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Intro

“We adore chaos because we love to produce order.” – M. C. Escher

By some measures, 2022 was an unmitigated disaster.

I started 2022 with a rough plan of keeping my head down; quietly growing my career and going up the ladder at Mailchimp; and leaving any adventuring to 2023 when it could be anticipated, planned, and calmly executed.

I’d finally get back on track to peak fitness, I’d start a micro-fashion brand, be on my merry way to becoming a senior (then staff engineer) at the same company I started the year with, and go hard on creating secondary sources of passive income.

Absolute chaos, absolute failure.

Because instead of steady growth, I went on to:

• leave my role on the ML Platform team at Mailchimp to take a new role at an early-stage MLOps company,

• travel to multiple cities on my own (sometimes with less than a couple of months' notice) for professional development,

• and ultimately come out with a deeper understanding of my values and drives as an engineer entering a new season of my life.

So even though I accomplished nothing of intent, I lived.

The story of my 2022, the joys, the lows, and my deepest wishes for 2023.

“Hope that you spend your days

But they all add up

And when that sun goes down

Hope you raise your cup

…

But until my moment comes, I'll say

I did it all

I owned every second that this world could give

I saw so many places

The things that I did

Yeah, with every broken bone

I swear I lived” — OneRepublic

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Where To Follow Me

• 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikikobazeley/

• 📖 Blog: https://mikiko.hashnode.dev/

• 📝 Medium: https://bit.ly/3wKUwym

• 📬 Substack: https://mikikobazeley.substack.com/

• 📹 Youtube: https://bit.ly/3MBR8N3

• 🐥 Twitter: https://twitter.com/BazeleyMikiko

• 🐙🐈 Github: https://github.com/MMBazel

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What Went Well

Metrics and quantitative data can only tell you so much about a life worth living and a life that’s been lived, even as an engineer.

And although there’s a deep desire to have everything planned out and succeed according to plan, or even beyond our wildest dreams, that’s not how life works.

That’s certainly not how 2022 went for me and frankly, that was for the best.

The joys, unexpected delights, and surprises could be summarized as a result of:

• people,

• opportunities, and the

• willingness to push beyond my comfort zone.

1. Embracing The Power of Community & Weak Ties

“Weak social ties, it is argued, are responsible for the majority of the embeddedness and structure of social networks in society as well as the transmission of information through these networks.

Specifically, more novel information flows to individuals through weak rather than strong ties.

Because our close friends tend to move in the same circles that we do, the information they receive overlaps considerably with what we already know.

Acquaintances, by contrast, know people that we do not, and thus receive more novel information” – Wikipedia

This was the year of creating new network connections and relationships, largely through different communities and social media-based weak ties.

These professionships (or professional friendships) were made through events, and social media platforms (like LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, and Slack).

Because these professionships were based less on proximity and convenience and more on shared interests and values, they became sources of immense personal as well as professional growth. And these communities and professionships only compounded over time.

The Harpreet/Artists of Data Science Connection

For example: At the beginning of the year I continued to spend time every Friday with Harpreet’s Artists of Data Science Happy Hour. From this happy hour, I connected with people like Ken Jee, Joe Reis & Matthew Housley, Daliana Liu, and Jon Krohn.

Making Friends with Data Engineers

After connecting with Joe & Matt, I had the opportunity to join them (for a time) every Friday to learn about data engineering with a small group of folks as they started (and completed!) their book “Fundamentals of Data Engineering”.

Not to mention enjoy a free sake tasting! (Thanks Joe!)

Growing & Building with the LEARN Media Crew

After connecting with Ken Jee, I joined the LEARN Media group and got to take part in two incredibly meaningful experiences, the LEARN Media Retreats in Austin (May) and then Salt Lake City (Aug).

At both retreats (which were about ~1 week long) I got to:

• spend significant facetime with many of my LinkedIn connections (at least 15 each time),

• create content with them ("Every Data Scientist" Skit),

• participate in panels & live streams (Austin: State of Data Science, SLC: Data Science Town Hall, SLC: Web Data),

• And even engage in “sports commentating” on a data hackathon.

