23 Years Old

This note is public.

You need a sense of urgency. Don’t you feel old? You’re already 23. Before you know it you will be 24. But there is perhaps this Sunk Cost Fallacy.

I find that I can lock in at the library pretty well, reaching flow state on demand. However, I should try to better to stick to my early schedule.

Things I want to achieve:

• Master japanese, korean, hindi
• 100k subscribers
• Publish paper to top conference (CoRL, RSS, NeurIPS), contributing to scientific literature
• (maybe?) Start company for robotics doing egocentric data and figuring out that recipe? It does seem like this is the way
  • Make money on the side with startup

Reminders for myself:

• For 19-23 years old, you’ve been grinding. However, try to be really smart with your time. This is #1 advice that Jason Ma gave you. At every waking hour, be intentional with how you spend your time.

As yourself: Is this important to work on? Why are you doing this?

“I feel most alive when I build things that matter and people care that I made them.”

What are your metrics for the things that are important this year?

• Getting a few RL papers published under Jason/Dyna in the next 2-3 months, making core contributions in the RL field
  • get to travel for this
• Getting multiple videos uploaded on YouTube related to robot learning / locomation
  • inspire people

Get back on the toggl track grind.

I want to feel alive

You feel most alive when:

• You’re making something others couldn’t.
• People rely on you to move the needle.
• You’re pushing against the edge of what you understand — and pulling others with you.

That’s not fame.

That’s significance.

“I want to build something that only I could build — and share it so others feel the gravity.”

“I want to build intelligent systems that expand what humans and machines can do — and share that journey in a way that makes people feel like they can do the impossible too.”

That is: my youtube skills + engineering skills + research skills

“I feel most alive when I build things that matter and people care that I made them.”