Do these 5x/week:

🟡 No instagram before noon

Shielding my brain from cheap dopamine like Instagram has a profound impact on my focus. Many days I fail, but it's a boundary I want to keep for 2026 and beyond.

🔴 15+ minutes studying Portuguese

This was my biggest fail of the year. I couldn't figure out a way to get it consistently into my routine. Luckily, I continued with 1:1 classes through iTalki so my Portuguese improved massively to the point where people consistently compliment it. It's better than the average foreigner, but my goal is to get to C1, where people won't compliment it, they'll just know I speak it. My biggest weakness is listening comprehension, which I plan to improve through podcasts.

✅ Work outside of apartment

I started by going to cafes in the mornings, then graduated to co-works for most of the day, and now I walk 15 minutes to my favorite plant-filled co-work nearly every day. I feel more focused. And it has AC in the summer and heating in the winter. I bought a dedicated monitor and I've made a surprising number of good friends.

🟡 Send a postcard until I've sent 100

I believe I've sent around 95... home stretch! But I completely lost steam on this and haven't thought about it much.

✅ Work out

This year I worked out more days than I likely ever have as an adult. I give all credit to a text that my friend Ashwin sent me on Jan 22, 2025:

Here’s a question do you wanna do some type of workout accountability thing again I think it would help me be consistent

Since then we text each other when we work out, counting the number of times each month with the goal of hitting 20.

My stats: ⁠feb 19, mar 21 ✅, apr 13, may 15, jun 22 ✅, ⁠⁠jul 19, ⁠⁠aug 19, sep 20 ✅, oct 21 ✅, nov 21 ✅, dec 12

It’s kind of silly how simple and effective it is. On cold mornings when the last thing I want to do is workout, the thought of texting Ashwin has really motivated me… I have to use my two rest days per week wisely. The exercises I did this year were, in order of frequency: calisthenics, running, cycling, soccer, HIIT, yoga, hiking, and a spontaneous Barry’s class 😆

Find joyful collaboration

My biggest goal for the year was to work with people that catalyze amazing work. It's quite difficult to find. Even if you find the right person or people, you could end up working on the wrong project together, or even have the right project but the wrong timing. My strategy was to make lots of little collaboration prototypes with friends I admire. For some it was as simple as brainstorming over video call, for others we actually built things. I got at-bats with Alexis, Janice, James, Iggy, Alan, a different James, Anna, Vicky, Aaron, Andy, and probably more people I'm forgetting. I designed an iOS game with a UI entirely made out of cheese, a guessing game for long-distance friend groups, software for photobooths, a focaccia art workshop, and more.

Then one day, the founder of a company that I worked at 8 years ago messaged me on WhatsApp. He was in Lisbon and wanted to get breakfast. He had left the company he founded after growing it to a $2B+ valuation. After traveling the world with his family for a few years, he was scheming his next project. Turns out, we both are obsessed with bringing people together. I joined the two engineers he was prototyping with and have been working on planta.network since July. We're now 7 people.

Complete 4+ side quests

I like this category because they're like extra credit and I found myself adding to the list throughout the year.

🟡 Make big screen prints or other physical art

I didn't end up collaborating with a screenprinter like I initially imagined, but I did get my work published in a printed Zine so I'll give myself partial credit.

❌  Get a new tattoo

Didn't prioritize it, but have some ideas for 2026.

🟡 Design and host a creative workshop

I started to plan a Focaccia Garden making workshop with my Italian friend Anna but we postponed it because life got too busy towards the end of the year.

🟡  Host a standing monthly potluck

I hosted some nice dinners at my place, from potlucks to a 14-person Thanksgiving, but nothing recurring for now. I could see a rotating, recurring dinner happening in 2026.

✅  Organize a camping trip

I brought my camping gear to Portugal coming back from a U.S. wedding and I used it on a great 1-night trip with Toshi and Max to Serra da Estrela National Park, the tallest mountain in Portugal: 1,993 meters  (6,538 feet).

