2021_life_planning_with_back_propagation

	A	B	C	D	E
1	Name	Type	Value	Description	Conclusions
2	Put extra effort into day job	Decision	0.461	I am contractually obligated to put in at least 40 hours of work a week, but I usually put in at least 50. There are a number of interesting and potentially high impact projects going on at my workplace, some of which could go a lot faster if I put more effort into them. The trouble with doing research within a company is that there is less opportunity for sharing work, so even if I do something really useful, I might not be able to share it beyond some vague line in a patent (and the physical product that is manufactured). Working harder at my day job could also lead to promotions and raises which would give me money to donate to effective charities, and influence to guide future research into high-impact projects. The decision here is whether to put a lot of extra effort into my regular job, or if I could have more impact working on independent projects or creating educational materials.	Revisit in February, after I have a better idea of how much energy I'll have left after fulfilling my contractual obligations to both my jobs.
3	Donate to GiveWell recommended charity	Decision	0.25	GiveWell is an organization that applies to charities the kinds of quantitative analyses of effectiveness that hedge fund managers use to evaluate the effectiveness of companies. Every year GiveWell makes quantitative recommendations about which charities they have high confidence will improve human wellfare. I consider their recommendations to be conservative in that they focus on factors which have measurable and relatively short-term positive effects. I think it is likely that the actual most effective charities are doing things whose results will not readily quantifiable or attributable in the short-term (or possibly ever), such as political advocacy groups or research groups (like Wild Animal Initiative), but picking the best ones seems haphazard, and likely to miss, so I donate to these conservative choices. I will almost certainly donate to GiveWell's top recommended charity this year, the question is how much to donate to them vs other charities or savings. I intend to donate somewhere between $10,000 and $30,000 to their top recommended charity (whatever it is), most likely $20,000.	Revisit in November
4	Independent study of math and CS topics	Decision	0.167	There are a lot of things I don't know about math and computers that I would like to know. In particular the theoretical basis for machine learning, emerging technologies like quantum computing, processes like automatic program generation, and ways to make programs more useful through devops best practices and UX design. I could put a lot of time into learning these things and I'm sure I would really enjoy it, but I question how useful it would actually be, because I already have a lot of useful knowledge and I should probably use that knowledge to help people instead of spending all my time learning new things.	I should learn what I have to learn to do my day job well, and to be a good TA, but not spend much time on new topics that might not be immediately useful.
5	Independent research or contribution to Open Source projects	Decision	0.156	I have a lot of ideas for interesting research projects that don't fit neatly with things I am doing at work, so I can't justify spending paid time on them. I also have some contacts who have expressed interest in collaborating on independent research projects. I would also like to make contributions to Open Source projects or write . Publicly released code I have written in the past has not been very influential. I think that is partly due to the packaging and documentation being lacking. There are some application areas related to synthetic biology where I think there is opportunity to make new Open Source projects, or useful new contributions to existing projects.	Concentrate on day job and TA job, but keep a running list of potential projects to revisit later this year, or next year.
6	Visit family/friends on west coast	Decision	0.109	Nearly all of my family lives on the other side of the country. I should visit them at least once in 2021. I also have lots of friends in that area, for example at my old university, possibly I could visit some of them during the same trip as to see my family. In the past I have traveled to the west coast during Christmas season every year. In 2020 that was not possible, and it turned out to not really bother me very much. The decision here is whether to visit the west coast once or twice in 2021, and when. This is highly contingent contingent on how the COVID pandemic develops.	Revisit in April. If pandemic seems to be clearing, then visit west coast in summer or fall and try to visit multiple places. If COVID is still a factor in summer and fall but clears up by Christmas, then make the trip for the Christmas holiday.
7	Produce educational content	Decision	0.097	I could write blogs or make videos about biology or computer science topics. When I was a biochemistry graduate student, I made some biology videos that got a lot of views on YouTube. I think it would be fun and hopefully useful to others if I made more educational content as videos, or blogs, or a book, or maybe some kind of interactive lessons.	Keep lists of ideas as I think of them, but focus on TA job until it expires in August, then revisit.
8	Put extra effort into TA job	Decision	0.096	I am contractually obligated to put in 15 hours a week for my job as a TA. I could just do the bare minimum of what my supervisors ask, or I could try to be creative and create new content (possibly to be posted publicly) related to course topics. I could also put in extra effort in the form of helping individual students or creating extra content related to course specific topics like projects and exams.	Revisit a few weeks into the job, after I have a good idea of how much effort is required for the drudgery aspects, and what kinds of opportunities there might be to go beyond.
