A look back at what happened this year. A public storage of my memories and wishes for the future.

Previously: Pt. 3 :: No more teaching (but back to giving talks)

The world would be better without landlords.

Anyway, if I feel both regret and satisfaction in equal amounts about anything is to have started working full-time before finishing my masters. On the one hand, I’m extremely proud of the project that came out of the final thesis, whose quality is in no little measure due to the experience I accumulated from having worked in the industry already. On the other hand, I only managed to actually do the thesis by completely stopping working.

This meant that back in 2020, from April until September, and now in 2022 between June and November, I had zero income.

The first time it also happened during my switch to freelancing and, you know, a global event that made us all reconsider priorities in life. Somehow, I couldn’t finish the thesis back then, but thankfully I got my first gig as a specialist right at the moment that all my savings were gone. Two years later (meaning, last July), I finally graduated, and in the beginning of August I made the prototype version public. The kick-off for the projects I had lined up right afterwards suffered some delays, but frankly, that did good to my health.

It took me over two months to be able to retain new memories. The mental exhaustion, the lack of sleep, the body aches, the chores on top of work and studies (no, I don’t have a housewife to take up this gigantic task like so many self-made men do have). Had I joined the workforce immediately I would have burned out for good.

In 2021 I worked a lot, but I also decided that, since I was no longer glued to an office chair for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, I would be in Spain for every single birthday of my closest family, and I would spend weeks there to also remember how the fruit actually tastes and how bright the sun can shine. But the workload became remarkably high during some months, and deadlines continued getting postponed to the point I didn’t have long breaks between projects (breaks that I would use to work on my thesis).

I wouldn’t be able to relax until being done with it. That December, I reconnected with my thesis supervisor and decided for a date to register. There was no way out now. I disciplined myself for this last big effort and, from last January until May, I proceeded the following way:

• I either was working or doing master thesis from Monday to Friday.
• Took long lunch breaks (between 90’ and 3h).
• I did chores and rested every weekend.
• I would break the routine with lined-up talks every 1-2 months.
• Stopped working around 3 weeks before the hard deadline and dedicated all my available time to the thesis.
• Took a break between the submission and the defense dates.
• Took a week off after the defense to do absolutely nothing, then worked at a way calmer pace on fixing the last bits for the public demo, already in Spain with my parents and enjoying the summer.

Do you see any accommodations for personal and social life? I will never do this for any job in the world. It had to be this way otherwise I wouldn’t have finished my studies, but beware of whoever asks you to go this extra for any project that does not belong to you.

Time is more important than money. Eight hours was the beginning of an unresolved struggle. Anyhow, money-wise I barely made it through the year, but boi did I need a break. It’s no surprise that the final outcome of stopping the machine for a long while was that I finally felt like making games again. To a more balanced year and a regulation on housing prices, I’d say 🥂✨

Next: Pt. 5 :: #FemDevsMeetup :: 💚. Take care.