Personal Constitution: 2025 Year-In-Review

Introduction

This document began with two simple goals in mind: to overview my past year of life and to plan out the next one. But immediately, it became clear that in order to answer the question “What did we do well this year?”, it helps to have a clear personal constitution–a set of guidelines, even imperfect ones, by which to score one’s actions and progress. And so, what was initially intended to be a straightforward exercise in planning evolved into something more existential. Below is my best attempt at present to characterize precisely what I believe and the tools that I use to abide by those beliefs. Broadly, this text moves from abstract views toward concrete behavioral systems.

There are a few best-practice guidelines we attempt to adhere to when writing or amending this document. To the best of our ability, all statements and conclusions are intended to be rational. Meaning, that once we define some necessary, irrational assumptions, conclusions drawn from there on out should be self-consistent. When defining behavioral protocols, we will default to evidence-based strategies–always favoring practices that are rooted in data rather than in intuition or gut feeling. Consistent with the broader goals of improving our quality of life and character, we will attempt to take a balanced, unbiased point-of-view by assigning roughly equal importance-weighting to different domains of life. As a concrete example, it may be my natural instinct to go absolutely ham and prioritize research above everything else in 2026. But this decision would be the result of strong personal bias, and therefore might have unintended consequences.

Finally, all goals and recommendations should be tractable given our current means, skills, and experiences.

Aside: the idea of creating a “personal constitution” was heavily inspired by entrepreneur Brian Johnson’s “Blueprint” project. His basic idea is that by creating a sort of “behavioral algorithm” designed to optimize your health, one can achieve far better results than if they relied on willpower and intuition alone. One day, it may be possible to extend this framework to social, intellectual, and other domains of life as well.

Core Beliefs

To build up a sturdy system (a proof, a bridge, a philosophy, etc), we have to start somewhere. Before we can draw conclusions, some assumptions, axioms, whathaveyou, are required. These are some of mine.

(1) People are uniquely capable and deserve to thrive. To my knowledge this is the “humanist” perspective that has been so influential in the western world over the past few hundred years. The basic idea is that everyone deserves to have the very best life possible, even if individual lives look very different from one another. Say for example you are a data fencer, working for some bland corporate megacompany. Your life is generally okay. You get paid on time, you are physically healthy, etc. The humanistic perspective posits that if your life could be better, that within reason, it should be better. One’s life should be rewarding, engaging, and enjoyable.

(2) Able individuals should strive toward organized effort. A completely disordered life is one where, by definition, all actions a person takes are completely random. This is not ideal. Nor is the perfectly orderly life appealing–in which all decisions are pre-conceived and stifled by rigid structure. But we will instead say that organization, the property of an individual, collective, or entity to behave intelligently and purposefully, is generally a good thing. The capacity of humans to create order in a chaotic world enables our progress as a species.

(3) Learning is a good use of time. A central theme emanating from the enlightenment period is that “knowing is good and ignorance is bad”. By learning new things, humanity has been able to solve all sorts of problems: agriculture, transportation, etc. By contrast, ignorance (or denied access to education) can have nasty consequences for individuals and societies. Therefore, people should teach themselves and others true things: useful and reproducible knowledge supported by a base of evidence.

(4) Science can be a good use of time. Science is concerned with the contribution of new human knowledge. This knowledge can be developed into applications that sometimes harm, sometimes benefit our species. I’ll argue from the broadest possible perspective that scientific pursuits have constituted a net good for humanity. Some may not share this view, and they are certainly entitled to their own opinions. Benefits aside, because structures of culture and authority ultimately decide what we do with what we know, a responsible scientist must also place their work in this context.

Core Aims

With a foundation of arbitrary beliefs fixed in place, we can start to carve out a few aims. These are high-level, life goals and are intended to be quite general.

(1) Do no harm; do some good. This line is adopted from Google’s original motto: “Don’t be evil” [1]. What is harm? Based on previous assumptions, it is any action or inaction that impedes human thriving, tends toward disorder, or exacerbates ignorance (by distorting, refusing, or destroying knowledge). Moreover, here, complete passivity is immoral; acts of anarchy are immoral; the willing refusal to learn is immoral. *What is good? Actions that support the proliferation of our species, that improve its organization, or increase the knowledge of humanity. Again, we are compelled to incorporate a humanist perspective; killing to improve organization or glean new knowledge is immoral.

*Throughout history, oppressive systems arose that could only be dislodged via chaotic action (e.g., Haitian revolution). Organization is not strictly good; it is generally preferable to complete randomness. Well-timed acts of entropy are a natural part of the creation and renewal of human structures.

(2) Learn and share new knowledge. Through the process of research we aim to discover new ideas and applications that improve lives. However, an often overlooked component of being a scientist is teaching, which can sometimes feel tangential to one’s daily work. It is important that people from different backgrounds and education levels are able to understand your work. Acting as an educator in this regard not only maximizes the impact of your research, it also empowers others to go off and make discoveries of their own.

