Resets and Setbacks
What's in store, 2024?
The New Year is not just a flip of a calendar or that last digit on a date going up a number. It’s a cultural reset, on a global scale.
Some see the New Year as a fresh start, a reframing of narratives, a symbolic commitment to change. It’s why we have new year’s resolution, every year, since early civilization.
People making promises to themselves to improve some parts of their lives. People, my self included giving themselves the permission to hit the reset button, to start again.
Last year, for me, was one of lessons and mistakes in hindsight. It felt like I wasted a huge chunk of the year before those lessons were laid bare.
I fell into a trap of passivity and inaction. I was not losing, but I was not moving either, let alone winning.
I gave myself the permission to hit reset. to learn those lessons, move on and start fresh. I planned and set goals to start the year with the aim to be bolder and better.
Mann tracht, un Gott lacht. Man plans, and God laughs.
- Old Yiddish proverb
Life happened.
I tore my shoulder within the first week of 2024. 😭
It’s not a serious, permanent injury, but it is definitely a setback to my goals. As it happened, my mind thought about how this was setting back some plans by months, other plans had to be dropped altogether.
So what can I do?
Hit the reset button.
Again.
I’m currently on medical leave as I’m writing this post. Which gives me time off work, and other activities, to reflect on what truly matters to me and figure out what my priorities are. Having to drop some pursuits means I free up precious time and energy.
That’s a boon to my setback. A chance to start fresh again.
Read
I’ve been a fan of Francine Mckenna’s work and reportings since i joined the workforce in 2021. I work in the advisory arm for a professional services firm. On many projects I get to work with the auditors and consultants. Our line of work is sometimes known as Re-assurance1.
Ms. Mckenna’s reporting on the Big 4, public audit, and upholding standards of accountability helped me navigate, at least structurally, the professional service industry and proved a useful guide to make predictions on how workstreams might end up or general industry shifts.
This recent post of hers resonated with me. It put my own troubles in better perspective: my minor setback, heck, my life even, pales in comparison to her experience. It inspired me to find my footing again.
How to Decide and Quit
by Annie Duke
I finished both of Annie Duke’s books and picked up poker around the same time. Essentially, the book is about improving one’s decision-making, and making better decision. How to weigh options and choices, making probabilistic and expected value judgement calls and knowing when to hit the eject button.
While I cannot tell that the methods work for me, in the longer term, yet. But I’ve tried them for smaller decision and they paid off, like saving cash and having more mindful enjoyment of things I like to do. All told, those are non-trivial benefits.
Moreover, learning to play (no-stakes) poker made it easier to decide to let go of things that just weren’t going for me at all. Know when to hold’em, know when to fold’em, right?
Watch
Monarch: A Legacy of Monsters
Monarch is a tv-spinoff of the MonsterVerse franchise, featuring Godzilla. It fills the gaps between the feature films and expands on the cinematic world-building, with great CGI.
The main draw of the series has to be Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell playing the older (present) and younger (past) versions of the same character. Their character, Major Lee Shaw, serves as the show’s narrative lynchpin as it weaves between past and present moments of the plot. It’s crazy how uncanny they look and act on screen, almost as if they are related.
ECHO
Echo/Maya Lopez, is an interesting character that I wished they gave this 5-episode mniseries much longer runtime to let her story be told.
Vincent D’onofrio’s return as Wilson Fisk aka the Kingpin is always welcome. I don’t know how, but D’onofrio make this brute, violent character just captivating to watch.
Listen
John McWhorter’s charm and inimitable style in representing Linguistics is always a plus.
somehow we find this life all right.
Byrne Hobart has a great piece about this service done by professional firms.