March 2021 Review

I’m getting in right at the buzzer here, so no thoughts about the month.

Goal Tracking

• 🟢 Get 1% faster. I hit PRs in both of my time trials! I managed 10.73 for the 100m and 21.85 for the 200m. I’m so close to hitting my goal of being 1% faster (10.69 in the 100m and 21.73 i the 200m), and it’s still pretty early in the year.
• 🟢 50% less discretionary spending. My March discretionary spending was 87% lower than my average monthly spend in 2020. Looking good!
• 🔴One hour of solitary free time a day. I did manage my sub-goal from last month of keeping track of my free time. Unfortunately, outside of weekends, I’ve managed a single hour of free time (maybe two, if you include the hour I’m writing this post in).
• 🟢 Twice-weekly live conversations with friends. 4/4 again! I remain surprised at how this goal has gone—maybe I should have been more ambitious.

Track & Fitness

• Like I mentioned above, I hit two PRs in time trials at the beginning of the month: 10.73 in the 100m and 21.85 in the 200m. Encouragingly, I had a lot of technical errors in both races, suggesting that if I clean some of it up, I’ll be able to run better time soon!

Writing

• Most Decisions are Reversible
• My Track Progression
• Infrastructure & Business Monitoring
• Unconventional Productivity

Reading

• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
• Walden
• The Science of Speed The Art of the Sprint

Projects

• Unfortunately, I have nothing to report this month. I have a few interesting ideas to play with once I find some time.

Links & Quotes

Software engineering/Startups

• Pipe It! Platforms, Funding, and the Future – alexdanco.com
• Understanding Coinbase - The Diff
• Career levels, designation momentum, etc. | Irrational Exuberance
• Atlas: Our journey from a Python monolith to a managed platform - Dropbox
• ‘Involution’: The anxieties of our time summed up in one word - CGTN
• Measuring Forecast Accuracy: The Complete Guide | RELEX Solutions
• The 5 Common Mistakes Of New Engineering Managers - Ochronus online
• Stepping Stones not Milestones. Structure projects around delivering… | by James Cowling | Medium
• The technical interview practice gap, and how it keeps underrepresented groups out of software engineering - interviewing.io blog
• half of curl’s vulnerabilities are C mistakes | daniel.haxx.se
• Algorithms don’t cause filter bubbles, people do - Future of Discovery
• How I cut GTA Online loading times by 70%
• 10 Software Engineering Laws Everybody Loves to Ignore

Track/Health

• Does cinnamon lower blood sugar? - Levels

Productivity

• Dealing with conflicting goals – Fruits of procrastination
• Grice’s Maxims of Conversation: The Principles of Effective Communication – Effectiviology
• The OODA Loop: How Fighter Pilots Make Fast and Accurate Decisions

Other

• Your Work Peak Is Earlier Than You Think - The Atlantic
• How Can You Tell if Someone Is Lying? - The Atlantic
• The Polymath: The Inappropriately Excluded
• Neurons Gone Wild | Melting Asphalt
• Satellite Imagery Shows Northern California Kelp Forests Have Collapsed
• The Miseducation of America’s Elites - Common Sense with Bari Weiss
• People love the idea of 20-minute neighbourhoods. So why isn’t it top of the agenda?
• Moore’s Law for Everything
• Trapped Priors As A Basic Problem Of Rationality - Astral Codex Ten
• The Consequences Of Radical Reform - Astral Codex Ten
• Biden’s first big win (and what comes next) - Noahpinion
• On The Experience of Being Poor-ish, For People Who Aren’t - Resident Contrarian
• A Modest Proposal For Republicans: Use The Word “Class” - Astral Codex Ten