goals on S Anand

My Goals Bingo as of Q2 2025

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 03:43:00 +0000

In 2025, I’m playing Goals Bingo. I want to complete one row or column of these goals. Here’s my status from Jan – Jun 2025.

🟢 indicates I’m on track and likely to complete. 🟡 indicates I’m behind but I may be able to hit it. 🔴 indicates I’m behind and it’s looking hard.

Domain	Repeat	Stretch	New
People	🟢 Better husband. Going OK	🟡 Meet all first cousins. 8/14 🟢 Interview 10 experts. 11/10	🟡 Live with a stranger. Tried homestay - doesn’t count
Education	🔴 50 books. 6/50	🟡 Teach 5,000 students. ~1,500	🟡 Run a course only with AI. Ran a workshop with AI
Technology	🟢 20 data stories. 10/20	🔴 LLM Foundry: 5K MaU. 2.2K MaU.	🟡 Build a robot. No progress. 🟢 Co-present with an AI. Done
Health	🟢 300 days of yoga. 183/183 days	🟡 80 heart points/day. Far from it 🔴 Bike ~~1,000 km~~ 300 hrs. Far from it	🟢 Vipassana. 2 Jul 2025
Wealth	🔴 Buy low. No progress.	🔴 Beat inflation 5%. Not started.	🟡 Donate $10K. Ideating. 🔴 Fund a startup. Not started.

At the moment, there’s no row or column that looks like a definite win.

Observations:

New goals goals seem likely. I like doing new things.
Stretch goals are least likely. I’n not so good at follow-up or scaling
People goals seem likely. Mild surprise.
Wealth seems least likely. No surprise. I haven’t started doing anything about it 🤷🏽‍♂️.

My Goals Bingo as of Q1 2025

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 03:33:07 +0000

In 2025, I'm playing Goals Bingo. I want to complete one row or column of these goals. Here's my status from Jan - Mar 2025.

🟢 indicates I'm on track and likely to complete.
🟡 indicates I'm behind but I may be able to hit it.
🔴 indicates I'm behind and it's looking hard.

Domain	Repeat	Stretch	New
People	🟢 Better husband. Going OK	🟢 Meet all first cousins. 8/14 🟢 Interview 10 experts. 9/10	🔴 Live with a stranger. Not planned
Education	🟡 50 books. 6/50	🟡 Teach 5,000 students. ~1,500	🔴 Run a course only with AI. Not started
Technology	🟡 20 data stories. 1/20	🔴 LLM Foundry: 5K MaU. 2.2K MaU.	🟡 Build a robot. No progress. 🟢 Co-present with an AI. Done
Health	🟢 300 days of yoga. 91/91 days	🟡 80 heart points/day. 70/80 🔴 Bike ~~1,000 km~~ 300 hrs. 22/300	🟡 Vipassana. Not planned
Wealth	🟡 Buy low. No progress.	🔴 Beat inflation 5%. Exploring.	🟡 Donate $10K. Ideating. 🔴 Fund a startup. Thinking.

Repeat goals seem likely. It's easier to do something again than something bigger or new.

Health goals seem likely. That's a surprise. Maybe I set low targets or under-estimated myself. (I thought I'd hit the technology goals first.)

Wealth seems least likely. Not surprising. I haven't started doing anything about it 🤷🏽‍♂️.

My Year in 2024

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 16:29:58 +0000

Here’s the report card for my 2024 resolutions:

Compound long-term goals, daily. PASS. I managed to work continuously build on 6 areas in 2024:
- Blogging about 50 posts on my blog and on LinkedIn
- Weekly notes of things I learned
- Teaching Tools in Data Science (repo)
- Reading only Manga
- Experimenting with LLM applications
- LLM Evangelization through LLM Foundry, Straive’s LLM portal.
Hit 80 heart points, daily. FAIL. I stopped exercise in the second half and gained 7 kgs.
Be a better husband. PASS. My wife confirmed that I was “definitely worse in 2023 than 2024.”

My most memorable events in 2024 were:

Declaring myself the world’s first and only LLM psychologist
Evaluating 600+ real-life projects with LLMs (project, hacks, analysis)
Creating my own Calvin & Hobbes strips

I also turned 50. (It felt no different.)

In 2025, at my daughter’s nudge, I’ll play Goals Bingo instead, That is, complete one row or column here:

Domain	Repeat	Stretch	New
People	Better husband	Meet all first cousins Interview 10 experts	Live with a stranger
Education	50 books	Teach 5,000 students	Run a course only with AI
Technology	20 data stories	LLM Foundry: 5K MaU	Build a robot Co-present with an AI
Health	300 days of yoga	80 heart points/day Bike 1,000 km	Vipassana
Wealth	Buy low	Beat inflation 5%	Donate $10K Fund a startup

Some goals are Repeats - something I’ve done at least once before
Some are Stretch goals - things I’ve been doing, but at a bigger scale
Some goals are New things I’ve never done or even tried before

I won’t try them all. I’ll try to cross off one row or column and compound any one aspect.

What are YOUR plans?