9	Keep mental health log	Decision	0.032	Sometimes I experience poor mental health, for example I sometimes get axious or sad or have trouble concentrating, and I sometimes treat other people poorly out of spite. Intermittently in the past I have used journaling as a way to monitor/manage my mental health. Last year (2020) I came up with a structured format for these journal writings, which seemed to work pretty well, but I only made five entries in it, even though there were many additional episodes I could have written about. Journaling is pretty awkward and uncomfortable, and it is difficult to concentrate on when in the midst of a problem, but once it has passed then writing seems not as necessary. Time commitment would probably be no more than a few hours a week on a bad week, this is more of a willpower issue than a time issue.	I should renew my commitment to writing when I feel I am currently experience or have recently experienced an episode of poor mental health.
10	Visit friends in Michigan	Decision	0.029	I made a lot of friends when I worked in Michigan for a few years. I would like to see them again. Maybe conversations during the visit will spark some new scientific ideas.	Revisit in April. If pandemic seems to be clearing, then plan a Michigan trip in summer or fall. Otherwise maybe put it off until 2022.
11	Marathon training	Decision	0.026	I like running, and I would like to run a marathon someday, maybe this year. For shorter races, like 5ks or 10ks, my base fitness level seems to be good enough that I can run them without any intentional training. If I run a marathon without significant intentional training, I am quite sure that it will be a miserable experience and that I will get a strain injury. A marathon training schedule (for someone like me who is just trying to have fun and finish without getting injured and not necessarily finish fast) would include 5-15 hours a week of running. Past experience tells me I can probably get away with just 5 hours a week, but that is still a significant time commitment. So the decision here is how many hours should I commit to running per week, 0-15, and if it is > 0, then during which weeks?	Start going for weekend runs in the winter/spring as weather permits. If that seems managable, then add more miles/days in late spring and summer. Revisit in March or April.
12	Attend Esperanto Universala Kongreso	Decision	0.026	In my youth, I put a lot of effort into learning Esperanto. I would like to attend at least one (probably exactly one) Universala Kongreso (UK) in my lifetime. I had registered for the 2020 UK, but it got canceled due to the pandemic. They still have my registration fee though, which I can apply to the 2021 or 2022 UK.	Revisit in April. If pandemic seems to be clearing, then plan to attend the UK in summer. Otherwise put it off until 2022.
13	Strength training	Decision	0.024	Body weight strength exercises like pushups, pullups, dips, squats, and related exercises. In general I don't enjoy this kind of exercise, but it has been shown to contribute to health independently of cardiovascular exercise. Benefits can be seen with relatively modest commitments. In the past I've tried to set scaled goals, like "be able to do 100 pushups by the end of the year", but I always got burnt out and gave up after a few months. So the questions for this year are whether strength training is necessary at all (I think at least a little bit is necessary), and what is a sustainable amount and strategy for making sure I stick to it?	At least 10 pushups a day at least 5 days a week, more if I feel like it, but don't track it or try to push too hard.
14	Learn longboarding	Decision	0.015	For some reason I bought a longboard-style skate board in 2020. I think it would be fun to learn how to ride it, and maybe try to commute to work on it sometime. This will take quite a bit of regular time commitment, probably at least 5 hours a week if I want to have any chance of making progress. I think I may have to make a choice between longboarding and marathon training.	When weather gets nicer, maybe around March or April, start going longboarding once a week.
15	Donate to Wild Animal Initiative	Decision	0.015	Wild Animal Initiative is a group that performs original research and sponsors external research to learn about what factors affect the welfare of wild animals and what kinds of interventions could be used to improve the welfare of wild animals. I think they are under-funded and could potentially have a large impact on improving animal wellbeing. I will probably donate to them this year, the question is how much to donate to them vs other charities or savings. I intend to donate between $1,000 and $10,000 to them this year, most likely $2,500.	Revisit in November
16	Avoid eating dairy	Decision	0.002	Over the past few years I have been slowly decreasing my dairy consumption. The question for this year is whether I should completely eliminate dairy from my diet, and if not, then under what circumstances should I consume it, and how much should I eat. There are lots of interesting new dairy replacement products including some using cow-milk protein produced by yeast, which seem very intriguing to me. I'm not sure if the quality is increasing or if I'm just getting used to them, but I have found myself enjoying milk-alternative products about as much as I enjoy eating cows-milk products.	Continue with the slow decrease/replacement of dairy products, but also don't feel bad about the occasional serving of ice cream or pizza.