(3) Be an enthusiastic cultural participant. When the basic needs of a civilization are met, free peoples begin to flourish, that is, to develop the new, frivolous, intricate, and ephemeral social constructions that comprise a culture. Individuals are compelled to make organized contributions to this collective effort through positive acts of social participation. We can say that what constitutes a positive act in this case are the properties of beneficence and organization. As previously mentioned, there are times in history when harmful, organized actions, or even harmful, disorganized actions are justified. These events, however, are exceptional, and may be categorized as participation in a “counter-culture”.

(4) Improve and thrive. In my mind, “improvement” and “thriving” are closely linked, if not dependent concepts. Indeed, there is almost no better feeling than that of personal growth: learning a new language, lifting a heavier weight–moving forward in life. For me, self-improvement is really a means of achieving better alignment to my core values. By getting better at doing science, for example, one can share greater amounts of new knowledge and become a more effective teacher.

Goals

We’ve structured domains of life into three categories: (1) intra-personal; relating to ourselves; (2) inter-personal; relating directly to others; and (3) extra-personal; broadly relating our roles in society. Within each category, where applicable, we progress from basic needs toward higher-level, “felt-needs”**. Tables below are organized using the “S.M.A.R.T.” goal system: “Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Time-Bound”.

**The German word “Bedürfnis” may better capture this concept of a higher-level need, for example, the “need to read”. (I don’t speak a lick of German BTW). I particularly like that in German the distinction between basic and high-level needs is more subtle than simply “needs” versus “wants”. It would be cruel to deprive a child of their access to education, for example. Among other things, satisfaction of our “want-needs” enables richer human lives.

Intra-Personal

Health

Physical health can be measured (see Braintree-Venmo founder). Mental health can be measured, both from a neurological and psychological perspective. It would be very Silicon Valley of me to report here a detailed set of biomarkers and insights regarding my sleep habits, the varying effects of different mushroom supplements, concentrations of microplastics in my blood, etc. But instead of becoming another quantifiably inane aristocrat, let’s stick to broad strokes.

For now, we’re keeping the details of my physical and mental health mostly private$^$$. The reasons for this decision are two-fold, first, it’s noneya 🙂, and second, I am definitely, definitely not qualified to be giving anyone medical advice. Sharing medical data (even one’s own) and health-related advice, even implicitly, constitutes a complex ethical issue that I’m yet to think through seriously. For now, we’ll set a few obfuscated goals generally related to keeping me alive, happy, and connected to medical professionals.

S	M	A	R	T
██████████████████████	███████	██	██	███
██████████████████████	███████	██	██	█████
██████████████████████	████████	██	██	██
██████████████████████	████████	██	██	██
██████████████████████	███████	██	██	███
██████████████████████	████████	██	██	███
Exercise 30+ minutes.	x3/week	✅	✅	—
Wake before 08:00.	x7/week	✅	✅	—
Meditate 3+ minutes.	x3/week.	✅	✅	—
~~Buy an electric toothbrush.~~	~~x1/year~~	✅	✅	~~Feb 1~~

$^$$Errata: un-redacted some goals 🫢

Money

Financial stability is a basic need in the United States. Luckily, my current job provides a salary and benefits, allowing me to live in relative comfort and stability for the time-being. But at this early stage in life, it is vital that one develop excellent financial literacy and habits. Some relevant but uncomfortable questions related to this point might be: “At this pace, when will I be able to retire?”, or “Is my current financial situation stable enough to support an emergency?” We might also consider, at some point in the future, disclosing some non-compromising details (e.g., budget allocation, saving goals) as a means of accountability.

S	M	A	R	T
Read a great, detailed book on personal finance.	x1/year	Write a report and submit to the blog.	✅	EOY.
~~Provide a detailed, personal budget analysis.~~	~~x1/year~~	~~Write a report and submit to the blog.~~	✅	~~June 1.~~

Brain 🧠

Today, lots of people go to the gym to get stronger, look better, etc. Ordinary folks follow complex exercise and dietary protocols to improve their physique and athleticism outside the context of their jobs. People like Andrej Karpathy have conjectured that in the future these same individuals might hit a “brain gym” and learn for fun in their free time. I, of course, would love a brain glow up now! But objectively measuring the volume of smart juice in a person remains an open problem. Below, I’ve given my best crack at defining intelligence by-example, which may include the abilities to:

1) Accumulate and retrieve information (inc. in the short-term and long-term)
2) Recognize a thing as belonging to an established grouping of things.
3) Draw logical conclusions from facts.
4) Identify connections between distant concepts.
5) Manipulate data and objects to achieve desired outcomes.
6) Develop abstractions that explain and predict phenomena.
7) Propose new, interesting lines of inquiry.
8) Perform (1-7) more quickly or in greater quantity.

Note that intelligence is still distinct from other desirable traits like courage, selflessness, loyalty, kindness, heck even utility. A person who only has a big juicy brain, and nothing else to offer the world, will likely have a hard time functioning in society.

S	M	A	R	T
~~Create a Goodreads account.~~	~~Add 10+ books; 20+ books EOY~~	~~Add Goodreads account link to personal website.~~	✅	~~Feb 1; EOY.~~
Maintain the week-in-review.	x1/week	Add blog posts to personal website.	✅	End of each week; EOY.
Improve Spanish.	Read 1+ books in Spanish.	Post a report (in Spanish) to the blog.	🤔	EOY.

