I decided to start doing monthly retrospectives instead of waiting till the end of the year [and making failed attempts] to write a year in review. So here goes nothing.

Highlights

• Produced the First Two Carbon Episodes: I created the first two episodes of the “Carbon” series, a project that I have been working on for some time now. If you’re interested, you can read my previous Carbon Logs to get more context on what Carbon is.
• Tosin Resumed Back to School: My favourite periods of the year are when she is back at home, so it takes some adjusting to do when she leaves for school
• Teal: I finally took the leap and turned my idea for Teal into a full-fledged product. After a lot of searching, I was able to find a talented brand designer and product designer who helped bring my vision for Teal’s landing page to life. The design is being implemented, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with the world soon.
• Started a New Gig: I recently started a new contract gig as a software developer consultant, working remotely from my home. It feels great to have some income coming in after months of financial insecurity.

Lowlights

• Job Hunting: I applied to 182 jobs in January and was rejected by 66 without even getting an interview. Job hunting is never easy, but it’s especially tough in the current state of the market.
• Writing 500 Words a Day: At the start of the year, I set a goal to write 500 words a day, but I wasn’t able to keep up.

Books I Read

• Deep Work by Carl Newport: This book was fantastic and really made me focus on scheduling my day in a way that allowed for uninterrupted time to think, research, and learn.
• How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton M. Christensen & James Allworth: I stumbled upon this book while searching for Clayton’s “Innovator’s Dilemma” and am so glad I did. It made me think about life goals answering questions like How would you like your life to be in the grand scheme of things, a seemingly easy but important question.
• The Gervais Principle by Venkatesh G. Roa: This book was an interesting read, drawing parallels between the dynamics of the workplace and the popular show “The Office [Which I haven’t seen but I somehow believe is better than friends based solely on the snippets]” Although some of the parallels felt like a stretch, I found this book to be insightful, especially since I quit my job in November 2022 and have been thinking about workplace dynamics.

Blogposts

• Are You Serious? by Visakan Veerasamy: This post was such a great read, and I felt like it was written specifically for me. It reminded me to be serious and to work towards building a life where I can answer (and prove) yes to that question.
• The Art of Science & Money by Morgan Housel: I love the way Morgan writes, and this post about spending money was no exception. It’s a great read and full of insights about what he has noticed about spending money.

Learning

1. YC Startup School Videos: I spent a lot of time watching Y Combinator’s Startup School videos on YouTube. These videos were focused on building good products and talking to users, and I found them to be incredibly helpful.
2. Design: I have also started learning design, but this is on the back burner for now.
3. Marginal Revolution’s Principles of Macroeconomics Course: I started taking Marginal Revolution’s Principles of Macroeconomics course but stopped at about 60% of it. I plan to return to it when I have more time to dedicate to learning.
4. Digital Gardens and Quantified Self: I have been learning about digital gardens and quantified self, which have inspired me to start this monthly retrospective. These areas of study encourage the creation and reflection of one’s personal growth and knowledge, which I find important and valuable.

Projects

1. Teal is the main project on my mind for now(& the foreseeable future)
2. Started working on implementing a distributed file system in Go but I stopped halfway

Movies

• “White Lotus” Season 1: Despite high expectations, the show didn’t live up to the hype for me.
• “Kaleidoscope” on Netflix: A lacklustre watch that failed to leave an impact.
• “Love & Anarchy” on Netflix: A decent, easy watch that didn’t stand out in any particular way.
• “You People” on Netflix: A positive experience, this movie was good.
• “Huge in France” on Netflix: I enjoyed this movie
• “Alpha Males” on Netflix: I enjoyed watching this
• “13 Hours” on Netflix: It was fun to watch.
• “Treason” On Netflix: A great watch, British political drama
• “Collateral” On Netflix: Also a great watch, a British political drama

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