17	Go on dates	Decision	-0.015	I live in a major metropolitan area so I think it would not be difficult to find strangers on the internet to go on dates with (initial experiments seem to support this hypothesis). Past experience, and my aversion to situations involving large groups of people, suggest that internet strangers are probably the only realistic pool of people for me to date. Time commitment could be as little as 0 hours per week. I am unsure of the upper bound, but hopefully it would be no more than 5 hours a week.	Until the COVID pandemic is over, I think social adventurism is not a good idea. Revisit in June.
18	Day job	Hidden	0.442	My regular job as a computational biologist at a synthetic biology company working mostly on biomanufacturing of flavors, fragrances, and nutritional compounds, but also a little bit on biomanufacturing of therapeutics.
19	Nutritional and therapeutic products	Hidden	0.417	All kinds of useful biotech products.
20	Biotechnology advances	Hidden	0.333	Any kinds of advances related to biotechnology. It could come in the form of a better educated workforce, new research results, or products of biomanufacturing.
21	Accumulate money	Hidden	0.275	The total amout of money I acquire from all sources.
22	Computer Science advances	Hidden	0.192	Any kinds of advances related to computer technology. It could come in the form of a better educated workforce, new research results, or Open Source software.
23	Educational infrastructure	Hidden	0.143	Includes all kinds of contributions to educational endeavors. Could be educational blog posts or videos, direct mentoring or presentations to students, or interactions with students through a teaching position.
24	TA job	Hidden	0.084	My night job as a teaching assistant for a computer science class in an online masters program at a major US university.
25	Personal mental health	Hidden	0.08	My personal happiness, and stress level.
26	Conform to family expectations	Hidden	0.075	My family members seem to have a strong interest in my opinions and activities, and there is a possibility of causing them great distress if I don't talk and act in the ways that they hope I do. So I need to be aware of that and conform to their expectations as much as possible, particularly if conforming does not lead to decreased capacity to be useful in other ways. In other words, if I am going to do things that make my family miserable, I need to make sure that it is least for the purpose of accomplishing something useful, and not just because I'm a stubborn travel-averse contrarian.
27	Satisfy my innate need to constantly learn	Hidden	0.064	I need to constantly be learning new skills and thinking/reading about new ideas or I get super restless and sad.
28	Make and maintain friendships	Hidden	0.059	Includes meeting new people and staying in contact with important people from my past.
29	Exercise	Hidden	0.044	All kinds of intentional exercise, including cardio and strength exercises.
30	Personal physical health	Hidden	0.04	Measured by ability to walk long distances, absense of chronic pain, and as little time/money as possible spent in doctor's offices.
31	Have a partner	Hidden	0.031	Having either a spouse or long term boy/girlfriend.
32	Have a healthy diet	Hidden	0.028	Eat lots of plants, and not a lot of added sugars or really fat-laden foods. Could also include nutritional supplements like B-12 supplements, multivitamins, or other things.
33	Save for retirement or emergencies	Hidden	0.01	Having significant savings could help my future wellbeing in case of future disease or disability or if I lose my job for some reason. It could also allow me to retire early and focus on projects that might be higher impact than my regular career. Right now I think my regular career has the potential to be highly impactful, so I am not seriously considering retiring early. Not a decision variable, because I will simply save all the money I don't spend on travel or donate to charities (so travel and donations are the decision variables).
34	Environmental pollution	Hidden	-0.145	CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. Could also include other kinds of pollution such as agricultural waste.
35	Animal agriculture	Hidden	-0.223	All aspects of raising animals for meat or milk, or to use parts of their bodies as clothing or for other purposes. Basically all uses of domestic animals except for having pets.
36	Total utility	Objective	1	Objective sink, sum of all other objectives.
37	Human wellbeing	Objective	0.5	The total sum of pain of all humans on Earth.
38	Family wellbeing	Objective	0.25	The total sum of pain of people in my family.
39	Animal wellbeing	Objective	0.15	The total sum of pain of all animals on Earth.
40	Personal wellbeing	Objective	0.1	My personal health and ability to continue performing useful actions in the future.
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