Personal Goals 2022

This document summarizes my goals for the year 2022. The goals themselves are not listed in any particular order, but they are grouped by category. I am doing this for myself. Writing this down forces me to spend a few hours towards the end of the year to reflect on and appreciate everything that I’ve done. As a secondary objective, something here might inspire someone else to follow through on their goals.

Purpose (profession, career, interests)

I don’t believe to be predestined to anything, and my happiness does not depend on how my work is received by the world (beyond the natural desire to be accepted). I get the most purpose from having goals that help me develop in new ways. As long as I can see myself evolving across many dimensions and I can see a path forward, I generally feel purposeful. To put it simply, having things to do, which are also interesting, gives me purpose.

(score B) Watch less video content (and improve quality): I am averaging ~5 hours of video content per week, mostly high quality tv shows, with the occasional movie. I don’t watch tik-tok/youtube/etc for entertainment, but I do consume educational videos when that’s the optimal medium, and I exclude it from the 5 hr cap.

(score A) Get back to non-fiction reading: I have consumed several audiobooks and intellectual podcasts, usually while exercising, probably 150-200 hours at 1.5 speed. I have not read non-fiction books, but I have subscribed to several newsletters which I read on a weekly basis, easily 200 hours of reading.

(score C) Build some software side projects: I wanted to build some software side projects, and while I’ve been dabbling in code as usual, I didn’t build anything I’m proud of. I did personally hire an intern for a few months and co-authored some ideas I’ve had for a while. The two projects we worked on got zero traction which was a good reminder that results don’t just happen.

(score A) Visit 2 portfolio companies: As an investor I wanted to spend quality time with our portfolio companies. I did this by attending company offsites, which are common among fully remote teams. I attended Voyager’s offsite in Panama and went to 2 quarterly retreats with Yogi. I also hosted various leadership activities with HeyTutor. I met in person with various portfolio founders who came to Santa Barbara.

(score A) Raise 2 follow-on rounds: As an investor, it’s important that our portfolio can continue to grow and one measure of that growth is subsequent funding rounds. Our portfolio is fairly new (about 12 months on average) so I had a goal to see 2 subsequent fundraises. Fortunately, we had 3 fundraises for Cloverleaf, FreightPOP and Unwrap.

(score A) Publish 2 professional posts: this was supposed to be easy, but I procrastinated: Growth, Compensation.

(score A+) Maintain operating experience: While I am currently an investor, my self image is that of a primarily technical operator. In order to keep that self image consistent, it is important for me to keep allocating time towards operating activities. Earlier in the year I was planning to assist CEOs/CTOs with various initiatives, and that was fun. Unexpectedly I was also given the opportunity to take a full time CEO role at HeyTutor, which has been a blast.

(score A) Write a document about purpose: you are reading it.

Selection of media I consumed

Video (swipe right for more)         Text / Audio
--------------------------------     -------------------------------------------
House of the Dragon                  Upgrade (Blake Crouch)
For All Mankind                      The Kaiju Preservation Society
Foundation                           How to Think Like a Roman Emperor
Love, Death + Robots                 Sea of Tranquility (Emily Mandel)
Yellowstone                          How to Avoid a Climate Disaster (BillG)
Pantheon                             Masters of Doom (David Kushner)
The Peripheral                       Cultish (Amanda Montell)
1883 (Yellowstone prequel)           Yearbook (Seth Rogen)
Better Call Saul                     The Anthropocene Reviewed (John Green)
How to sell Drugs Online, Fast        The Code Breaker (Walter Isaacson)
The Last Duel                        The Coddling of the American Mind
Ozark                                The Fish that Ate the Whale
Time (BBC 2021)                      Deep Learning for Coders (Jeremy Howard)
Queen's Gambit                       ML with Pytorch and SciKit Learn
Shantaram                            Building ML Powered Applications
Black Bird                           Dive Into Deep Learning
The Outsider                         Lex Fridman & Guido van Rossum #341
Station Eleven                       Lex Fridman & Andrej Karpathy #333
Top Gun Maverick                     Lex Fridman & Michael Levin #325
Argentina, 1985                      Lex Fridman & Anika Harris #326
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio       Lex Fridman & Nick Lane #318
Triangle of Sadness                  Lex Fridman & John Carmack #309
Vengeance                            Lex Fridman & Andrew Bustamante #310
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story         Lex Fridman & Jack Barsky #301
Thirteen Lives                       Acquired Podcast: Benchmark Capital
The Rescue                           The Diff Newsletter
Bullet Train                         Slow Boring Newsletter
Nightmare Alley                      The Overshoot Newsletter
Licorice Pizza                       Apprecitas Economics Newsletter
The Worst Person in the World        Stratechery Newsletter

