Scrum

To work with the [[backlog]], use the [[ooda-loop]]

- create a list of everything your project needs to be done.
- take the list and sort it based on priority. [[deciding-priority]]

- decide what you are going to work on
- act on that decision

- get feedback from your environment
- redo the above steps with your new information

If you know your velocity, you can take your "point" budget and decide what tasks to do using that point budget

Remember, you probably will never finish your backlog.

Working With The Backlog

# Waterfall Method

The waterfall method is a product management methodology where you develop the product in explicit steps. You start with product specifications, design, development, testing, and then release.

The author of SCRUM thinks this waterfall methodology doesn't work for a number of reasons:

- specifications and requirements are not stable
- there are inherent problems with product estimations that make a plan less effective as time goes on
- there is not iterative improvement, you finish the whole project at the end, little feedback during the process to see if you're on track.

Waterfall Method

There's a claim in the book that around 85% of effort in a company is wasted. That struck me—how does that apply at Epic? One common reason for waste is market misalignment or shifting direction, which is really frustrating for employees.

It also got me wondering: in other areas of life, how much effort is wasted? Is inefficiency just a human trait? I think so. I want to spend more time reflecting on this deeply.

I'm also curious about the relationship between my phone usage—or lack of it—and my productivity. Does not using my phone help me focus more?

The book presents an idea that waste is a crime, breaking it down into three types: waste through unreasonableness, inconsistency, and poor outcomes. Examples include inventory waste, not doing it right the first time, overexertion, and emotional waste from unrealistic expectations.

Wasted Effort

# Valve Company Example of Employee Empowerment

Valve would be agreat company to work in. Their employees feel empowered and are all on the same "level"

Valve Company Example Of Employee Empowerment

The book outlines types of waste, starting with multitasking. Multitasking leads to failure—it's a myth. What we call multitasking is actually task switching, and each switch erodes focus.

People talking on the phone (even hands-free) are statistically more likely to get into car accidents. More passengers in the car also increase accident risk. We often overestimate our ability to multitask. Ironically, those who multitask most tend to be the worst at it.

This makes me think: are there tasks that _don’t_ suffer from multitasking? Like walking or breathing—these are automatic. So maybe the problem is attention-bound tasks, not background ones.

Multitasking might be more a symptom of poor systems than a necessity. If your workplace demands multitasking to stay productive, something’s broken. There's huge cognitive effort involved in switching contexts.

Waste Through Multitasking

Criteria for creating a user story is INVEST:

- Independent
- Negotiable
- Valuable
- Estimable
- Small
- Testable

User Story

The way the world works is broken.

The majority of companies do work in a way that is fundamentally inefficient. This leads to huge waste of human time, effort, and money.

An example given in the book was the FBI computer system. They were working with paper and people had to make paper copies of their reports. The previous projects were extremely over budget and over deadline.

The Scrum methodology aims to solve these inefficiencies.

The Way The World Works Is Broken

The daily stand-up is a core Scrum practice, held every day and limited to a maximum of 15 minutes. Its purpose is to align the team and surface any blockers quickly. Three essential questions guide this meeting:

1. What did you do yesterday to help the team finish the sprint?
2. What will you do today to help the team finish the sprint?
3. What obstacles are getting in the team’s way?

There’s a question about whether these three questions are truly optimal. For example, asking “What could have gotten in your way but didn’t?” could lead to proactive learning and sharing of tips among teammates.

Team members choose their own tasks collaboratively each day. The Scrum Master, who facilitates these meetings, does not assign tasks.

[[stand-up-meeting-philosophy]]

Stand Up

# Team Size
The magic number for the size of teams are 7 plus or minus 2 but even three could be functional Velocity slows down when you have more people this is related to Brooks Law and software development where adding more manpower to A project makes it later the reason is because these people hold you behind because you do re explain the project and there's more people that need to talk during meetings etcetera A large scheme takes about five times the amount of hours and a small team would groups made up of three to seven people require 25% of the effort of nine to 20 to get the same amount of work done Another reason why this is so another reason why large teams really to more work being done is because the more people involved the more brainpower is required The are there more communication channels so you can't know who is talking to what and this grows when every person you add increases the amount almost quadratically this leads to the reason that everyone on the team should know what everyone else is doing at all times this minimizes waste it keeps things efficiency it keeps cross functionality because that if not then teams become split into smaller teams and meetings take hours instead of minutes.

Team Size

# Sprint Retrospective
At the end of every Sprint there's a retrospective and in this the team looks closely at itself and asks questions it tries it questions interactions practices and processes it asks what can we change about how we work and what's our biggest sticking point.

Sprint Retrospective

The Sprint is a core idea in Scrum.

- The purpose of a scrim is that you make visible progress as soon as possible and you show it to stakeholders as soon as possible to get [[feedback]]

In sprint planning, tasks are organized into columns like "Backlog," "Doing," "Done," and "Tested." These columns should be tailored to the specific project. Crucially, nothing should be moved to "Done" unless it's usable by the customer.

For example, with Wikispeed, if a car's turn signals are sticking, the related task isn't marked as "Done" until the issue is resolved and the user has verified it.

This implies that for an app, if a user story states they want to see their notes, the application must fully support that before marking the task as complete.

Once sprint tests are defined, nothing should be added mid-sprint. Introducing a new high-priority task during a sprint causes distraction and slows down the team due to context switching and lack of planning.

Sprint

The stand-up should not be treated as a simple status update. Instead, it should function like a football huddle—where team members dynamically coordinate actions to address problems and move toward their goal.

Example from the book: A wide receiver reports an issue with a defensive lineman, prompting a blocker to offer help. The team rapidly adjusts tactics. Similarly, in Scrum, the goal is quick alignment and decisive collaboration.

Passivity in these meetings is not just unproductive; it actively harms team performance. Scrum Masters should address and correct this immediately.

Effective teams leave the meeting knowing the most important task to accomplish next. Collaboration can dramatically speed up work—what one person estimates as a day’s effort might be completed in an hour with help.

Stand Up Meeting Philosophy

# Simple Rules Create Emergent Behavior
This is shown in the book where the idea of Scrum is very very simple where you have weekly meetings you have tasks that you do and you have a lot of teams that eventually learn to self organize and be very productive .

Simple Rules Create Emergent Behavior

# Shu Ha Ri

Shuhari is an example from the book where the shoe phase is where you learn the rules and the forms then once you've mastered them you make innovations finally in the last state of mastery you discard forms and you just be everything is unconscious

Shu Ha Ri

# Purpose of Scrum Master

In scrum, there is a scrum master, who's sole purpose is facilitate scrum.

