I’ve used to do these retros every year but in a different place - now, that I have my own corner of the internet for myself, I think I can do it here.

Here we go - 2021 in retrospective!

This post is rather personal one. But also, this page is a very personal one. Basically, YMMV.

2021 Goals⌗

Start a Youtube Channel⌗

Okay, so I’ve started one. Or restarted. And that’d be about it.

Not upset about it at all as I’ve recorded a few hours of material, working on shots, frames, colours and everything in between.

This is SO going to happen!

Get Certified⌗

This one I feel like I’ve fulfilled in 120%:

  • AWS Database Specialty
  • Site Reliability Engineering Foundation
  • Certified Kubernetes Application Developer

And a few smaller ones. Really happy about this in general.

Code Outside Of Work⌗

Again, this one is a homerun. Apart from a few small projects, I’ve managed to win Chef’s Automate For Good hackathon with my Good Buddy Jason. Also, managed to build and hack my Good Buddy Dominika’s new training site!

Music⌗

This one, literally as always, is somewhat split in two. From one angle, I’ve managed to write a ton of songs, record a full album (which is in post-production) and started writing more music for other people. From another, I’ve managed to release almost none. Talk about perfectionism, huh?

2022 Goals⌗

Music⌗

This is an extension of the last point - if I’ll be able to release at least two projects (out of… I don’t remember how many), I’ll be happy!

Session & Producing Work⌗

Since like mid-2020, I’ve started writing for and producing a few projects here and there. Eventually, I’d love for this to be a 30-40% of my annual workload and that’s the general aim.

The 2nd facade of this goal is to get back into session guitar work. I’ve used to do this way more in the past and I’m eager to get my chops back up to speed.

Youtube Channel⌗

And that’s the 3rd (woah!) facade of the previous goal - I don’t want to compete with Pete Thorn or Rhett Shull but I see a small niche for the ideas I have and the videos I can shoot and stuff I can talk about.

The one thing I’m really happy about is that I’m not aiming to do Youtube or Session work full time - I’ve used to do latter full time a few years back and I really don’t want to put all eggs in one basket again.

Certifications⌗

I want to definitely pursuit the Kubernetes stuff a bit more, there’s one or two Amazon certs I want to do (them architecture ones looks so nice) and maybe some Hashicorp one would add up to the pile.

But that k8s pain I want to embrace.

Another Hackathon⌗

Don’t know which one, don’t know about what, I just want to build some stuff in a relatively short time again. There’s one I’d really hope that’d happen in 2022 but it’s not my call if it will or not.

A Conference⌗

I like nerding out and talking about stuff I find interesting. I did a few online conferences in 2020, haven’t done any in 2021 (life, huh?) but I really want to do one or two in 2022.

And that leads us to…

New Ventures⌗

…which you’ll know about more in a due time.

Writing More⌗

Last but not least, I’d love to write more here. I like that I can rant here, I like that I can brag here and I like that I have a full control over what I write and how does it look. I didn’t wanted it to be a tech blog 100%, I always wanted to have a very open-ended thing here. Hope to have time to write more!

Why So Many Goals⌗

I like to have more on my plate than less - this way I can drop the things that are not exactly profitable or worth pursuing in the given timeframe. Out of the ones up there, there’s a few that are a bit higher up and a few that are a bit lower on the list.

Thank you⌗

Although there has been less than a dozen posts here, I’m really grateful that you’re readimg my ramblings here - and a few of you actually reached out and talked with me about them. I’m raising a glass for you today!

All in all, we’ve been through a very weird 2021, and I don’t think 2022 will be any less than this - hope it’ll be tho but, there’s a saying hope for the best, prepare for the worst - and that’s my mantra during these odd times.

Hope that 2022 will treat you how you want it to do and hope we’ll cross paths on a Slack call somewhere or start a very ignited convo under some random post in a deep ends of our professional bubble.

Happy New Year!