my 2026 H2 personal goals

<3

Ferdinand Hodler, Willow Tree by the Lake (1890). The purple background and white rocks are beautiful, and I like how Hodler painted the same landscapes again and again. I hope to visit Lake Geneva soon!

• publish 15 blogposts

• have a byline in a publication I love: Modern Love, Works in Progress, Asterisk, etc

• read 5 beautiful books. i will be defining beauty :)

• get a clean pull-up & a 10-second handstand

• properly train for the berkeley half-marathon

• make thinking downhill feel much more natural and intuitive

  • i’d like to trust my mind more; i generally am OK at this but it breaks down during times of stress

  • my guess is that this will help me be more in tune with what delights me, + make my decision-making more pleasant and fast

• work: keep locking in. implement certain optimizations:

  • focus on 70% AI verification, 30% other (schemes that are good for the world)

  • scheme more boldly, across the board

  • scheme and execute more quickly: reduce non-useful thinking that delays action. (ideally this emerges right out of thinking downhill)

• become more financially and mentally/emotionally prepared for AGI

  • on the mental/emotional side: i’d like to think about how to healthily engage with the dizzying speed of progress

• go on at least one multi-day mountain hike

  • have been sorely missing trips like this. i should be planning soon, before it starts to get cold. ideas: 雨崩; everest base camp; tour du mont blanc;

• graduate! 🎓

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H1 retro:

things i’m proud i achieved (in non-chronological order):

• became fully vegetarian

• stopped biting my nails/fingers (a decade plus-long habit). thanks to andy!

• unlocked 10+ clean push-ups, pistol squats, semi-clean handstand

• 5 blogposts

• tried really hard in MATS

• first two first-author research papers

• started investing

• found my people in Bay & London

• fought for myself after an unjust situation

• pivoted to technical governance, became properly #employed

• finally got what a bunch of those love songs are saying