New Year, New Anything?

08 Jan 2021 • Miscellaneous

The calendar has technically flipped over to 2021, but it sure doesn’t feel like anything has changed. The vaccine rollout seems to have stalled and American politics are in even more turmoil after the Capitol building was invaded by domestic terrorists hoping to prevent the counting of electorate votes. Many of us watched from our couches or makeshift desks as the police and other security failed to keep the rioters out of the building, even appearing at times to open the way for them. In contrast to the events of last year after George Floyd’s murder, it was a downright peaceful and docile response from the police and left many rhetorically wondering why the police’s guns remained holstered and the tear gas was still contained in its canisters through it all. In essence, the nation told on itself.

All of that is to say that 2021 has already been emotionally draining and likely will continue to be even after Biden takes over the Oval Office and the vaccine starts reaching the masses. Personally, the start of the year went mostly to plan as my siblings and I drove back to the Bay Area safely after spending the holidays with our parents, and while travel is generally not recommended, we did it about as safely as possible. I’ll have a more whimsical post recapping our drive back up soon to pair with my earlier one.

Considering all of that, what is my plan for 2021? It differs in some ways compared to other years due to the new normal, but the themes largely remain the same. Read this, learn that. Try a few new things and keep doing others. One difference is that instead of making explicit project goals and working my way towards them, this year’s goals are building habits. The aim is that the typical goals like finishing projects, learning skills, etc will flow freely from these habits and they will provide momentum for the future.

A goal of writing for 30 minutes every day was the root idea. It doesn’t matter what or how I write - it can be poetry, code, analysis, updates, narrative, or even outlines and written in a notebook or on a computer - as long as it gets done. By forcing myself to produce content, I should make progress on some of the larger ideas that I have stashed in a backlog because I will eventually get bored of writing silly update pieces and dive deeper. Not all of it will be published, either, but some of it will make it to the light of day and my editing should improve as well.

Besides writing for 30 minutes a day, my other ideas are:

  • Practice Italian every day: Most likely done through Duolingo, but also through TV / movies / music.
  • Bake a non-trivial recipe once a month: Basically not brownies from a mix and stuff like that.
  • Cook a non-trivial recipe once a week: Basically not just throwing some veggies, meat and grain together in a bowl.
  • Exercise every day: At a minimum, this means 30 pushups or squats to start and work from there.
  • Read a book every day: I am specifying book because I read plenty of stuff online, though making a dent in my massive online backlog is a parallel goal.
  • Visit Twitter max once a day: I simply do not need to be on the platform as much as I have been at times.
  • Get outside once a day: This is particularly important given the state of the world. It’s easy to finish the day and suddenly realize you haven’t been outside at all. Fresh air is good so I want to make sure I get it.

Of course, I had projects in mind when coming up with these habits. I’d like to dunk again, just like last year’s goal. Finish some online courses, which although that doesn’t fit neatly into a particular goal, goes along with some of the themes. Write programs and continue building an infrastructure of tools and models. Share more of what I write. Converse with someone in Italian. Be confident in my skills. Read more great books and because that is one I can’t help myself with, the preliminary reading list for this year contains the rest of the Gormenghast trilogy, starting Foundation, Fall of Hyperion, finishing Stamped from the Beginning, Bird by Bird, Braiding Sweetgrass, Canticle for Leibowitz, Snow Crash, Tanking to the Top, All We Can Save, The Baron in the Trees, and others. I’m sure more will pop up along the way, such as Clint Smith and David Dennis Jr.’s respective books, too.

Another idea that I have turned over in my head a bit is giving up consuming sports for Lent. This may be surprising to anyone who knows me or has read any of these pieces because I clearly love sports. But I’m very curious about a) whether I could do it and b) what I would find to fill that time with. It likely wouldn’t mean cutting myself off entirely because I will still be playing fantasy sports (baseball will be starting up around then) and working on other sports-related projects. Instead, it’s more like not visiting ESPN five times a day and not watching random games every night. Thankfully I still have time before I need to make a go / no go decision on that idea, but I’ll be sure to post about it if I do.

There is also a chance that all of this planning goes to ruin tonight when my partner arrives back in San Francisco with our new 10 week old puppy. Pictures coming soon to a Twitter account near you.

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