Random Observation/Comment #610: There’s always more things to do.
In 2018, I embraced fatherhood:
- Traveled to: Boston, Toronto, Dallas, Baltimore, New Jersey and Upstate weekend trips, DC, Pittsburgh, Philly, Dublin, Sydney, and Singapore (all for work)
- Triumphantly: embraced fatherhood through swim class and little gym weekends, wrote Blockchain4Babies and ABCs of Blockchains, became an accredited investor, helped with Corda Enterprise and building partner networks, presented at multiple conferences, covered 33 opportunities in 2 months, got a new job at Consensys, played at One World Trade medal TT event, met some actresses from Orange is the New Black, took a motorcycle class, had an incredible summer (July & August), met 30 friends in 30 days, wrote Our Life in Lists of 30, learned about decentralized/self-organizing companies
- Read/Listened to: The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains by Antony Lewis, Radical Candor by Kim Scott, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp, Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan, Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan, China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- Saw: Sleep No More, Indigo Girls, Radiohead, Thanksgiving day parade
- Completed: Solution Architecture design templates on Corda and Ethereum, hackathons, training sessions, Why Corda for Enterprise webinars, Why Ethereum for Enterprise webinars, more ppt/gslide diagrams for solution and technical architectures than I can count
- Completed/Caught Up To Podcasts: Life in the Fast Chain: A Blockchain Podcast from R3, Hello from the Magic Tavern (still loyal after 3 years), Welcome to Nightvale (still going and listening to their follow-up books), Surprisingly Awesome, The Teacher’s Lounge, Threedom, Malcom Gladwell’s Revisionist History, Heavyweight, S-Town, The Adventure Zone (amazing finale!), a16z Podcast, Bubble, Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone, In the Dark, Obscure, Dr. Game Show, Sandra, Spontaneanation, The Walk, Hold On, Levar Burton Reads, Ear Hustle, Every Little Thing, The Sporkful, The Way I Heard It, Science VS, Invisibilia, Hidden Brain, Beef and Dairy Network Podcast, and of course Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me
I accurately predicted the year of the bubble in 2017. 2018 represents a lot of the steady deflation of said bubble. I paid a lot of money in taxes, which was a necessary evil, but not great. In general, I’ve made a lot of good trades and a lot of bad ones (which reaffirms that I should not be a day trader or be strict with gains). There was a fairly risky career move right in the middle of the year that gave me a wonderful summer and a steep learning curve for the past 4 months; Overall a growth of contacts and useful life career experiences that I’m thankful to have gone through.
In terms of family, we sadly lost Henry a few weeks ago. I grieved and wrote him a tearful goodbye. He lived a good life. Other than that, I’ve never been happier with life. Evie is growing up so quickly and I’m fascinated seeing her love of puzzles and games. She still smiles and laughs every time she sees me and gives me a hug. I just need more of that.
In 2019, I’m looking forward to:
- Travels: There’s likely going to still be work-related trips for conferences or client meetings. We’re going to aim to do a trip with Evie with her first plane ride. Maybe Colorado? Maybe Florida?
- Challenges: I have been traveling a week out of the month and it hasn’t been easy for anyone. We’re also going to start looking at buying a house with school district research and a lot of other baby decisions.
- Terrible Twos: Evie is already a handful and I’m sure she will keep us on our toes. I love speaking with her in Chinese and having my parents be great backup support when we need it.
(Previous Years’ Reflections: http://seelemonslive.com/just-life/reflecting-on/)
~See Lemons Look Forward to 2019