✅  Take my apartment interior design to the next level

Bought a nice rug for under my bed, a side table, two cabinets for more storage, and a sun lounger for my balcony. Next up: more art.

✅  Take salsa classes

My sweet friends got me a month of classes for my birthday. It was fun, but I'm not sure if I actually retained much, so am on the fence about continuing.

✅  Find the path between Parque Eduardo VII and Monsanto

This was an amazing discovery and now my main running route. Getting to Monsanto park is a joy because it's so big that it doesn't feel like I'm inside a city.

✅  Do a muscle up

My original goal was to be able to do a muscle up by Jan 1, 2025 but I failed. Then my goal was March 1, which I failed. But on my bike trip in Slovenia with the encouragement and guidance of some friends, I got my first muscle up in July and now can do one consistently. Now I need to work on making it cleaner and then doing two in a row.

How many books did I read?

I think just four which is sad, but they were all bangers.

• Be Ready When the Luck Happens, Ina Garten
• An Untamed State, Roxanne Gay
• Table for Two, Amor Towles
• The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker

So overall how did I do?

I'm pretty happy with the goals I achieved this year. I'm glad I more formally wrote down goals because looking back it helps me make sense of the year. Time to think about 2026. What was 2025 about for you?

For me, 2024 was about nesting in Lisbon, finding an apartment, building community, and setting up routines that make me feel good.

Hanh gave me a hilarious metaphor for my 2025 plans: laying eggs in my new nest. I want to go deeper on all of my projects and start some new ones.

Do these 5x/week

• Work out (calisthenics 2-3x + soccer/run/surf/hiit)
• No instagram before noon
• 15+ minutes studying Portuguese
• Work outside of apartment
• Send a postcard until I've sent 100 (currently at 47 as of Jan 17)

Find joyful collaboration

Have you ever worked with someone where you're both pushing each other to be the best version of yourself, learning from the other person, in flow state, making something amazing that neither of you could make alone? That's what I'm craving for 2025. Here are my strategies for finding it:

• Study existing collaboration research and famous creative partnerships
• Set up 10+ calls with potential collaborator friends
• Finish portfolio website (creates trust with collaborators)
• Write “Call for collaboration” substack, post on LinkedIn
• Consider creating a collaboration survey
• Consider working in public (tiktok) as a collaborator finder

Complete 4+ side quests

• Make big screen prints or other physical art
• Get a new tattoo
• Design and host a creative workshop
• Host a standing monthly potluck
• Organize a camping trip
• Take my apartment interior design to the next level

I'm looking forward to reviewing this note at the end of the year, I'm curious how much I'll have gotten done.

I spent 8 hours a day, 5 days a week scouring apartment websites, calling real estate agents in my barely passable Portuguese, and visited a dozen apartments in person, steadily developing a sense of what I was looking for and what to avoid. Right as I felt like I was hitting my stride, I  realized that I only had two days left in my sublet and I was still apartment-less. Luckily, a friend of mine was traveling, so I moved into his empty room and continued the search. I needed to hustle now.

During the third week, I stepped into the 14th apartment and knew immediately that it was the one. It was centrally located, next to a park, filled with natural light, and had a huge balcony. I sent an offer that day. Four days later I signed the lease, rented a car, bought a mattress and sofa bed at IKEA, and hosted my brother and his fiancé a week later.

This weekend will mark 1 month since I signed the lease. To celebrate, I'm writing down the whole experience from start to finish, partly so I remember it and partly to help others in their own search.

Deciding the criteria

The first thing I did was make a list of apartment criteria that are nice-to-have, important, and deal breakers. At first the only thing that I absolutely needed was an open kitchen because I love to host. This immediately eliminated the majority of Portugal apartments since the standard design is to have a kitchen tucked in a narrow hallway. Apparently it’s more common for Portuguese people to eat at the local tasca than cook, and that’s reflected in the architecture.

After a few visits to studio apartments, I also realized how important it was to me to be able to comfortably host friends and family visiting, which is impossible in a studio apartment. I increased my budget 200€ and started only looking at 1-bedrooms.

