2024 Annual Letter

Ready for a Fresh Start

PSC photo by Will Ramsey

2024 has been another amazing, beautiful, and challenging year of life here on Earth. As I did in 2022 and 2023, I’ve taken some time to reflect on the last year and put together some conclusions, key learnings, opinions, musings, and metrics on the past year.

Does Character Count Anymore?

A central pursuit of becoming an adult, of being a person, is determining what matters. I mean this along two tracks: what matters in the world, and what matters to you. Both are important. It’s important to know what matters in the world, because we all exist within the context in which we find ourselves. If you work with other people, it’s critical to understand what’s relevant, which communication styles are effective, what business strategies are likely to be impactful. If you venture out into the world on a regular basis you have to know how to look out for yourself and keep safe. You have to know what’s happening, what’s relevant beyond yourself to understand how to protect and provide for yourself and your family.

But in the grand scheme of things; knowing what matters to you might matter even more. The world is filled with choices and variables. With no guiding principles, one can get lost in a sea of options. Religion, a personal set of rules, a professional code, a societal moral code, the Boy Scout Code - all of these things can help an individual decide how to act in the world. Even if it’s not formalized, almost everyone has some sort of guiding principles that shape their actions. For many it is something like “the approval of my peers,” or “whatever is most convenient for me.”

A question I’ve been pondering this year is: whatever happened to character? More specifically, whatever happened to the idea of good character as a public value?

I seem to somehow remember regular approbations from parents, teachers, religious leaders, and coaches to ‘be a good person.’ To do things like ‘put others before myself,’ or being told that ‘character is who you are when no one is looking.’ What I can’t figure out is whether due to my age and circumstance, I am just not in environments where character is being counseled, OR whether the concept really has quietly vanished from public life.

Politics is not the fundamental essence or depiction of American life, but it is one of the arenas that helps us understand what’s happening in the country. In the modern day, we tend to have a low opinion of our elected representatives; the motivations, skills and abilities, depth of experience, or their coherence with the desires of the national public. But I argue that our elected representatives are, unfortunately, a simple and direct reflection of the people that elected them. And this has actually become increasingly the case as rights to the franchise and dissemination of information have increased. The strengths and weaknesses we see in Washington are the strengths and weaknesses present in the general population.

Our national politics is, at present, a place without a strong sense of selfless character. The brass tough, kill or be killed attitude is pervasive in rhetoric on and off The Hill. Capitol Hill does actually work through a complex tradition of collegiality, compromise, and customary consent, but if you look closely enough, you can see that maximal pain is perpetually inflicted through both parliamentary procedure and policy proposal. Our politics is largely broken. Though we’re not at the breaking point reached in the lead up to the Civil War, it’s not clear where we’re going from here.

At the moment; the ideal character statement feels something like: ‘it is best to be strong and savvy, even if your strength comes at the expense of others.’ This statement fits our political and business leaders almost perfectly, and honestly, maybe it always has, but just with a veneer of civility.

Perhaps the question isn’t whether character has vanished, but how it has changed—and whether that change reflects growth, loss, or necessary evolution needed to adapt and thrive in a different kind of world. As much as we might long for the values we remember, it’s worth considering if new forms of character are emerging, shaped by the pressures and complexities of modern life. Maybe the search for what matters, both in the world and within ourselves, is less about returning to old ideals and more about understanding how those ideals evolve over time. The answers may not be clear, but the act of questioning feels like a step toward something meaningful.

Reading

An interesting year of reading for me. I didn’t end up reading as much as I would have liked to, but realized at the end of the year that I read an okay amount, and most importantly, I read a lot of books that I really enjoyed and got significant value from.

My reading went in phases this year, starting with science fiction, including the partial re-reading of some favorites that I knew could deliver what I needed, which was an far seeing vision of the future, where technology played an important role in the lives of humans, whether on this planet or beyond. Later I read about sports, American History, economics, and some fiction and non-fiction commentary on the state of modern American life.

Here’s a brief enumeration of my 2024 books with some commentary on my favorite reads of the year.

