2021 Goals

Here lie my goals for 2021.

Writing

My writing goals have a consistent theme: Make all information consumption active. For years I have only consumed online information - and I have little to show for it.

On twitter, I've read great stories about others finding life-long friends and co-founders of companies while I simply just sat and read.

This year, I'm switching from passive consumption to active engagement.

Publish a weekly review 48/52 weeks.

Weekly reviews have become the driving force behind my note taking. In the past, if I saw a cool article, I would save the link and take a quick note of it, but that's it. Because of the reviews, I now force myself to make the ideas presentable to others. The helps me actually remember the ideas I come across, and gives me a great reference point to jump back in when I find a connection in the future.

This week is my sixth weekly review in a row (4/4 on the new year). I'm excited about this for many reasons. The main one is my idea generation and enjoyment of writing has sky rocketed. My conversations are much richer, and it's a huge boost to be able to send someone my notes on a topic.

The 4 week cushion is important to me. I have no plans for writing to become a source of income. I hope to keep it a source of invigoration and pleasure. That said, there will be weeks when I get behind at work, am busy with family, or whatever else. I don't want to shoot for perfection and get discouraged after a bad week that ruins my streak. 48 reviews will result in massive progress. I will have certainly progressed as a writer and thinker.

I've gotten a good start on the [[Weekly Review]]s for this year: https://nicktorba.com/brain/weekly-review

Find 5 consistent engagers

The first goal on my website is to "make connections with others."

I plan to turn my weekly review into a newsletter, but I want to completely avoid any fixation on subscribers. To avoid this fixation, I'm going to look for engagers instead of readers.

Engagers are those that care enough to tell me when I'm wrong, when they disagree, or when I could have done better. By year end, I will have 5 consistent engagers with my weekly review.

For this goal, consistent engagement is thoughtful replies to >50% of the reviews. That is asking a lot, which is why the number is so low. It will take work to cultivate these new relationships, and I will spend time thinking about the ideas they share with me.

If anyone finds themselves here that doesn't plan to engage, you should still sign up if we share interests! I still want to share ideas with you, I just don't want to get fixated on you.

That said, it's hard for me to expect thoughtful engagement from others if I don't walk the walk myself. Because of this, I will give thoughtful feedback to 2 new people each month. This engagement will often be a twitter dm, either building on someone's ideas, telling them where I disagree, or providing a suggestion.

I've reached out to a few people this January for extensions of their work or providing feedback, and it has led to great conversation and budding friendships.

>= 3 tweets per week, >= 3 replies to other tweets per week

I'm flipping my usual stance with social media on its head (aka no more [[Waldenponding]]). Instead of minimizing time, I'm increasing engagement. Instead thinking of twitter as a distraction, it's now an activity. When I'm on, I'm searching for ideas I can add to my notes and expands on ideas

If I accomplish these goals, I will have completed my switch from passive consumer to active engager.

Engineering

2020 was a technical year for me. I "knew" python at the start, but I didn't really know python. I dug into much deeper territory than I realized existed. I also learned a lot about docker, kubernetes, and other technologies shaping the ML ecosystem. ([[What I learned from Looking at 200 [[ML]] Tools]])

What I also learned, the hard way, is how important documentation and communication are. If you asked me last year, I'd have told you I understood the importance. But then I spent a year not writing docs for most of the code I wrote. It took awhile before I started to feel the negative effects, but they came. In the end, you have a huge code base that other engineers can't figure out how to contribute to and a product that customers can't figure out how to use. Docs start to seem really important then...

My newfound appreciation for documentation and communication in engineering is reflected in these goals. I still plan to learn new technical skills, but I fully understand now that new info won't help unless I can make it easy for others to understand how it makes their lives better.

First AMP user without a working session

Currently, all users of our client library or platform tools require working sessions to learn how to use our product. By March, I hope to improve the docs to the point that users will no longer require these sessions to get started.

For any of my current twitter followers, you've seen a lot of tweets recently about how important I think docs are. They are largely inspired by my experience on this project. I've found that the technical work is half the battle - probably less. People will not use your code unless they know how to use it. They won't know how to use it unless you write great docs, or you get on a call to show them. The second option is easier in the short-term, but exhausting in the long term.

Code commits to amp related repo's from 15+ people

AMP is an "inner-sourced" project. This means it is open to be worked on by anyone in Comcast. But to this point, we have not reaped the benefits of this collaboration

Inner sourced projects at big companies are interesting because everyone at the company has a full time job, and often other responsibilities, so it is asking a lot for them to commit time to the project unless they have allotted time in their work week, which is also hard to get.

I want to take my active engagement online internal to Comcast as well. There are many smart people around me that I don't take the time to build relationships with, although they are the people I am "closest" to in many ways. It doesn't really help that we are all remote (but that isn't a great excuse because many of the people I work with are in different offices around the country any way).

10+ Production customers

By the new year, we should have at least 10 production customers using AMP to serve a bevy of ML microservices.

This encompasses both of my above goals. For this to happen and my life not to be hell, the code will need to be solid, the docs will need to be great, and I will be on the other side of a lot of effective communication with teammates and customers.

MTB

I've laid out some of my new training philosophy in [[Skills beat Fitness]]. 2021 is also the year of the bike skills.

Find a circle of riders to train with

Riding in 2020 was fantastic, but I did most of it alone. I do enjoy many of these rides, but I think there is much to be gained from finding a good riding group - in person or virtually.

I'm hoping to find friends that race and like to compete when they train. I've become much better at taking down phone numbers when I ride, but even so, it is extremely difficult to coordinate with others. It's so much easier to just go ride by yourself (logistically at least).

• This is why I need to find a group that really makes it worth it to work through all of the coordination.
• At the very least, I want to find people that will push me to break their times on strava segments at the same parks

Win first face

I don't have a sense of where I am relative to many riders in my area, so I may find this was completely unrealistic. Only one way to find out.

I plan to do all the races in the [[Mid-Atlantic Super Series]] this year.

Worst case, this will help me find new riders to complete my first MTB goal.

My Linked Notes

• 2021-01-24
  

  For more on all of these goals, check out their page! [[2021 Goals]]

• 2021-05-30
  

  It's been awhile. In the time I've missed doing weekly reviews, I completely whiffed on two of my [[2021 Goals]]. One from not writing weekly reviews. The other from being embarrassingly naive about my bike fitness and skill (more on that experience in a future review).

One last thing

If you liked these notes, hit me on Twitter!