Reflecting on 2024
The year of discovery
This year has been the most intense of my life. Full of novelty, learnings, successes, ups and downs.
I want to reflect on what happened this year, how did it impact me, and what do I envision for 2025.
5 Accomplishments
Be grateful, be proud, be kind
- Improved my relationships with both my mother and other family members
- Became a valuable member of Polygon Labs & more specifically Miden both as an engineer and a public figure
- Recognized the value of having a community, made new friends and participated in more social activities
- Recognized the primordial importance of my physical, mental and spiritual health
- Built more discipline, routines, clarity and vision for the future
2024 in retrospect
Better to die tired than to die bored
December 4th 2023 - Became Senior Protocol Engineer @ Polygon Labs working on Miden
I worked many jobs throughout my life—from Yu-Gi-Oh card reselling, football, consulting, development—but I had never had a proper 9-to-5 job. Hence, this new job and title were a first for me, where I learned about the ins and outs of company politics, functions, titles, organization, and how to be a good worker/employee (I know it sounds bad, but it's essential to understand to work in or build companies; to be a good leader, first be a good follower).
December 2023 - First time visiting Lisbon and apartment hunting, Lisbon, Portugal
First time coming to Portugal and more specifically to Lisbon after having been pilled again and again by my friends Benjamin and Thomas about how great Lisbon and Portugal are compared to France. They weren’t lying:
- Better weather (~9°C to 29°C all year round)
- Lower taxes
- Happier and nicer people (cultural)
- Goods and services are cheaper
- Quality of life is higher
- Beach, surf, parties, food, etc.
This rang the start of multiple months of research and dozens of visits with my roommate Philippe to find the perfect apartment.
February - Start of my traveling journey
Traveling has been a major part of my life this year with a total of over 40 flights, 10 visited countries, and more than a week spent on the plane. From crypto conferences and events, meetings, moving from France to Portugal, and vacation, this year has definitely been crowned the year of travels (sorry for my carbon footprint).
Visited countries in 2024:
- France 🇫🇷
- Portugal 🇵🇹
- USA 🇺🇸
- Italy 🇮🇹
- Greece 🇬🇷
- UAE 🇦🇪
- Indonesia 🇮🇩
- Thailand 🇹🇭
- Belgium 🇧🇪
- England 🏴
I mainly traveled from conference to conference to represent my project (Miden) and my company (Polygon Labs) around the world. I loved being able to go on stage and share. I believe that we found a great fit between my coworkers and me: I have fewer responsibilities (no kids, etc.), hence more freedom to travel. At the same time, thanks to my on-stage presence abilities, we decided that I would travel to most large conferences and events.
February - EthDenver, Denver, USA
Great start of the year, especially thanks to Jessy’s hacker house and Alexis. Met incredible people; nonetheless, I still hate Denver—what a cold and sad desert.
March - Ethaly, Borgo, Italy
One week with some of the best of our space in one of the most beautiful hotels in the world. The best private event I have ever been to, period.
April - ZKSummit 11, Athens, Greece
Met lots of people, overall a good event. I was glad to make my first major Miden presentation.
April - Token2049, Dubai, UAE
Last-minute decision with my Lambdaclass Argentinian brothers, had a blast of a time even though I arrived during the largest floods ever recorded in Dubai’s history.
May - Polygon Labs offsite, Bali, Indonesia
First-ever offsite with my new company. I was glad to spend more time with my team and transform some coworkers into friends.
June - Moved into my new apartment, Lisbon, Portugal
We found it! Not perfect (the area is not the best), but overall, very, very good. Glad to have moved to Lisbon. I am slowly building my community here, getting into my routine (gym, restaurants, cafes, clubs, etc.) and slowly building a place I can call home. Let’s see if I manage to do so before the American dream urge becomes too strong...
July - EthCC, Brussels, Belgium
I was glad to be able to share about Miden during EthCC at the LambdaZK Week, where I was able to mentor different teams building on top of our technology during the hackathon.
July - ZuKastle, Brussels, Belgium
It was in a castle! What else do you want me to say?!
