Today I want to write about something that is both personal and technical, but maybe more personal for now.

Recently, someone called 0xSero, who is quite known on GitHub and X, gave me an EVGA RTX 3090. For many engineers, or maybe for many people living in Europe, this might just look like a powerful GPU. But for a student, especially for someone who is still trying to build his own path, this is not a small thing at all.

It is not just a graphics card for me.

It feels like a symbol of momentum.

A few months ago, I saw a Claude Code meetup on X. It randomly appeared in front of me, and I thought: why shouldn’t I go? So I bought a ticket. Only a few minutes later, when I tried to make one of my friends buy a ticket too, he was already placed on the waitlist. I had already managed to get mine. Maybe I was even the person who got the last ticket.

At that moment, I did not know that this small decision would change my perspective so much.

Before moving abroad, especially during high school, I was lucky to have friends around me who pushed me forward. Thanks to them, we were always trying to perform above the level of people around us. We cared about improving ourselves. We cared about doing better. We cared about not becoming ordinary.

But after moving abroad, I slowly started to lose that environment.

Unfortunately, the quality of the people around me could not really compare with the quality of my high school friends. Because of that, maybe I did not feel the same pressure to improve. I was still doing things, of course, but my way of programming had almost not changed for two years. I was still mostly writing code manually. I knew about the idea of vibe coding, but I was not really using the tools at that level. I was also not fully aware of how much these tools had improved.

Then I went to that Claude Code event.

It was in one of the skyscrapers in the middle of Warsaw. When I arrived, there were many people waiting for the presentation to start. A lot of them looked like engineers, and I will explain why I thought that in a minute.

That was the first event of 0xSero that I attended.

When the presentation started, I saw how much the tools and LLM models had developed, and how many unbelievable opportunities they were creating. Honestly, it felt like boiling water had been poured over my head. My perspective changed very suddenly.

Until that moment, because the people around me were not really searching for quality in the same way, and because I was comparing myself mostly with that environment, I thought I was in a good place.

But actually, I had fallen behind.

For a young person who has dreams and goals in this sector, that is not an easy realization to swallow. It was not a comfortable moment. But maybe it was exactly the kind of discomfort I needed.

I had to act immediately.

And about why I thought almost everyone there was an engineer: nobody came there with the passive mindset of “let the speaker present and we will just listen.” People were constantly jumping into the discussion, talking about their own projects, sharing their own ideas, and sometimes creating a small chaotic atmosphere. But it was a good kind of chaos. It was the chaos of people who actually care about the subject.

That also made me feel behind.

Because the people in that room were connected to the topic. They were not just watching the future from outside. They were already trying to build inside it.

After the event, I joined the Discord server and started waiting for the next meetup. The events were happening about every two weeks, and I started attending them regularly. I began meeting people with very strong experience, people who had already done serious things, people who were not only talking about technology but actually living inside it.

And during this process, I started improving myself with a momentum I had not felt for a long time.

I can say that I started holding on to my dreams again.

I started becoming someone who is not afraid to take steps toward his goals again.

Later, I mentioned to Sero that we could maybe organize one of the events at CIC Warsaw, which I think is one of the most beautiful office spaces in Warsaw. We managed to organize one there too, and for me it was extremely valuable. Because this time the topic was not only about tools, code, or products. We also talked about the mission and vision underneath engineering.

We talked about how much the world is changing, what kind of responsibility falls on us, and what it means to be an engineer in a time like this.

That conversation stayed with me.

During that event, Sero told me that he could give me a 3090. The next week, he brought it and gave it to me.

Again, maybe for some people this is not the biggest thing in the world. But for a student, these are not things that are easy to reach. A powerful GPU is not just a piece of hardware when you are trying to learn local LLMs, build tools, test models, and understand the technical side of AI more seriously.

I installed the card the day after I received it.

And almost immediately, I started testing stronger local models.

There is something strange about comparing my current setup with where I started. In high school, when my laptop screen was broken, I was trying to use a small TV in my room as a monitor. I was using an ironing board as a desk. It was not aesthetic. It was not comfortable. It was not a “setup” in the way people use that word online.

But it was mine.

And now, when I look at my current setup and see a 3090 inside it, I understand once again that I have many reasons to be grateful.

Not only for the hardware.

For the people.

For the moments that changed my direction.

For the events that reminded me I was not doing enough.

For the uncomfortable realizations that pushed me forward.

For the people who entered my life and left a positive effect, even if they did not realize how much they affected me.

I hope everyone who has contributed positively to my life also encounters very positive things in their own life.

This post is not really a technical review of the 3090. That will come later. I am planning to publish a podcast episode and also a more technical blog post about what I am actually doing with the card, which local models I am testing, what kind of workflow I am building, and how this changes my AI development setup.

But before writing the technical side, I wanted to write the human side.

Because sometimes the most important part of a machine is not the machine itself.

It is the momentum it gives you.

And for me, this 3090 represents exactly that.

Take care for now.

I.S.A