A Mid-Year Reflection on the Year 2023

At the beginning of 2023, I wrote a New Year Planning: 2023 | Data Driven Everything (data-driven-everything.com). With a quarter already behind us, it’s time to reflect on my progress. I aspire to become a person with the following traits:

• High moral standards, righteousness, and trustworthiness
• Humility
• Usefulness to the world
• Healthiness
• A drive to understand the world
• Long-term thinking and being a friend of time
• Focus

I believe most of my friends would agree that I am trustworthy, as I’ve received numerous comments to that effect. Although those who think I’m untrustworthy may not say it directly to me, I feel I have done my best to uphold this principle. In fact, I consider it one of my greatest assets, and I have no intention of jeopardizing it. When I was younger, I occasionally thought it was foolish to be trustworthy, especially when my honesty and trust were betrayed. However, I now realize that trustworthiness is the right approach because life is long, and no one wants to do serious business with a cheater.

There’s room for improvement when it comes to humility. When you deliver strong performance, it’s not easy to remain humble. I sometimes become less vigilant about things I find easy and feel confident about. This can be dangerous because the quality of work may decline. Additionally, I may tend to underestimate others because it seems like I know more for now. But this can also be hazardous, as I may stop improving. Balancing a sense of achievement and humility is a constant struggle. I must remind myself that hard work got me here, and once I stop making an effort or feel like I’ve learned enough, I’ll only sabotage myself.

I’ve done quite well in maintaining my health. I’ve developed the habit of running every week and even prepared for a half marathon a month ago. Unfortunately, I didn’t participate in the race due to the flu. However, I should incorporate more weight training to build strength. In the second half of the year, I will make it a priority.

So far this year, I’ve been focused on specific tasks I planned ahead with minimal deviations. Occasionally, I become interested in random topics, like the history of Southeast Asia, Survival Analysis, Markov Decision Process, Generative AI, Green Finance, etc. While I still allow myself to indulge in these curiosities, I strive to keep it brief. Overall, I’m staying focused on what I mapped out.

As part of my commitment to understanding the world, I’m currently learning more about math and reading a book called Calculus by Michael Spivak. One of the major obstacles in reading scientific papers is understanding the math involved, as math is the language of science. I’m glad I took the step to learn more rigorous math. I hope that by the end of this year, the knowledge I’ve gained will open many new doors for me.

Another notable “achievement” is that I haven’t bought any expensive electronics this year so far. I intend to maintain this restraint throughout the year.

Going forward to Q2, and the second half of this year, I would say just keep it up.