We made a big and risky decision this year. There was an opportunity cost if we don’t act and it could not be delayed further. This decision meant that our 6-months emergency fund was spent, and I’m in-debt for the next two years (if our income and spending remains the same).

As the sole provider, it keeps me up at night. It forced me to re-assess our situation.

That is spilt milk under the bridge. I have no regrets with the decision, that purchase was wise for our fast growing kids.

What I want to focus on now is how to move ahead. How can I reduce the risk?

Expanding my luck surface area

Luck is a big factor on where I am now. I can’t control luck, but I can increase my chances of getting lucky by planting seeds, growing my weak ties, expanding my luck surface area.

Prioritize working on things I can show

Given the choices of things to work on, lean on tasks I can use as portfolio or demonstrate my technical depth.

Document the work I do publicly

I have not been very good at writing and documenting things I do at work. I assume it’s too niche, too AWS, too WordPress.

It does not matter. Work ends when it’s documented, not when the PR is merged.

Rebuild my full-stack web dev portfolio

When I shifted into cloud engineering, I stopped building web apps anymore. I’m not a senior-level cloud engineer, but I’m also no longer the web developer I used to be.

I forgot I enjoy doing it until recently when I had an opportunity to work on a small feature that required a UI. I had so much fun. I also forgot I don’t need to wait for opportunities at work to build apps, to solve actual problems. There are a lot of problems where a little bit of software can make a difference.

I’ll find and make more opportunities to do more of software development, which also gives me another path if cloud engineering does not ultimately work out.