Goals, accomplishments, books and other cool stuff from 2018.
Goals
Get really smart at math: Done!I completed the following courses at ASU in my spare time and lived to tell about it: Calculus I, II and III, Mathematical Structures and Modern Differential Equations. But also not quite done, with a couple more in progress: Linear Algebra and Applied Statistics.
Deadlift 300 pounds: Not done! And not even close. I don’t think I deadlifted once in 2018. Instead, I spent almost every hour at the gym working on the next sinister goal…
Simple and Sinister Kettlebells: Done! With the rage-fueled Simple and Sinister as my guide, I was aiming for 10 x 10 of 53-pound (28kg) swings in five minutes, followed by five Turkish Get Ups with each arm at the same weight. It took me a few months to get the form down, and I went really slow – starting off at 35 pounds (16kg) – before increasing the weight. I accomplished the 53-pound goal on Jul 31 and went on to knock out the same workout with 61.7 pounds (28kg) on Dec 15. I’ve been pushing these kettlebell workouts on lots of people over the year. It only takes about 30-45 minutes and strengthens you to your absolute core. So simple. So sinister.
Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim: Not done! Gah! Every time! However, I hiked California’s Mt. Whitney – the highest summit in the contiguous US – in September and it was awesome. Truly awesome. The canyons, the lakes, the meadows, the wildlife, the bone-chilling soul-crushing night on the mountain, the sunrise, the elevation, the hallucinations, the hike all the way back down. Really, truly awesome. Chasing the dragon and hoping to do it again soon.
Weekly creative writing: Not done! I said I’d block off Saturday mornings for this, and I just did math homework instead. In a sense it’s easier to just do math homework because all the work is cut out, whereas when writing is on the to-do list, it seems ambiguous and unrewarding. I’ll need to get better about carving out space, time and a better structure to make starting the writing practice less of a burden.
Never late to meetings: Done! I made it a big priority to be on time to meetings, just because I think it’s a good habit to establish. I wasn’t on time every time, but I was still pretty punctual.
Books
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.
If you only pick one book from this list, pick this one.
“Even by moonlight I have no peace.” Satan in Moscow, Pontious Pilate in Jerusalem, manuscripts that don’t burn. An incredible masterpiece worth reading again and again.
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.
Lots of fun ideas to chew on in Sapiens, including: linguistics as competitive advantage, economics as religion, culture as mental parasite, the discrepancy between evolutionary success and individual suffering, agriculture and luxury as a trap. And design: What do we want to want?
Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari.
Truly profound, earthquake level book. “In ancient times having power meant having access to data. Today having power means knowing what to ignore.”
The Wizard and The Prophet by Charles C. Mann.
An important book that reveals complexities that are lost in most talks about the environment. Here’s to fruitful skeptics, listening to the other side, and deep thinking about the future.
Give People Money by Annie Lowrey.
My first dive into learning about Universal Basic Income. Give people money is a hard sell on UBI. This book didn’t convince me (but, this Joe Rogan podcast with Andrew Yang just did!) I’m interested in learning more as the idea develops, and I like the idea of pairing a UBI concept with some mandatory national service. The book doesn’t go there though.
Ordinary Men by Christopher R. Browning.
A brutal important book. The most terrifying part, of many, is the title.
Let there be water by Seth M. Siegel.
An especially interesting book for those of us in the water, power, utility space. Water is shockingly one of the few areas of collaboration in the conflict zone. Also learn about: desalination, drip irrigation, sewage treatment, leaks, price signals… “real pricing for farms and homes almost immediately changed usage levels. With no rationing or limit on supply, real pricing induced customers to cut their use of household water by sixteen percent.”
To the end of the land by David Grossman.
I enjoyed this intense and loving trek of fiction. “Just remember that sometimes bad news is actually good news that you didn’t understand.”
The Aleppo Codex by Matti Friedman.
“What emerged was the idea that a people could be held together by words.” Great read about the crazy life of a sacred book. Learn about Maimonides, Flushing Meadow, Jews of Islam, the power of myth, the frailty of man, and more.
Going to the Dogs: The Story of a Moralist by Erich Kastner.
“He loved his wife deeply, especially when she was away.”
Three Floors Up by Eshkol Nevo
The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan.
“And what connects us? The same thing that separates us. This land.”
Deep Thinking by Garry Kasparov.
“Once technology enables us to do certain things, we never give them up.” and “If we stop dreaming big dreams, if we stop looking for a greater purpose, then we may as well be machines ourselves.”
Other cool stuff
A week in Israel, four days in Berlin, Dachau, I accepted an invitation to serve on the Board of Directors for HandsOn Greater Phoenix, and daily cold showers and breathing exercises since August 2018.