Year in review, 2023

Following the tradition I have maintained since last year, the time has come to summarize the past twelve months. Although this article is publicly available, I wrote it primarily for myself, treating it as a personal retrospection and creating a lasting record of events, challenges, and moments of joy that shaped the last year.

This text is not meant to be a self-congratulatory enumeration of achievements or a vain celebration of success, but rather a sincere look back, like a page from my diary, preserving memories and experiences from 2023.

As before, I have divided the summary into:

• Career
• Failures
• Appearances and Publications
• Travels
• Concerts
• Books
• Other

Career

Here, there are practically no changes; I still collaborate with TT PSC as an AWS Architect, and as an independent consultant continue to develop services in the area of AWS cost optimization.

Successes

I can count as my biggest successes:

• Creating from scratch and conducting FinOps Training for companies.
• Conducting several successful AWS Cost Audits (savings up to 44%) - I can't boast about most of them due to contract clauses, but I have one client who publicly described our cooperation - for which I am very grateful 😃

• Conducting cost optimization after a Cost Audit that brought annual savings of over a million dollars, specifically 1,319,110 USD.
• Releasing as many as 15 new versions of the CloudPouch application. Expanding Cost insights functionality to include more AWS services: EC2, Load Balancers, DocumentDB, Glue Crawlers, and Jobs.
• Co-organizing the AWS User Group Wrocław

Failures

Actually, I could almost copy and paste those from last year.

• Poor adoption of CloudPouch
• Small number of clients for AWS Cost Audit service

It would seem that in current times, savings are a priority, and anything that allows to significantly reduce unnecessary IT costs should sell like hot cakes, but it's not the case.

• Faithful readers of the Serverless Poland Newsletter and blog have surely noticed that I publish content much less frequently. Lack of time is one thing, but also writing the newsletter and articles regularly brought me less joy, so I did it less often.
• Not utilizing purchased training and access to closed communities.
• I didn't get around to creating a page advertising the FinOps Training - there's no information about it on the internet.
• Lack of significant engagement in Serverless Wrocław Meetup (we only organized 3 meetings)

Appearances and Publications

The year in a nutshell:

1. Automatic testing of serverless applications - presentation at Serverless Wrocław (March 9, 2023)
2. FinOps 4 Developers - presentation at the 4Developers conference in Warsaw (April 18, 2023)
3. Multicloud: is it worth floating in many clouds? - podcast with Maciej Lelusz (April 19, 2023)
4. The musty world of on-prem in AWS - with Maciej Lelusz - presentation at AWS User Group Wrocław (May 8, 2023)
5. How much code in the code - with Przemek Malak - presentation at AWS Community Day Warsaw 2023 (June 1, 2023)
6. AWS re:Invent re:cap - panel discussion at AWS User Group Wrocław (December 11, 2023)
7. Mini review of the ultra-wide Samsung LS49A950UIUXEN monitor
8. How to prepare for a trip to re:Invent in Las Vegas? ✈️
9. A Million-Dollar AWS Savings: A Case Study on EBS to Snapshot Conversion

Also, let's not forget about (almost) regularly sending, the largest in Poland, newsletter dedicated to AWS and serverless.

Travels

Travels are not just memories, but also a window to the world that becomes more valuable with each passing year. Together with my wife, every few years we immortalize our adventures in photo books, which I highly recommend to every travel enthusiast, as photos are perceived differently in physical form.

However, it's also nice to do an annual online summary, which can inspire others to pack their backpack and set off on a journey.

In 2023, the travel history is as follows:

• We started the year with a bang, heading to colorful Mexico and Belize in January. A great trip, beautiful landscapes, friendly people, and fantastic food 😃

• In the spring (April), we went to the Balkans. Traveling by car through Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia was super interesting and allowed me to get to know this part of Europe better. And of course, Dubrovnik as the location of the Game of Thrones series was doubly interesting.

• Mountain bike camp in Bielsko-Biała, June.

• In July, we celebrated my birthday in Italy. The trip, whose climax was motorboating on the Mediterranean Sea, was wonderful. On land, we discovered the culinary treasures of Puglia and spent whole days wandering through the narrow streets of charming seaside towns.

• The dream trip of my wife, who has wanted to see the world of Anne of Green Gables live since childhood. We spent two weeks in Canada, visiting Montreal, Toronto, Niagara Falls, and Prince Edward Island.