Their purpose is to keep everyone's goal aligned, ask for reflection, unblock their blockers, and speed them up.

Purpose Of Scrum Master

Raw Text Speech Of Book Notes

# Product Vision

The product vision is the ideal version of the product. The product vision should be something that you can do, something that the world wants, and something your team wants to do.

Product Vision

# Reflection on Epic Doing Waterfall

I have been using the waterfall methodology instead of scrum and it has not been succssful because of me not making it on time, and then me getting frusturated when I don't hit the goal. What I do need is to try and hit a goal, fail, see how to improve, and start over again.

Reflection On Epic Doing Waterfall

# Principle Behind Scrum

The main reason Scrum works is because of the ability to discover new information quickly, it's ability to keep you aligned with your goal.

Principle Behind Scrum

# Self Optimizing System
It is better to design a system that self optimizes than it is to design a "perfect" system. This is why feedback works well?

Self Optimizing System

Product risk is minimized with fast feedback.

There's different types of risks market risks, technical risks, and financial risks

- Market risks are eliminated by delivering fast
- Technical risks are also mitigated by delivery and prototyping fast

Product Risk

The product owner is the person that is ultimately responsible for converting effort from the team into value in the real world.
They do this by knowing the product, having a breadth of skills, understanding the technical domain, talking to customers.

The product owner is not the boss or the CEO. They don't give performance reviews.
The product owner should spend half their time talking with customers and the other half developing the backlog.
Product owner needs to be able to get into the mind of the customer.

Product owner characteristics:

- They know the technical domain. They need to know what can and can't be done. They need to know what will and won't bring value.
- Have to be empowered to make decisions. Should be able to balance from all stakeholders
- They need to be available to the team. Reliable, consistent avaliability.
- They need to be accountable for value (i.e. revenue, # of people coming to meetings)

They own the [[product-vision]] and the [[backlog]].

The private governor also needs to keep in mind the future of the project so where they'll be in a quarter or a year.

Product Owner

The role of the Scrubmaster is that person that facilitates all meetings ensures there's transparency and helps the team discover what is getting in their way they accelerate other people as well the job of the Scrum Master is to guide the team towards continuous improvement how can we do better?

The scrum master decides _how_ to accomplish the vision.

[[ideal-scrum-team-qualities]] [[feedback-on-the-process]]

Scrum Master

Scrum For Education

# Oracle of Delphi

The Delphi method is a way to get expert opinions on a topic by asking them to answer questions anonymous and then iterating on those answers until a consensus is reached.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi_method

Oracle Of Delphi

# Planning Poker

Planning poker is a technique used in Agile software development to estimate the effort or complexity of tasks. It involves team members using cards with numbers to represent their estimates, which are then revealed simultaneously to avoid bias.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning_poker

Planning Poker

# Patterns and Rythms

People naturally fall into rhythms and patterns. Scrum leverages this by establishing daily and weekly rhythms that promote positive behaviors and discourage negative ones. The aim is to create a self-reinforcing cycle that fosters improvement and motivation.

Patterns And Rythms

OODA is defined as:

- Orient See outcomes capableThis is a loop on making decisions:
- Observe: see the sitation as it is, not just through your perspective
- Decide: Decide on an outcome you want
- Act: Do the decision, get feedback from the environment.

This is a loop that should be done at every sprint, every incremental prodfuct release.

Ooda Loop

The Milgram experiment was a psychological experiment where there were there was an experimenter participant in the experiment as well as an actor the experimenter told the participant to give shocks to the actor and the actor pretended to be shocked but in reality there was no no one being shot and the experiment wanted to see how participants would react to authority telling them to do something that in their consciously obviously know something wrong andWhat they found was that almost everyone gave a final shots that would've killed the participant even though they heard the participants screaming.

This shows that our environment shapes us and causes our behavior much more than we think. [[free-will]]

Milgram Experiment

# Optimizing Teams Are More Effective Than Optimizing Individuals
There is an example in the book where they saw the difference in performers for Yale students in the computer science course and the disparity between the highest and the worst performance was about 10 times however the difference in disparity between the worst performing teams and the best performing teams was 2000 times This means that you can gain a lot more performance by improving your teams than you can by just hiring the best people or improving individuals takes much longer to improve individuals than it does simpler teams.

Optimizing Teams Are More Effective Than Optimizing Individuals

# No Bad People Only Bad Systems
There are no such thing as bad people only bad systems So for example a lot of us think that there are people that aren't pulling their weight to make stupid decisions or slow the people down but this is just the [[fundamental-attribution-error]]

No Bad People Only Bad Systems

A minimal viable product is the bare minimum needed to extract even just a little bit of value. It should barely have any features. It is used to update the [[backlog]] and [[product vision]].

It should be laughably bad, only serve a small segment of the market, but it should just deliver value. It should be released to the customers as much as possible. If it is not ready, release it to the product owner to get their opinion on it.

Deliver your product to the public once you hit 20% of the features at the latest.

Minimal Viable Product

# Measure Velocity

Being able to measure velocity is a key principal in Scrum, once you can measure something you can see how you can change it. You can measure your progress with [[planning-poker]], do a reflection, and see how doing that reflection increases your performance in the next sprint.

Measure Velocity

Information sharing is critical for having a successful organization.

If there are people that are hoarding information then you are actively losing productivity and it's also important that you are able to share information through individuals as well as throughout time.For example if someone has spent five hours to understand some pieces of information and you can query them in 2 minutes for that piece of information then it will save you five hours that's why sharing information is extremely important and being able to get information you want is very important.

This could be highly beneficial.Not only does the saving efficiency but it also improves the decisions made when you don't have information then it can lead to disaster

For example of this success for Bell Labs: In one team, the information sharing metric reached 90%, compared to a typical 20% in most companies. Everyone essentially knew what everyone else was doing. This level of transparency was a major asset.

The core product of modern businesses is knowledge. Therefore, maximizing shared, accessible information is crucial. It raises the question: Could a software tool be created to enhance information sharing within teams?

Information Sharing

# Ideal Scrum Team Qualities
So some qualities of an ideal screens that they should mimic that of the All Blacks rugby team Scrum teams have intense focus on the goal they're built up and energized by some chant the second is a radical collaboration between each other the 3rd is that they have a hunger to crush anything in the way and the 4th is at the universal excitement whenever anyone in the team does anything good People are not selfish on this team.

