This blog post is my twelfth yearly reflection. The three previous reflections can be found here: 2023, 2022, 2021.

I’m a bit late writing this one, as it’s already past the middle of January. There’s no reason for this lateness, but it’s been part of my general trend of writing fewer blog posts. However, I think I was writing more long-form in 2024 than in 2023, with my writing moving to other places (e.g. internal work Slack channels).

Here are some of the things that happened during 2024 in my life, in no particular order:

• I’ve read 24345 pages across 70 books. Both of those are the highest numbers I ever tracked on Goodreads. And while there were years when I consumed quite a few books in my childhood, I’m decently confident that 2024 was my most books-focused year to date. I wouldn’t be surprised if 2024 will keep that distinction for 20 years. Here are some of the books I’ve enjoyed the most (in the order I’ve read them):
  • The Delicate Art of Bureaucracy. The book gave me a new lens to think about bureaucracy. The word “bureaucracy” is scary and mostly seen negatively. Yet, some structure is inevitably necessary to maintain our ability to create and build. The author argues that people hate bad bureaucracies and don’t use the word “bureaucracy” when bureaucracy is done well.
  • Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. Brandon Sanderson remains one of my beloved authors. This specific book was my favourite among the four of Sanderson’s Secret Projects books. As he writes in the postscript, it’s his too. I was able to feel it on the page.
  • The Singapore Story. This book covers Singapore’s history until 1965. It’s a memoir by Lee Kuan Yew; thus, it provides a very subjective view. Some might find that a negative. I found it enjoyable precisely because the author doesn’t embellish too much. If Lee Kuan Yew thinks his speech was “meh,” that’s what’s on the page.
  • The Path to Power. I’m not an American, so I had little prior knowledge about Lyndon Baines Johnson. I picked up this book because, a couple of times each year, I become interested in consuming a lengthy biography, and the book’s name was mentioned positively before. Great biographies provide portrayals that feel true, no matter the reputation of their subject. This one is an excellent biography, and I have already consumed the second volume as well.
  • Lucky Loser. I found the book, whose title references Donald J. Trump, well-written and well-researched. It takes the history of Fred Trump and his son, the 45th and 47th President of the USA, and weaves it into an enthralling narrative.
  • Executive Engineering. I loved this book by Jack Danger. It’s primarily meant for CTOs and VPs of Engineering and is mainly limited to topics specific to those roles. Jack also expresses a specific point of view, and this focus works to the book’s advantage.
• I’ve watched 53 movies:
  • My wife and I watched seven movies at the local film festival - Kino Pavasaris - in 2024. Sadly, none of the movies at the other significant local film festival - Scanorama - interested us. Out of those we’ve seen at Kino Pavasaris 2024, Monster and The Zone of Interest were my favourites.
  • Dune: Part Two, Anora, Juror #2 are some of the most memorable movies I saw in 2024.

• I continued playing a bit of online chess. I mostly played “blitz” (at 5/5 time format), with my rating peaking at 1894 (the peak in 2024 was 1862). I don’t feel like I’m investing much in chess, but I feel like I’m getting a bit better. My most memorable chess game of the year was during a live simultaneous exhibition against GM Viktorija Čmilytė. I had a better position (pawn up), missed an opportunity to be up an exchange, and then managed to misplay a dry draw into a loss. My one excuse is that during the game, it became more challenging to play with the number of players decreasing as I had to move each time the opponent stepped up to my board (fewer players means making moves faster). Despite the loss (Čmilytė won all the games), I enjoyed the experience, even when everyone’s focus was on my board, with me as the last person playing.

• I continued to enjoy board games as a way to spend time with family and friends. I suspect that 2024 was the year when I spent the most hours playing board games (excluding years from earlier in my life when I used to play either chess or MtG quite competitively). Hegemony was the heaviest game I enjoyed, requiring 5-6 hours for a four-player game. Heat was probably my most enjoyable out of the lighter games. And Dune: Imperium - Uprising is perhaps one that I’m intrigued to play more of.