Connection (partnership, intimacy, family, friends)

I appreciate the meaningful connections that I’ve made throughout my life, including those that were powerful but short lived. I hope to continue nurturing the connections I have and develop new ones. That said, I believe I am below average when it comes to how much energy I am willing to invest into relationships for their own sake. I much prefer intellectual conversations, shared projects, or interesting experiences. I am generally preoccupied with time management, and casual social events, catch-up phone calls, bachelor parties, etc., usually aren’t a productive use of time. I believe most people want to separate their personal life (including friends) from work, but for me the ideal friendship is one where there is a high degree of professional intersection. My relationships with family are predicated on the same parameters as other relationships: a history of interactions, common interests, compatible personalities. Fortunately, I was able to find a life partner that shares many of these characteristics. Given that she’s further in the autism spectrum, I’ve been able to reconcile some of these personality traits with my own neurodiversity. I find it discomforting that regardless of the frequency and quality of our interactions, my relatives always hope for more. But I am trying to make an effort to be more available, even if it remains a fraction of what they’d wish.

(score B+) Experiences with Julia: Besides being nerds, and in spite of me not being all that much into casual music, Julia and I both enjoy going to live concerts. This year we went to three concerts, including a full day at Outside Lands in San Francisco, and we have already planned a few events for next year. Giving myself a B+ because I’d like to find other activities we can do together.

(score A) Go on 1 ski trip w/ friends: We had a great ski trip in Telluride with my colleagues from ScOp VC.

(score B) go to Burning Man: I ended up going to Lightning in a Bottle with Ivgeni, Carrie, and the kids, and it was really fun. But I missed the Burn, and that was disappointing!

(score A) Work on the BrainBurn with Kevin: My good friend Kevin has been the heart and soul of our Burning Man camp. The key asset of the camp is a mutant vehicle, called the Brain Burn, which has been singlehandedly built by Kevin. While I’ve encouraged him with words and dollars, I’ve been wanting to contribute actual work. This year, Kevin hosted me in Reno for 3 days and we spent some quality time together working on the Brain.

(score C) Host 10 friends/couples for dinner: This goal was about creating joint connections between Patricia and I, with other couples. We ended up hosting 8 friendly couples and also invited a couple new acquaintances.

(score C) Visit my sister in Austin: I was planning to go to Austin for SXSW, and since my sister Nadia lives there, I was planning to meet. We met for dinner and a walk, and it was nice. But Nadia was disappointed that I didn’t make the effort to go to her house (which was an hour or so away from Austin) and I didn’t feel like it. Nadia also wasn’t interested in spending time downtown near my hotel, because it was too hectic for her taste. We were on different frequencies and we don’t always get along, so we left it at that one encounter.

(score B) Meeting mother 6 times: I live in Santa Barbara and my mother lives in Los Angeles, but she lives in “deep LA” which, depending on traffic, can take me up to 3 hours by car. I’d like to think that if we lived in the same town we would see each other more often, maybe every couple weeks or so, but I really don’t like making the trip to LA. Coincidentally, since HeyTutor is in Los Angeles (though shallow LA), I had two reasons to go and exceeded my goal. We met 10 times. Still scoring it B because I know she would have liked to see me more.