Advocating For MLOps

And because of the Harpreet/AoDS connection, I got to meet and talk with folks like Daliana (Video), Jon Krohn (Video), Richmond (Video), and Ken Jee (Video) about MLOps.

These initially weak ties also helped me clock an unplanned number of panels and talks including:

• [“What You Need To Know To Get An ML Engineer Job” [DataCan, Jan](linkedin.com/posts/mikikobazeley_machinelea..

• [“More Than A Statistics” [CometML, April](linkedin.com/posts/mikikobazeley_be-sure-to..

• [“Taking Care of Your Mental Health as a Data Professional” [with Harpreet & Mark, April](youtu.be/qWtDG72s5vk)]

• “(Some Of) What You Need To Know To Do MLops Well (Enough)” [DataCated & The Ravit Show’s Modern DataFest, Oct].

2. Stepping Up, Taking The Unexpected Leaps & Not Looking Back

“Opportunity Knocks But Once” – Shakespeare

Contributing To The Culture & Trajectory of MLOps & Engineering At Mailchimp

The most dramatic (and unexpected) change this year was leaving Mailchimp’s ML Platform Team as a Senior MLOps Engineer to join Featureform as their Head of MLOps with Simba and Shab.

By February 2022 Mailchimp was just starting to get back on its feet after a tumultuous (and at times uncomfortably well-publicized) acquisition.

(Although the Twitter acquisition is starting to make Mailchimp’s acquisition look like a cakewalk).

Our team was starting to expand and backfill crucial open headcount.

I enjoyed working with our Tech Lead, my manager and was enriched in my day-to-day work by folks like Farman, Michelle, and Thejaswi.

I’d also gotten the opportunity to take on more opportunities to shape and influence the direction and culture of both the ML Platform team and the engineering organization through:

• Selection to the Mailchimp Engineering Hiring Committee (where with 14 others I helped interview candidates and provided feedback on the new centralized interview process);

• Helping to interview MLOps and Data Engineering candidates;

• Managing the team’s solo MLOps internship ;

• Developing workshops & educational materials for data scientists on SWE skills;

• Running the Data Media Club (aka Data Book Club).

But at a certain point, I started thinking more deeply about the work I wanted to be doing.

I began to realize there was a misalignment in the impact I wanted to make and how my particular strengths were factored and that I might need to seek outside Mailchimp for a different kind of role.

Following The Path of Growth: Joining Featureform from Mailchimp (Intuit)

Remember the power of communities and weak ties?

I first met Simba & Shab at the first in-person MLOps Community meetup in San Francisco.

I then bumped into them two more times (Toronto MLOps World and Ray Happy Hour), getting the chance to talk to them more and learning what they were about (beyond the hot pink t-shirts).

Around the time I realized I wanted to do a lot more building in the MLOps space and started exploring the idea of either going to Solutions Consulting or DevRel, Simba and Shab approached me with the opportunity to leverage my years of experience working with Data Scientists (and even my recent work at Mailchimp around advocacy and education) to help build an important component of the MLOps stack.

Since taking that leap I’ve had many amazing experiences, from helping to co-lead my first webinar (Featureform and Redis), writing about why I think virtual feature stores are going to be an important part of the stack of the future, and helping represent Featureform at events (ODSC Happy Hour).

Although unexpected, I’m happy I made the jump and am looking forward to the new year.

3. Saying “Yes!”, Trying Lots of New Things, Especially Scary Things

“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, 

Or what's a heaven for?” – Robert Browning

This might surprise people but deep down inside, I’m an introverted home buddy.

I usually prefer tried-and-true over “new hotness”, take a jaundiced eye to the whole “live-laugh-love, finding yourself through travel” narrative, and am likely to back out of dinner plans and happy hours last minute to spend time watching Netflix while knitting.

And it’s only gotten worse as I’ve slid into my 30’s.

So I call this year a win in that I pushed beyond my surliness and general scaredy-cat attitude in several important areas.

Expanding Beyond My Niche: The First Miami Dev Writers Retreat

After accepting the offer to join Featureform I knew I wanted to improve in many key areas.

One of the biggest areas of content I wanted to get better at was writing, specifically tech writing and social media copy.

