§ What I Learned 2022

Outline for my annual essay about things I learned and reflections for the year.

Outline

Note taking

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Books

• The Beginning of Infinity was hugely influential on my thinking
  • Objective knowledge begins as conjecture and then corrected with criticism
  • The quest for good explanations is error correcting
  • Thinking better thoughts
• Started getting into true story adventure books like Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage book review and Into Thin Air
• Read more novels from Brandon Sanderson
• The Great CEO Within was the most practical book I read

Travel

• Explored the Oberland in Switzerland
• Fascinated by mechanical watches, ditched my Apple Watch
• Still being careful about COVID-19 despite most of the world deciding the pandemic is over (it’s not)

Startup

• Second year of running a startup
• The economy completely changed
  • Growth in tech during the pandemic was not permanent
  • Running a startup during a recession
  • Layoffs in tech
• Raising Series A for Mosey
  • Fundraising as a solo founder
• Remote work
  • Back to office has come in waves but office occupancy stagnated in 2022
    • Permanent moves from SF have fallen to pre-pandemic levels but work from home happens the most in cities
    • Secondary impact on cities: NYC office real estate value declined due to remote work, San Francisco lost $400MM of tax revenue in 2021
  • My prediction is that blue states will benefit most from remote work
  • The radius of economic opportunity is still limited