(score A) Visit Argentina: I haven’t seen my Argentinean relatives in 3.5 years, so it made sense to make the trip. I used to go to Argentina yearly when I first moved to the USA, but now there are other interesting things I want to do and traveling back there usually requires 2 weeks of my discretionary time.

(score B) Geek Out with Iv: My good friend Ivgeni and I went to the Hack-A-Day superconference, and it was a lot of fun. But I was coming from a long week of travel and I experienced a bit too much sensory overload and couldn’t focus. I ended up leaving a day earlier.

Fitness (strength, endurance, physiology, nutrition)

I feel better when I eat healthy and exercise. Lately, I’ve started to pay attention to my aging and experimenting with methods that can soften the transition, such as being more careful with sun exposure and avoiding products that dry my skin. I’m best at sticking with goals when there are clear KPIs, so I am an avid user of Strava and do my best to keep a strict fasting schedule.

(score B-) Cut down on sugar: I don’t measure my sugar regularly, so I have to go with a guesstimate here, but I disappoint myself with food choices more often than I’d like, particularly when I travel.

(score A-) Exercise most days: Modern life is too sedentary and it’s easy to go several days with minimal movement. I wanted to do some exercise every single day, even if it was a short run, a little yoga, or some light weightlifting. I probably averaged 5-6 days per week, with some sick breaks.

(score A) Run 200 miles: Last year I focused my exercise metrics around biking, so this year I wanted to switch to running more. I ended up running 325 miles over 46 hrs, which is about 8 min 30 seconds per mile.

(score A) Bike 500 miles and climb 100k ft: I ended up also exceeding my biking goal with 891 miles and 150k ft.

(score A) Limit Alcohol and Caffeine: I probably had 1-2 servings of alcohol per month, usually in a single instance. I only had a handful of strongly caffeinated drinks the whole year, although I drink decaf coffee regularly which has about 5-10% the caffeine of a regular serving.

(score D) Weightlifting and Body Weights: cardio is important but it should be complemented with weightlifting to promote muscular and skeletal health. I picked up more weightlifting towards the end, but it was a year.

(score C) Manage sun exposure: I started wearing long sleeves and a hat more often, running early morning or at night, and wearing sunscreen on my face. But I still got sunburn way too many days.

Supplements I’m taking

Name           Actual Form                          Quantity
-----------    --------------------------------     ----------------
Calcium        calcium citrate                      500 mg        
Vitamin D3     cholecalciferol                      10 mcg (400 IU) 
Magnesium      magnesium bisglycinate               133 mg 
Vitamin K2     MK-7                                  
Fish Oil       D3 as cholecalciferol                25 mcg (1000 IU) 
Fish Oil       omega3                               1180 mg 
Fish Oil       EPA                                  665 mg
Fish Oil       DHA                                  445 mg
Fish Oil       Other                                70 mg
Policosanol                                         23 mg
Sterols        from sunflower                       500 mg
Sterols        beta-sitosterol                      250 mg
Sterols        stigmasterol                         75 mg
Sterols        campesterol                          25 mg
NMN            beta nicotinamide mononucleotide     250 mg

Experience (travel, adventure, surprise, learning)

As I’ve accumulated more experiences, life has become more monotonous. While my past self was concerned (even afraid) of eventual monotony, today I appreciate the opportunity to pursue a continually refined routine. Monotony allows me to eat more healthily, exercise more often, waste less time on things I don’t deem important, and quickly course-correct if I’m disappointed in myself. However, I also believe it is important to be able to look back and quickly recall important/interesting moments. Due to our brain’s ability to constantly improve our pattern recognition, similar experiences are compressed together, becoming hard to recall individually without a relevant queue. On the other hand, novel experiences tend to invade my consciousness even when I’m not seeking them, providing a constant reminder of a life thoroughly lived. To this end, I try to accrue experience outside of my daily routine each year, though with time I’ve realized these infrequent events are also a routine but at a more macro scale (e.g. try to ski each season).

(score B) Ski 14 days: I ended up skiing 10 days over two trips. It was great and as usual one of my most cherished outdoor experiences. I aspire to do more in future years.

