Happy Sunday. It's the last day of the year and I wrote this up a few days ago to ensure I enjoy the break. Naturally, I'm reflecting on 2023 and what my intentions are for 2024. I don't do New Year's resolutions. Instead, I devise a set of themes and principles to guide me to make decisions on what's important.

In 2023, they were:

• Get to optimal health

• Be ambitious, go for broke

• Bootstrap and be lean

• Create and build daily

• Protect your time

The framework

Here's the framework I use to reflect, set intentions, and execute on the new year. There will be ample examples below in my actual 2024 intention below:

• Set intentions and themes

• Map out what achievable goals look like (if necessary)

• Write down examples of what making progress in these areas looks like

• If relevant to you, set a specific goal and target

Questions to ask

• What was great about this year that I want to double down on? It's not about doing something less or new—build on the good things

• What was lacking this year? Were there things I wish I had more time to focus on?

Great goals for the new year should be because you want to accomplish them, not out of obligation.

2024 intention

I don't have New Year resolutions or set specific goals. Instead, I set intentions and themes to guide how I'd like the year to unfold. The reason is priorities change and it's important to allow serendipity to take the wheel. I don't care if I don't check everything off the list as long as what's changed makes sense to me.

Themes and guiding principles for this year

"Get to optimal health" is the only theme I’ll carry over from 2023. It’s not because the others aren’t important, but this one requires more attention in 2024 as well. I created a few new ones for 2024.

Focus on what's in front of you

This principle was inspired by a conversation with my friend Caitlin. I have so many ideas and things that they are obstacles against what I'm focused on now. In 2024, I'm putting the preverbal horse blinders on to focus on what's in front of me. Execute those well and if you do things right, there will be times for other ideas.

Signals of progress:

• Current priorities are making faster progress

• I'm not starting new projects or stretching myself thin

Go for 10x

This may seem focused on the return, but the primary intention is putting effort into things that have exponential impact. This is the spiritual successor to 2023's "protect your time" principle. I'll only do things that yield multiples in value for others and yourself.

Signals of progress:

• Continue investing in early-stage startups vs. later stages for the big swing

• When taking time off, make a great experience that either introduces an incredibly new experience or provides great recovery

Go deeper

Depth over breadth—this one is a strong complement to focusing on what's in front of me, I want to go deeper into my interests and master skills vs. developing new ones. Avoid being a surface-level generalist and be T-shaped in a few core areas of expertise.

What success looks like:

• Read and research topics I'm interested in; learn from experts

• Rewatch your favorite talks and expand on the notes you took (Ex: Issue 49: Talks that shaped my philosophies)

• Mentor one person instead of a bunch of people only once

Personal platform

As a geriatric millennial, I'm grateful to have early exposure to publishing on the internet. This means I've owned davidhoang.com for nearly 20 years. As platforms change ownership and intention, it's more important than ever to have a personal digital platform on the internet. I love what Obsidian CEO Kepano posted¹:

"Write once, publish everywhere. Your personal website should be the source of truth."

I'm taking this to heart in the new year and want to control my internet publishing stack.

Signals of progress:

• Write blog posts on your internet domains 1-2 times a month

• Maintain davidhoang.com as a personal website. Tinker with the design, add new content and make it the front door to your digital presence

• Reduce the reliance on other platforms to express on the web

Foster art and creativity

I've deferred this for nearly a decade and would like this coming year to be a return to tapping into art and creativity. I have a BFA in Drawing and Painting and would like to go deeper into that. I have a garage in the desert which would make a great painting studio. Fostering the art side will naturally force a balance of work/life interests.

Signals of success:

• I'm keeping a sketchbook that has more ideas for paintings

• Your camera roll has more photos of capturing the world vs. capturing what you're eating (phone eats first)

• Buy original art for the home and support the arts

• Do more creative coding

Here's to 2024

For you, 2023 may be a year you want to reflect deeply on, or perhaps you want to throw it in a dumpster fire. Regardless, I hope 2024 gives you a marker of renewal and rejuvenation in what's important to you. I'm optimistic it'll be a great one! See you next Sunday in the new year.

Hype links

• 40 questions to ask yourself every year by Kepano

• 40 things I learned in 40 years by me

• If Korn wrote A Thousand Miles → This is uh-mazing

Yes, it’s my birthday

It’s true, my birthday is on December 31. People ask what they can do to celebrate. I’m not a big celebrator and don’t have any wishes for more material things in my life. Some friends are insistent and I appreciate it so wanted to give people three ideas if you feel compelled:

1. Become a paid subscriber of Proof of Concept. Monetization is an incentive to put more work into this passion project

2. Sign up for Replit Core. Try building something and share feedback with me

3. Find a GoFundMe and help someone pay their vet bills