The other nice-to-haves for me were natural light, outdoor space, central neighborhood, nice appliances, and being close to the water where I like to run.

Finding apartment listings

Most people just look at Idealista, which has the most listings and a robust notification and filtering system. The problem is that many real estate agents and landlords only put their apartment on Idealista as a last resort because it attracts a huge number of people, including spammers. Most of my friends found their apartment through Idealista, but here are some alternative spots to check too.

Real estate listing aggregators

• Imovirtual
• Dom Senhorio
• Supercasa
• Casa Sapo
• BPI Expresso Imobiliário
• Custo Justo
  

Real Estate Agency websites

• KW Portugal
• Coldwell Banker Portugal
• Remax
• JLL
• Home Lovers
• Century 21
• Era

Choosing to work with real estate agents

I talked with five real estate agents during my search. I told them what I was looking for and they said they’d send me anything they find. None of them sent me anything that resulted in a visit, but I was pretty picky. I have two real estate agents I’d highly recommend in the Lisbon area if you’re looking, let me know.

The possible downside of working with a real estate agent is that the property owner’s agent will have to split their commission with your agent. If you work by yourself, their agent receives the whole commission. I noticed that some listings specifically said that they only work with individuals, probably for this reason.

My advice is to work with a real estate agent if you’re not able to go on tours yourself or don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to the search, otherwise you can tell a few of them what you’re looking for and see if they can find you anything, but do your own research too. They will go on tours with you to help inspect the apartment and act as translator, but my guess is that most people don’t actually need the hand holding.

Setting up visits

Every morning I spent 1-2 hours going to each site, applying location and price filters, sorting by most recent to see if anything new was published. When I did find something new, I’d immediately call them. If they answered, I’d set up a time to visit. If they didn’t answer (the majority), I’d save the number in my phone and message them on Whatsapp saying I had just called them and was interested in setting up a visit. I made sure to include a link to the apartment since most agents manage multiple properties at a time.

Visiting apartments

Once I scheduled a visit, I texted the agent the morning of to confirm and made an effort to arrive early. This had two advantages: 1. Oftentimes my plan to be early resulted in being right on time due to traffic, bus schedules, etc. and 2. When I did actually arrive early, I could walk around the neighborhood and get a feel for it.

Half of the visits I did in Portuguese and half in English, depending on the level of English of the real estate agent.

5 question I asked during visits

1. How long have you been a real estate agent? What do you like about it?
Becoming their friend is important because the owner will ask them about the prospective tenants when making a decision on whose offer to accept.

2. Is it okay if you take a video so you can remember and compare it?
I didn’t think that I’d ever look back at the videos, but I actually did quite a lot so it’s worth taking good ones.

3. How long has the property been on the market for and how many tours have you given so far?
This gives you a sense of how quickly you’d need to move on it if you like it.

4. When is the earliest move-in date?
If it’s a month or more, you know that you won’t be able to negotiate the price much because they can wait until they receive an offer that they want.

5. What is the owner looking for in an offer?
You’ll likely email them your offer. Some agents will tell you how many months of rent they’re asking for the deposit, some will say that it’s up for you to decide. The legal maximum I believe is 2 months in advance, 2 months deposit, but because the market is so competitive, some tenants offer more. Also ask how long the owner wants the lease to be and the move-in date.

5 things to check during visits

1. Are the windows double-paned and do you see mold anywhere?
Double-paned windows are often framed with white metal. You can tell they're double-paned by putting your fingers on either side and seeing if they touch. Double-pained windows are great because they help with insulation, noise, and preventing mold, which is a common problem in Portuguese apartments due to the humidity and lack of ventilation.

2. What is the neighborhood and neighbors like?
Can you see yourself becoming part of the community?

3. What’s the closest metro and bus station?
Look up how long it would take you to get to your friends' houses and favorite restaurants.

4. Is there is anything missing?
The apartment I ended up going with didn't have an oven, but on the tour I asked about it and they said they’d buy me one.

Submitting an offer

Once you decide that you want to make an offer, it’s important to act quickly before they decide to go with someone else. I had most of the elements of my offer packet prepared beforehand.

