~/diary/2021: The Plan
Updated Feb 26, 2021

🖊 2021: The Plan Friday, Jan 1, 2021

Forget About Money

There’s no need to try to monetize your time or your projects.

Worrying about money will only distract you and interfere with decision making.

You are fully funded for the year. And you can find a job in 5 minutes. Don’t worry about money until 2022.

Be Of Service

Seek opportunities for activities and projects that directly impact other people’s lives.

Working on a project/startup that build tools or platforms to do future good does not count.

As noble as it may sound, this does not directly affect people’s lives. That platform or tool may fail before it’s ever finished, or may never be adopted, or may end up doing more harm than good to society.

Local Over Global

It’s easier to directly affect other people if you know them personally, or if at least you have a good understanding of their world.

So start there.

As much as I would like to help people in war-zone, or forests destroyed, or animal species going extinct… I don’t have a clue how to do it.

So start with helping people around you. Then take what you learn and broaden your scope (next year).

Acting local will also have ripple effect that are hard for me to comprehend. Teaching a man to fish here today, may result in that man teaching other 100 tomorrow somewhere else.

Don’t Fight Uphill

You may see a problem and know you have the answer.

And yet the people involved may reject your help or your solution.

Don’t get stuck. If the terrain is not fertile, move on and find fertile ground!

Always Be Learning

No project is pointless and unsuccessful if you learned something.

And learning something new should be sufficient reason to jump into a project.

Stand Still, Sometimes

With the start of the year, I decided to leave behind a big chunk of my identity (i.e., my successful corporate tech career).

Before a new story begins, there will be a period of emptiness. This is sometimes referred to as winter or death, depending on context.

This period will feel uncomfortable. I will feel empty and worthless. It’s a natural reaction to flail, run around, try everything to get out of this situation.

But running around may in fact dig me in even deeper.

I need to embrace the discomfort. Only when I stop fighting it will be able to see a way out.

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N.B this post is backdated. While these thoughts were pretty clear to me by the end of 2020, I didn’t have the clarity to write them down until February 2021.