Ok, so maybe it’s a bit past 2024, but I think it’s still worth posting.

This post contains things I did in 2024. However, it does not contain everything. If I don’t talk about something we did here, rest assured that I still love you; I just don’t think everything in my life should be public.

Travel and the importance of people

A brief digression on travel. I went to a good bit more places than I’ve historically done in a year. This seems pretty reasonable; I’m 23, and the most exciting thing to me right now is learning new things about the world.

I realized a few things about myself:

  1. I don’t like long-distance travelling to see things — food, sights, nature, etc. While I do find it nice to explore a lively part of an unknown city, I think I can get the same experience by just going to a new part of San Francisco (where I spend the majority of my time).
  2. Travel does indeed suck. It wastes time (sitting on the plane, experiencing delays), is rather uncomfortable, and is expensive relative to things I usually do. But the returns are also worth it.
  3. However, traveling to see people has been worth it every time. Highlights were:
    1. Meeting Anson, Hudzah, and Charles at Edge Esmeralda 2024
    2. Seeing/meeting Hudzah, Flo, Clo, Ben, Neo, Pav, Ivan in Toronto
    3. Hanging out with MIT/Harvard folks (Tara, Gabe, Ryan, …) in Boston, including at various MAIA/AISST events
    4. Reaching out to talk with people at NeurIPS. Turns out the ML community is huge and also amazingly cool these days.

Experiences I enjoyed the most, rated out of 10

  1. 10/10 — Afternoons spent reliving the college experience with friends — meeting spontaneously, playing spikeball, walking around in the sunlight. When I think about what I wanted to change most about these interactions, I think I should have been more outgoing and less awkward around people I didn’t know as well.
  2. 10/10 — Hanging out with new friends for a whole weekend. In adult life, everyone feels so busy that it’s hard to spend that long hanging out. Making time to do random all-encompassing activities with new friends has been incredibly rejuvenating.
  3. 8/10 — Learning about random stuff outside my domain of expertise. Social choice theory, robotics, 3D printing, energy. I think I’ll always enjoy learning new things.
  4. 10/10 — Spending two winter nights and four hours of a plane ride watching Pantheon. Usually I don’t like watching shows, but this is the best TV show I’ve ever seen. Concrete updates [SPOILERS COMING]:
    1. Brain emulation will be achieved within 50 years.
    2. What is the meaning of life post-scarcity? It’s love and compassion for your loved ones. This is true even if those loved ones are infinitely mutable or “people-space” is continuous; you just choose people to love and you love them.
    3. Transformative social change is possible in just a few decades.
  5. 9/10 — Shipping work I’m proud of on a deadline. I describe my work life as 1/2 standard SWE, 1/5 crackpot research ideas, and 3/10 working on a deadline to do something important for a broader launch. Despite the chaos and stress, I found working on a self contained project that has to get done very meaningful when done right. It was also nice to have this happen repeatedly, because I got to learn the right balance between being stringent about code quality/process and being adaptable.
  6. 9/10 — Running along Marina Green. Never knew running could be that fun. A shame it takes a 20 minute drive to get there for me.

Experiences I didn’t like, rated out of 10

  1. 3/10 — Online dating in San Francisco. It’s depressing, filled with adverse selection, I’m not particularly good at it, and every minute I spend on my phone feels like a minute I’m not going outside, talking to people IRL, or learning something new about the world. Maybe I should just touch grass.
  2. 1/10 — Browsing social media on my phone in the morning. It’s soul sucking, uses lots of time, and creates a low grade anxiety that sticks with me for a few hours.

  3. 3/10 — Feeling like I’m actively ignoring suboptimal parts or important chores in my life. Examples: procrastinating on cleaning my room, returning packages, going to the gym, etc. I think about Heinlein’s quote:

    “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

    To do the little things right is just as important as the big things. So in 2025 I’m resolving to get good at everything I choose to do.

  4. 1/10 — Spending a day half-assed. Sometimes you just kinda phone it in for a day, you know? You don’t do the task you know in your bones is the most important; instead, you do some satisfying refactor or lollygag around the snack area instead. You accept “ok” instead of “I didn’t know that was possible.” You don’t ask out the girl; instead you just talk awkwardly and then say goodbye. You wake up late on the weekend, go through the day without a plan, and lie to bed brimming with unspent motion.

    Half-assing life is the true evil. Everything in life deserves a full ass.

2025 action items for myself

  1. Look at my phone less — by sleeping earlier so I have less sleepy mornings.
  2. Purposefully spend more time with close friends. Create a list of people I want to stay in touch with or get to know better. Actively try to organize at least 1 recurring event with them (a book club? dinner?).
  3. Take at least one concrete action to prepare financially & physically for AGI.
  4. From Charlie Munger: Make myself at least a tiny bit better every day.
  5. Have a weekly cleaning hour.
  6. Go to the gym before work.
  7. 3D print at least one puzzle.
  8. Write a 2025 year in review.

End of text

Thank you to everyone I met this year. Life is short, and I’m glad we got to spend some of it together. If you’re reading this we should definitely hang out more in 2025 :)