1. Introduction letter (Carta de Motivação)
   I introduced myself, why I moved to Lisbon, my living situation (I’m single, don’t smoke, don’t have kids or pets), my work situation, and what I’ve included in the rest of the offer packet. I translated it to Portuguese using DeepL and had a Portuguese friend proofread it. She only made one change so it seems like DeepL is pretty solid.
2. Offer
   How many months of rent paid in advance
   How many months of rent as a deposit
   Monthly rent
   Lease duration
   Move-in date
3. NIF, passport, work contract, 3 months pay slips
4. Guarantor
   A guarantor is a Portuguese citizen who the property owner can go to if the tenant can’t pay rent. I had a few Portuguese friends who I maybe could have asked, but I didn’t know them super well, so I decided not to. One apartment that I almost put an offer for told me that the guarantor doesn’t have to be a Portuguese citizen so I used my dad, but in most cases they need to be Portuguese. Many places will accept an extra month or two of rent in advance in place of a guarantor.

Signing the lease

The real estate agent called me a few days after I submitted my offer and told me he was going to send me the lease to review. I asked him how negotiable the rent was, and he told me that the other prospective tenant offered 150€ over the asked monthly rent, but they chose me because I was one person instead of a couple. I believed him because the place was amazing and the rent was very fair. I think being from the U.S. also is an advantage, I’ve heard stories of landlords having prejudices towards people from Brazil and Asia.

I read the lease, called the real estate agent with a few questions like how things will be taken care of if they break and confirmed that they would purchase an oven. I summarized what we talked about and put it in an email, asking him to confirm that the owner agrees too. Then we set up a time to sign the lease with the owner.

The real estate agent, owner, and her husband were already in the apartment when I arrived. The owner is an older Portuguese woman who lived in the apartment around 40 years ago. Her husband is from England and Rhodesia and was super nice; he came over earlier this week to lend me his drill and ended up helping me install shelves for 8 hours and taking me out to eat chocos — grilled cuttlefish.

After we signed, I sent a bank transfer with the money, got the keys, and started obsessively planning my IKEA visit.

Good luck, may you find a magical mold-free apartment, and remember the old saying that applies to both rush hour and housing shortages: “You are not stuck in traffic. You are the traffic.”

I moved between 23 different cities: Los Cabos, Lisbon, Porto, Lagos, New York, Austin, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Altos, Palo Alto, Vancouver,  San Diego, Seattle, Denver, Santa Barbara, Buenos Aires, Bariloche, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Balneário Camboriú, Navegantes, and Florianópolis.

This nomadic lifestyle comes to an end in ten days when I fly back to Lisbon, which will be my home for the next few years.

The wildest thing about this year is that I've felt relatively calm amongst the chaos. The reason is simple — I try to do the same thing before and after I sleep every day. Good days start with good mornings, and good mornings start with a good bedtime routine. I'm documenting this for future me so when I enter other chaotic periods of my life, I have a blueprint for something that worked great this time around.

Evening

• Stop using phone 30-60 minutes before bed
• Brush teeth, take out contacts, etc.
• Stretch for 5-10 minutes
• Reflect on day and what I’m going to do tomorrow
• Sleep

Morning

• Wake up 8 hours after I go to sleep
• Don’t look at phone for 30-60 minutes
• Go outside for a walk or run
• If I don’t run, do HIIT workout or some pushups
• Shower and eat breakfast
• Start the day

There are many days when I do none of these things. Especially if I start looking at my phone during the morning, it throws off the whole thing and I'll end up eating breakfast and showering at 1pm. When I do manage to go through it before 10am, I feel amazing.

One of the first things I did when I quit my job in August was set a goal to do four things every day: exercise, practice Portuguese, work on Dozen, and write. In this goal, I failed. I was consistent with some of them at different times, but managing to do all four every single day was exhausting. As I set up my life in Lisbon, I'll have to think about how I can build on my routine to fit these important activities — my guess is having exercise as the base every day and spreading out the rest amongst a few different days could work well. If you're reading this, hi! I don't plan on sharing this writing with too many people so you must be special. Let me know what routines have been the most impactful for you.

