2024 in Review

by Cody on 2024-12-29 filed under review

Hello there! 🎵 It's the most wonderful time of the year 🎵 Everyone is a little jollier as 2024 wraps up, and what could be more jolly than a lengthy writeup about a year that we're all ready to put behind us from a weird dude on the internet?

Last year, I wrote a 2023 In Review (same thing for 2022!). I have fun with these things. It helps me to set goals and reflect on them. I also enjoy hearing from lots of old friends and coworkers afterwards. So, I'm doing it again. A year is a long time, and you can do a lot with it.

Professional

In 2024, I made a slight shift at Seesaw, moving from EVP of Engineering to CTO. (At some point, I need to write a blog post on the differences betwen those roles as I learned a lot in the process.) I didn't explicitly create a 2023 professional goal, but if I did, it would have been effect positive change on the world via technology. I think that's the single best way to do something useful with the skills I have.

And how did that go? We 🧑‍🍳 cooked 🍳. We launched a new enterprise version of Seesaw, we rebuilt our data foundations around standards, we launched new regional instances in the UK and Australia, and realized a bunch of architectural improvements via frontend, infrastructure, and data modernization efforts. Best of all, millions of students and teachers benefit from this every week. I am lucky to work with a team of amazing folks, and I hereby give them the greatest honor I can afford: $5 gift certificates to the non-existent codypowell.com gift shop.

It was not a flawless victory. The educational landscape in the US is uncertain and complicated. I am learning new things every day on how to be more effective commercially. I overdid some things and underdid others. But on the whole, I'm proud of all we did, so I will keep going with this goal for next year.

Health

For the past 5 years, I've set (and met) a goal to run 500 miles. This is a big, hard goal that never fails to get me moving. It's also the high order bit when it comes to my fitness. As long as I'm running every week and it all adds up to 500 miles, then I can pretty much eat whatever I want (realistically: chicken nuggets), whenever I want (realistically: off of my kids' dinner plates).

How did it go? I am at 528 miles in late-December, so consider it done. Hooray! For much of the year, I was actually on track to break 600 miles and then I started battling foot and leg issues in Q4. I finally figured out the root cause: I was wearing the wrong kind of socks. A lot of great athletes get sidelined by horrific injuries like broken femurs or traumatic brain injuries. My own injuries are slightly less dramatic and based on my Amazon.com order history. Anyway, that whole experience did emphasize how important it is to run when you can, not when you want. That's the only way to get to 500. That's now 5 years in a row of this goal and I'll shoot for it again next year.

My other major health goal was to limit my alcohol intake. There was no big motivator, I was just feeling bad physically and mentally after drinking, even with small amounts. I am happy to report I made a lot of progress here and I'm 100+ days in a row of no alcohol. Hooray! People have asked: is it weird if you're in a group and everyone else is drinking? Honestly, it's fine! It might be awkward if I showed up to a frat party with a 6 pack of Coke Zero, but my frat party invites keep getting lost in the mail. Overall, it's been a good change that led to me feeling better, and I'll keep it going.

Financial

I don't set concrete financial goals, because there are just too many factors out of my control. I watch it, I try to make smart decisions, but ultimately, success here is having more money at the end of year than we had at the start.

How did it go? Good news, we do indeed have more money at the end of the year than at the start! I did throw chaos into the mix here. Many times I looked at the stock market this year and thought, "This is crazy." (For example, there's a former beverage company that's now a quantum computing company with no revenue, but is apparently worth $2.4B. What is going on here?) I spent a chunk of time trying to understand this better, coming up with theses, and making some trades around them. I was basically as successful as a monkey throwing darts at a board. Lesson learned: the market can stay irrational longer than I can pay for monkey darts. Luckily, passive and pragmatic decisions outweighed the effects of my chaos monkey tendencies.

One major financial win was that, for the first time in several years, I didn't buy any houses. Completely by accident, I managed to buy a house 5 years in a row, either for investment or living purposes. (Editor's note: this is expensive and crazy.) For 2024, I was mainly focused on paying things down and fixing things up. Chalk up another win for keeping things simple.