Comments

My Goals Bingo as of Q2 2025 - S Anand 1 Jul 2025 9:14 am (pingback): […] In 2025, I’m playing Goals Bingo. I want to complete one row or column of these goals. Here’s my status from Jan – Jun 2025. […]
My Goals Bingo as of Q1 2025 - S Anand 1 Apr 2025 9:03 am (pingback): […] In 2025, I’m playing Goals Bingo. I want to complete one row or column of these goals. Here’s my status from Jan – Mar 2025. […]
“Wait, That’s My Mic!”: Lessons from an AI Co-Host - S Anand 9 Jan 2025 1:02 pm (pingback): […] an AI was one of my goals this year. I tried several […]

Things I Learned - 23 Jun 2024

Sun, 23 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This week, I learned:

Luma Labs Dream Machine generated videos. It’s free and is of reasonable quality. Update: 6 Jun 2025. Costs $10/month
LLM DataHub has LLM training datasets, regularly updated
From Dan Becker on running a workshop
- Answer questions at the end, not in parallel in a chat, to avoid distraction
- Have fewer words in slides when presenting. It’s less distracting
Morgan Housel Shane Parrish podcast
- Risk is what stops you from achieving YOUR goals. What’s risky for me may not be risky for you
- The lesson from compounding is that you want to optimize for duration, not return. That’s what does the heavy lifting. Survival, consistency, long term - these matter. The performance does NOT matter.

My Year in 2023

Sun, 31 Dec 2023 01:52:08 +0000

In 2023, I made 3 resolutions:

Run 50 experiments. I managed 44 / 50. (Here are some). Learnings: I need to improve planning (9), scepticism (6), and lateral thinking (4).
Make 1 change a month in my environment. I managed 8 / 12. The largest impact was from meeting new people, working out of new places, and using new gadgets.
Calendar integrity, i.e. stick to my calendar. I succeeded over 95% of the time.

My most memorable events in 2023 were:

In 2024, I plan to:

Compound long-term goals, daily. I want fewer, bigger, more meaningful outcomes.
Hit 80 heart points, daily. Cycling or swimming (not walking, on doctor’s advice.)
Be a better husband.

I’ll continue to:

Experiment, like in 2023.
Change environments, like in 2023.
Read 50 books a year, like in 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020.

I’m curious — what’s ONE thing you’d like to do in 2024?

Comments

Santhosh 1 Jan 2024 7:53 pm: One thing that I want to do is run planned experiments and run more experiments !!!
My Year in 2024 - S Anand 30 Dec 2024 10:00 pm (pingback): […] Here’s the report card for my 2024 resolutions: […]
My learnings as week notes - S Anand 25 Dec 2024 7:57 pm (pingback): […] of my goals for 2024 is to “Compound long-term goals, daily.” Learning is one of […]

My Year in 2022

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 03:12:25 +0000

In 2022, I made 3 resolutions:

Run 50 experiments. I ran ~20 until April (here are some), but stopped (for no reason). I’ll continue.
Speak at 10 global forums. I delivered 10+ PyCon talks. They were pre-recorded, allowing me to scale. But recording videos and no feedback are boring. I’ll explore how to scale enjoyably.
Be 10X more effective. I improved my calendar effectiveness 2X in Jan. But I realized this is actually efficiency. Not effectiveness. Maybe effectiveness shouldn’t be optimized, but discovered. I’ll continue to ponder.

Milestones in 2022:

I completed 10 years at Gramener in February.
I moved to Singapore in August. (Cycling and ComicCon were mind-blowing discoveries.)

2 habits I continued from last year:

In 2023, I plan to:

Run 50 experiments. I’ll learn by disproving my beliefs with measurable tests.
Make 1 change a month in my environment. 90% of our thoughts are shaped by our environment. (Read The Extended Mind.) So I’ll use the remaining 10% to shape my environment.
Calendar integrity. Stick to my calendar. Especially the time I block for myself to work. (This is a 2021 habit I’ve slipped on.)

I’m curious — what’s ONE thing you’d like to do in 2023?

Comments

My Year in 2023 - S Anand 31 Dec 2023 7:22 am (pingback): […] For 2023, I made 3 resolutions: […]
Picking books to read - S Anand 11 Jan 2023 8:50 am (pingback): […] 2023, I’m reshaping my environment. Picking books I usually won’t pick. (Read The Unknown Unknown: Bookshops and the Delight of […]

My Year in 2021

Sun, 02 Jan 2022 08:06:25 +0000

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.

On training, I designed a Tools for Data Science Course for IITM’s Bachelor’s in Data Science. I’m now a “faculty” at my alma mater, and no longer scared of it.

On self-improvement, I completed a Landmark course and continued Pranayama. Both helped my resolutions.

I also continued 2 habits from last year.

Walk 10,000 steps daily. I averaged 10,200.
Read 50 books. I read 52. Here are my reviews. (Which did you like? What would you recommend?)

In 2022, I plan to:

Run 50 experiments. I’ll learn by disproving my beliefs with measurable tests.
Speak at 10 global forums on data stories, and spread the beauty of data.
Be 10X more effective. I’ll measure the impact and stop low-impact work.

I’m curious – what’s ONE thing you’d like to do in 2022?

Comments

My Year in 2022 - S Anand 31 Dec 2022 8:42 am (pingback): […] integrity. Stick to my calendar. Especially the time I block for myself to work. (This is a 2021 habit I’ve slipped […]
Learning to speak better - S Anand 17 Oct 2022 9:40 am (pingback): […] of my year’s goals is to run 50 experiments. I’d been doing well until April, and then fizzled out. Partly motivation. Partly a lack of […]
Pratyush 2 Jan 2022 7:08 pm: I’d like to learn native mobile development. I want to try out Flutter, Kotlin and Swift. I have been developing websites for the last 15 years. But those skills suddenly feel so outdated. The new hardware provides so many exciting opportunities. I’d like to explore them.
Increasing calendar effectiveness by 2X - S Anand 25 Jan 2022 1:31 pm (pingback): […] took a 2022 goal to be 10X more effective. In Jan, I managed 2X. Here’s […]