I was in an Uber the other day. The driver was a somber man with short, wiry grey hair. I asked him where he was from. He said Rio de Janeiro. I told him I was just there for carnival! He said cool. I asked him how long he's been here. He said 2 years. I asked him why he moved. He said his daughter lives here. I was stuck with short answers. My intermediate Portuguese was running out of questions. Then I asked him what he misses most about Brazil.

His face changed. He started using his hands as he described that what he missed most was the people — in Brazil people are happy, they have tougher circumstances but they're in it together, here everyone is sad, especially Portuguese women and young people, they don't see a future. He used to have barbecues with his friends all the time and here his neighbor will barely say hello to him.

Why did this question have such a different response than the others? It's because it was a different type of question. I think there are three types of conversation questions: recall, reflection, and deep reflection.

Recall questions

Most questions that come up in casual conversation are recall questions. You know the information being asked and you verbalize it for the other person. For example, "How old are you?" or "What's your favorite food?" or "What do you do for work?" They're useful for getting a baseline understanding of the other person and they get the conversation going.

Reflection questions

The second type of question requires some reflection; either nobody has asked you before, or the answer changes. "How was your day" is the baby version because it requires a bit of reflection, "Hm, how was my day?"

Asking, "Why?" is often a reflection question, although asking it flat-out can come across as judgemental. A trick a user researcher taught me is to instead ask, "What lead you to that?" It's the same question, but less judgey and asks for more of a story. I also like the question "What surprised you about that?" because it simultaneously asks about expectations and reality.

Deep reflection questions

The third type of question is also the rarest: questions where the person answering it learns something new, often about themselves. Therapists and coaches are well-versed in asking these questions. They can unblock people. They're powerful. David Brooks talks about how we all grow up asking these questions:

Kids are phenomenal at asking big, direct questions. I have a friend named Niobe Way who was one day teaching a class of eighth grade boys how to conduct interviews. She made herself their first interview subject and told them they could ask her anything. Here’s how it went:

Student A: Are you married?
Niobe Way: No.
Student B: Are you divorced?
Way: Yes.
Student C: Do you still love him?
Way: [Deep gasp of breath]
Student D: Does he know that you still love him? Does he know?
Way: [Tears in her eyes]
Student E: Do your children know?

As adults, we get more inhibited with our questions, if we even ask them at all. I’ve learned we’re generally too cautious. People are dying to tell you their stories. Very often, no one has ever asked about them.

I used to be nervous when I asked big questions. Will people think I'm nosy? Will they tell me it's personal and change the subject? I started asking anyway, and so far I've been surprised by how much people light up. People want to talk about real shit. They don't want to talk about the weather.

In All About Love, bell hooks says love is:

The will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth.

Deep reflection questions nurture the spiritual growth of others. They show other people that we care about them and see them. Plus, you wouldn't believe some of the crazy stories people will tell you. All you have to do is ask.

A few years ago, I changed my mind. If you haven't already, listen to Ezra Klein’s interview with philosopher C. Thi Nguyen about his book Games: Agency as Art. Their conversation made me realize that despite my aversion, games are everywhere in my life: Instagram posts, dating apps, and performance reviews all have rules, points, and winners.

“We’re not simply playing these games — they are playing us, too. Our desires, motivations and behaviors are constantly being shaped and reshaped by incentives and systems that we aren’t even aware of.”

The lens of viewing everything as a game is useful. It helps me consider implicit rules and question how much I care about winning. I also started to think about video games less as wastes of time and more as immersive art pieces. Playing a game is like stepping into a new mini world where, refreshingly, the rules are explicit and winning is achievable.

In games, it's more clear how well you're doing because there are generally points. In life it's much more opaque: You went on a great run, but then you burnt your dinner and you've got a runny nose, but finished your book. I guess you're doing… alright? Are you better than you were a year ago? Are you making progress? In life these can be difficult questions, but in games you just look at your level.

