meditation: start with 3 minutes every day after lunch
• Read at home or at coffee shops
• Play Ringfit at least once a week, along with the usual Badminton practice

2020 in Music

You can tell we went to an Editors concert. There is also a big influence from Rocket League artists. Lastly, the total scrobbles went up by 27%. 18.837 in 2020 vs 14.844 from 2019. One of the effects of working from home.

A great 2021 would look like a place where

• I am healthy, with solid habits, and I manage my stress
• Professionally, where I learned more about product strategy and Lang became profitable. It’s true that this will change now that we have closed a funding round
• I can play more than just a few chords with barely no piano knowledge
• I read to know more about myself (philosophy) and for fun (sci-fi!)

For a great 2021!

See you in January 2022. 🍿