ProgressReport 3 January 2025
Its a new year, crazy that we are now a quarter of the way through this century ! Overall life is very good. I have a bunch of good systems in place – diet, exercise, reading – just need to use time to let things grow.
I would really like to move meditation to the next level. Want to regularly get in the habit of paying clear attention to "Who I am" and "What I am doing and why" as often as possible. Want to use transitions after note taking or when going to the bathroom as a prod. But need to really think about otherways to make this stick.
In 2025, I am excited about crypto, more focused fiction reading, and AI. I want to change the reading such that Im regularly reading one of the classics as part of the "three book rotation". I've recently realized that I know essentially no Shakespeare; whereas eg: Tyler Cowen thinks he is the best thinker of all time. Clearly this is an area where much is to be gained !
Excited to keep following AI to see how I can use this to update my work, reading, and note taking.
Would like to start writing more. Need to find good topics and put in the time.
There could be much upside for Crypto in 2025. I'm adding BTC exposure in the roth through microstrategy (MSTR) and will be following the BTC, EHT and now pHEX (!) sell/buy points closely.
Work-wise the big action items in the near term are HGC production, graduations (Wes and Chuyuan), getting the HH4b Run-2 out, and making the synthetic data useful. These are all more-or-less in good shape, but will need seeing through.
I need to start thinking about longer term. What will I do once I have tenure and the HGC is built ? HL-LHC physics will be my day job. I would like to get into HGC commissioning and calibration. From there, maybe expand into jet calibration and dedicated physics with the HGC. Are there interesting computing challenges ? … Still need to be sold on this.
What will be the next step after the HL-LHC ? The default is clearly a Higgs factory, but Im not sure I want to go this route. (What would Daniel Froidevaux do?) Options seem to be: move into computing, accelerator physics, other HEP experiments, other physics (eg: cosmo, biophysics), other sciences (neuroscience, longevity ?)… anything else worth doing ? (Try to let my natural interests guide this)
2025 is geared up to be a great year. I just need to keep executing on current systems and do some more deep work/thinking. Potentially using writing to unveil my path forward.