I started following swyx after picking up a digital copy of his “The Coding Career Handbook”. One day he and Michelle Bakels posted that they were going to be hosting a Dev Writers Retreat in Miami. I signed up immediately because of the positive experiences I had with the LEARN Media retreats earlier in the year, even though I hadn’t been intending to do any more traveling. I was excited for the opportunity to learn how to improve my craft as well as get a peak at this city that was filled with ex-Bay Area VCs and Web3 folks.

As the weeks passed and I started reading through the RSVP’s I rapidly began to feel intimidated. I realize that I might be the only MLOps attendee and fretted at the prospect of meeting new people with whom I might not have something immediately in common besides being in tech and wanting to figure out how to debug writer’s block.

Needless to say, I had an incredible time getting to know these folks.

Not only did I learn various techniques to break through writer’s block and how to emulate different writing styles (as well as how to determine the “tier” of my portfolio), but I also made connections with DevRels (and devs who write) in a completely different circle.

Upon returning from the retreat I was more relaxed, more confident, and was able to evaluate my relationship with content creation from a more rational and values-based perspective.

Putting Myself Out There Through Content & Social Media

Before attending any of the retreats, I experienced peak imposter syndrome. Deep down I wondered if I had anything valuable to bring to the people around me and whether I’d be a burden with my low audience numbers.

After each retreat, I was more excited than ever to create content. The other retreat attendees (for the LEARN Media and Dev Rel retreats) encouraged me to explore other channels and share my learnings and experiences with the public. To "learn in public", so to speak.

As a result, I started some new channels:

• I launched my Youtube channel in May (@Miki_ML)

• Started a substack in June (The MLOps Engineer)

• Kicked off my first livestream in August (streaming to Youtube, Twitch, & Twitter) [thank you Nick Wan for being my live stream senpai 🙏🏻)

• Started an actual blog on Hashnode, including publishing my first (and featured!) blog post on the day-to-day life of an MLOps engineer.

I even participated as a speaker in three Twitter Spaces (on ProductionML, Community Technical Writing, Future of AI) just as Twitter was repeatedly set on fire.

Besides putting myself out there in written, auditory, and audiovisual mediums, I learned so much about the business of creating content, writing, social media marketing, and even audio and video editing with tools like Adobe Premiere, Audacity, Procreate, and Descript.

Learning to Work With Paying Customers

As most contractors, freelancers, or consultants will tell you (maybe not in these exact terms): Working with paying customers is a different beast from coasting just enough at your job to not get fired.

And as most engineers know, that which does not get scoped will come back around and bite you in the butt like an ornery gator.

Through some experiences that I’m not going to describe here, I learned the value of having hard conversations with potential clients before a project starts, of setting boundaries (or at least appropriate out-of-scope compensation), and most importantly not undervaluing my labor in pricing negotiations.

I call these learning moments a win because they changed how I think about and approach contracting or freelance work, especially when I’m working a full-time role.

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What Didn’t Turn Out As Expected

Now that I’ve talked about what went well and where I got some W’s, let’s talk about the L’s (L as in learnings).

1. Focusing On Content Creation Without Consistent Self-Development

“Try To Please Everyone And You’ll Please No One”.

By the time I had boarded the plane to the Miami Dev Writers Retreat, I was burned out. And there are a number of understandable reasons for burnout.

For example:

• At the beginning of the year, I was still recovering (and would continue recovering until ~ April) from a tailbone surgery after 6 months of pain and lack of sleep due to an old motorcycle injury.

• There had also been upheaval at Mailchimp due to the acquisition that didn’t settle till about February or March.

• And small disruptions or incidents that would pop up here and there (including coming down with COVID after the Toronto MLOps Conference).

The breakthrough insight into my burnout came a few days into the Miami trip when I asked swyx about how he balances writing for himself versus for others and he said that a good chunk of his early (& current writings) is him figuring stuff out for himself, or even himself a couple of years ago.

It struck me that the reason why creating content felt so painful (when previously it had seemed fun) was because I felt like I was scraping the bottom of an empty well.

I had been so focused on churning out content constantly that I neglected to refill my creative well.

My intense focus on content, when I wanted to be learning and developing, was killing my drive and even making me a worse engineer in some respects.

And just as importantly I was so busy trying to match or reach parity with content formats or types that I saw doing well, as opposed to focusing on deep work, that I also felt like I was losing my point of view or what made my voice unique.

