Year review
I just want to have a file to write down some of my goals for 2023 and look back on 2022
What were some of the things I was trying to get done
- I think match-tracker is now out of the picture, it occupied some time and I learned some things but Its probably time to move on.
- I had far less of an idea of what I might do. I still don’t really know, but I’m definitely completing my masters and more than likely looking for work in 2023.
- I don’t think I did too great a job on getting more familiar with housing and that.
What are some things I’d like to do going forward
- Have a much more cohesive place for my thoughts. While it’s not a complete failure what I have, there’s no real thematic organisation.
- It would be cool to have kind of a notes place and just a general ramblings place. The notes place, more formal with Latex.
- Have more concrete foundations on my beliefs, for instance, in health/ working out, it doesn’t have to be crazy complicated just at least acknowledging where they’re coming from.
- The same applies to more theoretical things.
- Becoming more useful, I think I had this notion at the start of last year that I had some right to be writing things and putting things out in the world, when the truth is I really don’t know anything. I still don’t know that much but I don’t have much to give at the moment, so one aim is to improve this.
- Review ideas on tacit knowldege, context development. Some more buzzwords along with ‘volumetric approach’.
- Maybe don’t read it if I don’t like it.
- Having a select amount of reading sources (like MR, Gwern etc.)
- Selective about information sources or sources of influence.
- Theres a lot of scattered thoughts, which aren’t really useless, just hard to categorise I suppose.
January
- January I was definitely a bit lost, I was doing a bit of Physics and was generally unsure about what to do next, I was looking at that Tim Urban article a lot. I was confused about Science (should have been looking at Phil. of Science not history of Science).
- I have an interesting quote from Cal Newport about the craftsman. Just about working away at something. Think this was something I was trying to wrap my head around as something to get used to.
- I was definitely in a much more existential state, thinking about meaning in my life.
- There was this notion of myself that I’m trying to deal with. I was reading Great Expectations at the time and I felt that ambitions I had, very much derived from how I was perceived socially in school and beyond. That I was inadequate and was destined to finally become something.
- A highlight
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The first reaction is to say that I’m shit at Physics. While I don’t seem to have a natural ability for it I go back to what I said yesterday it’s all a matter of understanding it in your own way. Maybe I’m a mule going of the hill, overtaken by some stallion or fucking unicorn racing by but fuck it, I’ll enjoy the views as I go. I’m also not fertile which is shit but fingers crossed the one part of the analogy that doesn’t work.
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- End of January I outline the main areas I’m trying to work on. Will come back to this.
- Maybe a ‘mood board’ is good and possible an inspirations list or board generally.
February
- Lots of giving out to myself and reading articles.
March
- Reading Cryptonomicon and ascent of man so some thoughts about those and computation
- Also, article on skating, voluntarily doing things. Something that I think about even today.
- I think this could be worth a re-read to incorporate it into my ‘values’
- It could be particularly applicable to jiu-jitsu.
April - June
- US, various anxieties
- Kierkegaard sticks out as a moment early on here, with the Philosophize this podcast. I’m not too sure if it still resonates.
- TR, man of action, Knuth 80% happy.
- Lots of assorted thoughts on things, not really grouped.
- I remember the ‘Scout Mindset’ having an impact on me around July as well.
August
- Research into gas prices
- Interesting thought about maps.
- Kevin Zhou and the sheer volume of notes and engagement with Physics that he had. Influences me still.
- Lot of Bret Hall and Beginning of Infinity from what I can remember.
- Building up workout goals.
September
- Discovers Philosophy of Science
- Look at goals for ye, will come back to this.
October - December
- Tooze really sticks out in my head here, particularly at the end of October.
- Middle of November read an article about two layer nature of the world which links to my though on maps from August.
- End of November I look at why I should be a scientist.
- Various thoughts about getting ready for comp.
- At the end here, Red Mars and Latour kind of combine. In the notion of what Science can and can’t do for us in relation to our environment.
Goals
- Run a half-marathon.
- Reading goals
- Read two hours a day.
- Context orientated.
- Get better quality clothes and take care of them.
- More open to being wrong, curious about others’ opinions in a Tooze, Bloom (I think) fashion.
- Time spent reading research, whether its history, housing etc. Maybe this will just pop up my research.
- Organise writing.
- Conscious of information/influence sources.
- Influences board, mood board. James Joyce.
- Health
- Building basic body movement.
- Blue belt.
- Compete in 3 BJJ tournaments.
- Next 6 weeks hypertrophy. Based on Andy Galpin.
- Need to look at 2 times a week really.
- Think generally for the year is anything that builds up my jiu jitsu.
- First comp probably not til end of April. Not to sure if I should try hit for 70kg or just not worry about weight and look at 77kg.
- Might look at half marathon to keep up zone 2. Kinvara, then if that goes well, go for Connemarathon.
- Need to look at a sustainable way to do jiu jitsu 3 times a week. Probably Fri and Saturday and then some other day during the week.
- Look at possibly subscribing to submeta. How to I retain learning.
- Generally look at strength basic metrics. Improving mobility etc.
- Make some time to review nutrition and exercise related knowledge.
- And generally, just being conscious of how to balance all my interests or things to keep up with in a week.
- Career, can I look at engaging with resources in the college to start looking at next steps.
- As I think about it more, retrospectives in general really seem like a good idea, specifically in the more general stuff like career, information filtering, health kind of systems check approach. Stating influences for that week, how I’m feeling, should look at some sort of template.
- This way, iteratively I can look at things, I don’t just have to follow some path indefinitely and look at it next year.
Actions
- Set aside time for note taking setup. For easy access, and for things like retros, notes on articles.
- Ideally make connections between thoughts, but topics can do this and normally if I’m reading in context then I dunno how useful this would be. But would be useful when relating to blog posts or articles I read.
- Important to be open here to ideas. Where I can improve my learning.
Tenets
- Volumetric/reps based approach to skill development and learning.
- Context driven reading and learning.
- Be Adam Tooze.
- Conscious of the information I’m consuming, organising it or having a general mindset on it. This could be having a decent set up for notetaking, and reading. But also, just conscious of where I am on things I’m trying to learn.