August - Science of Blockchain Conference, New-York, USA
My first time in New York! What an incredible city—you get blown away by the drive and ambition of the people. Even the taxi driver has a startup idea. Probably my next stop in terms of where I would live.
August - Paradigm Frontiers, San-Francisco, USA
A very high-quality conference about the future of the EVM.
August - Aztec Hash It Out, London, England
A week of brainstorming around programmable cryptography and its applications, a big thanks to Arnaud Schenk for all his teachings and his invitation.
September - Paradigm Fellowship 2024, San-Francisco, USA
One of, if not the most selective, blockchain fellowships done by one of the largest crypto VC funds, Paradigm. A week of sharing and learning with some of the brightest minds in the crypto space.
October - Builder Monastery, Ericeira, Portugal
With friends and fun in Ericeira.
October - ZKSummit 12, Lisbon, Portugal
Most technical event of the year.
October - Megazu, Chiang Mai, Thailand
One month of co-living, building, and fun in a five-star hotel ⭐️ in Thailand. Loved it, thanks to Megaeth and EigenLayer. Made so many new friends, met so many old friends.
November - Devcon VII SEA, Bangkok, Thailand
The best conference I have ever been to—stellar organization, high-quality events/talks/speakers, and in Bangkok. Met all my friends again, had daily meetings with friends, VCs, companies, teammates, etc. The highest ROI conference, in my opinion. If you go to one conference a year, go to Devcon (or Devconnect).
November - Zuthailand, Pattaya, Thailand
A sweet end to my year conference road trip, with all the homies, co-living in a beautiful location.
Closing thoughts
learnings
Lifelong learner
This year definitely made me grow in ways I would never have imagined. These are some of the major learnings:
| Advice | Action |
|---|---|
| Your physical, mental, and spiritual health is your most precious asset. | Exercise, meditate, see a therapist, eat good food, drink water, avoid smoking, alcohol, or party drugs. |
| We are creatures of habit; a routine is important. | Reduce the number of choices you need to make. |
| Traveling is expensive. | Consider financial, mental, energetic, and health costs; it can have low ROI; choose wisely. |
| You have only one family and loved ones, and they will be gone soon. | Spend more time with your family; call your parents every single day (even 1 minute is enough). |
| Having the right spouse is one of the most important decisions you will make in your life. | Choose your life partner carefully. |
| Have a to-do list and a calendar. | Seek clarity in your tasks and schedule. |
| Read books, as many as you can, knowledge compounds. | Buy good books and read at least one a month. |
| The largest factor of success is not how hard you do things but what you do. | Direction over intensity. |
| Your job is not your life. | Focus on yourself, not just your work. |
| Love is all that matters. | Focus on maximizing love and happiness in your life. |
| You are the sum of the 5 people you spend the most time with. | Surround yourself with driven, ambitious, and happy people. Build your community. |
Goals
A vision for 2025
| Goal | Action |
|---|---|
| Read 1 book per week (52 books in 2025) | Have a book planned for the week; determine how many pages to read per day. |
| Lift 100kg bench press (currently ~70kg) | Go to the gym; sleep well; eat good, nutritious food. |
| Manage to sit properly while meditating | Stretch and meditate everyday |
| Study Computer Science and Maths foundational works | Study CS and Maths every day. |
| Pin down finances and optimize investments | Study microeconomics; build an investment plan and tracking system. |
| Lead Miden [Redacted] toward success | Work hard; make the right decisions; network with the right people. |
| Produce more content | Write book reviews, articles and posts more regularly; build online brand/presence. |
| Learn new skills (guitar, dancing, combat sport, spanish, portuguese) | Find instructor/classes; practice at home. |
| Spend more time with loved ones and less time abroad | Allocate regular call times; plan vacation. |
Conclusion
This year for me has been the year of discovery, not only of the world that sourrounds us but more specifically of myself. I have more understanding of who I am, what I want and what I can bring to the world. I believe that the discovery of the self is a lifelong mission and is most likely the most important one we have us humans.
Let’s continue building the future together, in 2025 🚀