2. Doing Too Much Everywhere Without Specific Outcomes

“But effort and courage are not enough without purpose and direction. 

For, as Socrates told us, ‘If a man does not know to what port he is sailing, no wind is favorable.’" – JFK

On the one hand, I love the fact that I was pushing myself to experiment and try new things and fail fast.

On the other hand, I spent a large portion of this year having to drop the ball on commitments or not executing in areas that would have made the greatest impact.

Some of the unmet commitments that hurt thinking about include:

• Not publishing additional videos on my Youtube channel beyond a handful of shorts

• Not publishing a good chunk of the blog post topics in my queue (although it’s gotten better after the Miami Dev Writers retreat)

• Not publishing new projects (this really hurts)

• Having to cut the live streams after about 16 sessions because I was struggling to maintain momentum

• Having to pass on book reviews, courses & workshops (at least for this year)

That’s not to say I completely dropped the ball on all my content.

I still managed to publish:

• 5 x blog posts (including )

• 16 x live streams

• 135 x LinkedIn & Twitter posts.

I also participated in:

• 10 x panels and talks

• 6 x videos on other channels.

And while there are a few pieces I’m particularly proud of and I learned so much, I still can’t help but be disappointed at both the quantity and quality of my body of work, as well as the missed opportunities.

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What I’m Looking Forward To

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. 

***A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.” — William E. Vaughan

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So I went through the good, the bad, and the ugly.

What am I looking forward to? Tons.

Although I’ll keep my specific goals private, I’d love to share my intentions for the new year.

1. New Year, New Opportunities, New Learnings As A DevRel & Solutions Architect

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.” – Plato

I have renewed excitement about the upcoming year.

I’ve been incredibly impressed and amazed by the team’s work ethic, openness, and ability to set boundaries. Though the team is small, ‘tis also mighty.

And I have strong conviction in our ability to execute.

Most important to me is the strong alignment between my role at Featureform and the experiences and growth I’m seeking in my professional career.

As Head of MLOps at Featureform I am intensely focused on supporting data scientists and MLOps engineers in building platforms and systems that work for any company using production ML best practices, great open-source tools and technical strategy.

I support our users, our partners, and the ecosystem through content, product, and community.

We’re only getting started and 2023 is going to be a year for the books.

2. In Pursuit of Continued Mastery As An MLOps Engineer

“Mastery is not a function of genius or talent. 

It is a function of time and intense focus applied to a particular field of knowledge”. – Robert Greene

One of my biggest regrets was not staying consistently focused on my personal development and learning.

Although I enjoyed trying new undertakings this year (like participating in the MLOps Community Hosted Flyte Hackathon, publishing a blog post on Speech AI with Nvidia, the front-end boot camp at Intuit, giving some last-minute talks, etc) I can’t say they progressed any of my key goals.

This year I’ll be squarely focused on establishing a learning routine and roadmap based on what I need to continue to grow as an MLOps platform engineer, along with as a DevRel, and as a solutions architect.

3. Improving My Content & Optimizing On Existing Data…

“Absorb what is useful, 

Discard what is not, 

Add what is uniquely your own.” — Bruce Lee

Content is easiest to create when the creative well is filled to the brim.

And the easiest way to fill the well is with building and learning.

With that being said after months of trying different mediums and channels, I have a better idea of what works and what doesn’t work.

I’ll be making changes accordingly, the biggest being that I will be intensely focused on technical writing, videos, and code-based projects and tutorials and less so on social media.

That’s not to say I don’t care about improving my social media copywriting and storytelling skills.

However, I realized that what really matters to me right now is creating an authentic and valuable body of work I can be proud of and point to in my later years.

I want to be doing the hard intellectual work and taking professional risks now and not regretting that I hadn’t later.

4. …While Continuing to Experiment With Type, Medium, & Format

“You must immerse yourself in your work. 

You have to fall in love with your work … 

You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. 

That’s the secret of success.”- Jiro

Content I’m personally drawn to could be described as:

• beautiful,

• well-done,

• thoughtful,

• impactful,

• insightful,

• clean.

I love animation, interactivity, well-designed characters, and immersive stories. Doorways to new worlds and worlds within worlds.

