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2020 in review

2021 January

Reading

My only goal for 2020 was to read 52 books for the year. This was my second year chasing after this milestone – and I’m proud to say that I read 53 books in 2020!

I originally set this as my goal for 2019, when I realized I had an ever-increasing list of books I wanted to read, while reading less books each year than ever before. I set the audacious goal of reading 52 books in 2019 (not even reaching 40), but I think the habits I created were instrumental to creating a rhythm in 2020.

I’ve touched on some of my motivations for reading here, which largely haven’t changed. I still stand by the Kindle, and halfway through the year I started writing more extensive reviews on Goodreads.

I’d like to share some of my favorite reads of 2020 (in no particular order):

Life Updates

  • I graduated from Cornell University earlier this year, with both a M. Eng and B.S. in Computer Science in four years.

    I was able to do this through the Early M. Eng program, which allows students to start their M. Eng in the final semester of their Bachelor’s. I plan on writing about the pros/cons this year, but the TLDR is that it’s not worth it – and I certainly wouldn’t have done it if it meant staying another semester.

  • I started at Facebook on June 8th, joining the Resource Delivery team, which handles static resource delivery (HTML/CSS/JS) for clients on the web.

    I originally planned on traveling after the school year and starting at Facebook in August, but changed my start date in early March. Cornell had just declared classes would be remote for the remainder of the semester, and it was clear that there was no chance it would be safe to travel in June-August. Luckily, my timing worked out – a week later, recruiters froze start dates for any new hires.

    I’d like to write about both my internship experience + my recruiting experience, so when I get to that I’ll link to them here.

Minor Life Updates

  • Worked on Hub with the incredible team of TK, Kevin, and Omar for a CalHacks hackathon, winning prizes from Unusual Ventures and Village Global. Check out TK’s fantastic write-up on this.
  • Made some everyday-usage upgrades:
    • Dell 4K Monitor. I went with the one suggested by Wirecutter (Dell Ultrasharp) and I’ve loved it since.
    • Herman Miller Aeron. Is it worth the price? The cliche advice is to invest the most in what you use everyday. All I know is that my back used to hurt sometimes after sitting the whole day, and now it doesn’t.
    • Autonomous Desk. I left this in my cart for a day, and they sent me a discount code. I hardly ever use the “standing” feature, but assembly was straightforward and the desk room is great.
    • Converted this website to a dark color scheme. I’ve felt my eyes straining more and more as the year has progressed, and getting DarkReader and investing in simple solutions like lowering monitor brightness have paid dividends.

2021 Goals

  1. Find clarity on what I want to work on in 2022. I know this is vague, but I want to take the time to find conviction in where my career is heading.
  2. Read 52 books this year.
  3. Write + publish at least once a month.

    This is something I’ve wanted to do since I started this website, and reading so much has made me appreciate good writing even more. Like my ever-increasing list of books I wanted to read in 2021, I’ve accumulated an endless list of subjects I want to touch on.

    There’s plenty of articles on Hacker News about why writing is so important (check out this or that from Paul Graham), and improving as a writer & taking the time to formulate thoughts into writing are areas I want to improve on.

    I don’t think sharing writing is as crucial as simply writing more, and I’ve always felt that I’ve written for myself.