Ideal Scrum Team Qualities

# How to Do Scrum

Sprint

Show progress to stakeholder

How To Do Scrum

Great teams are cross functional autonomous empowered and they have a transcendent purpose Their cross functional meaning they do a lot of the things of the organization because they have a lot of people from accounting to marketing they're able to move very fast and they're also be able to live somewhere independently for the rest of the company.

Great teams were transcended meaning that they have a sense of purpose beyond the ordinary this is a self realized goal that allows them to move into the extraordinary in a very real way the decision to not be average to be great changes the way they view themselves and what they're capable of

-A story of this is from the author where the author was was a cadet at a Military Academy and he was part of the worst team but that team got together and they work together to try to improve themselves week after week eventually they became the best team. They all work together and eventually they marched at some guy's funeral.

Teams are also autonomous meaning that their self organizing and self managing they have the power to make their own decisions about how they do their jobs and are empowered to make those decisions stick.

- The reason why being empowered and acting autonomously is that only a single team is able to exactly understand what's the best thing to do for them in the next moment this is a little bit of a slippery slope because it assumes that everyone there is confident and working towards the same goal therefore if you have confident people and if you are all aligning your goal then being autonomous is the best way to do things

Finally cross function meaning that they have all the skills needed to complete the project planning design production sales distribution and those skills feed and reinforce each other. If you have all these people in one team then when you're making decisions you could think about it from everyone's perspective meaning the whole team's perspective instead of just your own.

- The main reason why having a cross functional team is so powerful is that you have everybody in some team meaning that there's less information lost if everyone attends every stand up meeting then people know exactly where the project is and you don't need to communicate as much Moreover when having a more diverse set of skills there's more creativity that you have.

Great Teams

The act of planning is very useful, it helps you take a large project, break it down into manageable chunks, and then work on those.

There is a problem with planning, when you create a plan you know the least you will know about the problem, so if you try and create a plan that has "everything" you are sure to fail.

Therefore, you need to assume your plans will change and make it easy to make those changes. In fact, your goal _should_ be to make your plans change, as that would mean you are learning the most. This is related to the scientific method and the general principal questioning yourself. Questioning yourself and assuming you don't have all the information will lead to success.

Following Plans

# Feedback

Feedback as soon as possible is very important for everything in life because you can only grow if you give some sort of feedback either you're giving feedback to yourself or external stakeholders giving you feedback the only way to grow is by getting feedback and growth is the most important thing in life

Feedback

Getting feedback on the process is a very powerful concept. For example, in the book the author does an experiment to teach Scrum. They put people in a team and they have them explicitly spend time creating paper airplanes, then they spend time thinking about how they can improve their processes. After a few iterations of this, they are producing at 3x the original rate.

An example of this in my own life is during my epic internship where at some point in time after reading this scrum book I would spend maybe half an hour at the end of the day looking at my work day and seeing how I can improve from this I immediately found humongous benefits for example I saw that I was spending a lot of time typing when I said I could be just speaking messages so from that 30 minutes I was able to save like multiple hours of typing in the future.

Feedback On The Process

Because creating and following plans will inherently cause you to move in the wrong direction, it is important to inspect where you are going and ask yourself if what you are doing is the right thing to do.

If it is, great, if it is not, pivot.

Goal Alignment

fundamental attribution error We we miss we underestimate how much impact your environment has on ourselves so fundamentally the fundamental attribution error states that we tend to underestimate the impact of the environment on other people's behavior and we and so so we think that people are person responsible for their behavior but they are like relate to this is that we don't know how much of an impact the system has our own on our own behavior. Because the environment has a humongous impact on ourselves that means that if we improve the system by a lot then we can get better outcoming behaviors from people.

When people do bad things we attribute to their personalities but the Milgram experiment proves that this is incorrect.

REFLECTION:: Think about how the fundamental attribution error relates with being split brain and how humans don't know why they make their own decisions.

PRINCIPAL: live and work hard for the future do what's hard and good for the long term not just for the short term
PRINCIPAL: Environmental change trump's personal efforts by a humongous margin we are completely blind to how our environment shapes our behavior

Fundamental Attribution Error

# Fear Framework

When in fear: Observer, orient, decide, and act. This is a framework on what to do when afraid

Fear Framework

# Deciding Priority

When deciding what task to get done, think about what item is the most imortant for the customer, what will have the largest business impact, what will make the most money, what is the easiest thing to do, what is the least risky thing to do?

Deciding Priority

A study in the book illustrates context-switching costs with a task: write numbers 1–10 in Arabic numerals, Roman numerals, and letters. Doing each set separately is fast. Switching between them slows you down—takes about twice as long.

That’s a huge loss: half your effort is wasted just because of context switching. Across millions of people, that’s a staggering productivity drain.

There’s also a chart: with one project, you have 100% attention and no context-switching loss. Two projects mean 40% per project, 20% loss. With five projects, only 5% per project and 75% is lost. You’re doing more but achieving less.

That doesn’t mean multiple projects are bad. If you're blocked on one, switching can be useful. But this isn't about total efficiency—it’s about knowing the tradeoffs.

Cost Of Context Switching

# Example of Wasting Value By Not Knowing the Customer

Here is an example of wasting a lot of time and effort by not knowing the customer.There are many cases where Americans come to Iraq or Afghanistan and they try to give aid. but instead of asking the residents what they want, they just make something they think they want. This ends up wasting millions of dollars instead of solving the real problems.

Example Of Wasting Value By Not Knowing The Customer

# Company Information Flow

Good companies try to flow information as fast as possible and do self optimiaziotn. This was talke dabout in the book built to last.

Company Information Flow

# Better for Agents to Make Their Own Decisions

This is a genera idea and that is individual agents know best how to achieve their goals. This is somewhat of a fallacy because it assumes rationality and intelligence of agents, but especially at the large management and governmental level, it is best to have smaller teams make their decisions.

Better For Agents To Make Their Own Decisions

# Change for Free Example

There's an example in the book of change for free where there's a company that has a contract with their clients where if they their client concerning the contract at any time in time and pay the company just start meeting 20% of the worth of the contract they can scrub and they allowed the committee changes to their priorities and the complications are being software 9 months earlier and making 40% more profit. they saved their own time and they saved the Pacific time and to produce more valuable society. This is the value of delivering fast.

Change For Free Example

If you do not change the way you do things, you and your business will die in irrelevancy. The world is constantly changing. This is a truism that I don't think most people internalize. The world is always changing every day, so you need to be in alignment with that change.

