Personal Reflection on 2021

I would say that 2021 was an out-of-control train with cut brakes and a burning engine room, careening side-to-side on the rails while just barely remaining on-track.

It's tradition in the new year to reflect on how the last year went for yourself, and then consider one or more resolutions for next year. These resolutions are of course completely fictional, not meant to be actually completed, so they can be as ambitious as you could imagine. For example a common resolution involves pledging to go to a gym several times a week and gain a very high level of physical fitness. It's quite fun to invent these fantastical stories of the next year!

Reflecting back on my personal life during the year, I initially thought, "Wow you did absolutely nothing this year"

Then I attempted to really think hard and write down all the ways I spent my time. I realize that maybe I did do some things after all, but just nothing amazing and immediately memorable. All in all, although the year wasn't spectacular for me personally, it wasn't the out-of-control steam engine that it was for the world at large. I didn't even get Covid!

One thing I noticed with a quick mental estimation is that I think I could probably have done 2x the amount of things I want to do and like to do, if only I had better time management skills. In other words if I wasn't spending so much time on reddit and youtube.

In general I have a preference to reject the almost macho culture of time management, where time must be treated as a valuable currency to be spent only where it has the most utility. I think its good to do nothing sometimes. But frankly I just don't want to be on reddit and youtube so much, and I want to do a little more cooler things, even if I don't want to start hustling hard every day.

I guess that brings me to my new years resolution which is three-fold:

1. Don't go on reddit and youtube so much.
2. Do something amazing.
3. Do 2x the amount of cool things that I like to do.

Okay that's settled for next year. Next here's what I wrote down for what I spent time on last year:

I mostly spent my time coding or on Zoom for my remote software job at Ginkgo, which overall has been going pretty well. I'm excited about what we're doing. I spent a brief couple of weeks working in person in Boston too.

Besides work, 

I moved into a Seattle apartment with my partner and we got a precious cat (Ginger) to go with it. Ginger is snuggly and beautiful, and she likes to lounge on the top level of the cat tower in the most ridiculous ways where half of her body is hanging of the edge. Many of the other things below I did alongside either my partner or ginger.

I watched some television and movies. I don't remember all of them but here's a few that came to mind.
- Dune
- James Bond
- Lord of the Rings 1, 2, and 3
- Don't Look Up
- Squid Game

I read a few books, mostly sci-fi this year. These I do remember all of, I think.
- Piranesi
- Anathem
- Galapagos
- The Trial
- Contact
- Cryptonomicon
- Don't Sleep There are Snakes

I listened to some music. These are a few artists which come to mind, assisted by Spotify's annual report.
- Of Montreal
- Animal Collective
- Weyes Blood
- Vince Staples
- Woods
- 100 gecs
- Lil Nas X
- Billie Eilish
- The Garden
- Todd Rundgren

I attended two concerts, Glass Animals and Courtney Barnett. Super fun but possibly not worth the Covid risk.

I listened to some podcasts.
- Smartless
- Podcast but outside
- Overthink
- In Our Time
- The Philosopher's Arms

I played a couple games here and there
- Catan
- Chess
- Dungeons and Dragons
- Pokemon Radical Red

I spent a lot of time on reddit, youtube, and hackernews, consuming lots of mostly useless tidbits of information and occasionally conversing with strangers in the comments.

I executed on an overarching account security strategy that I am now pretty comfortable with, using a password manager and 2 factor authentication. Good luck now, hackers...

I started getting obsessed with the taste of my coffee for a period, and got pretty good at making coffee in my moka pot after following some online tips. I also made this rad slo-mo video of the moka pot in action.

 

I bought some roller blades off ebay and started roller blading. It's super fun, although I am still learning how to stop.

I took a couple small camping and/or hiking trips around Washington for my required dose of pristine nature.

I trained for and then completed a half marathon. It was my first time running that far. I think I'm not going to do it again because it's hard, painful, and seems to often result in injuries. (Roller blading on the other hand is a low impact activity... as long as you don't fall.)

I did probably around 1000 push-ups and 1000 pull-ups over the year. Sounds impressive, but works out to about 2-3 of each per day on average.

I wrote a couple little things on my blog earlier in the year, one about watches, and one about coffee almost spilling.

I sculpted and painted a bunch of polymer clay trinkets. I'll hopefully soon do a blog post soon to talk about how much fun polymer clay is. Pictured are a few of my creations.

 

I started on—but still have yet to make continuous productive use of—a personal linked note taking strategy with obsidian, which I've decided is a fantastic piece of software.

Ok! That was my 2021.