2024, Reviewed

Reflecting on the year that has passed is so hot right now.

Travel

I use the dumbest system for tracking my travel. If I’m staying long enough in a locale I’ll add the location in the default iOS weather app. Here are the places that appeared in my list as I reviewed it and reset it for the new year.

Career

This year was challenging. It was my third year of slowly evolving management roles in a department that had zero engineering managers when I began building in 2021.

My reporting load of direct and indirect reports quadrupled between January and July. I was responsible for 8 managers and 60+ individuals—over a third of the company—at the midpoint of the year. The reporting load and management needs were too much at all tiers, and ideas to redistribute the load didn’t gain much traction.

Ultimately, the CEO of our company took notice and made rapid, radical changes. The changes were congruent with where I wanted to go. In the best characterization of the transition—we got to where I wanted to take us over the next three years in a matter of three weeks. We now have four senior engineering managers, supporting 14 engineering managers, supporting a growing team of individuals. The loads are becoming more balanced, and I’m proud of the department we’re building.

The challenge in all of this is ego. I transitioned from “director” to “senior manager” (a “smaller” job title) to foster this transition, and there are no directors in any more. I don’t really care about titles beyond the hypothetical need to tersely market my engineering leadership experience in an uncertain future. Ultimately there was an acceptance that the responsibilities I carried required three peers to provide sufficient service. Call it lizard brain or lobster spine—ego constantly creeps in to magnify any sense of lost social status, even when that status is intellectually rejected.

Health

My running habits of 2023 continued into 2024. I had some stops and starts along the way, but on the whole this was a consitent healthy habit. I ran a handful of races for fun, including a half-marathon. My favorite run of the year was in New York City. Becoming a person who packs running shoes makes me an athlete, I’m pretty sure. I think I’ll continue into 2025.

Abstaining from alcohol was a healthy habit that persisted 11 of the 12 months. This choice didn’t solve all my problems. But it also didn’t introduce any new ones. I think about foregoing to minimize decision fatigue often.

I lifted weights in the beginning part of the year, but that fell off at some point. The limited time was focused on the aerobic benefits of running. Adding some core strength work would be beneficial in the new year.

I returned to climbing a bit towards the end of the year. My daughter joined the climbing team, which has me at the gym with her once a week, so I might as well get back on the wall. I find that I don’t enjoy it as much as I did when it was fresh in 2022–2023. It is fun to flash routes that would have taken a few sessions back then.

The biggest new habit is sauna’ing. I go to the sauna multiple times a week for a 20+ minute session. Lately I’ve been pre-gaming the hot sauna with a cold shower. It’s unneccessary and hard, and a good reminder that I can choose to do hard things. Getting comfortable being uncomfortable and all that.

Hobbies

Running was the key hobby this year. It got put on the calendar, and done.

I found myself writing poetry in many idle moments. When I take the time to go back and organize it, I feel like there is a substantial body of work forming.

Videogames are a waxing and waning hobby. Fortnite is getting some reps as I play with my son. I checked out Hades after years of hearing good things. Echoes of Wisdom was an absolute gem to play with the kids kibitzing. I like videogames, but it’s rarely the first thing I reach for.

Collecting bandanas is a hobby, I guess. Though it doesn’t get much time. It’s mostly when I notice a cool bandana, I purchase it. I want to share them somewhere.

Reading

Reading took a back seat this year. I read a lot of small poetry books, and few longer books. The things I do recall reading, in no particular order, with links:

Media

I tried to keep a note of the movies and episodic content I watched this year. It is absolutely not robust, but I’m starting somewhere.

Spiritual stuff

We’ve been participating in an Anglican church. It’s routine, and uneventful, and that’s the calming presence of spirituality that feels right, right now.

I’ve got some private things I’m praying into, and I feel a growing sense of trust and dependence in a healthy, helpful way.

Hope’s not dead.

What’s Next?

This is fun. I want to write more weeknotes that capture these things so it’s easier to reflect at the end of 2025.