Rough Draft 2024, Part One: reflecting on 2023

The Review of 2023, prepping for 2024

History of Rough Drafts Over Resolutions

At the end of 2021, I was looking to plan the type of 2022 I wanted to have. I came up with the idea (as a blend of ideas I'd heard from others) of writing a rough draft for my year. I imagined that the year had already happened and that I was writing about it after the fact. I wrote about my accomplishments and how I spent my time throughout the year (that had in fact not happened yet). Here is a post with more detail on writing an annual rough draft. An essential step to writing an annual rough draft for your upcoming year is reflecting on the year you just had. It is very clarifying to sort the kinds of things that gave you energy and the ones that filled you with quiet dread or anxiety or simply exhausted or bored you. You can then use those energy givers and takers to inform the new year you plan on having. I like to write the rough draft out in paragraphs, and then distill the main things into a simple table.

2023 - the good stuff (energy givers)

Here is what I determined I wanted to do more of in 2023, back at the end of 2022:

So broadly, I wanted to spend 2023: reading, writing, making and sharing music, traveling, working out / running, inventing / building things, and taking photographs.

Now here is what I actually spent time on in 2023:

• I spent a lot of this year coding and shipping Printernet orders. I also spent the majority of my personal time building the Printernet Web Application. This is the first full stack web app I’ve ever built and I am extremely proud of how far I’ve taken it. Some more Printernet highlights: 40+ people on the waitlist for the web app, single highest month of sales (August) ever, reached readers in Spain + the UK, featured in three independent write-ups, first ever Printernet collaboration with another writer and another on the way, invited to Replit’s Builders in Residence program, got to demo Printernet for so many people (including Amjad, CEO of Replit), and started a very special collaboration that will surface in early 2024. This has been fantastic and I want to at least double the amount of time I get to do these things in 2024.

• I also had time for tons of fun one-off projects: Reco, a month of creative programming, iPodify, Joiner, a revamp of my personal site, a Chrome Extension that adds Ray Bradbury telling me “Don’t Think” to my word processors, the Weather Station, the Internet Payphone, Pi Test, and more. The 30 Days of Creative Programming I made up was a very successful and rewarding experiment. I want to do "30 Days of X" again in 2024 and continue pushing my abilities in programming.

• My first ever piece of fiction writing was published in Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million stores nationwide. This was mind blowing.

• I also traveled with my brother in the first half of the year which was awesome and got to spend time with all my siblings over Thanksgiving. I'd love to do another trip with my siblings. Tessa and I have also had the travel bug in general and fell short on my plans from my rough draft. We did have an amazing trip out to Marfa, Texas which was super special. We really want to travel more in 2024, but I find it such a hard thing to prioritize. It is expensive in terms of time and money and often the first sacrifice when other important things are on the table.

• In the middle of the year, Tessa and I got married! Planning the wedding definitely occupied the first 4 - 5 months of our year. It was very magical being around all our closest friends and family and we were left wondering: Can we replicate that experience without getting married again?

  

  

  

  

• I also spent a ton of time this year meeting really cool people working on very cool things (check out my annual "coolest folks I discovered" post). I didn’t anticipate or plan this aspect of my year, but plan on using my upcoming podcast and other things to double down on this. I want to continue sharing my writing and work online and finding others doing the same. Meeting driven curious people is extremely energy enhancing for me.

• I recorded five podcast episodes as an experiment this year (with one more coming up). This has been extremely fun so far and I want to keep going. And of course, I want to share these with people in the new year. This was an unexpected development of 2023, but one that makes perfect sense. I recorded my first ever podcast episode in 2017 or 2018 but scrapped that project. I’ve been curious about this for a while and feel like now is a great time to dive in. My goal for the show is really just to meet and have wonderful conversations with super cool people.

• I made more money from things I created than I ever have before. It is extremely satisfying to get to create something I love and have other people love it too. The more of this I can do, the happier I'll be.

