A new rubber duck

My name is Tomasz Meyer, and I have decided to expand my hidden writing practice. Every evening, before going to bed, I write down how I felt, what I did, and what I observed in my behavior. My journal is the most personal possession I have – I never lie in it, and I am never consciously ashamed to write anything down. This journal has often helped me find my way out of a dead end, like a true friend.

The life of an engineer is not the most exciting, and it never seemed to me that it was something worth sharing with the world. However, recent changes have made periodic reflection on my engineering endeavors feel necessary.

Since the beginning of February, I have embarked on my journey as a freelancer. I created this website, set up profiles on the most popular freelancing platforms, and mentally prepared myself. As a freelancer, I am not only my own captain but also the ship, the helmsman, and the deckhand. In a project company, there are many expert-islands – people you interact with daily, who help you bounce ideas off them. Often, a simple conversation over coffee, where you explain your challenges to a colleague, helps untangle a problem. A well-known concept in the engineering community: the rubber duck debugging method.

On a one-person ship, there is no one to bounce ideas off. You have to motivate yourself to explain your problems. And what better way to do this than through writing? Writing requires attention, careful word choice, and the ability to condense complex issues into simple sentences that are understandable to a less technical audience. That’s how I ended up here, writing a blog. I intend to occasionally describe the problems I face, share my freelancing journey, and organize the noise in my head.