Journal

Compelling. At the very least it’s clear that ethics should be taught in every computer science program and even more broadly.

This book is similar to Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil (in fact this book even quotes it).

The book explores one major tenet: that we use digital systems to manage poverty – systems that the middle class would never stand for if they were used against themselves – that are ineffective at actually improving the conditions of those they are meant to serve.

A quote from early in the introduction:

Like earlier technological innovations in poverty management, digital tracking and automated decision-making hide poverty from the professional middle-class public and give the nation the ethical distance it needs to make inhuman choices: who gets food and who starves, who has housing and who remains homeless, and which families are broken up by the state. The digital poorhouse is part of a long American tradition. We manage the individual poor in order to escape our shared responsibility for eradicating poverty.

Throughout the book, the Eubanks provides examples of systems that dehumanize and otherwise hurt the most vulnerable.

At the end of the book, after showing just how hurtful some of these systems can be, Eubanks recommends we implement an ethical oath for building systems, similar in nature to the hippocratic oath. While the oath itself is relatively long (but I agree 100% with it), the final line resonates the most with me:

I will remember that the technologies I design are not aimed at data points, probabilities, or patterns, but at human beings.

I think this book, or one like it, should be mandatory reading for every person who builds systems that affect real human lives.

This will be a brief post in the hopes of writing more, smaller, posts more often.

I’ve long had a desire to minimize the number of things I own. This is for a number of reasons, a good subject for another day.

One of the recent realizations I’ve had – in the last year or so – is that one of the key reasons that I sprawl in ownership is due to a lack of focus.

This lack of focus – in creating and maintaining various systems that compete for my time and space – leads to an increased surface area of things that I am forced to think about and to care about.

And with a fixed amount of time, many of these systems will lie underutilized.

A few concrete examples of systems in my life could be playing guitar, running, or playing video games. Each requires distinct tools and time to utilize and progress.

The more of these systems I have, the more I have to buy, own, and maintain. Similarly, the more my time is spread over these different systems.

Because of this, I am starting to believe it is much more impactful to reduce the number of distinct systems in my life than to try to reduce within a system.

This feels analogous to goals: the fewer goals one has, the more focus one can have. The fewer systems I have, the more focus I can give to these systems to value them in my life.

As I started thinking about what to focus on in 2020 – and what to write in this blog post – I realized that not much has changed in my life since the last time I set my goals in 2019.

Similarly, if you were to read my 2019 goals and then compare them to the goals outlined in this post, you’d realize little has changed about who I strive to be. If anything I’ve just honed the same list of goals I posted last year.

To be straightforward about myself and the direction I’m going in life, I imagine that I’m starting to converge on a set of goal areas that will begin to stick with me year after year. Realistically, I’m not going to dramatically shift course and become a rockstar. Not for now at least.

Here are my focus areas for 2020 and my thoughts on them.

Run consistently

Running allows me to free my mind and focus all of my energy on moving forward. It allows me to stop worrying about work, relationships, life and to get outside. It is the cornerstone of my physical and mental health. I strive to continue running consistently, pushing myself while also knowing when to rest.

Read consistently

I read more often in 2019 than I did in 2018, but not by much. I want to read consistently to explore new worlds and slow down the pace by which I live. I want to explore new authors and ideas, broadening my horizons about the world. I don’t care about speed or book size to be honest. But I do value consistency in the habit.

Put relationships first

I’ve progressed in my career over the past few years. This has caused me to be more engaged at work, leaving me less energy when I get home. I’ve seen others around me at work who have put their career advancement ahead of their personal relationships and the outcome is not something I’d like to replicate. No matter what I do, I want to focus on caring for, and spending time with, the people around me.

Drink minimal levels of caffeine and alcohol

Drinking caffeine makes me productive, but also makes it hard for me to sleep at night; drinking alcohol relaxes me, but at the cost of feeling tired the next day. They’re a great pair, one a higher high and one a lower low. However, I just can’t shake the feeling that I prefer to be at a consistent level of energy throughout the day. It makes my life more consistently enjoyable.

(This isn’t to say I won’t drink the occasional cup of coffee or the occasional glass of wine. I am not that extreme.)

Minimize my level of ownership

I find that owning things attaches me to the idea of what those things represent. Owning less means more focus. By freeing myself of those attachments I have more room to breathe and exist in the areas of life that are important to me. I strive to not buy things I don’t need and to not affect the environment more than I need to.

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And that’s it. Those are my areas of focus for 2020. No metrics, no OKRs, no KPIs – just things I care about continuing to care about.

Happy 2020!

I did not hit a single goal I set in 2018. Life changed dramatically when I ended up with a girlfriend instead. But I’m not complaining.

Since my life ended up changing so drastically, I’m not even going to revisit the goals I set in 2018 as I’ve done in the past. They’re not relevant anymore.

This year – unlike in previous years when I set fairly lofty goals – I’m going to think about what I want to do more realistically.

I’m also going to try to focus on consistency, building a habit around these lifestyle choices. I’ve chosen four foundational habits to focus on:

• Running – a habit I’ve been pretty consistent with over the years
• Reading – a habit I haven’t been very consistent with and is often the one of the first things to go when I get busy
• Saving money – another habit I’ve been consistent with, but is showing signs of weakening lately
• Not drinking alcohol – a habit I’ve just starting to introduce

Running

Running is super important for my mental health. When the weather is good, I should try to run every couple of days. It’s my time alone to relax, think, and enjoy nature. It puts me in a good mood for several days after.

