2022

What a year.

Career

Our whole team was laid off as part of the many layoffs happening in tech in 2022. A certification platform we built and 200 courses we made for it over the last 4 years were out of the window with one swift decision.

• Silver lining: this forced me to be more deliberate about my career
  • All of my previous roles sort of happened to me, this was the first time I had a chance to sit back and reevaluate what I actually want to do
  • I decided I like product design and management, however changing companies and career tracks at the same time proved to be difficult
  • Plus, there are not many product roles in Singapore to being with; they are close to the devs and dev roles are typically in the US or outsourced to countries with more affordable labor

In the end, I was lucky to find a great company where I can continue in the enablement track, and hopefully I’ll be able to slowly pivot more in the product direction.

• Job search is not what it used to be
  • I never had much luck on LinkedIn and, despite polishing my profile, it didn’t really work now either
  • What did help was The 2-Hour Job Search book recommended by a friend; in a nutshell:
    1. Write a list of companies you want to work for
    2. See what roles they’re hiring for and if any would be a good match for what you want to do and your existing skillset
    3. Use your network to find 2nd or 3rd-level contacts within those companies for internal referrals
    4. Those people don’t need to necessarily know you, you just need someone helpful who’s willing to recommend you internally as that has a much higher weight than applying as an external candidate

If you really want to be deliberate about your career, repeat this search every couple of weeks even when you do have a job, to keep your network active and practice that skill.

Media diet

My media highlights I’d recommend.

• Books
  • Smart Brevity - respect your readers by writing concisely
  • Připraven sloužit: Rozhovor s Karlem Schwarzenbergem - biography of Karel Schwarzenberg, what a life he had!
  • The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It - helped me understand the part of the human condition where we constantly compare and compete with our peers
• TV shows
  • Slow horses - a delightful hidden gem, Gary Oldman is just astounding

Keeping sane

Things that helped me unwind and keep sane throughout the year.

• DIY projects - I’ve always loved building things, and there’s something extra rewarding about doing that in the physical world
• Gardening - I never would have thought I’d be into gardening, but watching your plants thrive and fruit is strangely rewarding, especially if you had to work for it and failed with your early attempts (looking at you, tomatoes)
• Archery - there’s an archery range a short walk from where I live and I thought this would be good to help me unwind and free my mind for a bit; I haven’t been regular enough about it yet though, so will have to keep trying

Workflow changes

Things I’ve discovered and incorporated into my workflow this year.

• ChatGPT - I was already interested in LLMs and I happened to jump on this literally hours after it was released, I’ve been using it daily ever since
  • it’s also been fascinating following the rise of generative AI on a meta-level, the hype, the resistance
  • to put my stake in the ground, I think this is a foundational change that will change our lives and the world of IT for good; some likened it to the changes the mobile internet brought and I agree
• Logseq - I’ve used Bear as my note-taking for the past 5 years, but the lack of development has made me curious about what else is out there
  • Logseq with its bi-directional links and plethora of plugins is massively more powerful
  • there’s definitely a learning curve and I’m still progressing through it, but I have a hunch that this will significantly improve the way I work
• Mechanical split keyboards - this year I’ve finally fully embraced this niche and I can’t go back
  • Kyria - my first keyboard I built years ago, it was good but I feel 40% is too small and so it never really grew on me
  • Dactyl/Manuform 5x6 - this was the game changer
    • I got mine built from Oh, Keycaps!, altho I’ve since heard they sort of fell apart and the waiting times are now well over 2 years
    • I lucked out when they were testing rotary encoders and got mine built with two of those; to say I love them is an understatement
  • Glove80 - I’ve now grown so dependent on my Dactyl that I’m paranoid about it breaking, the build quality definitely shows this was hand-made and it is a bit wonky at places
    • I ordered Glove80 as a backup, plus I wanted to test how an industrial-made alternative with low-profile keycaps might feel like
    • as with most Kickstarter projects, this one should ship “any minute now”