2020 in Review
- This was a year of doing scary things and establishing passive revenue streams. Also of isolation and appreciating friendship and close ones.
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Best Movies
- Only Lovers Left Alive
- What We Do in the Shadows
- Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Harry Potter series (at least to some point)
- It’s A Wonderful Life
- Baby Driver
- Coco
- Chico y Rita
- The Princess Bride
- Mary Poppins
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Best TV Shows
- Russian Doll
- The Mandalorian
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Best Books
- 1984 by George Orwell
- Introvert’s Guide to Personal Branding by Anastasia Shcherbakova
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Fables: The Wolf Among Us, Volume 1 by Matthew Sturges
- A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck
- Mastery by Robert Greene
- The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
- On the Shortness of Life by Seneca
- The Sandman (Sandman Audible Original, [1]()) by Dirk Maggs
- Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall
- Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari
- It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried
- Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey
- The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.
- Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
- Who Owns the Future? by Jaron Lanier
- Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE by Phil Knight
- The Christmas Hirelings by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
- More on Goodreads
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Best Articles
- How Tracking My Excuses Helped Me Stop Making Them by Leigh Stein
- Advertising is a cancer on society — Jacek Złydach
- What is a Mastermind And Why You Should Start Your Own Group
- Ramblings from Jessie: Power to the People
- Béton brut – Chromecast dla Linuksiarza
- The Power of a Resonance Calendar by Brandon Zhang
- Tending the Roam Garden
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Best Music Albums
- Vince Guaraldi “It’s Christmas, Charlie Brown”
- Nightwish “HUMAN. :II: NATURE.”
- Avantasia “The Metal Opera”
- The Gentle Storm “The Diary”
- Mythos “The Best Of Mythos”
- More on Last.FM
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Best Music Tracks
- Prayers “Lucifer Rising”
- Gloryhammer “Universe on Fire”
- Avantasia “The Looking Glass”
- Gloryhammer “Hootsforce”
- Los Bitchos “This Link is About to Die”
- Edden Synthetic Corps “The Robots”
- Light Asylum “Skull Fuct”
- Emilie Autumn “One Foot in Front of the Other”
- D.A.F. “Der Sheriff (VNV Nation Remix)”
- Mike Oldfield “Nuclear”
- Olivia Ruiz “My Lomo & Me (Je Photographie Des Gens Heureux)”
- Kasia Moś & AUKSO “Prząśniczka”
- Bob Dylan “Must be Santa”
- The Weeknd “Blinding Lights”
- Punto Omega “El Regreso”
- Unwoman “Jolene (The Eldritch One)”
- Deine Lakaien “Because the Night”
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Best Concerts
- Deine Lakaien; streaming; 2020.07.16
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Best Theatre Play
- Swan Lake; Wiener Staatsoper, streaming; 2020.04.14
- The Nutcracker; Wiener Staatsoper, streaming; 2020.04.18
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What I’ve Created
- Managing Advanced Kubernetes Logging and Tracing on Pluralsight
- Open Source Your GitHub Project on Pluralsight
- A tutorial for DigitalOcean
- An article for freeCodeCamp
- Several articles on dev.to
- A talk at Lambda Days
- A talk at DevOpsDays Geneva
- A series of online events under the banner “Future of Work” (collaboration between Hackerspace Trójmiasto and Toptal)
- Python scrapping online workshop
- Songcorder (that also launched Meraki Acoustic)
- Published a Digital Garden
- Bit Better newsletter
- Bit Better Book Club newsletter
- Redesigned the Bit Better newsletter archive
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What I Failed to Create
- Once more, a proper Meraki Chai branding, Webpage, and sales campaign
- I haven’t finished writing a book
- I failed to maintain a regular two-week schedule with Bit Better newsletter for more than half of the year
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Top Habit I’ve Added to my Daily Routine
- Using Roam Research
- Note-taking
- Journaling
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Trips I’ve Taken
- Kraków for Lambda Days
- Geneva for DevOpsDays Geneva
- Kashubia several times
- Suwałki and Masuria
- Bory Tucholskie
- Kadyny and Frombork
- Gliwice
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Physical Accomplishments and Body Changes
- Gained some weight and not all of it is muscles unfortunately. Chest and arms have now trouble fitting my workout hoodie.
- Stopped getting regular haircuts.
- Progressed (mostly mentally) with new parkour vaults.
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Relationships
- Spent few weeks locked up in a small apartment with my partner and had great time together.
- Gained a lot of support from my partner whenever I had doubts about the choices that I make.
- Hosted several music listening sessions with friends.
- Met new people on the conferences and online events I frequented.
- Helped people connect personally and professionally.
- Helped people get new freelance gigs or find right people for the job.
- Coached people in accountability.
- Attended regular meetings of my Mastermind Group.
- Enjoyed the time spent with friends and close ones.
- Tried new social activities such as Dionysia, kayaking, and bouldering.
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Cat Mode
- Watching movies and TV series on a big screen from projector and great sound from HiFi
- Music listening sessions with friends
- Playing video games (mostly titles from my youth, such as Heroes of Might & Magic 3, Command & Conquer: Red Alert or Unreal Tournament)
- Watching the night sky far from city lights
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How Did My Career Grow or Change over the Year?
- I’ve released two video courses on Pluralsight
- I’ve launched a product, complete with marketing, sales, promotion, and all that jazz
- I kept being nice to people which landed me quite a few interesting business opportunities (with lots more to come)
- Presented in a few conferences
- I was a host, a guest, and a panelist in various online events, live-streams, and podcasts
- Became much more confident with my newsletter and the things I create and sell
- Learned to be more assertive
- Started being bold and learned to ask
- Got better at sales
- Got accepted to a few new conferences for 2021
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Did I Attend any Meetings, Conferences or Trainings?
- Lambda Days
- DevOpsDaysGeneva
- Future of Work Gdańsk series
- Bit Better Book Club Meetings
- Idea Squash
- DevsHelpingDevs Book Club
- Mastermind Group Meetings
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Materialism / Minimalism
- Bought a new microphone for course creation
- Started building a recording booth for course creation
- Bought a ring light
- Bought new loudspeakers for the main system
- Bought new loudspeakers for the office system
- Great HiFI turned out to be a very good asset during the isolation
- Bought an LG projector. Besides HiFI, I think this was one of the biggest lifestyle upgrades. Also helped during the isolation.
- Resisted buying a new backpack since I rarely have use for it in the current travel-less environment
- Resisted buying the new version of the noise-canceling headphones I currently own. The new ones are nicer, but I don’t exactly need them.
- Spent the entire first few months buying only necessary things. No snacks, no clothes, no books, no devices unless they are really necessary. A great exercise!
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Did I Grow any New Hobbies?
- Watching movies on a projector screen
- Building LEGO
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Was I Politically Active?
- Sadly, no.
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Was I Involved with Community?
- Established a local indie makers group
- Helped transition Hackerspace Trójmiasto
- Organized a Toptal community meeting
- Started getting involved with makers communities such as ProductHunt, Makerlog, Indie Hackers
- Helped establish a new training spot
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Monthly Reviews
-
Yearly review: 2020 in Review
- 2020 in Review
Notes mentioning this note
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