PRINCIPAL: Adaptation is just as important as goal setting, the world is always changing, so one must adapt to it.

Change Or Die

# Change for Free

Because plans and contracts are bound to change, it is a waste of time and effort trying to prevent changes. In quality companies, they have clauses that say the client has `n` amount of points to spend, if they want to change something, they can do it for free. This maximizes the value produced by the company, makes the client happy.

Change For Free

# Beginners Mind

Story about cocky fighter pilots getting their asses kicked during training reminds me about having a beggineer mind.

Beginners Mind

The idea of finding a mission is similar to the principle of exploration one should do exploration if you do not know what you want to do specifically you should do a systematic exploration .

Something that's about the book is a story by a student who wanted to go back to grad school. However when she went to grad school she did not find herself to be very passionate about it she did not feel a mission that her life was revolving around So that leads to the question how you can actually find a mission that you should revolve your life around .

The author thinks finding a compelling missian is only possible in the adjacent possible in your field. Why is this the case?

Because you can only find a compelling mission at the adjacent possible, it is a smart move to try and get there extremely quickly.

Q: What cutting edge field do I want to get to? What is the adjacent possible I want to discover?

Having career capital is necessary, not just sufficient, to have a mission. This makes very intuitive sense, because a part of having a mission is the uniqueness that you have in it. If you don't have that uniqueness, and anyone in the world can do your mission, why are you doing it? [[ikigai]]

PRINCIPLE: You should gain career capital above all else

Finding A Mission

# Authority Shouldn't Correlate with Responsibility

"An individual's responsability for leadership is not dependent on authority. This deep-rooted assumption that authority should equal responsability is the root of much organizational evil. I believe misunderstanding around this issue is rampant, problematic, and runs so deep in our consciousness that we don't even realize it."

Authority Shouldn'T Correlate With Responsibility

# Applying Prioritizing and Releasing to My Own Life

I can apply everything here about projects and product development to my own life. Discover the activities that give 80% of the value "deliver them", do the [[ooda-loop]], repeat. Maximizng value for future self.

Applying Prioritizing And Releasing To My Own Life

# Backlog

A backlog is a list of items you think your product needs. It can contain every requirement or just the first few.

Backlog

So Good They Cant Ignore You

# Finding a Mission Doesn't Require a Lot of Direction

People that are currently on a good path, working on their life's mission, definitely did not have a straight path for this

In the example of Paradis, she wanted to study math, then bio, then she went on a trip and learned more about biollogical anthropolgy.

The general idea is that [[your-true-calling-doesn't-exist]]

Q: What are other equample of ppl that were at the cutting edge of their fields and _then_ found their missions.

Finding A Mission Doesn'T Require A Lot Of Direction

# Dream Job Elixer

Dream job elixer is what you want in your job. It is highly related to the principles in [[drive]].

### Control

Having more control is what you want. In an ideal job, you want a good combination of control, pristige, passion, money, but be conscious of the balance. It might be better to become a free-lance software developer then a VP. But in order to make this decision, you need the career capital to afford it. to be a free-lance software developer

#### Vying for Control w/o capital

Vying for control without career capital is a mistake, and you will end up homeless like the yoga woman.

#### Wanting Control Means Resistance

In the book, there is a story of Lulu, who is a freelancer. Everytime she tried to gain more control there was always more resistence. People want to control you.

Dream Job Elixer

# Difficulty Popularity Graph

The more difficult it is to do or get something (more time, and effort) the less people would have done it. There are HUGE gaps in this, though, after every "mandatory-ish" training. To get from the middle 50 percent to the middle 75 percent takes more effort than 75 to 99. I think this is the case because a lot of people have done college or high school, so they have those skills, a lot have done coding boot camps or read papres. Always try to do something hard. This is th eprnicples.

Mental strain is good for you, it is something to prpouse, not avaid.

Difficulty Popularity Graph

# Deliberate Practice

Deliberate practice should be a daily routine.

Q: How can I apply deliberate practice to my own work?

When it comes to deliberate pracitce the author talks about him doing delibmerate practice, which was reading a paer and understading it fully.
REFLECTION: Think about this in relateion to my time in 598KKH

Deliberate Practice

# Control Requires Capital

There's an idea in this book that control requires capital meaning that if you want to have a career that gives you a lot of control then you need to acquire career capital in order to get that control.

Control Requires Capital

# Craftsman Mindset

Deliberate practice is the metric you want to maximize for. By maximizing deliberate practice you will become so good they cant ignore you.

A vibrant image from the book is that of Jordan, the bluegrass player. Every day he spends 3-4 hours practciing etremely diffeDifficult chords. This is painful and he is working at his limit. By doing this every day for a decode he becomes an outlier [[outliers]].

Focusing on the clear metric of success--whatever that be in your field--is all you need to be successful. Don't worry about this or that. Focus on the essential [[essentialism]]

Focusing on the output you do and nothing else is called this craftsman mindset. For the feild of music a poweful idea is that of "the tape doesn't lie". It shows exactly how you good you practiced and nothing else matters. In programming, it could be that "your code doesn't lie" or "your algorithm doesn't lie". In terms of finance, it could be your deals don't lie.

ACTION: Find what the "obvious" metric of high quality is and maximize it.

The author has an interesting idea, that is to keep track of the amount of deliberate practice he works on every week. This mentis helpful for a couplen of reasons. One of them is that this metric is all in his cnotrol.

### When does the craftsman mindset fail?

he craftsman mindset won't grant you a great career if the following aren't met. [[traits-that-define-great-work]]

- The job doesn't allow mastery. Few opportunities to work
- The job doesn't have impact. It is on something you don't think matters in the world or actively harms the world
- You work with people you don't like

[[drive]]

Craftsman Mindset

# Control Creates Resistence

In your career whenever you want to gain more control that typically is met with some resistance which is in general because people want to be able to control you and tell you what to do. you don't want to do this of course so that creates this conflict in order to get through this you need to obtain enough career capital so that you can do what you want to do .

Once people want to pay you for what you want to do or once other people have given you feedback that you can do what you want to do that you can gain more economy .

### Law of Financial Viablitiy

when deciding whether to follow an appealing pursuit that will introduce more control into your work life seek evidence of whether people are willing to pay for it if you find this evidence continue if not move on

Control Creates Resistence

# Career Capital

Career capital is all of the skills, networks, knowledge, and assets you have. The higher your career capital in one field is, the more successful you'll be in that field and the more opportunity you'll have.

