2023: The End Is the Beginning Is the End
Reviewing the First Year of a Year of Firsts on the Eve of 2024.
Talofa reader,
I didn't plan on an "end of year" or 'wrap-up 2023' edition for the Uncommon Engineer.
That seemed like too "common" an idea 😉🥁
One of my younger brothers turned 40 today (Boxing Day), and all five of my brothers got together for lunch. We reminisced about life growing up together and all the life events that have happened from then until today.
So, I thought, why not review the year?
Why not cast my mind's eye back 12 months and play my life forward like a fast-forwarding VHS tape to see what's happened in my life this year.
I've been around the sun for 40+ years.
I've seen this Christmas and New Year combination so many times now, it's become a sort of Groundhog Day déjà vu. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever wake up and it's the next day.
I've lived a semi-charmed life.
I wouldn't have thought so at any point in my life, but there's no denying, looking back, that a) I should be dead, given some of the stunts I've pulled and the trouble I've dealt with in my life, and b) I've done some pretty cool stuff that I can honestly say not a lot of people can say they've done.
Maybe that's why, once you've done most things at least once and you've done one thing for a long time, you find yourself doing something for the first time, several times, in one year.
This year was a year of firsts.
The Newsletter
At the start of the year, I decided to do a weekly newsletter, “The Uncommon Engineer”.
I had done regular blog posts before, but nothing as official and "grown-up" as a proper newsletter.
I think my writing has come a long way from the first post:
I’ve written about topics like AI, Data Sovereignty, through to my thoughts on a Lex Fridman Podcast to Career Burnout.
Another first with the newsletter was moving to paid subscriptions in October.
I've ummed and aahed about going paid for a while now, but I'm glad I did.
Not because I'm suddenly rolling in cash—I'm definitely not leaving my day job for writing anytime soon—but because going paid asked two things of me:
To take my audience, i.e., readers, seriously, by working hard on the pieces and actually wringing my brain for insight, and organising those thoughts into writing that has value in it.
To take myself and the wisdom I've amassed in my life and tech career seriously, and deem it worthy of my audience's money.
I think going paid has sort of forced me to be a better writer and to have more confidence in the value proposition of my knowledge and insights.
High School Tech Workshops
Not satisfied with a full-time job and a weekly newsletter, I also run a charity that runs tech programmes in the local community:
The Pasifika Tech Education Charity.
This year was the first year we partnered with local high schools.
We designed a modular programme for Pasifika high school students to get hands-on experience with Cloud Technology, Cyber Security, Software Engineering and IT Infrastructure.
All taught by Pasifika Engineers who work in tech i.e. me and my team.
We ran our programme for 4 terms, taking 40 students through our workshops, food provided at every session, and organised 2 x field trips to Workday in the city.
Our aim isn’t to grow to become a tech education provider.
We’re a boutique operation providing a very real tech experience to a local Pasifika demographic.
AWS Specialty & Professional Certs
I wasn't going to count getting certs, because it's a requirement of my job, but I think it's important to celebrate *all* our achievements, not just the ones we think are "good enough".
I studied hard for the Security Specialty cert and was happy to pass, even though I wasn't super happy with how I performed in the exam.
I'm a former Sr. Cyber Security Engineer, so any excuse to play with security is a win for me.
The Solution Architect Professional cert, however….
I left the study to the last minute and basically cram studied for four days ahead of the exam.
To be quite honest, I was very lucky to pass it at all!
But I passed, so we'll fix my bad study habits in the future. 😏
YouTube Channel — The TechNesian Live Stream
I've been lamenting for some time now not just the lack of representation of Pasifika in the tech industry, but just as much, the misrepresentation of Pasifika in the tech industry.
What misrepresentation?
That we're not technical and should be ushered into customer service because of our amazing "soft skills".
I wanted to dispel this image by launching my first YouTube Live Stream channel with fellow Pasifika engineer, Gerald Tuimalealiifano aka GT, where we talk and demo pretty sophisticated technology topics to show that Pasifika can hang with the best of them.
Baby One
Probably my biggest and most important first
—in life, not just for the year—was my beautiful baby boy, born in August.
My wife has been pointing out since we first started dating that I've got too many projects and commitments, so what does having a baby do to a life full of chaos?
In my world, he simplifies it.
Once you know what's actually important in life, what an actual priority looks like, you can relatively easily "pare down" the projects and commitments you have because they would have to meet a relatively high bar to be considered something I spend time and space on, when that time and space could be spent with my kid instead.
So What?
This isn't everything that's happened this year, but it was all the big things.
In a life of constantly starting new projects and chasing shiny tech things across the internet, you'd be forgiven for thinking doing a lot of things for the first time is just my modus operandi.
And for the most part—much to the dismay of my wife—it is.
I'm an extremely curious person by nature.
So what makes it different this year?
The difference for me is not that I'm "getting older and need to settle down" as such; it's that I've done a human year inside and out for 43 years, so there's not a lot to a working, or side project, or certification, or learning new tech life that I haven't already done.
Repeatedly.
I've worked in tech since 2002.
What’s Different?
The difference is now that I've seen everything and tried a bunch of random things, what is it really I want to do with my life?
Let's be honest, once you've done at least a decade of corporate, you know whether you like it or not, and for most people, it's just there to pay the bills while they live their real lives at home with their families.
That's a huge chunk of your life's time that you spend at a certain place so that you can afford to spend the remaining time somewhere you'd rather be.
Don't worry, this isn't a mid-life crisis talking; I've been this way since way back. I've never really known what to do with my life.
I've just been good at stuff and followed that until it stopped.
I feel like one of those vampire movie storylines where the young-looking but 4000-year-old vampire dude is all, "I've seen lovers grow old and die several times now," with his life, and he's just looking for something that's eternal now.
I feel like this year was a step in that direction.
Thank you, 2023… Happy 2024.
In conclusion, the firsts this year, I feel, were deliberate, intentional firsts that were brought about to move the needle—my life—towards somewhere I might enjoy spending the rest of my time, energy, and life force on something that means something to me, and someone out there, before we run out of time and return to the void from where we came.
I promise that's not meant to sound as dark and ominous as it does.
I see the end as the Stoics did, as something to put the rest of your life into perspective and ensure that you don't squander any more of life worrying about how to live than necessary, and that you stop worrying and start living.
Do life.
As always thank you for reading, and thank you for rocking with me this year as I did a bunch of things for the first time.
Happy 2024.
ia manuia,
Ron.