The first month of 2025 and its 247 days are behind us. I started 2025 with a blog post participating in Dev's New Year Challenge, sharing some hopes and fears for 2025.
In the post, I shared two bingo cards: One for things I wish would happen, and one for things I think will, unfortunately, happen. The original blog post is behind this link: 2025, Please, Be Gentle.
I decided that after each month, I'd look at how it went in terms of these two cards. This is the first checkpoint, so let's discuss the good stuff first.
The Good Stuff
From January, I can mark one thing as complete on my wishes-bingo card: My blog post, Using SVGs on Canvas with Compose Multiplatform, was selected to Dev's week's top 7 listing. I was so happy when I saw the notification about it!
So, after a month, my "The Good Stuff"-bingo card looks like this:
And the text version:
| B | I | N | G | O |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Talk accepted to Kotlin Conf | I get invited to be a guest in a podcast | My research article gets published | Learn a new skill | More non-binary representation in conferences |
| Man speaks up against biased behaviour | New elections in Finland | Night outside, in a hammock | Get into a Doctorate program | Start mentoring again |
| A project is launched without a last-minute crunch | More women and non-binary in staff+ positions | **Free space (Dream big!)** | Happened: Blog post gets boosted or selected to Dev's top 7 | #WeCoded without jerks commenting |
| Conference swag socks in my size | Someone says my work inspired them | A new tattoo | A genuine apology from someone after being a jerk | Get a book deal |
| Get promoted to Tech Lead position | 100K views in Dev | Not burning out during the year | Build a new, useful feature for Neule.art-app | Finish building a keyboard |
The More Realistic
The title of this blog post is both about the state of the world right now - as a non-binary, disabled woman who is willing to call a nazi salute a nazi salute, everything that's happening is just a lot. But it's also about the bingo - I could mark several of my "More realistic" bingo card items as "This happened".
During January, I saw so much biased AI-generated content enforcing gender stereotypes. I also was addressed as a "guy" many times. And in countless discussions, when talking about a developer, that hypothetical developer was addressed as "he".
I was also told how I would be heard better if I wasn't so negative and angry all the time - "just look at how this one man does it". Side note: I was never angry, and my "negativity" in the situation was me being realistic, not negative.
And finally, there was this one situation where I had told about something needing to be done and was met with "no", but when a fellow developer, who is a man, brought it up a couple of weeks later, there was no discussion if it has to be done, but how we're going to do it. And I bet no one else noticed this happening.
So yeah, after January, my more realistic Bingo card looks like this:
And the text version, with "Happened" before the text.
| B | I | N | G | O |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Happened: Being addressed as a guy | Someone gaslights me | Happened: Biased AI-generated content | Man speaks over me | Called "intimidating" for being assertive. |
| Someone interrupts when I'm presenting | "Gender doesn't matter, just talent" | Man takes credit for what I said | Being left out of an important meeting | Happened: "You'd be heard better, if you weren't so angry" |
| Someone assumes I can't handle my tech setup | Meeting a new person who assumes I'm not a developer | "I've never seen anyone being discriminated" | "Intent over impact" | Happened: Man needs to repeat what I've said |
| Invalidation of lived experience | "Women just don't want to code" | Someone else credited for my work | "But they clearly didn't mean it" | Sexist comment in a blog post or talk |
| "You were hired just for diversity quotas" | Everyone's surprised after something I warned happens | Man splaining my expertise to me | "Equality has gone too far" | Happened: Hypothetical developer is referred to as "he" or other gendered noun |
Wrapping Up
While my more realistic bingo card got more marks than the good stuff one this month, and the state of the world is what it is, January was not all bad. There were a lot of great conversations, accomplishments, and other small, positive things.
Let's hope that February brings more good, both to the world and to my life!
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