What an exciting year 2022 has been! I’m a chimera of math and language, so I’ve come up with two frameworks to reflect:

  1. Reflection is computing gradients for gradient descent. Actually, I liken year-end reflection to computing a Hessian matrix. While the decisions I make during the year are Jacobians, this is an opportunity to look at the bigger picture and spend more time to compute an 2nd-order update.
  2. Reflection from the perspective of “Postmortem & Postvitam”. Yes, very Latin inspired :) A postmortem (literally, after death) is a common product development tool to diagnose what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again. A postvitam (literally, after life) is my corollary for reflecting on the things that were most alive and how to keep them burning.

Variables in the Function of Life

Dimensions that I want to take the derivative with respective to the function of my life are: a = personal growth b = career c = health d = family e = friends & community f = finances

Identifying Moments for Mortes and Vitas

Ask myself:

  • What were the most 10 most memorable moments this year?
  • What were the best decisions you made this year? Worst decisions?
  • What have you been indecisive about?
  • What are you grateful for? Who are you grateful for?