Career capital:

- Skills (proof of skills)
- Knowledge
- Network
- Credentials?

Career Capital

- The traits that define great work are rare and valuable.This is a theory posed in this book that states:
- Because these are highly saught after, you need to offer something valuable to get a career like this
- In order to becomes this valuable, you should adopt an intentional mindset of increasing your vaule for the career ([[career-capital]])

Career Capital Theory Of Great Work

# Ask Questions Down to Fundamentals

This is an idea that came up while reading "so good they cant ignore you". That idea comes from an example where there was a blogger that would write blogs and he would try to optimize his metrics, shower his readers with appreciation, etc. but he missed the mark. In order to write a good blog, you need to identify exactly what you want to give your readers. The typical reader wants something of value from you, like an insight or inspiration, so you need to dig down and find this "principle" of the field.

Ask Questions Down To Fundamentals

Story of Alex Berger, he was someone that wanted to try to get into the TV industry. It is aparently very difficult to get into because everyone wants to get in. After 2 years of trying to master his craft(which in the TV industry is mastering writing his sccripts), he took charge of opportunities and got a lucrative job.

    !t is important to notee that you can only take charge of opportunities if you have enough career capital to take them on. Another thing that's Important to note is he was able to work in the industries where he could see exactly what matters to be successful as a television guy he moved careers and jobs just so that he could be closer to what real people do

Alex Berger Career Capital Story

There's a story from the book that comes from another book called [[Where Good Ideas Come From]]. In this book there are actually a lot of examples of where people from several places discover the same thing so for example people from four different countries identified sunspots in the year 1611 Oxygen was isolated independently in 1772 and 1774.

why did these simultaneous discoveries happen Well these big ideas are often discovered in the adjacent possible adjacent possible is an idea where in order for you to get to a new idea you need to So that's why these ideas are only capable of being seen was other ideas are popularized

New, big ideas only yhappen when you take existing ideas and jiggle them into a new shape.

Adjacent Possible

# Act Small Think Big

This is an idea in the book, you should think "narrowly" by just focusing on the narrow niche you are in, and then act big once you gain enough career capital to identify a mission.

Act Small Think Big

# Sleep Deprivation

Sleep deprivation is caused directly by having something stimulating before going to bed. It causes truncated sleep times, longer onset to sleep, and more disturbances. To improve sleep, prevent the usage of stimulating activities (such as music, videos, social medias, interactions, etc.) 1 hour before bed.

Sleep Deprivation

The Anxious Generation

# Social Media Is a Conformity Engine

Social media is a conformity engine, you see other people and see how their doing and you follow this. This explains my own behavior, I would copy what the people I watched did. I would play the games they played, I would pick up on the same language as them.
WOOW! Can I use this to my benefit?

Suppose I want to adopt behavior X, I want to adopt this belief but I don't already do so. One way of doing this is to fill my experiences with evidences that support belief X. [[beliefs-to-change]]

Social Media Is A Conformity Engine

# Rites of Passage

In most societies there are rites of passage so people know their new roles.

This is interesting to me because it shows that we have less autonomy. It shows the impact culture has more prescisely. For example, rites of passage tell you \*as the agent) your new roles (as a woman or man in the society). when yo uare toled these roles, you enact onto them. This is why ceremonies are imporant. They don't make ayo you feel different, but you embody different roles.

Rites Of Passage

# Puberty Impact on Brain

[[parenting]]
During pubtery a child's brain is quite sensitive to changes, this means one should be weary about the experiences the child experiences during this time.

Puberty Impact On Brain

# Play Should Be Free

Play should be free with a child, it should be self driven, embodied, outside, with children of mixed ages.

Play Should Be Free

# Humans Being Synchronous Fosters Relationships

Humans being synchronous fosters relationships. It develops trust. An example is a parent and their child. The parent interacts with the child in a serve-and-return manner. The parent makes faces at the baby and the baby makes faces back, in a game of some sorts. When humans move together they trust each other more. This is why dancing to music is such a good way for people to bond. [[relationships]]

That is why being synchronous (such as a phone call) will make you feel more connected. I should try and call people more to feel more connected to them.

[[parenting]]

Humans Being Synchronous Fosters Relationships

# Greetings Make People Feel Closer

Beceause synchrnoous, face-to-phase, physical interactions and rituals create communion and trust, that is why people shake hands and have various other gestures. Not doing that would make people feel less communal. [[humans-being-synchronous-fosters-relationships]]

Greetings Make People Feel Closer

# Fragmented Attention

Technology usage causes fragmented attention by a device asking for your attention multiple times per hour.

Fragmented Attention

# Entertainment Is Experience Blocking

This is not directly form the book but I think entertainment might be "experience blocking" in the book it states how phones and tablets became experience blockers but that is not the case. It is the activities on these devices (primarily entertainment) that is experience blocking. Maybe I think this way because I leverage my computer a lot--via programming.

Entertainment Is Experience Blocking

# Harrison Bergeron

Storu set in the future where there is ah andicapper general that ensures everyone is the exact same.

Harrison Bergeron

[[article]]

# Dumbphones

Smartphones but dumb. They provide the essential functions of a phone (communication over distance), having some additional features (gps, notes, calculator), without the "smarter features" (such as "high performant applications" or "entertainment"). They are harder to use and help "[[reject convenience]]"

I think getting it is going to improve my life. I have gotten a glimpse of life without constant stimulation a few weeks ago when me and my roommates have formed a pact to use our phones less. I remember the feeling I had during the days of clarity in thought and [[intention]] in my actions. I have lost that a little bit because I had a bit of a habit of using laptop before bed, watching videos, masturbating, listening to music. This caused me to not go to bed. As of now, I am going to Madison Wisconsin and I want to make a large change to set myself up for a very goal-oriented summer. I have a lot of good momentum and in a much better mental position.

I believe using a dumb-phone will help me reclaim even more of this thought and enforce to myself and my self-concept I am serious.

### How it makes me think about others

I have a little bt of a nagging feeling that technology addiction has snuck up on us. Every year a new phone is annouced and people get it because it is better, faster, more storage, but people never think about why they want those features. Sure they might want it because it is easier to use, but that is akin to a smoker getting a a more ergonomic pack of cigareets to minimize the time between opening the box and the cigareet entering his mouth. It is my belief phone mindless technology usage is harmful and I am getting off of this by using a dumb phone.

