Design Criteria and Goals

The trade:
Variety is the price of consistency.
Balance is the price of obsession.
Comfort is the price of progress.
Certainty is the price of living.

Here am I, unprepared.
Here am I, anyway.
Send me.

I shall, with urgency:

1. solve problems and become a better engineer
2. train and become a better athlete
3. care for and create fun for my family and friends and socialize with new ones
4. remember I will die, and there is one chance to reach my potential, however brilliant or bland

I shall not:

1. watch entertainment alone, including browsing without intent (stick to Grok text)
2. replan until the job’s done
3. take shortcuts
4. add to the Noise

When I am sufficiently accomplishing the first 8, I shall also:

1. Read and listen to books, including in Spanish/German, and practice vocabulary and eloquence
2. Play and listen to music and dance
3. Learn, write, compose, fix, clean, cook, and produce (and other errands)
4. Pray, meditate, stretch, sit in silence

The fundamental rationale behind the actions described in this article, and the goal of extending sustainable civilization to Mars, is rational and self-consistent. However, the meta-goal of the coming months/year, until I have met the rites of passage below, is to treat consistency itself as a sufficient reason to not deviate from the plan. Planning requires slow and miserable self-reflection and backtracking and is strictly worse than continuing with even a suboptimal plan.

Concrete measurable goals – my rites of passage – are on my wall.

• Athlete: Physical standards.
  • Complete all of the following in the same weekend
    • <11 min 2 mile run
      • Or <12 min if on trails with turns/elevation/mud/rocks
    • <56 sec 400 meter dash
    • 20 strict pullups with deadhang
    • With 40 pound dumbbell in each hand, with <20 seconds rest between sets:
      • 20 military press
      • 20 inclined bench press (about 15 degrees)
      • 20 bench press
      • 20 inclined bench press (about -15 degrees)
    • Trap bar deadlift 1.75x body weight for 5 clean reps
    • Farmer’s carry body weight 100 meters.
    • 45 minutes playing time in a soccer game with no injuries. (To me this implies you should be working towards ATG standards, but don’t have to hit them) (Though no one ever plays at 100%)
    • Improving or maintained eyesight. Able to read slides from back of meeting room.

• Engineer: Excel in my career and continuously take on challenges.
  Academic pursuits outside of work is the content below. No timeline since work is long hours and unpredictable. Read through all of:
  • An intuitive guide to compensating switch mode power supplies
  • Fundamentals of power electronics + Principles of power electronics
  • Electromagnetic compatibility and engineering
  • Electric motors and drives
  • Callister’s Materials Science Textbook
  • MIT 8.04
  • MIT 8.09
  • MIT 18.354
  • A thermodynamics/thermal physics book (possibly MIT 8.08)

• Part of a community and responsible to family and friends:
  • No explicit commitments worth writing here, but I will be kind to and call and visit my family and friends.
  • Consider: instead of phoning, write a blog that people can look at for a glimpse into your brain. This must come after studying is complete
  • Be social with people outside of work in a way that it fits into your schedule. (soccer! piano! interest in Mars! book club! cooking! etc)
• Artist
  • Know by heart the following pieces:
    • Chopin Concerto 1 Larghetto
    • Chopin Marche Funebre
    • Mars, When I was your Man
    • Debussy, Arabesque 1
    • Debussy, Reverie
    • Rodriguez, Oleo de Mujer con Sombrero
    • Rodriguez, Unicornio Azul
    • Bach, Air on G String
    • Sheeran, A Team
  • Know by heart the following stories
    • NewTel Third Degree Story
    • Home Depot Rabbits
    • Phone in Snow
    • Demon Owl Friend
    • Need more! Learn stories that highlight strengths of your friends and family.
  • Know well the following recipes (my favorites)
    • Kedgeree (scrambled egg + smoked salmon)
    • Papardelle Bolognese
    • Sunday Roast
    • Chicken Tikka Masala
    • Thai curry/Thai Soup + Coconut Lime Rice
    • Birria Tacos
    • Chicken Schawarma + Tzatziki, Hummus, Muhammara
    • Coconut Lentil Curry
  • Excel in Spanish
  • Publish, when you are ready:
    • your short story Ernesto
    • Third Degree
    • Other poems and stories and projects and ideas you think are any good
    • The songs I’ve written (already on Spotify, just have to link them, I don’t claim they are very good but glad I put it together)

Schedule:

Monday through Saturday Routine (this is not hard, you will be sleeping and exercising):
Wake 7:10 AM
Drink water, walk outside and practice eyesight
Cook breakfast and prepare lunch.
Inside or outside, do your easy warmup that hits every muscle for 30 minutes. (I have this down and memorized).
Shave, shower, moisturize face, dress
Breakfast: ~three cups spinach, 4 scrambled eggs in EVOO with toast and marinara and 3 multivitamin capsules.
Lunch: 1 cup oats + (optional) 2 tsp cacao soaked overnight on the counter in 0.5 cup milk, 0.75 cup water. In the morning mix in 10g bovine collagen peptides and 5 grams creatine and cinnamon, then add 0.5 cup frozen blueberries, 0.5 cup frozen strawberries.
Drive to work (2 miles away)
Work: 9 AM to 1 PM
Lunch: Overnight oats described above
Work: 1:30 PM to 6 PM
Afternoon snack is a butter/jam sandwich + orange + proferrin heme iron supplement.
Workout: 6:15 PM to 7:15 PM
Dinner: 2 cups milk with 20 grams protein powder and ~2 teaspoons bovine collagen and 1/2 orange bell pepper (on Friday nights if you host, this can be different)
Drive back to work
Work: ~7:45 PM to 9:30 PM. Deadline to leave work is 9:45 PM.
Brush teeth and play ~15 min piano, Wind down with meditation, reading (Spanish! or textbooks), stretching, prayer.
Lights out: 10:20 PM
Bedtime: 10:40 PM

On Sundays and vacation days start the day the same but cook other food that has no added sugar and no refined oils and not past 4 PM (if you do have meat it must be <1 pound per week, have half on Sunday and save the rest for a meal during the week), and be outside for longer in the morning to work on eyesight. In addition, spend 3+ hours studying. Finally, try to be social (do it through something you already like! Like Spanish or Soccer!
Outside of work and fitness, I want to be good at piano, soccer (and eyesight), Spanish, cooking, and socializing my whole life.
Mandatory one hour of Spanish audio book, one hour of piano on Sundays. Once fitness standards met, soccer on Sundays too.
Also have to do laundry, clean the house, go grocery shopping, take care of your plants, and other errands. Also good to spend part of the day bored.

Total weekly animal product consumption is:

• <=1 pound meat (leaving the option for special occasions)
• 24 chicken eggs,
• ~10 tablespoon bovine collagen
• Daily 10g Heme iron supplement
• 1.5 gallon milk
• Some butter if not EVOO for cooking eggs
• 150 grams of whey protein (but should transition to a vegan powder ASAP).
• All should be pasture-/humanely raised (though I still feel sad about cows being separated from calves). Want to minimize my funding of factory animal farming and also prepare for that plant-based Martian diet!

There is nothing so wrong with this plan that I should rethink it. No more planning. I make my reentry.