• I took a fantastic song writing course with one of my favorite musicians of all time, Scott McMicken. This was through School of Song. It was amazing getting to hear from Scott about his process and to share my tunes with so many other talented folks. I also went to an in-person final song share with other Texas based musicians from the class and that was super fun. More music + live music in 2024 would be great.

  

  

• Tessa and I created the most sustainable and informed personal finance strategy we ever have. I am referring to personal budgets, investments, benefits and retirement stuff. Most credit to Tessa here, but it is working really well. We plan to double down on it in 2024.

• Running in the last two quarters of the year has been very great. More running and an official race would be cool.

• Celebrating my sister's art and achievements has been awesome. I expect her 2024 to be incredible and I am super excited to attend more screenings and openings or cheer on her work.

• Project Euler! Started PE this year (a mathematical programming problem set) and although I've only had time for the first 6 problems in the last month or so, it has been extremely satisfying thinking about math puzzles again and getting more coding practice in. Want to do at least another ten problems in 2024.

• We've picked up the ole sourdough hobby and it rocks. More bread in 2024.

• Finally let’s just list the ideas from last year’s rough draft that fell flat: while I did release two demos and a few more early recordings of my music, I did not release a polished / finished piece of music, I did not run a half-marathon or marathon (though I continued my weekly running schedule), I did not ship a hardware product (this has now made it into 2 rough drafts and each time I haven’t even started the work), and I only met 1 out of 4 of my publication goals. More minor shortcomings: I got my MRR to ~$30 but was aiming for $100 (and that is the average across the year, my year was more spiky in reality) and gained ~75 subscribers but was aiming for 100. But I want to highlight that the point of a rough draft is in the visualization and continual improvement of your own understanding of yourself. Doing this for just three years now I am struck by the patterns across each year’s rough draft, and the understanding I now have of what sort of activities give me energy and what sort (that I’d previously spent a lot of time doing) take energy away. So you cannot fail a rough draft, it isn’t about “goals”. You can only diverge, observe reasons for that divergence, and then take note in the edit as you write your new year.

2023 - the not so good stuff (energy takers)

• I spread my focus too thin at various points of the year. I want to keep experimenting with my "train car" approach to creativity where I chunk several weeks / months for a singular focus. This seems to work really well. I need to get better at the skill of "not now, later I hope." I get extremely excited about new projects and love the 0 -> 1 period. Keep focusing on the stuff that is working and the other stuff should be taken on with extreme caution. What would 2024 look like if I only committed to working on 1 project? Would I grow miserable? Would that focus and dedication lead to new growth and success? This is the ongoing question of polymathematics.

• The work I do that I am not curious or excited about took its toll. I can always feel it when I am spending too much time on the silly and rote work that is necessary but unfulfilling. I want to keep experimenting with ways to do less of that kind of work and more of the real work. The work that I can’t stop thinking about as I drift to sleep, the work that brings a flood of ideas in the shower, the work that makes me smile ear to ear while working on it at a coffee shop.

• Running injury to start the new year was very discouraging. Take the first few runs of the year very slow since they usually come after a break from the holiday lull. Prioritize getting to do this for a long time, even when it is tedious and boring.

• The anxiety of competition and self-doubt. Most of the time I am confident with my ideas and patient / longterm oriented. But there are peaks and valleys and the anxiety and self-doubt around not doing enough / the absolute best work I can imagine takes up too much mind space sometimes. Intrinsic motivation is what I am after, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t tough when you haven’t gotten the external rewards that boost serotonin. Continue writing on this, talking about it, and finding ways of letting it go.

Rough Draft 2024

Now this is the part where I take all of the above into consideration and draft my new year. I am going to bump this to a part two post because this one is exceptionally long and already quite solipsistic. Keep an eye out for part two where I will lay out the new rough draft and publish the table from it.

A sincere thank you to everyone who reads these posts and checks out my work. It means more than you know! If you’d like to help make my 2024 magical, consider subscribing to this blog or forwarding it to a few friends. <3

Happy New Year!

Update (2.26.24): Part Two is now up