Even now, I am not using my phone (because I have had a great habit of using it less, and I am writing instead. I am creating, using my brain, doing sometthing valuable.)

Using a dumbphone makes you an "independent thinker". I remember me being in high school and the teacher asked if anyone had an android. I was the only one in my class, but now I won't even have a smart phone. This makes me feel proud of myself, but I need to be warry of doing something just for the sake of being different.

Dumbphones

# Conforming

Children have to learned to conform as a way of adopting the culture around them. This is called confromity attraction. It is positiive because it allows a child to adopt the culture of where they are, which is socially advantageous. This is why it is extremely important as a parten to ensure the "culture" (other kids) are doing what you wnt to do. So whoever parents your children is not only you, but the parents (better say experiences) of the other children. [[parenting]]

[[social-media-is-a-conformity-engine]]

Conforming

# Boiled Into Technological Dependency

Like the parable about boiling a frog in water (which isn't actually true). People have been "boiled" into more and more technological dependency. This comes to me when thinking about [[dumbphones]] and the rejection of having "the best thing".

Boiled Into Technological Dependency

# Cost of Entertainment Is Opportunity Cost

There is a huge opportunity cost of entertainment that most people never think about. They only think about the in-the-moment pleasure they gain from indulging in enteertainment instead of what else they are missing out on by being entertained. I think this is a huge, unseen tragedy.

Cost Of Entertainment Is Opportunity Cost

# Children Are Wired to Play

As a part of growing up children are automatically wires to play. "play is the work of childhood". From the perspective of evolutionary biology, children are wired to play because it helpsfoster social relationships and dynamics. It also allows them to master motor movements. At every stage of development there are different types of play. Babies are played with in a simple way, using the babies limied motor movements. gnce the baby is able to walk, it can interact with others of a similar age group. They can then play "predator and cooperation games" whichare sports, hide-and-seek, tag. Then when they go into middle school they learn social games, about teasing and joking.

Hunans enjoy playing sports because we are evolved to enjoy to play them, it mimics hunting.

The purpose of childhood is to mimic adulthood but with less stakes

[[play-should-be-free]]

Children Are Wired To Play

# Victories

This is a document that will contain the victories that I've had, things that I'm proud of. It will contain both major and minor victories.

Checkout my [failures](https://matthandzel.com/failures) as well!

## Victories

January 2026: Moved to San Francisco Bay Area alone. Got a 3 month lease without a specific plan to explore and figure things out.
December 2025: Completed BS/MCS degree with a 4.0 GPA. This semester took CS598JH Text Mining with LLM, CS598HGE HCI applied to Games and Education, CS527
October 2025: Started my newsletter, systems for Second Brain
18 September 2025: I got the courage and asked Lily if she's open to dating me and she said yes.
September 2025: Kicked off the Longevity Biotech Fellowship, solo-traveled to Spain.
August 2025: Became a research assistant for [TIMAN](https://timan.cs.illinois.edu/)
August 2025: Started the Masters of Computer Science degree program UIUC.
August 2025: Solo-traveled the bay area for 2 weeks.
August 2025: Completed my internship, got highly positive feedback from managers.
July 2025: My team placed first at [[chicago-startup-weekend]]!
June 2025: I sky-dived! I was completely terrified
May 2025: I completed my undergraduate degree requirements with a 4.0.
May 2025: I went to a party felt extremely confident, I was an accidental rizzler, I made people laugh and felt connected.
April 2025: I stopped my addictive phone usage and consumption!
April 23rd 2025: I gave my speech on lifelogging and I spoke clearly.
April 25th 2025: I ran and completed a marathon!
Spring 2025: I did salsa classes and got out of my comfort zone.
Spring 2025: I won a dance competition at the Zagłoba bal.
Spring 2025: I gave my ice breaker speech for toastmasters
Spring 2025: Declared myself President of SIGAIDA and successfully ran engaging meetings
Winter 2024: Ran 17.5 miles!
Winter 2024: Ran a half-marathon in 2:28 hours after waking up at 4:45 and traveling home with 2 weeks of training.
Fall 2024: Zagloba club I went outside my comfort zone and did karaoke, I also danced for them for Wigilia.
Fall 2024: Started being an undergraduate research assistant
Fall 2024: Project manager for Universum
Fall 2024: 4.0 GPA when taking 6 computer science courses, 3 graduate courses, 3 other cs courses, 21 credit hours. Machine Learning for Signal Processing, Machine Learning for Bioinformatics, Advanced Computational Topics in Robotics, Wireless IoT, Numerical Methods, and Ethics for Computer Science.
Summer 2024: After break-up and being burnt out, I gained weight to 208 lbs. I was visibly fat. I then lost weight and got down to 192 lbs before college started. I did this in a month and a half from fasting and discipline.
Summer 2024: I took 12 credit hours over the summer (Data Visualization, Programing Languages and Compilers, ANTH 105, and JJC HIST 172), while working a full time job (40+ hours/week) at Argonne National Labs
Spring 2024: 4.0 GPA taking 18 credit hours, 5 CS courses + 1 psyc course. CS446, 341, 374, 361, 222, and PSYC 250
Fall 2023: I self studied for Calc 3, Comp Sci 1 & 2, Linear Algebra, Discrete Math and passed the proficiency exams.
Spring 2023: In one year, I studied for AP Bio, AP Calc BC, AP Physics C, AP Comp Sci A & Principles, AP French. I got a 5 on all of them (except for principles).
Spring 2023: Made it to the world championships for VEX Robotics
Spring 2023: Got accepted into UIUC for Computer Science
Spring 2023: Lead my high school's ESRP team. A girl asked for my instagram after I presented our project.
Spring 2022: Was in Orchesis and performed in front of school as the only boy in my group.
Spring 2022: For my FIRST Tech Challenge team I was the lead programmer and our team got the "highest scoring rookie award" in Illinois.
Spring 2022: Got an internship as a software developer intern at WM International.
Summer 2020: I started reading self-help books, "How to Win Friends and Influence People", "Mastery", "The Magic of Thinking Big".
Spring 2020: I taught myself how to program in Python and made my first project https://github.com/MattHandzel/findValueOfInvestmentsOverTime
Spring 2019: I lost around 40 lbs before high school, and continued to lose weight until I hit my lowest of 145 lbs during water polo of spring 2020.
<2017-2019>: I started thinking for myself and got out of my born-into religion.