For the first few decades of our lives, school and grades are a kind of real-world point system. I wonder if games appeal to adults because we crave the certainty we had at the beginning of our life. It feels good to know that you did a good job. It feels good to feel smart.

I think games can teach us a lot about life. In future posts I want to analyze the game mechanics, design choices, and ideas for improvement for a variety of games I've been playing recently. Why did Wordle go viral? What makes NYT's new game Connections so fun? What sort of games appeal to different people? Stay tuned.

At my absolute best I’m an adequate surfer. A good surfer like the one from the clip above would be generous to call me intermediate. However, I'm convinced that my inexperience makes me an above-average teacher. I learned to surf so recently that common beginner mistakes are fresh in my mind and easy to articulate. Are you interested in surfing? If so, here's everything I know about surfing. I hope I can become a slightly better surfer by articulating it, and hopefully you'll benefit too.

1. Go with others

Surfing is technically an individual sport, but I've never surfed alone. For me, the joy of surfing comes from the chats in between sets, cheering each other on, and giving each other tips.

2. Get a board and wetsuit

To start, just borrow a board/suit from friends or rent at your local shop.

If you really want to buy a surfboard, start with a foam board because they’re soft, stable, and cheaper. Wavestorm is the quintessential beginner board because it's quite affordable and 8’ long, ideal for catching small waves.

If the water is below 70°F, you'll want a wetsuit. There are many brands, but most use a two number system to describe their thickness: the first is the millimeter thickness of the body, the second number is the thickness of the arms, which are thinner to make it easier to paddle. In the Bay Area, you'll want a 4-3 most of the time, or a 3-2 on hot days in the summer.

3. Choose a location

Let your surfer friends choose, or Google a surf report website and look for places where the waves are 1-3 ft., which is good for beginners. In the Bay Area, Bolinas is the best beginner spot due to the ample space, friendly vibes, and gentle waves.

Be sure to bring water, snacks, and sunscreen. Go on a weekday to avoid crowds. Be mindful of tides and rip currents.

4. Put on the wetsuit

Believe me — go commando. Many people I've taken surfing opted to wear a bathing suit under their wetsuit and got major chaffing. That said, many of my female surfer friends where a bathing suit underneath and it certainly makes it easier to change in/out of.

If you’re exhausted by the time your wetsuit is on, it means it fits perfectly — nice and tight. Backzip wetsuits are easier to put on than chest zip, but chest zip can be warmer and easier to paddle in.

Some people put plastic bags on their feet to slide into their wetsuit faster. I'd like to try it but who has plastic bags on hand these days?

5. Prepare your board and watch the waves

Make sure to have a leash, which is a cord that connects the back of the board to a velcro cuff around your back leg. Leashes make it easier to recover your board after an inevitable wipe out, and keep other surfers safer from flying boards.

If you're using a foam board, you're probably fine without wax. If it’s a hardtop, rub wax onto the middle 3-4 ft. of the board so your hands and feet don't slip when you stand up.

Stretch out your arms and legs, look at where the waves are breaking, and observe where people are actually catching waves. See if there is an area where waves aren't breaking — that could be a channel where it's easier to paddle out.

6. Boogie board on the whitewater

First, get some practice to get the feel of your board. Whitewater is waves that have already broken. Walk out into the water, and when you see a broken wave coming towards you, turn your board towards the beach, perpendicular to the wave, jump on your board, and see how it feels! Get used to balancing on your board on your stomach, experiment being further forward or back on the board, then try standing up! Have fun with it.

7. Learn etiquette

Especially at crowded breaks, local surfers can yell at beginners who get in their way. It's easy to avoid this by remembering two key rules:

First, when you paddle out, choose a route that goes outside of where people are catching waves, not in the middle.

Second, don't drop in on someone else's wave. The surfer closest to the peak (first place where the wave breaks) has the right of way, which means that surfers further away from the peak shouldn't try to paddle for a wave if someone is already on it. Look over your shoulders when you’re paddling for a wave to make sure you’re not accidentally cutting someone off.