• In the autumn, another dream of my wife led us to Africa for a safari. Masai Mara National Park in Kenya and Serengeti and Ngorongoro (extinct volcano) in Tanzania were filled with amazing views and encounters with wild animals.

• Traditionally, my year of travel ends with a trip to Las Vegas for re:Invent. The best cloud event in the world!

To sum up, 2023 was a year of discovering as many as eight new countries, bringing me closer to the magic number of 50 visited countries.

Concerts

Last year I only mentioned concerts. Reflecting on them made me realize how much I enjoy them, so I decided to include a list of concerts in a separate section. Each of them brought me a lot of joy and I wouldn't want these precious memories to fade over time.

• Elton John - May - Berlin
• Pantera - June - Łódź
• Metallica and Pantera - August - Montreal
• Christmas Jazz - December - Wrocław
• Bryan Adams - December - Gliwice

Books

I'm still not a bookworm and I prefer doing over reading. However, I managed to get my hands on a few things and even read and listened to a few. Although, to be honest, I buy more books than I read - which is obviously a problem, as the pile of shame 💩 is growing.

• The Almanack of Naval Ravikant is not only a collection of business advice but also deep reflections on the meaning of life. In the book, you'll find an abundance of wisdom and intriguing observations from Naval Ravikant - an American entrepreneur, engineer, and investor. This book not only inspires but also provokes one's own thoughts. The history of its creation, which I discovered on Visualize Value, is also interesting. Jack Butcher presents its author as an example of a permissionless apprentice. The book was compiled by Eric Jorgenson, compiling content from tweets, podcasts, and interviews with Ravikant. The purpose of this publication is to make Ravikant's philosophy and wisdom available to a wider audience, touching on topics such as happiness, wealth, and personal development.
• Decoded: The Science Behind Why We Buy by Phil P. Barden, released in 2022, is a fascinating exploration of the mechanisms governing our purchasing decisions. The book, purchased for the optimization of the CloudPouch sales page, turned out to be an invaluable source of knowledge in a much broader sense. Barden takes us on a journey through the nooks and crannies of the human mind to discover what drives us to buy. If I were Rafał Mazur, I would probably keep this title to myself, as it's material that, when used appropriately, can give an incredible advantage 😉
• Since I've already mentioned this man, Become a Predator - Rafał Mazur, Marcin Osman.
• After two, maybe three years, I finally finished the audiobook of Atlas Shrugged. While Ayn Rand's message is close to me, oh my God, the length is exaggerated!
• Before the trip to Africa, I chose to read Factfulness by Hans Rosling, as it offers a novel perspective on reality, breaking negative stereotypes and showing how progress changes the world for the better. It's good to read about positive changes, especially when we are bombarded with negative news daily, such as those about wars.
• Be Obsessed or Be Average by Grant Cardone - I read it for the second time. After a few years, equipped with new knowledge, I perceive it much better! The first time, Grant seemed like a charlatan. I don't see him that way anymore. Now I see many mechanisms and principles between the lines 🙂
• Blood of Elves - Andrzej Sapkowski - to remind myself and compare with the next season of the Witcher series on Netflix.

And two classic titles on fascinating behavioral economics, which intrigued me a lot this year:

• Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions - Dan Ariely
• Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman

Other

• Mastermind Group - more in last year's post - it's still active, we manage to meet almost regularly, and what can I say, I really grew fond of these guys!
• In 2022 in this section, I presented a few things I bought. This year, however, I will focus exclusively on recommending an ultra-wide screen monitor. This equipment significantly changes the way of working, elevating it to a higher level. You can find a detailed review of my monitor at this link.
• It's my second year of learning Italian 🇮🇹. It brings me great joy, as I treat it as a hobby, but I am still at the stage of realizing how little I know ;-)

• Since March, I have started amateur mountain biking training under the guidance of an experienced trainer. The goal is to improve my skills in navigating mountain trails. Regular exercises and refining my riding technique bring me immense satisfaction. At the same time, overcoming fear, especially before jumps, is a completely new challenge for me. I believe that these aspects together toughen the spirit and strengthen the willpower. An additional benefit is the fantastic group of people I train with. If you are from Wrocław and are keen on enduro, I warmly invite you to join our team!

It was a beautiful, successful year.

Thank you for your attention, and I hope you took something away from this post. Let me know if it inspired you to do anything.

I wish you a wonderful 2024!
Paweł Zubkiewicz