January 2022

I took a 2022 goal to be 10X more effective. In Jan, I managed 2X. Here’s how. What is effectiveness? I don’t know. I’m figuring it out. But to start off, I measured the number of people my actions directly impact. For example: Discussing my Tools in Data Science Course or writing a blog post impacts ~500 people. Mailing all Gramener employees impacts ~200 people. Shopping with my wife impacts 2 people – her and me (in very different ways). Clearly, the impact is not equal. But it’s a start. ...

I emailed My Year in 2021 to ~2,700 people. It had 3 experiments. Do friends open my mail more than strangers? I split the list into 2 groups: My contacts: ~1,000 people I knew (I’ve mailed them) Strangers: ~1,700 people I didn’t know (I’ve never mailed them) My guess: strangers would open the mail 30% less often. Reality: They opened it 40% less. 50% of my contacts opened the mail, vs only 28% of strangers. ...

These are the major group actors based on who they act with most. Language. Not country. For example, the Spanish / Mexican group is across countries. But Indian actors divide into North Indian and South Indian. It’s language, not country. Time period. Old American actors are a separate group from Hollywood. (Naturally. Brad Pitt was born after Humphrey Bogart died. They couldn’t have acted together.) Genre. Hollywood Porn actors don’t act with mainstream Hollywood. Same with Japanese Porn, Hollywood TV, and Hollywood Horror actors. How are these groups themselves connected? Do Chinese actors act with Hollywood often? How isolated is Bollywood from world cinema? ...

In 2021, I made 3 resolutions. Lose 10 kgs. I lost 5 kg in 3 months. But gained it back by the year-end. Fail big. I practiced confronting people – and failed. I still run from fights. Even when important. Calendar integrity. I stuck to my calendar 90% of the time. But personal commitments slipped. On learning, I discovered network clusters. My PyCon talk on movie networks is the start of a fascinating exploration of actors that I’ll write more about. ...