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.
- Atlanta in January to see Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. Chai Pani and Ponce City Market punctuated the time. Snuck in a breakfast with thecolork.
- Nashville in January for a work retreat. Dinner under the gaze of Athena in the Parthenon was neat. We tacked on a family getaway to the Gaylord Opryland water park which was way better than my expectations.
- Red River Gorge for a dudes only getaway with the boy in February. Great hangs inside the cabin and out in nature.
- A resort in Bonita Springs, Florida for spring break and Easter. We knocked two more national parks (Everglades and Biscayne Bay) off the list while we were at it.
- Monroe, Ohio for the solar eclipse and a visit with family. We watched Wrestlemania, which was rad. And we grabbed a Reds game on the drive home.
- San Diego in May for work. Emily joined mid-week to tack on a visit with Huntington Beach friends and a trip to Disneyland. I Acquired the elusive Pizza Planet popcorn bucket.
- Asheville for a multi-family cabin getaway at the beginning of summer break. We actually stayed in Black Mountain which had a cute little downtown. Another visit to Chai Pani. We took the long way home through the winding roads of the blue ridge parkway and Great Smoky Mountains national park.
- Back to San Diego for another work trip in July. We traveled on the day of the big Crowdstrike outage which was eventful. All said and done we were only 6 hours late. Relaxing in the Omni resort was worth the hassle.
- New York City for a conference in September. We stayed near Times Square, which is not my first choice. The subway and long walks got us to some cooler spots. Milk Bar was out of milk.
- Banff for our anniversary. This was my first international travel in almost a decade. Both the location and the company were absolutely gorgeous.
- October required more trip to San Diego for work. I made a point to get to the ocean multiple evenings to take in the sunset.
- Red River Gorge in November for an adults only getaway with some friends. Karaoke, PowerPoint, and shared meals were all enjoyable.
- Athens, GA to visit with friends in December. Deviled eggs and BBQ abounded as the next generation bonded over their Nintendo Switches and iPads.
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:
- Window Poems
- And Yet
- Gathering the Tribes
- You’re Paid What You’re Worth
- Company of One
- An Elegant Puzzle
- A World Without Email
- Say Yes
- The Courage to be Disliked
- How to do the Work
- Promises of Gold
- Slow Productivity
- These Trees, Those Leaves, This Flower, That Fruit
- Death of a Naturalist
- in the absence of the sun
- Fading into Bolivia
- Try Softer
- Scaling People
- A Taste of the Knife (PDF)
- Same as Ever
- Outlive
- Made of Rivers
- Helium
- Writing Tools
- The Comfort Crisis
- The Antidote
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.
- Argylle
- Eighth grade
- American Animals
- Mighty Ducks
- Man of the House
- How to Train Your Dragon trilogy
- Zone of Interest
- Oppenheimer
- Dune
- Dune 2
- Wonka
- Zone of Interest
- Eras tour
- Every single Pixar movie with the kids
- Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
- Hunger Games Trilogy
- Weird: the Al Yankovic story
- American Fiction
- Horizon
- Dream Scenario
- The Birdcage
- Moana 2
- The Glitch in the Matrix
- Mufasa
- Shōgun
- Only Murders in the Building (all seasons)
- Shrinking
- The Office Superfan Episodes (all seasons)
- Home Alone
- Home Alone 2
- Home Sweet Home Alone (this is surprisingly good)
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.