If I’m spending the equivalent of a part-time job on an activity I want it to be fun, challenging, and colorful.

So while I’ll continue doing what works, I’ll also be exploring how I can incorporate different mediums, techniques, and styles in my writing, projects, and videos.

5. Doubling Down On My Personal, Non-Tech Related Goals & Shoring Up My Foundations

“Drink deep the cup of life;

take its dark wine into your soul. 

For it passes round the table only once.”― Jack McDevitt, Seeker

Some live to work, and others work to live. And others like to sample, like a nice thali.

I’m an Elder Millennial sampler.

While I didn’t make the strides that I wanted to in health, content, or personal development, I end the year with so many beautiful memories and stories.

For example I got to visit four cities I’ve never been to:

• Toronto,

• Austin,

• Salt Lake City, and

• Miami.

In Toronto, I roamed the alleys, thrift stores, and haunts with Harpreet while we took pictures for our future greatest hits album covers.

In Austin Tina and I bought western boots while marching through +95F deg with Seattle Data Guy (Ben), Shashank, and Code Emporium (Ajay) (sorry y’alls!).

I will never forget trolling the live chat of "the DATA SCIENCE HOT TUB q&a" Livestream (with Hunter and Forrest), commentating with Ken Jee on the Bright Data Hackathon (with SDG, Tina, Josh Starmer judging), and gathering 20+ data peeps (including Matthew Sharp, Ben Taylor, Thom Ives, etc) the Salt Lake City retreat.

In Miami I biked through South Beach, watched Wakanda Forever with the crew, took a bunch of folks to salsa lessons at Mango’s, and ate my way through Little Havana (gorging on empanadas, cafecitos, guava pastries, Cubanos, mojitos, and sugar cane juice).

I ogled at the beautiful street art while meeting some of Wynwood’s resident artists and enjoyed live salsa music at The Ball & Chain.

I managed to also spend 6 consecutive hours dancing salsa through Little Havanna before closing the night out at a Colombian restaurant/nightclub singing “Yo No Se Manana'' at 3am.

I also spent time on personal passions and family.

I sewed (a Hawaiian shirt for me, and a quilt for my niece), knitted a bunch (2.5 sweaters), and took up weaving.

I spent quality time with my family and Karthik’s family when they visited. We took them to museum exhibits (like the “Guo Pei” Exhibit and “The Gold of the Pharaohs” exhibit), celebrating pongal and I learned how to wrap the saris gifted by Karthik’s parents.

We got to watch Skyfall at the San Francisco Symphony and hear The Dip and St.Paul and the Broken Bones live at Stern Grove Festival.

For the next year, I’ll be doing more: More traveling, more time spent on making clothes, more time dancing, and learning new languages.

“Make Life Your Goal” – Jon Batiste, Celeste

My life (and even my career as an engineer) was enriched by my enthusiastic (if at times, ill-planned) roaming.

After years of delaying plans with the refrain “When COVID ends” I began to get increasingly bored and frustrated as well as anxious because every day felt like deja vu.

But when I began to spend time making new connections, mastering my craft, experiencing new cities, and investing in my hobbies, I began to experience joy and flow.

So some of my main goals are to:

• focus on my health and fitness,

• spend time with Karthik’s family in India (first-time visit!),

• spend time with my own family in Japan (it’s been years, fingers crossed!),

• start salsa lessons again, and

• learn conversational Spanish and Hindi (as well as brush up on my Japanese).

I no longer want to wait to live based on whether I’ve reached certain professional or personal goals.

I want to live now.

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Parting Thought

“For unless one is able to live fully in the present, the future is a hoax.

There is no point whatever in making plans for a future which you will never be able to enjoy.

When your plans mature, you will still be living for some other future beyond.

You will never, never be able to sit back with full contentment and say, ‘Now, I’ve arrived!’

Your entire education has deprived you of this capacity because it was preparing you for the future, instead of showing you how to be alive now.”

– Alan Watts

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Huge Thanks To The People That Made 2022 Special

I didn't have a clean way of giving shout-outs to everyone in the main post.
Thank you to everyone for the gift of your time, energy, & support!