(score B) Go to a conference: I ended up going to SXSW with Cormac, Matt, and Austin, and it was a lot of fun. However, the topics weren’t as interesting as I was hoping, so on the professional front it fell short.

(score A) Backpacking trip: My friend Connor plans a yearly backpacking trip for a few of us. I don’t think Connor likes me all that much, but I somehow made it into the invite list and after a few trips I think my spot is secured. This year, Ryan took the lead planning the trip and it was our best one yet. We went to the California Sierras, near Mammoth for 4 days.

(score B) Trip to East Coast with family: We traveled to Massachusetts to drop Julia for her freshy year at UMass Amherst. It was great to be back, hang out with the profs, and get Julia settled. Patricia and I then spent a few days driving around Vermont and the Berkshires, and it was nice, but not quite as nice as driving through Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Washington, which are some of my preferred settings (more mountains). We then went to Cormac and Kayla’s wedding in the Hamptons which was fun, although our AirBnB sucked.

(score B) Trip to Baja California: I drove down to Mexico for Kyle and Natalie’s wedding, which was very nice. We have a lot of friends in common so it was fun to share some time together in an unusual setting. Unfortunately Patricia got sick and I had to go on my own, and I picked a hotel where nobody else was staying so I felt lonely.

(score A) Trip to Panama: I went to Panama for Voyager’s offsite with Mike and I really loved it. It was hot and steamy, but I kinda liked it. I met a lot of great people, and most memorably, I rented a car and went into the jungle to find wild monkeys, successfully.

(score B) Trip to Nashville & Philly: I’ve been to Nashville a couple times and it has always been interesting. This time I stayed in a big AirBnB with Yogi’s team during their offsite. Unfortunately I caught COVID and I was stuck out of my home for 10 days after. Yogi also hosted an offsite in Philadelphia, in a really nice AirBnB. We did some golfing, which is very much outside my scope, but it was fun!

Legacy (children, mentoring, enterprise)

I am fortunate to have my step-daughter Julia in my life, in spite of not having biological children. We’ve only shared 4 years under the same roof– although COVID densified some of that time– but I believe that this was enough to bootstrap a life long relationship. For people outside of my family, I’ve had the highest impact when contributing to an individual’s professional development. This first requires finding people that want to be mentored 1-1 whose needs are aligned with my strengths. It’s also important to have good rapport and get into a flow. For example, for me it is important that a mentee keeps me updated and reaches out from time to time– I will take initiative initially, but eventually I expect a balanced effort. In spite of my willingness to do so and the relatively simple criteria, mentoring relationships don’t emerge often, so I try to put myself out there to meet new young people and always be available to those that I know.

(score A) Drop Julia for UMass first day: this was a really nice experience. Julia was a good sport and she hung out with us all three days that we were there. We got to meet some of her new soon-to-be-friends as well. I got to reminisce, running through campus, and hanging out with faculty. Since Julia got a big scholarship, we also made a donation to help support a student in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, where I attended.

(score B) Mentoring: I think I’m an impactful mentor, but I aspire to do better. I have counseled several people in regards to job changes. I was fairly instrumental in securing new jobs for a handful of people, and made sure they received strong terms. I gave talks to various teams within our portfolio, to high school students and college freshmen. Various people reached out through mutual connections after hearing that I make an effort to give thoughtful advice.

(score B) Hang out with Iv’s kids: given that Julia is out of the house already, I wanted to spend more time with friends’ children. I am closest with Iv and Carrie’s kids, Alex and Andre. I actually self proclaimed myself as the godfather of Alex and it eventually stuck, so there’s that. Our most fun activity was going to LiB together, where we had a lot of fun. I hope to do the same next year. I also went to Alex’s birthday and came to Iv’s house a few times to hang out. Patricia and I see Carrie at the farmer’s market fairly often and when we do, we spend a few minutes connecting. Ivgeni lives in Goleta, which by Santa Barbara standards is far, so I didn’t see the kids as much as I would have otherwise. As Alex and Andre get older, I also hope to develop some common interests and share some other experiences.

Misc Photos