Third Year in a Row as a Microsoft MVP

I just found out I've been recognised as a Microsoft MVP for the third time. The first time felt like validation, like someone finally confirmed the work was worth doing. The third feels quieter. It feels more like proof that consistency beats intensity.

Why the Third One Hits Different

The first award, you can chase with a good year. You write some posts, give a few talks, and if the timing lines up, you get recognised. That's not nothing, but it can still be a bit of a lucky streak.

A third award is harder to explain away as luck. It means you kept showing up after the excitement of the first one wore off. It means the posts kept getting written on the weeks you didn't feel like it, the talks kept getting prepared even when the room was small, and the discussions kept happening even when nobody was watching. Consistency is unglamorous. It's also the only thing that compounds.

What Actually Moved the Needle

Looking back at three years, it wasn't any single post or talk that mattered. It was the loop: write something, share it, get told where I was wrong, fix my thinking, write the next thing.

• Blog posts on architecture, DDD, and distributed systems, published whether or not they'd get traction.
• Talks and mentoring at events like HackCarpathia and Boiling Frogs, where the feedback is immediate and unfiltered.
• Community discussions where someone pushes back on an idea and you either defend it or realise you were wrong.
• Doing it again the next month, and the month after that.

Huge thanks to the community. Everyone who read a post, watched a video, joined a discussion, or told me where I was wrong. That last part is the one that actually made the difference.

Being told you're wrong is the least comfortable part of building in public, and it's the part I'd least want to give up. A post that gets ten agreeing comments teaches you nothing. A post that gets one sharp disagreement teaches you where your model of the world had a gap. That correction is worth more than most of the praise.

Onto Year Four

I'm not planning to change the approach that got me here. Keep writing, keep talking to people, keep listening when they push back. If you've read a post, sat through a talk, or told me I got something wrong along the way, thank you. That feedback loop is the whole point.