Family

My family goals were to be there every day and deliver 2 family highlights. I've got a wife and 3 kids and I intend to make them all a priority in my life, whether they like it or not.

How did it go? Well, I was there every day, fulfilling my household role of Executive Waffle Chef and Breaker Downer of Cardboard Boxes. (In fact, I am actually writing this between rounds of Oregon Trail for the PS5 with my kids. Dysentery is this week's big topic of conversation.) For family highlights, there were plenty. A big one was a trip to Maui over Spring Break with family friends. Another highlight was hosting lots of folks out at our lake house and here in Seattle. We are all still speaking to each other and no one has facial tattoos, and that constitutes success as a family. I'll keep going with both of these in 2025.

Books

Every year, I aim to read 24 books at an average of 2 per month. My idea is to mix up light, fun stuff with weightier books, with 90% of my reading taking place every night before I go to sleep. It doesn't lend itself to deep literary analysis, but it does lend itself to pretty good sleep.

How did it go? I finished 31 books. Here are a few favorites:

The End of Everything by Katie Mack. A mind-bending and fun(?) tour of the 5 ways the universe could end. There's just so much fascinating stuff in this very depressing topic (exhibit A: maybe the universe already flamed out, then fluctuated back into existence via a Boltzmann Brain. This book was a great reminder of how strange and wonderful it is that we're all here in the first place.
Machine Learning by Ethem Alpaydin and Deep Learning by John D. Kelleher. One of my goals this year was to build my conceptual and mathematical understanding of neural networks. These are both pretty accessible guides for that! I was able to take the basic concepts from this and create a supremely inefficient neural network in pytorch for predicting NBA games. Don't take me to Vegas, but do read the books if that's your thing.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. Time travel, spies, Arctic adventure, romance! These are all good and fun things. Hopefully they make a movie of this.

I enjoy reading good books and I will continue this goal in 2025.

Music

2024 was a big year of concerts for us. Ever since the pandemic, I have come to realize that you don't just get to see your favorite bands whenever you want. These opportunities are few and prone to disruption. If a band comes to town and at any point in my life I've wanted to see them, then we're going. So, who'd we go see? The standouts were Green Day, Pearl Jam, and Weezer. For Green Day, we were literally in the last row of the baseball stadium here in Seattle. I may have been closer to my house than the band. Doesn't matter! The important thing is to experience it.

Music brought my wife and I together in the first place, so we keep leaning in. One highlight was attending Just Like Heaven, a festival at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena for people who correctly recognize that music reached its peak 20 years ago. We saw Death Cab for Cutie, the Postal Service, and War on Drugs. We did a really fun stop over in Joshua Tree beforehand. I hope we do another weekend getaway like this next year.

Outside the concert experience, Apple Music informs me that my top artists were War on Drugs and Beck (see the definitive Beck playlist from a highly respected musicologist). My Music Dad energy is as mighty as ever.

Other

In my 2023 In Review post, I noted I was feeling stretched thin and called out a new goal to pare things down. The big idea to manage my energy better, commit to less, and bring my A game for the things that truly matter.

How did that go? Ok, I'd say! I prioritized family, work, and health. I let a lot of other things go, like the 2024 elections. I hear there was quite a brouhaha. As for me, I watched Planet Earth and Frasier reruns on election night and moved on with life. That would've been unthinkable to 2020 Me, but how many battles can you actually fight at once? In that same vein, this is the only post I made for this website in all of 2024. Shockingly, the world has kept spinning.

There were unanticipated side effects here. I was probably less connected and present for some friends and family. If you're on that list, then let me make it up to you with the most sincere apology I can afford: $5 gift certificates to the non-existent codypowell.com gift shop. Hopefully I can course correct a bit in 2025.

Wrap Up

🙌 We did it, gang 🙌! We made it through a year of election mania, conflict around the world, and the final season of Yellowstone. I hope you found some moments of meaning and joy throughout all that. I sure did. On to 2025!