Thinking in Threes

Rory Eakin -

I like lists.  My mind works better when I segment into threes.  

What am I doing this days?   Health, Family, and Career.

Each of these three breakdown into threes as well.

Health  

  • Spiritual health -  This is a journey for me. I don't consider myself religious directly, but I am increasingly spiritual.  I am reading more philosophy these days, exploring concepts of justice (loved this book), intentional living and Quakerism.   While I have invested significant time here, I have fallen short in direct service to others.  I would like to fix that in 2022.
  • Physical health - I get 10,000 steps every day, work out 3x per week, and cook at home most nights to ensure healthy eating.  
  • Mental health -  another three subcategories here -  1) building/maintaining friendships (great research on why that is important here); 2) reading widely, and 3) journaling for reflective self-learning.   I don't do yoga or meditation regularly.

Family

  • Kids -  through the pandemic, I have enjoyed my new role as primary parent in our family. I get to do school drop-offs and pickups, cook our meals and read every day with the kids.  I get to plan with them afterschool activities, and summer road trips.    
  • Marriage -  our marriage provides foundation for the household.  This year continued our regular date nights (pandemic version), communication improvement and even our first trip alone together in a decade (thank you grandparents).  Staying happily married and growing with my spouse is a major priority in my life.
  • Extended family -  I am fortunate to have both my parents alive and healthy. Same with my wife's parents, and all of our siblings.  I'm investing time with all of these long term relationship, both on the phone and in person with regular visits.  We are blessed to get two to three weeks per year with our parents still. I work to be present and appreciative of those moments (influential piece to shape my thinking here)

Career

Career is perhaps too narrow a term. I could call this professional purpose. Or, my contribution to the world.  I still allocate significant time to CircleUp, but for the first time in a decade my day job isn't rigidly defined.  I am indulging in reflection: What aspects of my professional life do I want to continue? What should change?  

Naturally, the answers come in threes.  My professional time today is:

  • Learning - Learning is a low commitment, high sampling investment. This year, I have explored education, crypto, investing, climate and politics.  I try to adopt 'read widely, read wisely' (taken from a friend, great newsletter here). My time spent here is a combination of reading, listening to podcasts, and writing to learn.
  • Investing - As I learn, some topics elevate in importance, such that I invest either more time or money in projects that have potential for positive return, and more learning.  Topics I have invested into this year include climate, education, web3, and the art of investing more generally. I am building a  portfolio of several VC funds and startups in these areas of focus.  
  • Building -  Building is the most significant commitment.  Currently, I am only building with CircleUp (through my continued Board work).  I did create a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) in 2021, but haven't yet determined the business model.  I have one emerging idea (below) that may constitute building in 2022.

Using those three tools, my focus is narrowing to (another 3):

  • Climate -  I joined the My Climate Journey (MCJ) community this year. Through several books, substacks, podcasts and investments, I'm increasing my focus on what contribution I can make to mitigating the harms of climate change.
  • Crypto  - the interesting aspect of web3 to me is how the technology will change incentive and governance structures for organizations. Through learning and investing, I am exploring DAOs, token economics and other applications of the new technology that have the potential to change creative collaboration at scale.
  • Creativity -   I am exploring how creativity works.  I am allocating more energy and focus in this work just over the past ninety days, including an Outschool class,  and hope it continues in 2022.

I also read a lot in 2021.  And listened to a lot of podcasts.  Some of the content that influences me:

Most read authors

  • Clay Christensen
  • Tyler Cowen (including his podcast and newsletter, otherwise Amor Towles)
  • Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot stories)

Most listened to podcast

  • Ezra Klein
  • Odd Lots
  • Invest Like the Best

Favorite fiction

  • Bewilderment by Richard Powers
  • Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
  • Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Favorite Non fiction

  • The Artist Way by Julia Cameron
  • Justice by Michael Sandel
  • The Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova

Finally, wouldn't be a true year end reflection piece without goals for 2022:

  • More Friendship time.  This is a perennial one for me. Starting to put more systems in place for continuing to invest in my friendships.  I'm not where I want to me.
  • Professional Peer Learning.  I need to develop a shared learning community around the professional goals above to test, shape and elevate my work.  All ideas here are welcome.
  • Travel.  Like so many, I feel limited by the lockdowns over the past two years and am ready to grow through exploration next year.  

That's a snapshot of where I am as 2021 comes to a close.  I look forward to reading this again at the end of next year, five years out, and ten years from now.