Random Observation/Comment #595: Be Kind. The world can use more kindness. I’m slowly getting closer to the meaning of life.
In 2017, I became a father:
- Traveled to: Boston, San Francisco, Toronto, Grand Canyon (for babymoon), Las Vegas, Bahamas (for fyrefestival), Miami, London, Los Angeles, Austin, Peru, DC, and Philadelphia.
- Triumphantly: became a father, road a bike across the Golden Gate bridge during sunrise, made muffins for the homeless, witnessed the beauty of a Grand Canyon sunrise, drove route 66, promoted to Director, spoke at numerous panels and conferences, taught 100s of people about corda, held a baby water pig in the Bahamas, survived #fyrefraud, helped raise $107mm for r3, ran 4 miles for #concernspringrun, created a reusable design pattern library, wrote 30 blogposts in 30 days for our interns, saw the Hollywood sign from Griffith observatory, became an accredited investor, signed a lease to a 2-bedroom, wrote a few web comics for Adventures of Evie and Hencat, got a cute baby and awesome wife
- Ate/Drank: first Spatchcock thanksgiving chicken, the perfect old-fashioned, grilled artichoke in Peru, excellent ribs on Long Island, incredible seafood birthday lunch
- Read/Listened to: Kitchens of the Great Midwest, Turtles All the Way Down, The Happiest Baby on the Block, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett, The Circle by Dave Eggers, What to Expect: When You’re Expecting, What to Expect: The First Year, The Laughing Gull’s Puzzle by Kevin Rutter, A Dad’s Guide to Babies, The Expectant Father by Armin Brott & Jennifer Ash, We Are Legion by Dennis Taylor, It Devours!: Welcome to Nightvale by Joseph Fink ^ Jeffrey Cranor, The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer, All is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
- Saw: 946: Addy Tips, La Reve, Billy Joel, Rangers game box seats, Drunk Shakespeare
- Completed: helped build Jasper2 on corda, Design pattern methodology, templates, and framework for multiple functional roadmaps, helped lead a few hackathons and training sessions
- Completed/Caught up to Podcasts: The Sporkful, Radiolab, The Way I Heard It, How I Built This, Science Vs, Revisionist History, Surprisingly Awesome, You Are Not So Smart, Hidden Brain, Invisibilia, Welcome to Nightvale, Shmanners, The Adventure Zone (So good for D&D finale!), Hello from the Magic Tavern, Ear Hustle, Levar Burton Reads, Improv4Humans, Hold On with Eugene Murman, Homecoming, The Orbiting Human Circus, Heavyweight, S-Town, Twice Removed
My word for the year is bubble. Psychologically, I’ve extended my personal priorities to the budding family. Economically, the digital currency market has 19x’ed within a year (and then dipped a bit). Politically, I’m not even sure what the values of this country are anymore.
This year has been surreal. After completing my 30 under 30, I thought I wouldn’t be able to top it. Fatherhood and post-baby husbandhood tips the scale in a different way. My peaks of happiness seep through the hours of sleep deprivation in the most satisfying way. I’ve mentally re-prioritized a lot of my world. Evie is the second love of my life and I’d do anything for her and the family.
All these fantastic things hopefully out weigh some of the scary world we live in. I wish it were just the news and natural disasters – it’s become the acceptance of ridiculousness at all levels. Maybe this is it: the next phase of society with on-demand commitment-less promises. Maybe I’m just getting old.
In 2018, I’m looking forward to:
- Travels: More work in Toronto, London, LATAM, and APAC in the future; Hopefully a joint trip to Colorado, California, or Europe.
- Challenges: Work-Life Balance is going to continuously be a part of my life forward, I also get scared of adult things like buying houses, thinking about school districts, and planning learning curriculum
- Mature Career: I’ve accelerated this by making some lucrative investments in my time and money into a technology that’s now the hottest shit on everyone’s mind. I believe there will be some bigger balances with management of people vs individual contributions that I will struggle with in an organic and fast growing environment.
~See Lemons Look Forward to 2018