I recently read Haruki Murakami’s memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. It was inspiring how consistent Murakami has been with running over the years. Murakami also shows great skill in being able to push himself, picking up new skills and improving skills he’s obtained as he gets older. I’d love to emulate Murakami.

With running, I’ve been pretty consistent with this over the years. Now I just want to keep it up.

Reading

I recently discovered that I can read on planes. Previously I found planes very distracting. It was an amazing discovery to me. Being stuck in a seat for four hours with a book allowed me to get deep into the book, reading quickly and with an understanding you only get for reading for long periods at a time.

And I really enjoyed it. I want to get back into reading for long periods of time more often.

In the past, reading is a habit that has been hard for me to maintain. It’s easy to get lazy at the end of the day and do almost anything other than read. I’ll have to fight that!

This one will be hard for me.

Saving money

I’m really into the FIRE philosophy. My goal is to stop working as early in life as possible (or at least have enough money to not have to work). This would free me up to do hobbies, volunteer, or work a meaningful – but not well-paying – job.

I’ve been pretty consistent with saving money over the years. I’m pretty good at saving money while single. But it’s harder to budget when you’re in a relationship. I want to be careful that I don’t begin down a path of lifestyle inflation.

Not drinking alcohol

A new goal of mine is to all but stop drinking without really making a big deal about it. I’ve realized that I don’t like being drunk, nor do I enjoy being hungover.

To be drunk is to not be fully present. This is another reason I’ve decided on this goal. I want to be sober and cognizant, regardless of time of day or day of week. Being able to be present, to take care of other’s and my own wellbeing is valuable.

For now I’m cool with a drink every few months, or a sip here and there, but I would love to be completely free of alcohol eventually.

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Well, that wraps up my goals – here’s to a good 2019!

A little over one year ago I posted my goals for 2017. This post is a retrospective on those goals and a commitment to goals for 2018.

First, a look at last year’s goals. My goals in 2017 were:

• Run a half-marathon every month.
• Eat 95% Vegan.
• Don’t succumb to lifestyle creep.
• Read more.
• Write more.

I did not do well on these goals. Looking back, I think this is due to two main problems: a lack of commitment to my goals and choosing lofty, hard-to-measure, goals. Here’s my commentary on each one:

On running: I succeeded in doing this for the first six months of the year, until July. At that point, I had a lot of difficulty doing long runs due to the 100°+ weather. Later in the year I also injured myself on a run, requiring time off to recover. I’ll rework this goal in 2018.

On eating vegan: This goal would have been hard to measure, and because of that I never really tried. I did not get anywhere close to success with this goal. I’d guess at most 1/9th of my meals were likely vegan, and that’s on the optimistic side. I don’t plan on focusing on this goal explicitly in 2018.

On not succumbing to lifestyle creep: My first success! My monthly expenses did not increase much throughout the year. I’m not worried about this being a problem in 2018, so will not codify a goal around it.

On reading more: Another success! In 2016 I read a whopping four books. In 2017 I read nine books, several of which became quite meaningful to me. I want to continue growing here in 2018. In 2018, I won’t measure my goal in number of books read or pages turned.

On writing more: I failed hard on this goal. I wrote 4 blog posts in all of 2017. Besides that I did not write. I will abstain from solidifying a similar goal in 2018, though I want to revisit it in the future.

In 2018, I want my goals to be clear successes or failures. I want to shy away from vague goals like “read more”.

My goals for 2018 are:

• Run 15+ miles a week
• Lift weights 2+ hours a week
• Read 0.5+ hours every day
• For every item I obtain this year, get rid of one item I currently own
• Finish an album and put it up publicly
• Get to <=11% body fat ¹

Here’s my thoughts on why and how I formulated each of the goals:

On running 15+ miles a week: This goal is mostly a stasis goal. It won’t be particularly hard to meet this goal, especially in a yearly aggregate (780 miles for the year). In essence, I don’t want to lose my ability to run!

On lifting weights 2+ hours a week: When I was injured in November 2017, I starting going to the gym to lift weights as a replacement for running. Even though I can run again, I haven’t stopped going to the gym. Since I’m still learning the ropes, I have put this one as a time-based goal: I want to make gym time a habit this year.

On reading 0.5+ hours every day: Similar to my habit-forming goal for weightlifting, I want to turn reading into a habit this year. My reading in 2017 was stronger than previous years, but inconsistent.

On getting rid of an item for every item I obtain this year: In some ways this is a rework of the lifestyle creep goal from 2017. I have enough things. Don’t get more. But if I do, get rid of other things I own.

On finishing an album and put it up publicly: Music has been on the back-burner for a while. I have a handful of song (~10) that I think could make a cohesive album – if only I ever finished them. I’d like to either finish these songs or write an entirely new set of songs to put on the internet. I don’t care if anyone listens to them, or whether they’re good by anyone’s standards but mine. But, like this blog, I want them to be public to force some level of comfort with the quality.

On getting to <=11% body fat: As part of my weightlifting and running goals I want to eat a diet that gives me a toned body. I want to be my best self, physically. This will require strict eating habits.

¹ As a note, the exact percentage to aim for is unclear to me, I need to do some research. I want to get to a place where abs are visible, but I don’t want to go too extreme.