What I'm Doing Now

• Location: Austin, TX
• Reading: "Clapton" by Eric Clapton
  • Finished "Art Thief" by Michael Finkel - highly recommend, fascinating read
  • Finished "Co-Intelligence" by Ethan Mollick
• Training: I've reprioritized my free time this year and am building out a more sustainable training plan to accommodate my shifting priorities (reducing from ~10 hrs/week to ~5-6).
• Learning: In Wk 3 of Post Graduate Program in Generative AI for Business Applications at UT Austin. This has been a mentally stimulating course where I'm now starting to understand what's going on underneath the hood.
  • Built my first neural network in Python using TensorFlow and Keras to evaluate the MNIST dataset.
  • Currently reviewing the Transformer architecture and starting work on the first project - building a stock sentiment analysis model from scratch.
• Guitar: Learned some great songs over the past month
  • "Hold On" by Santana
  • "Bad Love" by Clapton
  • "Forever Man" by Clapton
• Thinking About: There are a few, highly impactful personal decisions that I am weighing my options on.

• Location: Austin, TX
• Reading: "A Marriage at Sea" by Sophie Elmhirst - a true story of a young couple shipwrecked at sea for 118 days
• Training: Taking a week off as I just ran the Houston Marathon last Sunday, 1/11/26. Here's a recap of the experience.
• Learning: Started the Post Graduate Program in Generative AI for Business Applications at UT Austin
• Etc
  • Building out a vinyl collection - my wife just bought me 461 Ocean Boulevard by Eric Clapton. I love his rendition of "I Shot The Sheriff".
  • Intentionally doing less and keeping more "white space" in my days. It has felt relaxing, a much needed change of pace.
  • After two years of sitting in the garage, I am finally dusting off the motorcycle and getting it fixed in time for some Spring riding.
• Thinking About: The subscription economy and how it seems that we are owning less and renting more. I saw a mattress company with a subscription service for their cooling bed - we have lost our minds.

• Location: Austin, TX
• Reading: "The Circle" by Dave Eggers, a dystopian novel exploring privacy in a tech-dominated world, extremely relevant in this day and age. I'm aiming for at least 1 session of 60+ uninterrupted minutes per day.
• Training: On the final leg of marathon training for the 2026 Houston Marathon on Jan 11th. This training block has taught me a lot of lessons, especially around adaptability - more on that later
• Learning: Wrapping up pre-work for my Post Graduate Program in Generative AI for Business Applications beginning January 2026, looking forward to this course
• Career: Currently heads down completing the end-of-year review process
• Finances: I've been doing some end-of-year financial housekeeping, specifically restructuring my retirement accounts
• Thinking About: The value of independent thought and creation, especially during the AI craze. I'm worried we are outsourcing our ability to think critically and form our own opinions - the combination of algorithmically curated feeds and increased AI usage is a perfect storm for the loss of the ability to think deeply

“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”
― George Orwell, 1984

Personal

• Week 6 of training for the Houston Marathon (Jan 2026) (Strava)
• Reading Julia by Sandra Newman - a retelling of 1984
• Excited for upcoming travel: Philadelphia, Dallas, and Tampa
• Finishing CEUs to maintain NASM Personal Training and UESCA Endurance Coaching certifications

Work

• Wrapping up end-of-year goals and prepping for career development conversations
• Recently transitioned to full-time remote and adjusting to the pace and deeper focus

Thinking About

• Goal setting and where I want to focus in the next year
• And then what? - The Parable of the Mexican Fisherman
• The Hedonic Treadmill and how to increase baseline "happiness" versus being reliant on outside events

“Distracted from distraction by distraction” ― T.S. Elliot