Still working through Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass. Also picked up AI Engineering by Chip Huyen. Built a new habit this month too of reading 15 to 20 minutes a day on industry news, pulled together by Elliot, my AI agent, from primary sources. It's sent to me every morning through Telegram and a copy is filed into my Obsidian.

Found a sustainable rhythm with strength training again. Three sessions a week, 20 to 25 sets each, right around an hour long.

Heads down expanding my AI knowledge and literacy. This month I focused on getting my personal second brain and a new agent, Elliot, set up and connected to my Obsidian vault. It's functioning as a personal digital secretary at this point. Currently working through a DeepLearning.AI course on LLM evals, which I plan to bring back into my builds at work. Also chipping away at the Claude Certified Architect certification alongside it, prepping with the official prep courses.

Went to a good friend's engagement party. Spent a weekend in San Antonio with Jenny. Writing this from a lounge in London, where I've spent the past week for work, three full days meeting my new team in person after being scattered across Singapore, London, Dublin, New York, and Seattle. Genuinely excited for this next phase of my career. It'll be challenging, but I have full confidence in this team.

Death and the passing of time, lately. Not for any particular reason, just how important it is to spend the limited time we have intentionally. Also thinking about how much we stress ourselves out caring about too many things at once, and about our culture's obsession with optimization. Still forming an opinion here, but my initial take is that optimization itself is fine, it just needs to be pointed at something bigger than itself. Optimization for its own sake feels like another way to exploit people through FOMO. I don't like it.

Finishing Age of Invisible Machines and just started Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass. My reading time has been focused on industry topics lately — reading in themes rather than jumping around.

Training has taken a back seat for about six months. My body and mind were burned out, and I've been directing that energy toward studying and deep work instead. Got back to the gym this month and went on my first run in a while. Just rebuilding without pressure.

Focused on building and orchestrating AI agents. It connects directly to a major project at work, so the studying and the day job are feeding each other right now. Working through Agentic AI through DeepLearning.AI.

Built out a personal second brain using Obsidian and Claude Code. The goal is a centralized system for capturing and organizing my thoughts. I had over 100 unorganized notes sitting on my phone and have been experimenting with a better way to do something with them.

Just got back from Greensboro, NC for my grandmother's funeral. Heading to London for a week in July, and we're putting together the Italy itinerary for August. Going to see Kanye West in San Antonio soon, and eyeing tickets for Eric Clapton's Crossroads Festival here in Austin in September. Guitar has been pulling me back in lately, which feels good.

The pushback against AI isn't about the technology itself — AI has been around for over 50 years in different forms. What people are worried about, myself included, is how it gets used: to disempower people, concentrate power, extract value without returning it. AlphaFold is an example of what's possible when the technology serves people. Flock cameras are the other direction. What we build with it matters more than the technology itself.

Also thinking about personal accountability. Jenny and I have been talking about how much direct influence we have over our own outcomes. I believe you hold yourself 100% accountable for your inputs and let the outputs be what they are. The moment you start blaming your environment, you give up your power to change it.

And underneath both is one of my favorite topics: attention. We have a limited capacity to care deeply, and society fills that capacity constantly. I've become comfortable being apathetic toward most things as a deliberate choice about what's worth the energy. You can't care about everything. You shouldn't feel guilty for not trying.

AI Snake Oil by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor. Set aside I Didn't Do the Thing Today by Madeleine Dore partway through. Wasn't getting enough out of it to keep going.

Also read From Hierarchy to Intelligence from Block. His main point: hierarchy is an information-routing protocol. True as far as it goes, but it misses the human side. In our culture, hierarchy is also a meaning-making machine. These structures give people a sense of and opportunity for personal evolution. That part is missing from his framing.

Still foundational, but less of a priority this year. I've shifted that energy and focus to studying and work. Getting consistent again with two to three gym sessions a week, though I haven't started running back up yet.

Wrapped the UT Austin GenAI course. Now going deeper on Claude Code and building out a second brain in Obsidian, with the goal of linking it to an interactive personal dashboard to manage my personal life.

Built out my professional site. Also building a site for my dad's counter-surveillance practice. At work, heavily focused on orchestrating a team of agents.

Meta went through a 10% reduction in force this month. My entire team was impacted, including me. The day before, I'd signed an offer letter for the AI Accelerator team as a Solutions Architect. I've been studying and working for over two years to be ready for this kind of role. Excited for it, but heartbroken for what happened to my team. Thinking a lot about how I want to show up over the next stretch.

