My Goals for 2017

I know it's a little late to make explicit my goals for this year, but think of it as my goals for the remaining three quarters of 2017. 2016 was the year of transitions as I left my first job to pursue my second in Korea. Moving from Boston to Seoul was a bit hectic, yet relatively smooth, thanks to my friends, family, and coworkers. Then in the last quarter I left my second job to pursue a graduate study in statistics at Yale. It was quite difficult for me to have made such decision because I liked working and had been learning a lot about myself and met quite a few interesting people. Plus, given my knowledge in statistics and machine learning, I only had few reasons to return to academia. I won't detail them here, but so far, I'm becoming more ambivalent towards staying longer in academia. Maybe I'll get a job or even join or form a startup. I'm always open to other options.

Anyhow, I hope to see more changes this year, hopefully good ones, and I plan to do these things differently in 2017:

• Make sure to take some time off to travel. It doesn't have to be somewhere far, but it'd be better if I can travel far to another country.

• Start a new venture? Or better yet, develop something new. It can be publishing a new paper, making an app or a website, or even getting a new hobby. Start small and grow. Explore what's out there!

• Keep improving. Write more blog posts and learn new ideas from other people and from the readings and research papers.

• Help more people out there.

There are few others I didn't write, and all these goals may seem so vague but should get more concrete as time passes. Onwards and upwards for 2017!