Today, on our morning walk, Anay pointed her finger towards a magnificently large home and said "The guy who owns that invented the standing-wheel-thing". The device she was trying to describe is the segway. Yes, the ingenious machine that brought us Paul Blart.

Immediately, I envisioned an old man sitting on an oversized couch in his oversized living room with oversized windows holding an oversized check for some dollar amount with too many zeros. And I thought: how strange it is that we value ideas in perpetuity. Just ideas.

Now, I know nothing about this man or what he has accomplished. Maybe he went on to do great things. Or maybe he didn’t. Nonetheless, the reflex of my imagination that brought me to this old-man-on-the-couch image felt like evidence of a problem. A problem buried in my subconscious of how flawed the American invention-attribution system really is.

Do we overvalue ideas?
Does our education system propagate this?
How did we get here?
Are tech VCs to blame?
Am I to blame?

Thankfully, my walk was over and I stashed the thought away.

Then this evening, I'm finally reading articles from my "Holiday Break 2023” reading list and serendipitously came across Derek Thompson's Why the Age of American Progress Ended. He writes about the same invention-attribution problem I briefly mulled over this morning, which he more suitably calls "Invention Without Implementation". I recommend reading the article in its entirety but in short Derek shares a brief history of some of our greatest technological innovations and why we've failed to keep up the pace.

"... implementation, not mere invention, determines the pace of progress—a lesson the U.S. has failed to heed for the past several generations."

It's a harsh yet refreshing take. Oddly, internalizing it feels invigorating. In part, I think I fear the image of that old man sitting in his living room; I fear that I could be him. And acknowledging that reality gives me motivation to do everything I can not to live that reality.

So, in the spirit of New Year's tradition, I'd like to publicly bind my personal resolution with a social contract to all of you and see through its implementation. This year, I set a goal to be more intentional. Yes, it's abstract and measuring progress will be fickle but, as I exit my early-twenty-something-years-of-exploration, it feels right.

All I ask of you is to call me on my bullshit (or lack thereof). Hold me to this goal, and if you’d like I’ll hold you to yours.

To 2023, a year of implementation.

Today, on our morning walk, Anay pointed her finger towards a magnificently large home and said "The guy who owns that invented the standing-wheel-thing". The device she was trying to describe is the segway. Yes, the ingenious machine that brought us Paul Blart.

Immediately, I envisioned an old man sitting on an oversized couch in his oversized living room with oversized windows holding an oversized check for some dollar amount with too many zeros. And I thought: how strange it is that we value ideas in perpetuity. Just ideas.

Now, I know nothing about this man or what he has accomplished. Maybe he went on to do great things. Or maybe he didn’t. Nonetheless, the reflex of my imagination that brought me to this old-man-on-the-couch image felt like evidence of a problem. A problem buried in my subconscious of how flawed the American invention-attribution system really is.

Do we overvalue ideas?
Does our education system propagate this?
How did we get here?
Are tech VCs to blame?
Am I to blame?

Thankfully, my walk was over and I stashed the thought away.

Then this evening, I'm finally reading articles from my "Holiday Break 2023” reading list and serendipitously came across Derek Thompson's Why the Age of American Progress Ended. He writes about the same invention-attribution problem I briefly mulled over this morning, which he more suitably calls "Invention Without Implementation". I recommend reading the article in its entirety but in short Derek shares a brief history of some of our greatest technological innovations and why we've failed to keep up the pace.

"... implementation, not mere invention, determines the pace of progress—a lesson the U.S. has failed to heed for the past several generations."

It's a harsh yet refreshing take. Oddly, internalizing it feels invigorating. In part, I think I fear the image of that old man sitting in his living room; I fear that I could be him. And acknowledging that reality gives me motivation to do everything I can not to live that reality.

So, in the spirit of New Year's tradition, I'd like to publicly bind my personal resolution with a social contract to all of you and see through its implementation. This year, I set a goal to be more intentional. Yes, it's abstract and measuring progress will be fickle but, as I exit my early-twenty-something-years-of-exploration, it feels right.

All I ask of you is to call me on my bullshit (or lack thereof). Hold me to this goal, and if you’d like I’ll hold you to yours.

To 2023, a year of implementation.