So… 2024 was quite a ride, and I feel like sharing some thoughts about it (even though these year-end reviews are kinda cringe, aren’t they? 😅).
The biggest plot twist? I jumped ship from my government job to a startup. It happened in the most random way possible, just scrolling through Twitter one day, saw they were hiring, sent an email thinking “eh, whatever”, and somehow… got in? Still feels surreal, to be honest.
Tech-wise, I had to level up pretty hard. Switched from Vue + JavaScript to React + TypeScript, and you know what? It’s actually not bad at all. TypeScript’s been growing on me (though I won’t get all preachy about it), and React’s ecosystem is pretty solid. Found this thing called Preact/Signals too, it’s legitimately good for state management, not just another overhyped tool.
And speaking of plot twists, here’s another one: I ended up at an AI startup right when AI is basically eating the world alive. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect (or scary, depending on how you look at it). This year has been absolutely wild in the AI space: text-to-video, image-to-video, new models dropping left and right. Being in the middle of it all is both exciting and slightly terrifying. At work, I’ve been diving deep into AI tools like Cursor AI for the mundane stuff, you know, i18n, UI tweaks, those annoying little bugs that make you question your life choices. But real talk? WebStorm’s still my main thing. I’m basically running a 70/30 split between WebStorm and Cursor. It’s like having one foot in the future and one foot firmly planted in “but this still works really well” territory.
When I’m not coding, I’ve been gaming quite a bit. These games really stood out:
- Black Myth: WuKong - sank way too many hours (300+) into this one
- Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - actually good platforming!
- Gran Turismo 7 - because apparently I needed another time sink
Work’s definitely more intense now, but in a good way? Learning tons of new stuff, which is what I wanted anyway. For 2025, I’m just gonna keep diving deeper into React + TypeScript, mess around with AI tools, and try to stay somewhat current with whatever new tech drops (though let’s be real, keeping up with everything is impossible).
Here’s to 2024, it wasn’t perfect, but it was definitely interesting. And hey, at least I finally made that job switch I’d been thinking about for ages! 🍻