Victories

# About This Site

Hi! I'm Matt Handzel. I'm running an experiment where I'm trying to put the 'personal' in personal website. I want this website to entirely represent who I am, what I care about, how I think, what are my "inputs", and "outputs".

## What You Can Find Here

Here you can get a glimpse into my life through various lenses. You can explore my [bucket list](/bucket-list), see my active [to-do list](/todos), and browse the [projects](/projects) I'm working on, including my [project ideas](/project-ideas).

You can see [links](/links) to other platforms I am on, and if you want help, you can schedule [office-hours](https://matthandzel.com/office-hours)

I also share the [principles](/principles) that guide me, my daily [habits](/dailies), and the [communities](/communities) I'm a part of.

If you're interested in what I'm consuming, you can see the [books I've read](/content-consumed), and my learning progress in [Anki](/anki). You can also see my latest writing on my [blog](/blog) or see what my [friends](/friends) are up to.

For a more direct look into my mind, you can read my captured [thoughts](/thoughts), see my code on [Github](/github), or even check out my [failures](/failures) and [victories](/victories). I also document my personal [standards](/standards) and, for the curious, there's even a page about [dating me](/date-me).

You can even see [real-time website activity](/live) to see what others are currently exploring.

## Why Am I Doing This?

I'm very much into quantified self and I have a fear of posting myself online.

For those that know me, this is a place where you can check in and see how I'm doing.
For those that don't know me, this is a place for you to get an authentic understanding of who I am.

## How It Works

All content originates from markdown files in my Obsidian vault, which gets processed by Python scripts, stored in a database, and then rendered through atomic React components.

Feel free to explore, interact, and let me know your thoughts via my [feedback page](/feedback) or at matt [at] matthandzel.com.

About This Site

# The Super Powers You Get Without a Phone

### Ideas

Without a phone, you have super-human focus.
You have a better understanding of your own feelings. You are able to sense when you feel tired better, estimate your state better. Your phone adds some noise to your internal measurements.

More social interactions, without a phone you are more inclined to talk to other people, even if this is 10% more often, the benefit will compound.

I've ditched a smarthpeon and use a flip phone as my daily driver. Over the past few months of decreaing my dopamine baseline (listening to music, scrolling, being stimulated, porn, etc.) I've felt a fundamental change in my focus and how I spend my time. Very worthwhile.

The Super Powers You Get Without A Phone

Finished Bs In Cs In 2 Years

I wanted to but did not get into AI @ UIUC.
I tried very hard but did not get into the silicon valley trip.
I tried and really thought that I would get into Stanford TreeHacks but I didn't get in.

Failures

Bucket List

# Communities I Am a Part of

The purpose of this document is to list out the communities I identify with, participate in, or am interested in.

### Personal Affiliation Scale

1- I am barely affiliated, know about it, I might have a friend or two that is part of it
5- I am interested, would describe myself as that label
10- I actively participate in that community

- Personal affiliation: a 1 means barely affiliated, know about it, a 5 is interested, would describe myself as that label, a 10 is actively participate in that community

### Communities Table

| Community               | Description                                                                                        | Personal Affiliation                                                        | What I've Done                                                                                                                                                       |
| ----------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Neovim                  | People that use Neovim for as their text editor and enjoy configuring it                           | 7                                                                           | [dotfiles](https://github.com/MattHandzel/dotfiles/tree/main/nvim/.config/nvim) ![nvim_setup_screenshot.png]                                                         |
| Polish Community        | People that speak Polish and are interested in Polish culture                                      | 8.5                                                                         | Trip to Poland ; Member of [Zagłoba Polish Club](https://www.instagram.com/zaglobapolishclub/) ; Performed at [Wigilia](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv3IAm9zr40) |
| Keyboards               | People that use or are interested in ergonomic keyboards, mechanical keyboard, split keyboard      | 8                                                                           | [Corne](www.github.com/MattHandzel/Corne)                                                                                                                            |
| Line Dancing            | People that enjoy line dancing and want to learn more about it                                     | 5                                                                           | Favorite Songs: American Kids, Creepin, Levels ; I went to Red Rock Saloon every Tuesday from June-July at Madison Wisconsin                                         |
| Running                 | People that run                                                                                    | 3.5                                                                         | Ran in the Christie Clinic Race Weekend Marathon on April 24th 2025                                                                                                  |
| Quantified Self         | People that record information about themselves so they can improve it                             | 6                                                                           | my [website](matthandzel.com), [text-mining on Obsidian Vault](https://x.com/handzelmatt/status/1975176252840624156)...                                              |
| Lifelogging             | People that record everything about themselves                                                     | 5                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Rationalism             | People that are interested in rationality and improving their thinking                             | 4                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| AI Safety               | People that are interested in AI safety and ensuring AI is safe for humanity                       | 4                                                                           | Frequent Robert Miles content consumer ; visited FAR Labs in Berkeley ; I have a few friends who are into AI safety                                                  |
| Founders                | People that start companies and have interests in entrepreneurship                                 | 3.5                                                                         |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Longevity               | People that are interested in living a long life and improving their health                        | 9                                                                           | (Longevity Biotech Fellowship 7), (TransVision Madrid 2025)                                                                                                          |
| Readers                 | People that read books and want to discuss them                                                    | 10                                                                          |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Second Brain            | People that are interested in building a second brain and using tools like Obsidian                | 9                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| The Residency           | People that want to build impressive and cool things without being limited by the public           | 3                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Writers                 | People that write online and publish online                                                        | 4                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Neuroscience            | People that are interested in neuroscience and how the brain works                                 | 3                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Longtermism             | People that are interested in longtermism and ensuring the future is good for humanity             | 5                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Y Combinator            | People that are interested in Y Combinator and the startup world                                   | 3                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Philosophy              | People that are interested in philosophy and discussing philosophical ideas                        | 4                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Bio Technology          | People that are interested in biotechnology and how it can be used to improve health and longevity | 3                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| UIUC Alumni             | People that went to UIUC and want to connect with other alumni                                     | 7                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Skydivers               | People that skydive and want to connect with other skydivers                                       | 3                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Atheists                | People that don't believe in a religion                                                            | 8                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Linux/GNU               | People that use Linux and GNU operating systems and want to connect with other users               | 6                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| NixOS                   | People that use NixOS                                                                              | 5                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Effective Altruism      | People that want to do the most good with their life and resources                                 | 5                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| French-speaking         | People that speak French or are learning French                                                    |                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Traveling               | People that enjoy traveling and exploring new places                                               |                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Severance-watcher       | People that watch and discuss the show _Severance_                                                 |                                                                             | I watched seasons 1 and 2 as soon as they came out. Half way through season 2 I became extremely confused. I hate the ending.                                        |
| Biking                  | People that enjoy biking for commuting, exercise, or leisure                                       |                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Dancers                 | People that enjoy dancing in general                                                               |                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Ball-room dancers       | People that are interested in ballroom dancing                                                     |                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Mark Manson             | People that read or follow Mark Manson’s work on self-development                                  |                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Cayden Pierce           | People that follow Cayden Pierce and his ideas/projects                                            |                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Optimizing productivity | People that enjoy optimizing their productivity                                                    | 2                                                                           |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Voidstar Labs           | People that are part of or interested in Voidstar Labs projects                                    |                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Neurotech               |                                                                                                    | People that are interested in neurotechnology and brain-computer interfaces | 5                                                                                                                                                                    | Part of [Neurotech](https://uiucneurotech.web.illinois.edu/team/) August 2023 - May 2025 |

