2023 was a good year. I shifted my focus away from my career for a while and got some satisfying results. I started the year mildly depressed, doing the wrong things and being anxious. I ended the year feeling like a winner. Here’s my summary.

Programming and career

Game projects

I’m still composing music for Twilight Ferry, an upcoming Finnish indie game that is based on the national epic of Finland, Kalevala.

I have an own secret game project. I’m currently using my own game engine and writing the lore. It’s a scifi RPG that tells about an engineer in a planet inhabitated by humans and cyborgs.

Working with Automotive AR

I worked this year at Basemark. It’s my second year there! I still think it’s a good company and I feel optimistic about it. I’ve learned a ton - mostly c++ but also other skills.

Open source

I got my first PR merged to an open source project. And it’s not any project - it’s yolov5. One of the most famous object detector in the world.

Outside tech

Lindy hop

Lindy hop is a swing dance with Afro-American roots. It is to dance what jazz is to music: improvisatory, playful, syncopated, discussing between the dancers. I’ve noticed a huge boost in my mood after I started dancing 1-5 days a week.

Music

I had three classical guitar recitals this summer. I’m preparing another set of concerts next year. I took Tuvan throat singing lessons.

Travelling

I travelled to 6 countries this year:

  • A rock climbing trip to Italy in May
  • Cycling in Sweden and Norway in the midsummer
  • Cycling from Gibraltar to Dakar via Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal.

In addition to this, I hiked a week in the Finnish Lapland in the fall.

I cycled 4500km (2800mi) abroad. My old body that’s seen way too much pixels on computer monitors is still capable of moving. Take care of your health, reader.

Language skills

I rehearsed Swedish in the aforementioned Scandinavian trip. I didn’t need much Italian in Italy - usually 5 words and a fair share of gestures are enough. I use English as my working language so I get to practise that daily. Finally, I learned some Arabic, Spanish, French and Wolof during my cycling tour in Africa.

I started learning Japanese using Duolingo.

Literature

I’ve read a lot this year. My favorite books:

  • Southern Mail by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
  • Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky
  • Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

Retrospect

I made these loose goals for 2023 in the beginning of the year. How did I do? It looks like I got the most important things done. However, I didn’t study ML much. I ended up crushing some goals that I never imagined I’d do. Life took me to new places. I travelled to Africa for the first time and it changed my life. I actually studied photography, shaders, audio programming and gamedev.

2024

The next year will be a year of…

  • Music: I will practise songs for a new recital
  • Dancing: I’m going to study Lindy hop and solo jazz
  • Programming: I have tons of projects I want to finish.
    • Audio programming: my own synth
    • Graphics programming: image editor
    • Game engine
    • Map editor
    • Lots of secret projects that I may or may not ever finish
  • Open source: I want to contribute more. Got any ideas? DM me.
  • Travelling to an unknown place
  • Literature. Mostly fiction. I hate self help.

Things I will do and study sometimes when I have the time…

  • Running a shader in the browser
  • Travelling to Japan
  • Making a song using only my own synths and effects
  • Editing my own videos and photos using my own software
  • Finding a major bug in a popular open source library
  • Learning CUDA
  • Physically modelling how reverberation works in weird shaped rooms
  • Making an own raytracer. Preferably using my RTX card for wows
  • Learning web development
  • Make a mobile app for Android
  • Make a 3d model out of a video (or series of photos)
  • Learn Chopin nocturnos and ballades