8. Practice fighting through waves

The scariest part about surfing is waves crashing on you. Luckily, there are a few simple things to mitigate risk, depending on the size of the wave.

1-2 ft. whitewater: Go above — Position yourself perfectly perpendicular to the wave, grab the sides of your surfboard and push your body up and the board down by straightening your arms and arching your back. The whitewater will rush above your board and hit you in the chest, and you'll stay on top and keep paddling.

3-4 ft. whitewater: Go under — Grab the nose of your board with both hands and hug it tight. Right before the wave gets to you, take a big breath and dive down below the wave, angling the nose of the board down with you. The buoyancy of the board will pop you out on the other side of the wave, unscathed!

Big wave crashing on you: Avoid this situation by paddling hard directly towards a big wave and let it pass below you unbroken. If it's too late, you have two options. You can either completely bail off your board and dive as far below the wave as possible to avoid getting sucked in, or you can turtle roll, which is to grab the sides of your board with your hands, latch your feet to the bottom sides of the board, and roll upside down, letting the wave hit the top of your board. If you hold on tight, the buoyancy of the board will keep you from getting sucked into the wave.

In the Washing Machine: Sometimes, despite your best intentions, you get sucked into the wave. You're rolling around as if you're in a massive washing machine and you don't know which way is up. The best thing to do is is counter-intuitive: relax your body and conserve your oxygen. The buoyancy of your wetsuit will bring you to the top, but if you kick and thrash, you might run out of air. The second you reach the surface, find your board and watch for more incoming waves.

9. Paddle beyond the break

Now that you know how to deal with any type of incoming wave, it's time to paddle out to where the waves haven't broken yet so you can catch one! Cup your hands and alternate your arms in consistent, measured strokes. Raise your chest off your board for more leverage. It's tiring, but you'll build up strength and technique over time. Paddle out past where the waves are breaking and rest. Sit up with your board between your legs, letting the nose of your board out of the water. You'll be able to see waves better and you'll be quick to rotate your board if you see a wave you like.

10. Find your wave

As you surf, you'll get better and better at telling which waves to try to catch and which ones to let go. When you see a wave forming, look for the darkest part of the wall — that will likely be the peak of the wave, or the place that it breaks first. Paddle to position yourself close to the dark part of the wall because that’s where the wave will be easiest to catch. Watch a few waves crash and see where they're breaking.

When see a wave that seems like it will break right after it gets to you, it's game time. If you’re not already, sit on the middle of your board with your feet straddling either side and rotate them in opposite directions like eggbeaters until your board rotates perpendicular to the incoming wave.

11. Catch your wave

Now that your board is positioned perpendicular to the wave, start paddling. Peek backwards over your shoulders to see if the wave is getting big enough, and if there are other people closer to the peak that have the right of way. If the wave looks too small or there's someone else, stop paddling and rest for the next wave.

Paddle in calm, strong, consistent strokes, keeping your chest as high as you can for leverage. Cup your hands and keep your feet from dragging in the water by pressing them on the back of your board or bending your knees and keeping them in the air.

When you notice your speed significantly accelerating from the wave, it's time to stop paddling and stand up! Put your hands on either side of the board and push up. Bring your left leg up towards your chest, planting your left foot and then your right foot on the board below you. Stay low with your knees bent for balance. You've done it!

12. Troubleshoot

Not everything will go perfectly on your first wave. It's very likely that the wave will pass below you and you'll be stuck wondering what you did wrong. Ask an experienced surfer to watch you during your next attempt and they might say one of the following things:

Paddle faster
If the wave is moving fast and you aren’t moving at all, it will pass right on by. You have to be moving close to the speed of the wave to catch it. To increase your speed, focus on making strong strokes with cupped hands and keeping your feet out of the water.

Move your body forward or backward on the board
If your body is too far towards the front of the board, you’ll nose dive or pearl and tumble into the wave. If your body is too far back on the board, the tip of the board will be out of the water and the wave will pass under you. If your body is just right, the tip of your board will be barely in the water and suction onto to the wave. It will take a few tries to figure out where is right for you. Once you have it, find something distinctive on the board that you can line up with your chest to make it easy to line up in the right spot.