Fiction

The Diamond Age: Or a Young Ladies Illustrated Primer, by Neal Stephenson (1995) - Stephenson, now one of my top authors, delivered in classic fashion again with what is my favorite book of 2024. Stephenson has a unique capacity to imagine the future - both near and distant - and fill it with complexity, detail, and humanity that makes the story come alive. And while he is an excellent manipulator of words, Stephenson’s true authority comes from the power of his ideas. For example, in what might be his most famous book, 1992’s Snow Crash, he originated the term “the metaverse” for the concept of an immersive virtual world, which has become so in vogue over the past few years.

In the Diamond Age, Stephenson crafts a world made possible by a series of technological innovations culminating in advanced nanotechnology that allows matter to be manipulated at a cellular level. This has myriad implications including the virtual elimination of material scarcity. Subsequently, differences in status or lived experience flows from values, culture, education, and custom.

The world of the story is organized into decentralized and autonomous regions, called “claves” (short for enclave), which are maintained and governed by different “phyles,” distinct cultural and political entities with their own ideologies and social structures.

The story is set in motion by a device, the “primer,” a personalized educational tool that, through convoluted happenstance, falls into the hands of a child in the low-status Leased Territories, instead of the intended destination of the high-status New Atlantis.

The Diamond Age does an amazing job of highlighting the differences between cultures, what that means, and how these differences can impact ones future, at the societal or individual level. A brief excerpt:

“…that while people were not genetically different, they were culturally as different as they could possibly be, and that some cultures were simply better than others. This was not a subjective value judgement, merely an observation that some cultures thrived and expanded while others failed. It was a view shared by nearly everyone but, in those days, never voiced.”

As in his previous books, Stephenson does an incredible job articulating a vision of the future that helps us to understand our present and asks us to thoughtfully wrestle with the decisions we make today that might make that future real - good or bad.

Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson (1992)

Dune: House of Harkonnen, by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (2000)

Wellness, by Nathan Hill (2023)

The Dying Animal, by Philip Roth (2001)

Zuckerman Unbound, Philip Roth (1981)

Non-Fiction

The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High Tech Warfare, by Christian Brose (2020)

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, by George Packer (2013) - An absolutely mesmerizing modern history on this nation we call the United States of America, digging deep into the social and economic trends between 1978 and 2012, a year before the book’s publication in 2013.

The Unwinding is composed of several interwoven biographies, of both famous people and places and unknown everyday Americans as they strove to find their place in the unfolding decades covered by the book. Included in the miniature biographies of the book: a DC lobbyist and politico, a rust-belt factory worker, Oprah Winfrey, Sam Walton, the city of Tampa, Florida, a Virginia entrepreneur, and many more.

Packer went on to win the National Book Award for Nonfiction for The Unwinding.

A Civil War: Army vs. Navy, by John Feinstein (1996)

American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900, H.W. Brands (2010)

The Demon of Unrest: A Sage of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, by Erik Larson (2024)

Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet, by Chris Dixon (2024)

Nuclear War: A Scenario, by Annie Jacobsen (2024) - The most immediately jarring book of the year, Jacobsen’s Nuclear War painstakingly details, as the title suggests, the science, history, and protocol that unfold from a highly plausible nuclear exchange scenario.

Without ceremony, Jacobsen explains what would happen from the moment an unknown entity, (most likely North Korea) pushes LAUNCH on a ground based nuclear warhead destined for Washington, DC. In the book we learn about the development and technical capabilities of intercontinental ballistic missiles and the weaknesses of our defense system. We learn about the process the President of the United States would work through in decided whether and how to respond while also trying to get to safety and ensure the continuation of the federal government. We learn about the absolutely devastating physical impact a nuclear exchange (which would almost certainly become a global event) would have on life as we know it on planet earth.

Jacobsen put this book together through countless interviews with current and former government officials with intimate knowledge of the potential realities of nuclear war. Many details were first declassified for the publication of this book. A must read.

Watching

2024 was a good (though not great) year at the cinema. I got out to the theaters a lot over the course of the year, frequenting both AMC theaters and Alamo Drafthouse. As much as possible, I tried to see the big movies (Wicked, Gladiator II, Twisters) on special screens like IMAX, Dolby, or The Big Show to take in the wonder.