Inter-Personal

Relationships

Humans are a social species. Our lives form a web of connections: friendly, family, local, national, and global. While some life-objectives are easy to benchmark (e.g., savings goals), trying to “optimize” a social life can get tricky. Let’s consider a few quantifiable proxies for the strength of a social life:

1) Quantity, diversity, and quality of connections.
2) Correlation of connections to desirable outcomes.

In essence, we will adopt the perspective of a social media platform with a few key exceptions. First, we are interested in the relative quality of a social connection, for example, as measured by the average perceived value of a relationship. Second, we define “desirable outcomes” in accordance with the principles and goals of individuals comprising a relationship–not those of an ancillary party.

S	M	A	R	T
Support friendly relationships.	Contact 2+ friends/day; plan 1+ excursion/month.	Post success/failure to blog.	✅	–
Support family relationships.	Contact 2+ family members/day.	Post success/failure to blog.	✅	–
Support local relationships.	Visit 1+ new place in town/week.	Post success/failure to blog.	✅	–
Support global relationships.	Meet 3+ strangers/month.	Post success/failure to blog.	✅	–

Extra-Personal

Cultural Participation

Thriving societies tend to develop collaborative and evermore complex social constructions. We might broadly call these things “culture”, and they can take the form of language, dress, dance, and other modes of human expression. It is important that [those] who are able make some organized contribution to culture. What is unacceptable: willing abstinence, or worse still, deliberate disorganization–undermines the cultural efforts of others. While people should feel free to buck trends, they should do so in a thoughtful way. Consider a peaceful biker gang, which through its carefully cultivated manners, leather jackets, and late-night rides offers meaningful alternative to the status quo. In this case, “counter-culture” is aptly named–it is rich culture unto itself.

S	M	A	R	T
Deschlubify.	1+ week’s worth of clothes; semi-formal and casual apparel.	Pick out a practical, modern wardrobe. Post items, cost, rationales to blog.	✅	April 1.
Engage with the ATX culture.	Visit 2+ sites (e.g., museums, festivals)	Write a brief review; post to blog.	✅	EOY

Research

At this stage of life, I’m aspiring to become the best (computer vision + meteorology-related) scientist I can be! As a researcher, there are a number of ways to have a positive impact, including:

1) Identifying meaningful, open problems.
2) Facilitating collaborations.
3) Synthesizing/clarifying knowledge.
4) Improving existing methods.
5) Introducing novel and useful datasets.
6) Introducing novel and useful applications.
7) Proposing new methods.

The past 15 years of AI science, for example, has seen individuals and groups do high-impact work in all of these categories. This fact is an invitation for young scientists to focus instead on what they do best, as this is a likely path to quality contributions.

So to answer the question: How can I become a better researcher?, we need to take an individual perspective. With this in mind, I’ve tried to list my current strengths and weaknesses below. Our goal for the coming year is to accentuate our strong points and shore up shortcomings.

Strengths

1) Giving presentations
2) Reviewing literature
3) Writing/figure making esp.
4) Engineering/grinding out results

Weaknesses

1) Being a pro-active/super-social collaborator
2) Mathematical depth/rigor
3) Capacity for prolonged deep work
4) Confidence

S	M	A	R	T
Review a book on (science) communication.	x1/year	Write a brief summary/book review; post to blog.	✅	EOY.
Improve mathematical reasoning.	x0.5/week	Submit a short conceptual post to the website; cover a topic in math/AI.	✅	––
Get better at deep work.	x6/week	Begin each day with a deep work session (e.g., reasoning through problems, writing, learning something new); increase session duration throughout year.	✅	––

Religion

I was raised in a religion (just imagine your favorite one here 🙂). Beyond spiritual fulfillment, attending services offers a great way to rest, connect with community members, and participate in a rich historic tradition.

S	M	A	R	T
Attend services.	1x/month	Acknowledge goal adherence on blog.	✅	EOY

Service

This year we’re going to set a baby goal of devoting one day a month to community service. An organization that I particularly like is austinfree.net. This wonderful group provides classes and free resources to improve digital literacy in our community. We will provide regular updates regarding volunteer work to the week-in-review throughout 2026.

S	M	A	R	T
Volunteer.	1x/month.	Post hours/general description of responsibilities to blog.	✅	EOY

Conclusions

This is a living document (and I am a living person!) As a personal constitution, it will be amended as our principles and priorities inevitably evolve. This post should also offer retrospective insights, capturing what I was thinking and how I was progressing at this point in life. There are bound to be mistakes, oversights, and cringey inclusions that we will filter out slowly but surely. But I am a strong believer in climbing cringe mountain (that, in failing/improving in public).

References

[1] Basu, T. (2015, October 4). Google parent company Drops “don’t be evil” motto. Time. https://time.com/4060575/alphabet-google-dont-be-evil/

Amendments

[1] Major rewrites. Many sections were adjusted to read more… not snob-ally. Several section headers changed.