Let’s be honest for a second.
I’ve been staring at the AWS console specifically—and cloud engineering in general—from the sidelines for way too long. Maybe you know the feeling. You watch tutorials, you nod along, you maybe even pass a certification exam... but when it comes to actually building something from scratch? You freeze.
That’s where I’ve been stuck. The famous "Tutorial Hell."
But 2025 is ending, and I made a promise to myself. No more watching. No more passively consuming content while scrolling LinkedIn and feeling guilty that everyone else seems to be shipping cool projects.
In 2026, I am going all-in on AWS.
Why now?
It’s not just about the market demand, though obviously, that helps. It’s about the fact that cloud skills are no longer "nice to have" for developers. They are the baseline. I realized that if I don't get my hands dirty now, I'm going to be playing catch-up for the rest of my career.
My Plan (The "Anti-Burnout" Strategy)
I’m not going to try to learn everything. That’s a one-way ticket to quitting by February. Instead, my strategy is simple: Public Accountability.
I plan to show up here every day—or as close to it as life permits. I won't just post the successes. If I break my permissions, get stuck on a Lambda function, or accidentally rack up a bill because I forgot to turn off an EC2 instance (please, no), I’m going to write about it.
My goals are simple:
Build over certify. Certificates are great, but I want a GitHub repo that looks lived-in.
Share the messy process. Most tutorials show the happy path. I want to document the real path.
Connect. I’m looking to meet others who are starting out, or veterans who remember what it was like to be new.
What’s next?
Tomorrow, I’m tackling my first real hands-on lab and explaining it like I’m five years old. Because if I can explain it simply, it means I actually understood it.
If you are also on this journey, or if you’ve been procrastinating just like I was—say hi in the comments. Let’s figure this cloud thing out together.
See you in the console.
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