Since theaters are filled with new movies, I haven’t marked the release year as they are mostly from 2024. In some cases, though, I did have the opportunity to see limited releases from yesteryear, and marked those with a year.

Another Year of Sequels

One of the big themes for movies this year was “Disappointing Sequels.” Unfortunately, Twisters, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, The Joker: Folie à Deux, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Moana 2, Inside Out 2, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire all fit this narrative. Hot take: Gladiator II also falls into this camp. It was actually a good movie, but I wanted more.

Fortunately, there were also some EXCELLENT sequels this year, led by the excellent Dune: Part Two. Deadpool & Wolverine, and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga also delivered really good follow up pictures, despite the really disappointing box office performance of the latter.

Superlatives

Best of the Year - Dune: Part Two, The Substance, Hit Man

Disappointments of the Year - Megalopolis, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Joker: Folie à Deux

Most Underrated - Saturday Night, The Bikeriders, The Fall Guy

Horror/Thriller (15)

Maxxxine, Cuckoo, Smile 2, Longlegs, The Shining (1980), Speak No Evil, Blink Twice, A Quiet Place: Day One, Late Night with the Devil, Alien: Romulus, Trap, In a Violent Nature, The Front Room, Immaculate, The First Omen

The Substance - What will possibly go down as the most memorable film of 2024, The Substance was a shocking and entertaining exploration into the American relationship with sexism, ageism, youth, beauty, and success. Demi Moore came out what felt like semi-retirement to deliver a killer performance alongside her younger pseudo-self played by Margaret Qualley. I won’t say too much as it’s worth watching the trailer to get an idea. A word of caution: do not watch the last 25 minutes of the movie if you cannot stomach significant gore. The movie earns its classification as an examples of the “body horror” sub-genre.

Comedy/Musical (10)

Babes, Thelma, Lisa Frankenstein, Saturday Night, Love Actually (2003), Megalopolis, Wicked, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Joker: Folie à Deux

Hit Man - So delightful. Miriam and I were in Austin celebrating our first wedding anniversary when Netflix debuted Hit Man for its (very) brief theatrical run and went to go see it at the Alamo Drafthouse. It was a delight. Glen Powell co-wrote and starred in the dark comedy alongside Adria Arjona. The two had absolutely incredible chemistry and produced a pairing that had you gasping for air with laughter two seconds before shocking silence from a plot twist. Watch on Netflix now if you haven’t seen it yet.

Action/Adventure (15)

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1, Madame Web, Twisters (4DX), Deadpool & Wolverine, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, 1992, Moana 2, The Fifth Element (1997), Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Venom: The Last Dance, The Fall Guy, The Order, I.S.S, Elevation

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - A really good movie. While not as spectacular as George Miller’s 2015 installment, Fury Road, Furiosa delivers its own value through excellent world creation and much deeper character development. Chris Hemsworth does well to take his trademark smile and generally magnetic character to serve his role as the chief villain of the film, while Anya-Taylor Joy (who, admittedly, I don’t buy as an ass-kicking action star) does a good job of making us feel the pain of a child who must keep moving to survive. Furiosa didn’t do well at the box office for a wide variety of reasons, but the movie is a good watch.

Drama (11)

Conclave, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Gladiator II, Poor Things (2023), The Zone of Interest, Dune: Part Two, Love Lies Bleeding, Challengers, The Bikeriders, Inside Out 2, The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

Civil War - Civil War had the potential to be one of the best movies of the year, but it didn’t quite get there. It still managed to be a fantastic theater watch and to be the lodestar of many a deep conversation on the nature of war and state of the American society. After watching the movie I wrote most of an essay looking at Civil War as an example within the war movie genre, comparing it to films like Saving Private Ryan, Full Metal Jacket, and the excellent 2022 rendition of All Quiet on the Western Front. In short: Civil War falls into the trap of most war movies and make conflict look kind cool. While it tried its best to make the esteemed ‘anti war war movie’ it ended up falling short. But worth a watch if you haven’t seen it.

