Better every year. That is my goal. I believe that through focused effort I can keep improving and ensure my best years are still in front of me. With that in mind, at the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. By being selective about where I direct my energy, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than if I split my attention. I detailed my 2022 focus here (read that first if you want more context) & did a quarter year update as well.. Here is how I’m progressing. 2022 Theme: Forecasting I’m 2.5 books into this theme and really enjoying it. I’ve found forecasting and optimal decision making are very closely intertwined topics and so I might have to take up the latter topic soon in order to keep reading any of these I can’t finish this year. “Superforecasting:
Tree types that are nice to have in a yard Giant killing and why I feel so connected to the character of David in that story Whether there are laws of physics that make it so enterprise software has to be horrible. Or, if it possible to make beautiful enterprise software and what that would require High performance cars Why there isn’t an EV minivan yet Risk Koi ponds What the chances are that I will be the CEO of Alphabet some day. What that would require of my and why I might or might not want to do it. How to prepare for it. Decentralized trust. What it is and how we would model it in a programmatically accessible way Walking across the state of Washington on the PCT The creation process behind the Ninja Turtles and why those characters were such a phenomenon How to structure decision making
Better every year. That is my goal. I believe that through focused effort I can keep improving and ensure my best years are still in front of me. With that in mind, at the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. By being selective about where I direct my energy, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than if I split my attention. I detailed my 2022 focus here (read that first if you want more context). Here is how I’m progressing. 2022 Theme: Forecasting I’ve gotten a good start to the year and have had a chance to make some solid progress here. I read Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction by Philip Tetlock and am now working on Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke. I’ve got a few more books lined up that were on my reading
This year my bucket list item is a repeat of last year’s item that I didn’t accomplish – running a 100 mile mountain trail race. Specifically, I want to finish the Cascade Crest 100. I would really love it if I could do so in under 24 hours, but I learned last year how hard that was and so I’m setting more moderate expectations (though, of course, I’ll try to overdeliver and get under 24 hours, because that is how I do things). Finishing the race at all is an accomplishment features over 20k ft of elevation gain (running up mountains), and is mostly on rocky, single-track trail. Last year I got COVID the week before the race and ended up dropping out after 35 miles, though later in the year I was able to run 100 miles in 24 hours on a flat course. Though I attribute most of
The goal of this blog post is to celebrate possessions I’ve had in my service for at least ten years. I believe that reflecting on these items will help me learn a few things about reducing waste, being efficient with my money and designing good products. These are all valuable to me, thus this blog post. For something to last ten years in my service in needs to have a few important attributes. It needs to: be useful or beautiful – otherwise I would have gotten to a point where I didn’t need it and donated, sold or tossed it be durable and/or repairable – otherwise it would likely be broken and discarded (unless I didn’t use it, in which case, see above) I must have not outgrown it – the item would likely be passed on if I changed my preferences, body size, skill level, or hobbies away from
Better every year. That is my goal. I believe that through focused effort I can keep improving and ensure my best years are still in front of me. With that in mind, at the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. By being selective about where I direct my energy, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than if I split my attention. More details about the process are in this blog post and you can review the results from past years (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021). 2022 Theme: Forecasting This is the fifth year of my current sabbath cycle, a six year period where I am focused on preparing for my calling. When I selected that as the overarching vision, one of the things I talked about is how I might invest in key skills that I could leverage later.
Better every year. That is my goal. I believe that through focused effort I can keep improving and ensure my best years are still in front of me. With that in mind, at the start of a new year, I take the time to set my focus for the coming year. By being selective about where I direct my energy, I can achieve results that are exponentially greater than if I split my attention. I detailed my 2021 focus here (read that first if you want more context). I’ve posted a few updates throughout the year (quarter year, half year update, and three quarter year update) and now is time for a final review. 2021 Theme: Together Self Grade: 5/10 At the beginning of 2021 I wrote “I want to think about what relationships are, what different types they can be and how I can nurture them. I want to think about
On December 28th and 29th, 2021 I competed in the Across the Years 24 Hour footrace. I completed 100.5 miles, putting me in the top 10% of finishers. Here is the race report. Goals Results New PR for 50 Miles – (Current PR = 11 hours 24 minutes) – ACCOMPLISHED (new PR 10 hours 29 minutes) New personal record for distance in 24 hours – (Current Record = 89 miles) – ACCOMPLISHED Complete >100 miles – ACCOMPLISHED Complete >120 miles – Failed Complete >200k (124.25 miles) – Failed Complete >130 miles – Failed Tactics Break race into three segments of 8 hours – ACCOMPLISHED First segment easy – kept <120 bpm – Partially Accomplished – Averaged 119 but had some spikes at 130 and 140 Second segment working – ~120 but can dig some – Failed only averaged 116 Final segment digging – whatever you can muster – ACCOMPLISHED 5 miles every
UPDATE: Ting recently sent me a coupon to share with my readers that will save you $25 off your first bill. If you’re interested in switching, here it is: http://www.gregkroleski.com/click/ting It is now 2022 – I first signed up for Ting in March 2014 – that means I’ve been a happy Ting customer for nine years now! 9 years! During that time we’ve used the iPhones from the 5 to 13 and a few Apple Watches. I thought I’d share a Ting review to shine more light on why I switched to them in the first place and why I’m still happy. I also have experience with Verizon, Sprint and Google Fi, which I can compare the service to. The Switch from Verizon I had long been a happy Verizon customer when in 2014 I opened a bill to find I owed over $200 for our three phones. That was above my
I recently finished my third year at Google and so I wanted to take a chance to reflect on what I’ve learned and see how I’m progressing along the goals I set for myself when I joined. You can see previous updates for my 2nd year, 1st year and upon deciding to join. Things I’ve Learned During Three Years at Google 1. Things can Change Very Quickly or Very Slowly My first two years at Google were pretty stable in terms of the team around me and our mission. Our team grew a lot, which meant new people were joining the team, but there was very little attrition, especially from my management chain. My third year was a completely different story. In a period of six months I experienced churn in my SVP, VP, Director, manager, ENG manager counterpart, ENG TL, and TPM counterpart. I would have a hard time