The Italy trip with my mom is coming up in August. Excited for that one.

Slowly building out my record collection. Recently saw the Michael Jackson movie with Jenny and thoroughly enjoyed it. Picked up Off the Wall afterwards and have been listening non-stop ever since.

Which skills to sharpen, and which gaps to close looking three to six months out. Beyond that, the human impact of AI and what its ramifications actually look like.

What organizational structures and hierarchy will look like with the rapid spread of AI tools. What that means for career advancement, career satisfaction, and what it takes to stay relevant in the job market going forward.

I Didn't Do the Thing Today by Madeleine Dore. On letting go of productivity guilt. Just started.

Getting back into it after taking most of March off. Starting to layer strength back in alongside running. Just rebuilding consistency.

Final four weeks of the UT Austin GenAI course. We're covering LLM fine-tuning, ethical AI, LLM security, and agentic workflows. Also doing more AI presentations and trainings at work, which is forcing me to articulate things more clearly than I would if I were just learning for myself.

Putting real time into this site. Adding pages, logging deep work hours, making it feel like a place I actually want to maintain. It's become one of my favorite creative outlets right now.

Started structuring my guitar practice more intentionally too.

One of my best friends is coming into town at the end of the month.

Opportunity cost. The idea that we can do anything but not everything, and what that actually means for how I'm spending my time. It's easy to fill a calendar and stay busy. It's hard to be honest about what you're trading away to do it.

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

Taking a break this month. My body and mind have felt tired from the last few months of training. Getting back into a movement routine in April, especially as outside stressors mount up.

Wrapped up the second project in the GenAI course. I've been doubling down on AI learning and application this month and feel like I've made a lot of progress.

Next month: LLM Fine Tuning, ethical AI implications, LLM security, and Agentic AI workflows.

There's a lot going on at work. I've been thinking through how I continue to hone my skills, add value, and set myself up for change. Most of my thoughts this month have been about this.

Finally got a new bookcase and got 50+ books off the floor. Purchased tickets for an Italy trip with my mom and Jenny for August — it makes my heart full knowing I can have that experience with them.

Clapton by Eric Clapton.

Recently finished The Art Thief by Michael Finkel — highly recommend, fascinating read. Also finished Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick.

Reprioritizing my free time this year and building out a more sustainable training plan. Reducing from ~10 hrs/week to ~5–6 to accommodate shifting priorities.

In week 3 of the Post Graduate Program in Generative AI for Business Applications at UT Austin. Mentally stimulating — I'm 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.

Learned some great songs over the past month: "Hold On" by Santana, "Bad Love" by Clapton, and "Forever Man" by Clapton.

A few highly impactful personal decisions I'm weighing.

A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst — a true story of a young couple shipwrecked at sea for 118 days.

Taking a week off — just ran the Houston Marathon on January 11th.

Started the Post Graduate Program in Generative AI for Business Applications at UT Austin.

Building out a vinyl collection — my wife just bought me 461 Ocean Boulevard by Eric Clapton. Love his rendition of "I Shot The Sheriff."

Intentionally doing less and keeping more white space in my days. It's felt relaxing — a much needed change of pace.

After two years sitting in the garage, finally dusting off the motorcycle and getting it fixed in time for some Spring riding.

The subscription economy and how it seems we're owning less and renting more. I saw a mattress company with a subscription service for their cooling bed — we have lost our minds.

The Circle by Dave Eggers — a dystopian novel exploring privacy in a tech-dominated world. Extremely relevant right now. Aiming for at least one session of 60+ uninterrupted minutes per day.

On the final leg of marathon training for the 2026 Houston Marathon on January 11th. This training block has taught me a lot about adaptability — more on that later.

Wrapping up pre-work for the Post Graduate Program in Generative AI for Business Applications beginning January 2026. Looking forward to it.

The value of independent thought and creation, especially during the AI craze. I'm worried we're 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 deep thinking.

Week 6 of training for the Houston Marathon (January 2026).

Reading Julia by Sandra Newman — a retelling of 1984.

Excited for upcoming travel to Philadelphia, Dallas, and Tampa.

Finishing CEUs to maintain NASM Personal Training and UESCA Endurance Coaching certifications.

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.

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.