Technology

AI and Crypto

Artificial Intelligence is a flattening technology. A leveler of playing fields. At least that’s what it will be eventually. Like most new occurrences of technology or even major technological paradigm shifts, they become democratized over time to bring great advantages to the masses, after there has been significant value harvested by the elite. AI is no different, but the change is happening much faster than previous technological leaps. Right now, corporations and governments are racing one another to leverage LLMs to compete for financial, military, or other strategic advantage. But the everyman is taking advantage of the fruits of that competition in record time. Because of the marginally free cost of distribution, any person with a good internet connection currently has access to at least one, more likely several, world class LLM chat platforms with which they can do as they please, to greater or lesser degree, depending upon the specific platform and the restrictions placed upon it. Now, anyone can find, sort through, rearrange, and even create new information and content at will; including false, inaccurate, misleading, dangerous, or just poor quality content.

Crypto is a separating technology. A decentralizing and truth-telling environment built atop the innovation of the blockchain. The first blockchain, the bitcoin protocol, was designed to allow the independent transfer, verification, and ownership of data. The specific kind of data originally intended was value, but that data really can be many other things including PII (personally identifiable information), identity, messages, unique items, etc.

In a future where AI is ubiquitous and mature it will become impossible to know for sure what is an authentic creation made by a person, what is an earnest creation, possibly generated using AI, but not meant to mislead, and what is artificially created and intended to deceive.

Crypto can help solve this problem.

When events occur on the blockchain they leave an indelible trace that is virtually impossible to manipulate without overwhelming control of a system. Using a blockchain to sign and verify authentic and earnest creations can help people understand what’s real and what’s not.

There are many other instances where crypto and AI collide, for better or worse, but this idea - using blockchains to enhance understanding, safety, and honesty in an increasingly digital world - is extremely intriguing to me and I think will become a major theme over the coming years.

The Self-Driving Future

“Look, ma: no hands!” Inside the Waymo ride

The most compelling technology experience I had this year was (unsurprisingly) in San Francisco. My wife and I were in town after a family trip to nearby Carmel to do a little work and see some close friends. Another friend of mine had just visited, and I asked him what he recommended I do with my short time by The Bay. He had one recommendation: take a Waymo ride.

On our way to dinner that first night in town, I decided to download the Waymo app and give the service a try. The app is a lot like the standard rideshare (a la Uber and Lyft) experience we’re used to with fields for your pickup and drop off location with a clock telling you how far away your car is. We were staying along the Embarcadero and heading to dinner at the RH Palm Court Restaurant (highly recommend the Palm Court and all other RH locations around the world!) just a few miles away. We were running a little behind, so I thought it made sense to stick with a simple uber on the first leg.

Our return trip would be short, so I figured it stood to make a good trip to test out our robot chauffeur. I ordered a car. The curb outside was freshly painted white with the words “PASSENGER LOADING” stenciled in black. When we walked outside, our robo-chariot awaited with “RC” highlighted in neon blue above the car. The doors unlocked as we approached and we let ourselves in.

A screen in the backseat encouraged us to push a button to get the ride started and we were greeted by a disembodied voice imploring us to fasten our seatbelts and letting us know that we could “sing (our) hearts out” as no one would be listening, unless we pressed a further series of buttons to connect with rider assistance.

The ride was incredibly uneventful. In fact, it was more predictable and less erratic than any human-piloted ride we experienced during our stay in SF. Though, of course, it was somewhat unnerving to look into the front seat and see the steering wheel turning back and forth with no hands upon it, we generally felt safe. The car accelerated and turned well, adhering to all apparent traffic laws and handling irregularities from pedestrians, bicycles, and other cars extremely well.

The next day, I took a slightly longer, more complicated trip from Hayes Valley to our hotel during rush hour. The Waymo performed admirably again.