⭐️ They Helped Me Show Up

To my live streams, my talks, & even reached out to ask if I was okay during the times I dropped off the LinkedIn radar.

• Ayoyinka Sofuwa

• Panagiotis (Panos) Vardanis

• Haitam Borqane

• Abhishek Pamulapati

⭐️ The Harpreet/AoDS Connection

The man, the legend

• Harpreet Sahota - Not enough words, thank you for helping me first break into data science and being a friend as the years go on.

My Data Peeps

• Joe Reis

• Matthew Housley

• Mark Freeman

My Data Science/ML Peeps

• Matthew Sharp

• Kurtis Pykes

• Thom Ives

• Greg Coquillo

• Daliana Liu

• Jon Krohn

• Santona Tuli

• Kausthub Krishnamurthy

• Serg Masis

• Russell Willis

My Strategy Peeps

• Vin Vashista

• Ben Taylor

⭐️ The LEARN Media Crew

My senpais

• Ken Jee - Not enough words for all the ways you've positively impacted my year. Thanks bud!

• Tina Huang - I miss you and will one day find a way to steal you back to the US!

• Nick Wan - My streaming senpai, thank you for your kind words, advice, & support, especially when I was losing my chill at times.

They bring the party

• Ajay Halthor

• Hunter Kempf

• Forrest Knight

• Luke Barousse

• Richmond Alake

• Forrest Knight

• Seattle Data Guy

• Keith Galli

• Shashank Kalanithi

• Zach Wilson

• Joshua Starmer

• Avery Smith

• Alex Freberg

• Ian Greengross

⭐️ The Mailchimpers

The Mentors

• Nadia Morris - For looking after my career, creating a safe space to communicate, & for stabilizing the team even when things were chaotic.

• Lee Scott - For being a mentor to me the entire time.

• Justin Issai - For forming the 3rd leg of my mentorship triangle.

The Team

• Emily Curtin - For being an awesome teammate and Tech Lead!

• Michelle Melton - For being a great teammate, hands down a total gem, every day was awesome.

• Thejaswi Reddy - For leading every interaction with kindness & being a generous teammate.

• Barry Hart - For helping me in my early Mailchimp days and mentoring me.

• Caroline Dickey - For being a great teammate.

The Team Adjacent

• Farman Pirzada - For being an awesome cross-functional team(?)mate, for encouraging some of my escapades, & always being willing to learn.

• Kelly Hale - For being my Oak-town buddy, your words of wisdom & advice.

⭐️ The "This Isn't Even My Final" Featureformers

• Simba - Fearless leader, keeper of the grumpy canine snoofer, spearheading Featureform into the future 💫.

• Shab - The heart of Featureform, can't believe it's only been a few months, 2023 is going to be 🔥.

⭐️ The Miami Devs Who Write Crew

• Shawn Wang (Swyx) - Big thanks to you & Michelle for organizing the retreat & letting us occupy your apartment! (Als for letting me drag you to Salsa!)

• Michelle Bakels - Thank you for organizing such an awesome retreat!

• Fatima Khalid - Gelato adventures & rain that went past a taxi's ties, what fun!

• Daniel Kim - Thank you for being my partner in crime as we explored the cuban cigar shop in Little Haiti and listened to live music at The Ball & Chain (& salsa too!).

• Phillip Kiely - Great conversations & learnings, thank you so much!

Special thanks to all the people that let me drag them along on various adventures, like salsa dancing, cigar touring, & one canceled everglades tour:

• Curtis Einsmann

• Art Berger

• Amedee

Thank you to the participants for sharing your positive energy at dinner, the Wakanda Forever screening, & the speakeasy:

• Hassan El Mghari

• Isaac Tai

• Nestor Bonilla - When I asked the waiter to "surprise me" at the Cuban restaurant, Nestor told me ahead of time it was probably going to be a different kind of mojito. He was right.

• Chau

• Chris Sean

• Kathryn Nanz

• Marcus Hellberg

• Carolyn Stransky

• Danny

• With-Heart

⭐️ The "I Just Discovered Twitter While It's Having Technical Difficulties" Crew & Other Folks I've Shared The Stage (or Twitter Space) With

• Sumanth Papareddy

• Sabrina Aquino

• Dipankar Mazumdar