Communities I Am A Part Of

# Date Me

This is a document about dating me. WIP.

## Bio/Info

Age: 20

Height: legally 6'0" (actually 5'11.5")

Languages: English (native), Polish (conversational), French (conversational)

Religious views: Atheist[^2]

Drinking/Smoking: No[^3]

### Dating Philosophy

To me, the purpose of dating is to identify what [qualities of a relationship](https://shadowland.online/images/uploads/5b9d0052-cc8f-4fa0-969a-489fbde50ac7/rasmorgasbord_v6.pdf) we want and to spend quality time together.





We should both not take anything personal if we identify there is no union between us. During dating, we might find out that when we originally thought the other person would be a good romantic partner, we would prefer as a friend, that is not a bad thing! I also believe that the relationship we can have can change through time, so even if we are not compatible now, we might be in the future (or vice versa).

### Dating Goals

Right now, I'm only open to short-term relationships[^1] as I want to get more [experience](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimal_stopping), and have fun.

### Date Ideas

For first dates I prefer to do things that are active and allow us to talk. Here are some ideas:

- Gym
- Run
- Acro Yoga
- I can teach you dance!!!
- Line dance
- Dance class
- Walk in the park
- Rock climb
- Ice/roller skate
- Kareoke

Bonus points if it is something novel and not on this list!!!

BONUS POINTS if it is something on my [bucket list](https://matthandzel.com/bucket-list)

If you would like to go on a date, please schedule yourself on my [calendar](https://app.reclaim.ai/m/matthandzel/quick-meeting)[^4]





[^1]: Situationship, friends with benefits, casual dating, friendships. My end goal with dating is to find a life partner to share my life with; however, that is not my current goal. If you are only looking for a serious, long-term relationship and believe we could be a compatible match, submit [this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe1FHn2ulL6aPp2zfZeCbQ0bxYmdWivTIIMrWel0V6G99QMlw/viewform) and I will reach out to you when I am ready to "get serious".

[^2]: I was raised Catholic. Although it is impossible to be 100% certain, I am "as certain as reasonable" that a personal God (Christian God, Jewish God, Muslim God, Hindu Gods, etc.) does not exist. I am open to the idea of some thing having created the Universe/keeps the Universe running (such as what is underpinning physics), but believe it is unlikely the entity behind the Universe cares what we do.

[^3]: I do not drink or smoke because of the negative health effects and addiction potential. I am theoretically open to other drugs (such as psychedelics) in the right context, but I have no experience with them.

[^4]: This is a joke

Date Me

# Friends

Here are links to my friends:

The purpose of this page is:

- For you to see what my friends are doing
- For you to make friends with them
- I must believe their website/content is cool
- in order of when i met them

Structure:

- Name
- Link
- Quote
- What they're working on

People to add:

- Malte
- Sebastian
- Dan Duma
- Hallie - https://substack.com/@hallielomax/posts
- Jeremy
- Sanzhar
- Siri
- Andy https://yeedrag.github.io/now/
- Ben Lukas?

- Pablo Villalobos ; https://epistemicrevolution.com/
- https://yixiong.dev/

Use relationship CRM for this?

## Friends

Here are links to my friends!

---

name: [Jeremy Kintana](https://jeremykintana.com/)
free-text: ""
links: []

---

name: [Pablo Villalobos](https://pablovs.xyz/)
free-text: ""
links: []

Friends

Line Dances I Know

# Standards

This is a document where I have put all of my standards for different areas of my life. These are the minimum acceptable levels of performance or behavior that I expect from myself. By adhering to these standards, I aim to improve my overall quality of life and achieve my goals.

## Minimum Standards

### Health

- I never eat junk food (muffins, cakes, chips, candy, soda, etc)
- I do 16:8 intermittent fasting
- I do not eat food 2 hours before bed, even if I am hungry. Hunger will pass.
- I do strength training 2x per week and running 1x per week
- When eating alone, I end my meals within 45 minutes of starting them.

### Work

- I identify my most important task the night before
- I work on my most important task for the first 30 minutes of my workday. [[essentialism]]
- I get out of bed within 10 minutes of waking up
- I say no to meetings without an agenda or decision owner.

### Digital Hygiene

- Algorithmic feeds are blocked by default on all my devices
- No phone in bedroom 1 hour before going to bed.
- No music, podcasts, or videos when working. Only ambient noise or silence.
- No more than 30 minutes of recreational screen time per day.

### Relationships

- I respond within 2 weeks to every message sent
- I always wish people a happy birthday on their birthdays
- I default to voice/video for conflict; no arguing over text.
- I never gossip; I address issues directly with the person first.
- I leave events early if I am not enjoying myself.

### Misc

- I do a systems iteration session once a week.











Standards

I use this as motivation to improve

January 2026: Did not get into South Park Commons
Winter 2026: I asked a girl on a date but I sent her my calendly and she called it off.
Fall 2025: I did not ask girl for contact information that was definitely into me because I was shy and I will never see her again.
Fall 2024: Not getting into the silicon valley trip
Fall 2024: Not being admitted into Stanford TreeHacks
Fall 2023: Not getting into AI@UIUC

Failure Jar

# 2026 Goals

My goals by the end of 2026 are:

- Identify and fully commit to a [long term career path](https://80000hours.org/career-planning/career-plan-template/)
- Create a system for self-improvement that allows me to [double](https://aidanjs.com/blog/doubling) every 6 months.

About This Site

What You Can Find Here

Why Am I Doing This?

How It Works

Website Activity