• 2024 was the second year owning a driver’s license. With that in mind, my good friends gave me a gift of doing a couple of laps with a Tesla Model S Plaid at Nemuno žiedas. While I was pretty worried before taking those laps, I relished the experience (and I can now brag about overtaking a Lamborghini on a racetrack). Don’t expect me to get into racing, but I can now understand the appeal.

• I continued running, covering my longest yearly distance - more than 1800km. That included two races. In May, I ran a 1:39:49 half marathon, finishing 207th out of 1310 runners at “Vilniaus Pusmaratonis 2024.” Then, in September, I ran a 1:37:38 half marathon, finishing 277th out of 2423 runners at “Vilniaus Maratonas 2024”. Both were my personal best at that time!

• I continued to work at Vinted, now, for more than 12 years. I care about sustainability, the company is doing well, and the work continues to be interesting and challenging. Vinted’s most externally noticeable milestone was the secondary share sale that valued the company at €5B. While that’s a nice milestone, it continues to feel like we’re only at the start of a long journey.

• Besides my usual CTO role, I had to step in as the interim People leader for half of 2024. Doing two jobs was quite demanding. But I knew what I signed up for when my CEO asked whether I’d do it. It was important, and I saw it as a good opportunity to grow as a leader.

• 2024 started with me and my wife on an extended vacation in the east of Asia. I returned from that vacation having figured out some things about what I want to be as a leader. One visible change to how I work was the increase in how much I write, specifically to bigger groups of people (all of Vinted, all of engineering, all engineering leaders). I feel much more comfortable about what I want to say, and writing is the natural way to express myself.

• There were a couple of other trips I took during 2024:
  • The most unsuccessful trip was me-the-bracelet-wearing-swiftie and my wife going to see Taylor Swift in Vienna. Sadly, the concert did not happen due to attack threats. That’s two years in a row, when we go somewhere for a concert, with the concert ending up being cancelled (in 2023, it was my wife’s favourite Arctic Monkeys in Dublin).
  • The most successful trip was to London, where my wife and I saw two plays. The Picture of Dorian Gray with Sarah Snook was definitely the highlight and might be the best theatre I ever saw (though I’m not someone who attends theatre often). We both read the book before seeing the play and the book also stands the test of time. But that’s not what made this the most successful trip. Without planning beforehand, our friend living in London spent quite a bit of his time with my wife and me during the journey, which made the trip even more enjoyable.
  • My wife and I also went to Paris for a long weekend, and I visited Andalusia with my brother and mom.

• My wife is pregnant, and that’s the most important thing in my life. I wrote a year ago that we would try in vitro fertilisation (IVF), and that did end up helping us on this long journey. At the time of writing, it’s week 35, so we’re getting quite close to welcoming the little guy to the world. And it already affects how I think. During a particularly challenging day at work, at one moment, I stopped and reflected that whatever is troubling me at work is not nearly as critical, and that helped me gain perspective and be less anxious.

• The parenting book I’ve liked the most so far is Elavating Child Care. For me, it seems to strike a good balance between treating the child like a human being (even when it’s only several months) and still being a parent (not a peer). I’m sure that reality will be more complex than the frameworks I find in books, but having these frameworks still feels helpful to me.

• Our cats (Athos and Portha) are well. They seem to think that all the baby stuff we bought is new places for them to sleep. Hopefully, the adjustment to the baby will go smoothly.

2024 is over. It was an incredible year for me personally, and 2025 is bound to be a pivotal year in my life. While it would be easy to focus on the negatives, quite a few good things are happening in the world. Greenhouse emissions shrank in EU, experts believe that China’s emissions have peaked (China is currently building almost twice as much wind and solar as the rest of the world combined), EV sales are accelerating across the globe, significant progress on all kinds of medical research and vaccines, and global child deaths reached a historic low. I remain optimistic about the world and humanity’s ability to tackle the challenges we’re facing. Off to 2025.