Essay - Published: 2023.10.06 | reflect | reflections |
DISCLOSURE: If you buy through affiliate links, I may earn a small commission. (disclosures)
In 2023.Q3 I got married, became a Technomancer, got a new job, and started morning workouts.
Select adventures:
In Q3 we really focused on enjoying the rest of summer in NY. We went exploring to different places as usual but put extra emphasis on enjoying the place we call home.
Personally I've felt a lot more excitment, joy, and energy in Adventures / Community since landing my new job and that's made each more enjoyable by a factor. I think a lot of this is from finding a better alignment / balance with my values, cycles, and time spent rather than the job part but worth calling out here.
The biggest update in Community is that I got married to my partner Megna! We've legally been married since March of this year when I quit my job and needed health insurance but we finally had our ceremony after many months, hours, and $$$.
Separately I've continued experimenting with what it means / takes to build and maintain relationships in a post-school, post-early-work life. While different and with less overall surface area of new potential connections, I've actually found the relationship building at this stage to be slower and deeper (which is my preferred mode of operation in most things - slow is smooth. smooth is fast.)
This quarter (and year in general) I'd say I've seen many of my friends less times individually. However, I've made it a point to try and make these instances more intentional and meaningful via focusing on supportive settings for conversation, blocked out time, and a non-drinking-focused activity or two.
Currently this feels like the way forward and something I'll continue experimenting with. As we get older, we'll naturally get busy and people will fall in / out of our regular cycles. Getting more out of less connecting instances seems like a way to sustainably manage this entropy, scalable across time - a Simple Scalable System (3S) one might say.
I've been gaming and reading books and doing lots of random research. I'll probably do a more detailed breakdown of this in my year-end reflection but top of mind:
Games:
Research - see HAMY LABS YT
Books
I got a job! Back in H1 I realized that full-time entrepreneurship wasn't for me so I started looking for a job and eventually landed one in August. I wanted to keep it under wraps for awhile in case I didn't like it and wanted to quit again. So far things are going pretty well and I'm enjoying myself so time to share.
I'm working at Rippling as a Senior Software Engineer building Risk tools / systems that combat fraud, overdue bills, etc.
I liked Rippling for a few reasons:
This journey has been long and winding - jumping from job to founder to job - but ultimately I'm pretty happy with where I landed and I think this comfort / alignment has had really positive effects throughout my Domains. For example, the stability and happiness with Business has made me feel less anxious about Tech and Shares becoming a big thing which gives me room to simply enjoy them.
I am now officially a Technomancer. It's like a necromancer but for tech.
I haven't built many projects in the past few months but I have done a lot of tinkering / experimenting. I think I'll get back to building larger projects soon (read: when I feel like it) but for now I'm having a good time just #doingwhatexcites
Similar to Tech, getting a job has allowed Shares to be less serious and more fun. I'm less focused on the impact of the share and more on what I'm interested in exploring.
Ultimately I think this will lead to less growth / chance this is able to support me but I kinda see it as a hobby - something I enjoy doing and am happy to pay to continue to do. Overall I think this change is a good thing and will lead to greater overall Happiness.
Expect: Less post quantity but perhaps on more fun topics (#fsharp)
So I started morning workouts and I'm loving it.
It's still early in my journey so we'll see if I stick with it long-term but it kinda feels like a superpower. I don't think I could've stuck with it a few years ago due to the regular late nights but now... now I might be a morning guy?
Lul. Calling bankruptcy on Finance this year. No job and big buys (like my wedding) likely makes this the worst fiscal year I've had in the last 5 years.
But I planned for this and am actually doing far better than I originally thought (esp now with a job with 3 months left in the year).
I'm feeling pretty happy. Happier than I think I've felt in the past two years.
If I had to guess, I think a lot of this is feeling a sense of direction - like I'm working towards something with purpose. I believe this a core need for my happiness and something I didn't have these past few years which led to a lot of my large experiments like quitting my job at Instagram, quitting my job again, trying entrepreneurship, and ultimately finding a new job.
Life is a bit of a roller coaster - with highs come lows and vice versa. This time in my life is certainly a high and I want to acknowledge that.
Some big things I'm looking forward to through the end of the year:
-HAMY.OUT
The best way to support my work is to like / comment / share for the algorithm and subscribe for future updates.