What was my 2023

2023 is over - it's time to sum it up. It was quite a rollercoaster occasionally, but generally, it wasn't a bad year.

Being a parent - it's getting a bit more complicated

Being a parent of a 2-year-old is very unpredictable, and full of surprises, but also this is the moment when you realize it's not just a baby - it's a little human, having better and worse days. But it's also an amazing time when you can play together and see how your kid learns new stuff every day.

Despite some more difficult days, I consider this the best part of my year.

So, having the "terrible twos" phase out of the picture (it wasn't that bad), we will be entering the "threenager" phase next year. Not sure what to expect, but it will be fun.

Also, my kid motivated me to hit the gym. I realized that if I wanted to carry him for a few more years (not sure if he'll be interested though), I need to do something. That's how my gym adventure started. I didn't skip a single week. Even, when I'm somewhere else, I'm trying to find a local gym there. Kids can motivate us to do weird stuff 😄

Biggest disappointment

I thought it would be Starfield. I mean it's such a horrible game, but no.

Last year I started working for Kinsta. I saw Kinsta as a place where I would stay for longer. Sadly, in November they announced layoffs - I mean according to them it was:

"On an ongoing basis, we review the composition and structure of our team to ensure we are able to support our customers and execute our chosen strategy. From time to time, it becomes necessary to move some pieces around to ensure we're set up for success. With this goal in mind, we are making some changes internally right now which will result in some changes to our team"

So, I was moved around from the company to outside of it. Together with a lot of amazing people.

I'm disappointed with how the company handled it. Especially that along the way they did an amazing job teaming people together. This just caused the layoffs to be harder.

That said, I wish most of my Kinsta friends all the best. I hope they won't have to go through the same thing again. I also hope that the company will learn from how horribly they handled this process and that they will never repeat those mistakes.

New job

Because of those layoffs, I had to look for a new job. It turned out to be a quite simple task. When Courtney Robinson mentioned that I should ping Oliver from Patchstack, I didn't imagine that everything would happen so quickly. After 2 calls and a few emails, we were ready to sign the contract.

I already had a chance to participate in the company workshops and now I'm 110% sure it was a great decision. Next year will be full of creative challenges.

Visiting Spain

Winter in Poland is a nightmare. In 2023 we decided to spend a month of this horrible time in Spain - it was the best decision ever. During that month I changed my daily routine - I woke up early, so I could work from 6 to 11 and later after 18. Thanks to this I could spend most of the day enjoying the sun.

Also, I fell in love with the Spanish way of living. They are much more chilled and less stressed. And we're visiting Malaga next year too 😄

The Code and Coffee Show

At the beginning of the year, I started my Code And Coffee Show. After Buddy, I learned that I enjoy doing those livestreams. They are fun and it's a perfect opportunity to meet amazing people.

Overall, I don't have any bigger plans about it - I consider it a hobby. At the moment I recorded 20 episodes and gained almost 300 subs on YT. Maybe it's not much, but I'm really proud of myself. Right now, I'm wrapping up the second season. After this, I will probably take a 2 months break (to find some amazing guests) and will start working on the 3rd season.

The only thing I'm not happy about is my lack of organization - I feel I can do some things better. I hope to implement some changes for the 3rd season.

Writing

Writing has never been my strong side, but I'm really proud of the amount of content I wrote this year:

• 19 articles on this blog

• 40+ issues of my newsletter (BTW if you aren't subscribed, I think you should give it a chance)

• 3 articles for Kinsta

For me - that's my personal best. I hope that 2024 will be even better. Maybe I will even record a video (not a Iive stream). I still find writing difficult. I'm overthinking this a lot, but I also see how I improved.

Conferences

I have mixed feelings here. On the bright side, I visited:

• JS World in Amsterdam

• PHP UK in London

• WordCamp Europe in Athens

• WordCamp Gliwice - I was a speaker there

• WordCamp Trójmiasto - I was a speaker there too

• Code Europe

• JS Poland (online) - I was rejected, but my talk was available online for participants

On the other hand, I hoped for more. As a DevRel, I thought I would have a chance to attend more conferences. Also, most of my talk submissions were rejected.

On the plus side - I already got approved for the Berlin PHP Conference in May, I have tickets for JS World in Amsterdam and I'm working on more submissions. Fingers crossed.

My new bike 🚴

I always wanted to have a Canyon bike. Sadly they were out of my reach. At the end of 2022, I started thinking about selling my road bike and buying a gravel one. Why? I love my Giant, but it's not that universal and I felt that I'm missing a lot of interesting locations.

After doing some research, I decided that Canyon has the best quality-to-price ratio. After automating the buying process a bit and waiting a few months I finally got it. And I'm really happy with it. As I suspected - it's much more universal than my road bike, it's also better for bike packing.

I can't wait for the next year, as we are planning quite a few serious travels.

Best games I played

Quite a lot happened in this department, but picking the top 3 was quite simple:

• Baldur's Gate 3 - I always liked Larian, but when they announced BG3 I was a bit afraid that they wouldn't deliver a game worth being the third part of this classic. After finishing this game twice I can easily say that this is one of the best games I ever played. It's a game made of pure love. And it's one of those games that redefines how you look at other games.

• Cyberpunk 2077 - so, with the release of Phantom Liberty, I decided to play CP2077 once again. I already loved the base game, but the DLC shows how much this game could be. Amazing story, great localization, and the fact I could kill Dawid Podsiadło 😄

• Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader - I love Owlcat's RPGs. My only beef with this game is the setting. I have some problems with the Warhammer 40k universe in general. On the other hand, it didn't stop me from having a lot of fun killing hordes of enemies.

What I listened to

Apart from classics like the Archive, Rammstein, and Massive Attack, I was lucky enough to discover some amazing bands:

• Kwiat Jabłoni - many of you, especially if you are outside of Poland, might not know them, but they are a truly amazing band and it's not a surprise they were on the first place of my Spotify Wrapped list.

• London Grammar - this was one of my biggest discoveries this year. It all started with a cover of Nighcall, just to learn that everything they recorded was great.

• Klangphonics - I discovered them while browsing 9gag. They recorded one song using a Kercher cleaner. But apart from those they also recorded some great songs. It's like techno but created using real instruments.

Best TV Series

It was a good year TV-wise:

• 1670 - a Polish series, which is a mix of The Office and our history. It's the first series we had that was brave enough to laugh a bit at our history (we are very serious in this department).

• Gen V - while waiting for the next season of The Boys, Gen V happened. When I first heard about it I was skeptical, to say the least. But it turned out really great. Now I really can't wait for the boys to make a comeback.

• Invincible - this great series is back after years of waiting and it doesn't disappoint. It's deeper than the first season.

• Reacher - I love those classic action movies. Reacher is a true tribute to those. I'm having so much fun watching it.

As you can see - Amazon Prime got 3 out of 4. I also can't wait for Fallout.

It wasn't that bad

Apart from the layoffs (which were a horrible experience), it wasn't a bad year. I feel that I achieved quite a lot. It won't be easy for 2024 to beat 2023, but I feel it will be a good year.