I have complex feelings about the rapid development of self-driving vehicles. Naturally, I’m wary of robots taking so many human things from us, including typical daily actions and critically, jobs. Operating an automobile is far from the most important human activity, but it can be fun, or even relaxing (though often infuriating), and it’s simply something that so many people spend so much time doing on a daily basis. Realizing that human driving is most assuredly headed for the extinction pile sooner or later (it’s going to be quite a while yet) is surreal.

Health & Fitness

The 301 Challenge

If you’ve been physically around me much in the last few months you’ve almost certainly heard me talk about the 301 challenge; a series of exercises to test one’s overall strength and muscle endurance that I discovered (like so many other helpful, and not so helpful things) while scrolling on Instagram. The challenge is composed of:

• 100 deadlifts reps

• 100 benchpress reps

• 100 squat reps

• 1 mile run.

What’s particularly excruciating about this challenge is the amount of weight one is intended to move for the 300 reps. Your body weight. ie: a 200 pound man should have roughly 200 pounds on the bar for the duration of the challenge. And the one mile run must be completed at the end of the lifts.

This is not a casual workout.

I’ve been training toward this goal consistently for the last four months. This is the most dedicated I’ve been to a weightlifting regimen since college, and because of the nature of the training compared to say, college lacrosse, I’m lifting heavier and am spending FAR fewer calories on cardio. Thus, I might actually be the strongest, in a pure weightlifting sense, that I’ve ever been. And I still have two months of training left.

My goal is to complete the 301 challenge, for time, on March 1 (3/01), 2025.

My intention behind the 301 is not to be the strongest person in the world, or to accomplish a vanity achievement, but basically to give me a goal to work toward and motivate me to workout consistently. I find it difficult to exercise arbitrarily, so this gives me some structure and inspiration.

Hobbies

Golf

Teeing off in the cold at DC’s East Potomac Golf Course

When I was younger, say in high school or college, I always imagined that I would be a respectable, if not quite “serious,” golfer in my adult years. For example: I envisioned myself taking a golfing trip for my bachelor party. This did not come to pass. Before the last month, I believe I’d played only two actual rounds of golf in the last decade. And I’d maybe been to the driving range on eight to ten occasions within that period, usually at top golf for a birthday with a few beers.

My father used to love to golf, and was pretty good. He took me out to the range and got me a lesson or two as a little kid in the third or fourth grade. In college I got a set of my own clubs and would go with him during summer vacation. He’d take my friend Habib and I to hit some balls and we’d sneak onto the course and learn to hit out of a sand trap. But life gets busy, I got to working after graduation, and I didn’t make the time to use my clubs.

Fast forward to this Fall, and I’ve become a semi-maniac about all things golf. My social media and content algorithm has been totally hijacked. I’m up on all the intricacies of the PGA and Liv drama (I was pretty enamored with this anyway). I flew through all of the Full Swing episodes on Netflix. Purchased plenty of Mallon and Eastside gear. And played several rounds of golf and hit the range in sub-freezing temperatures.

I’m a long (long) way from being that respectably good adult golfer of my adolescent dreams, but I’m excited to make some real progress in my game over the next year. To do this I’m of course going to hit the range and the putting green as much as reasonably possible, but I’m really going to focus on just playing, experiencing some great (and not-so-great) courses, and enjoying spending time outdoors.

My golfing goal for 2025 is to play one round of golf (9 or 18 holes) every week. I realize that this is actually pretty unlikely to work out, but that’s totally okay. If I try to play 52 times, maybe I’ll actually be able to make it work 40 times, and that’s pretty darn good. I’m trying to avoid too many metrics or requirements other than just getting out there. But I’d be pretty happy if I’m able to score under 90 on 18 holes by the end of the year.

If you’re reading this, then you probably know me, or have a pretty good idea of what I’m like through my writing. If you are in the DC area, or if I’ll be in your part of the world at some point this year: let’s play some golf together! Just let me know. And there’s no need to be shy. You’re most likely better than me!

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And that’s it for 2024!

Stick with me for 2025, another year filled with potential. With energy, love, positivity, and focus: absolutely anything is possible. I’ll leave you with one of my favorite images from the great blogger Tim Urban of Wait But Why that perfectly articulates my feelings at the start of a new year.

R