Get closer or further from the break
If you’re too far in from the break, the wave will crash before it gets to you, or worse, right on top of you! If you’re too far out from the break, the wave won’t be steep enough to catch you, and it will pass under you.

13. Find what's fun for you

Once you've caught a few waves, try catching the same wave with your friends — a party wave! Once you stand up, try angling your body and board towards the unbroken part of the wave for a longer ride. Try bigger waves, try longboards, try shortboards. This is my current skill level, so if you know what to do next, please let me know.

Ah, and I forgot to mention the absolute most important part of surfing: saying "chhyeaaahh!"

I did not consider, even passingly, that I had a choice when it came to surfing. My enchantment would take me where it would.
― William Finnegan, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life

In college, I decided I wanted to become a better writer. Communicating clearly makes you better at everything, since so much of life revolves around communication.

Becoming better at writing is difficult. It's an example of what Buster Benson calls a kiloslog — "1,000 slogs towards the same long-term meaningful shift in identity."

The greatest kiloslogs of my life have been becoming a soccer player, Spanish-speaker, runner, and product designer. They each share a common trait: consistent, intentional practice. When I reflected about writing, I was surprised to realize that I've actually been slogging away at a writing habit for a while. Take a walk with me into the internet archive time machine:

2015: 2pals100days — Inspired by The 100 Day Project, I made a joint Instagram account with my best friend Hanh and we alternated posting about our day-to-day lives during the summer before our senior year of college. It brought us closer and helped me reflect on my experience living in Santiago, Chile.

2016: Chile blog — After I graduated college, I moved back to Santiago and started a Tumblr (!) blog which I completely forgot about until a few months ago. I expected to cringe at my 22-year-old earnestness, but it actually brought me joy and assuredness to read about how fine I was moving abroad without a job, seeing as I'm about to do it again to Portugal.

2017: 100daysofboludez — After Chile, I moved to Buenos Aires and started a daily project drawing doodles of the strange Argentine slang I was learning. After 18 posts I stopped, probably because I was too busy chamuyando.

2018: make.more.scroll.less —  When I moved to Mexico for a month to work on my portfolio and apply to U.S. jobs, I revved back up the 100dayproject machine for a record-setting 147 posts, my largest project to-date. During the pandemic the project got a second wind, but it faded when I realized I wanted to focus more on writing than image-creation.

2020: Notes from Friends — During the dark, endless days of the pandemic, my roommates and I started a decentralized newsletter where anybody could submit anything they wanted to share and blast it out to all of our friends. Sometimes issues had themes, other times it was just an open space for people to pseudonymously share their pandemic angst. We published issues 1-6 on tinyletter and 7-10 on buttondown.

2021: Pandemic Pen Pals — During the later years of the pandemic, my friend Andrew and I spent 100 consecutive days sending short essays and reflections back and forth over WhatsApp. Similar to 2pals100days, having a partner kept me very accountable and I noticed my writing improving, particularly because Andrew is an excellent writer and I was trying my best to keep up with him.

2023: 750words.com — a design leadership coach I worked with told me about about this site as a way to build a writing habit. If you write 750 words, you get a badge with a bird on it. Three in a row and you get a turkey. I was surprised to find how motivated those virtual birds got me — I've written nearly 50,000 words so far. The stream-of-consciousness style of writing is useful for reflection, but I'd like to get better at editing and writing for others, which brings us to our latest iteration:

late 2023: this journal — My goal is to publish or edit 10 times per month. I'm tracking my progress in a Google Sheet, along with my three other daily goals: sweat, learn Portuguese, and work on Dozen. I have so many things I'm excited to write about: how to surf, how to make the perfect egg sandwich, why Venmo is the worst-designed popular app of all time, what makes New York Times Games so fun...

My goals with this journal are to improve the quality of my writing, capture what my life is like right now, and crystalize things I learn. Let's see what happens.