The 2024 Reflection

Learn the Hard Things

For me, that was Rust. Rust has been on the back burner for many years and every time I try it feels too difficult, yet I keep seeing people swear by it for its performance, safety, and community. In Q4 of 2024, I spent a long time practicing that skill and it is (unsurprisingly) a rewarding experience.

The difference between short-term gratification and delayed gratification is noteworthy and in my opinion, we should strive to prioritize the latter.

AI Will Continue to Play a Leading Role

In 2021, when GitHub Copilot was released I was certain that AI was about to change everything. Into 2022, ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion were released. This was the first time it got into the hands of the general public and that’s when I started to become skeptical.

The narrative shifted to “it’s just autocomplete on steroids.” While that was probably true for some time, with the advent of reasoning models and incremental advancements in model architecture, I think that argument is much less effective.

There are people around me coding the product of their dreams with nothing but coffee and a Cursor subscription.

AI probably won’t solve all our problems, but there is still plenty of room for value to be created and captured. The price is only getting cheaper, the models are getting better, and the options keep growing. Google only recently added LLMs to their core product in early 2024 and Facebook is just getting around to AI image generation in late 2024. Anyone working with AI is so early it’s hard to put into words. I’m doubling down on AI this year.

Don’t Give Up

When we focus on something, we can learn a lot. Some of that knowledge is transferable, but not all of it. This year I learned that giving up is the only way you can lose, because until that moment, you’re just building on past knowledge and experience that will be valuable for the next try.

For me, I gave up on producing music in 2023 and now, I’ll have to accept that the time I spent is mostly gone and very little of that is transferable to my current line of work. In the grand scheme of things, I’m glad I’m back to focusing on software development, but the lesson remains.

Strike a Balance Between Quantity and Quality

For engineers especially, there’s a wide spectrum between quantity and quality. I used to think it was one or the other, but now I’m pretty certain that the best option is a balance of both. Spending too much time on a single project, feature, song, etc. is bad and producing a lot of low quality ones is just as bad.

There needs to be a balance between how much we create and the quality of it. Now that we’re in the age of AI it feels even more important to find a balance because nearly everyone could code but knowing how to execute is not something everyone knows and (currently) not something LLMs know.

I believe it takes intense market research and a few years of experience in a given industry to develop the intuition for what the right balance is and it may even be different for each industry.

This reminds me of the 80/20 rule which says that 80% of the outcomes come from 20% of the causes. When the balance between quantity and quality is found, the 80/20 rule becomes your friend.

Your Network Is Your Net Worth

This year I’ve been blessed to be around some of the hardest working, smartest, and nicest people I’ve ever met. Throughout 2024, from my experience and hearing from others, it has become crystal clear that networking, business relationships, and “who you know” is the biggest multiplier an entrepreneur can ask for.

In 2025, I’m making an effort to build stronger connections and expand my network.

Trust Yourself First

There’s a lot of noise in this world and everyone has an opinion, myself included. Listening to other opinions is important, but knowing when to trust that gut feeling is even more important. It builds confidence when you’re right and it builds personal accountability when you’re wrong. It’s a win-win.

If it isn’t working out, I’d guess that your intuition just needs more time to be developed.

In 2024, when I placed too much weight on the opinions of others, it clouded my judgment and often led to a worse outcome. This year, I will trust myself first.

Keep learning, keep building, stay focused. I can’t wait to see what 2025 has to offer.