My week summarized into 3 highlights, 2 discoveries, and 1 anticipation.

3 Highlights

The Office - I went into the office on Tuesday this week, which was a highlight for two reasons. First, I got an InBody scan as part of a twelve-week fitness challenge I am doing through NASA. The results were what I expected, and I have some work to do to get my body composition to where I want it! Second, my team celebrated the past year by going to Topgolf! It was great being able to chat with coworkers without work being the main topic, and golfing in whiteout conditions was beautiful! Although driving home afterward was a little scary.

The Basement - We finally got the last quote on our basement, and it was our best yet. It’s beginning to feel a lot more real and my wife and I have been spending all week deciding on various finishes for the basement.

The Barn - We met up with my parents and grandparents for lunch at a local place serving up “country cooking”. The best part was getting to see my grandparents and talk with them, but the all-you-can-eat soup, salad, and bread bar was pretty good too.

2 Discoveries

Inside look at modern web browser (part 1) - This four part blog series from Google is a really neat deep-dive into how browsers work, with lots of fun illustrations to help with the concepts. I haven’t made it through all four parts yet, but I’ve already learned from it. I shared this with my team at work this week since we work on web apps that run in-browser and while knowing browsers at this level detail isn’t always necessary day-to-day, it can come in handy. And helps build an appreciation for what is really happening in between raw code and interactive website.

For Every Winner a Loser - This was a fascinating article on how modern finance works. The gist is that most finance is not actually about trading or lending money for goods and services, it’s about betting on prices moving up or down. This paragraph blew my mind…

The total value of all the economic activity in the world is estimated at $105 trillion. That’s the mangoes. The value of the financial derivatives which arise from this activity – that’s the subsequent trading – is $667 trillion. That makes it the biggest business in the world. And in terms of the things it produces, that business is useless. It does nothing and adds no value. It is just one speculator betting against another and for every winner, on every single transaction, there is an exactly equivalent loser.

1 Anticipation

A new president - I tend to be pretty apolitical, but I have been paying close attention the upcoming administration change. That is neither an endorsement nor an indictment, but this is my first administration change as a federal employee, so this has a much more direct impact on my life than I have felt before. And beyond just the change of party, this particular president seems to have a focus on government efficiency. While government efficiency sounds good (who wouldn’t want that?), it seems like part of the plan is to make things tougher for federal employees. Including return to office mandates, layoffs, worse retirement/insurance benefits, and more. As a federal employee, that does not sound appealing. I am curious to see how much of it is talk, or frivolous bills that go nowhere in congress, and how much of it ends up becoming real and impacting my life.