Good news everyone,

I feel closer to achieving most of what I first set out to achieve by writing. I’ve:

1. Become better at quickly writing down thoughts from the mind

2. Using writing to think and explore ideas

3. Work on mini-goals and topics that interest me

I’ve found myself thinking more about ideas, doing more research, being diligent to write down something, being happier, giving my brain a chance to do more thinking, and seeing real world impact.

It’s been really special to me to write down and think about a topic then be given chances to talk about it with others. That expansion of ideas is fantastic.

I do think I need to change something up. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve spent less time writing recently than at the start. This isn’t necessarily bad. Nights where I’m not writing much, I am either achieving these goals OR am doing something more important. This is a big mental boost and I consider that a success.

My fear is that if I just keep the same pattern up I will stagnate and end up stuck.

To avoid this I want to think about what I want to achieve. I want to:

1. Explore + research ideas including

   1. privacy

   2. security

   3. quantum encryption

   4. differential privacy

   5. story telling

   6. world building

2. Practice writing

   1. General writing

   2. Work towards having something I would publish and want to share

      1. In a way, something to put on the resume

      2. Can share with important people in my life

Ideas that hit these topics:

• reviews of movie/shows/books/music

• research note taking to review what I’ve learned

• Brainstorming on a security or privacy question

• talking about me writing code

• Making a story

• Making an outline

• Building a world

• Well edited blog post

• Making a video or podcast

• Journal

• Watching a movie and breaking down structure

In essence, there’s A LOT of ways for me to achieve these goals that all take time that I am not currently putting in (at least less consistently and deliberately).

I’m currently leaning towards making a bigger goal with more time to achieve it. I won’t need to write every night on it, but I will need to set a side time. I’m thinking on the nights where I’m not working too hard or writing to do some journaling. As I’ve been writing, it’s been easier to write about myself and the day. I don’t feel good about that being on the internet…

Maybe I should make a list of projects that I think will take ~week and then pick one randomly to work on.

Good night, Lucas