My friend in the park, Norm, has blossoms. He has been slowly waking up over the last couple of weeks, and he didn’t waste anytime filling out and showing bloom. We say hello to Norm with every loop of the park. We stopped once and stood underneath for 10 minutes, watching the silly tourists stroll by enjoying the beautiful spring weather we have in NYC right now.
I really, really, really, love the stretch of the park after 72nd transverse when you are heading south towards Columbus Circle, and begin making your way down the hill by Tavern on the Green (from the Ghostbusters). I try to take photos and videos of what I see most days as I begin bombing this hill, but it is something you have to experience to fully get. The color and shadows, as well as the depth of color and shadows amongst the buildings can take my breath away as I ride by some days.
Outside of work I was able to get some time in on one of my evolving side projects right now—CentralPark.Guide. The website is my attempt to get a handle on everything that is happening in Central Park. It started out as me wanting to understand when big events are occurring in the park, so that I can avoid them, but has evolved into me developing a wider understanding of the park. The goal is to allow folks to browse what is happening via the website, but also get emails daily or weekly about what is happening.
Of course, CentralPark.Guide was motivated by my daily rides with Poppy in the park. We absolutely love it. I stood up an Instagram account for poppy last year, but I also bought her a website. I finally got around to publishing something, and the website is intertwined with CentralPark.Guide. Right now, it is just Poppy’s story, and a log of what we do each day. I added a section for rides, but I am still figuring out how I can best publish images, video, and stories from our historical rides, as well as each day. I’ll keep playing around until I find a format that works with our style.
Something you hear from people who are supportive of artificial intelligence is that they appreciate having it, because they don’t have any ideas, and Claude or ChatGPT helps them come up with things to write about and incorporate into their lives. I get it. It is tempting. But I strongly push back and say that you don’t have any ideas because you don’t do the work. I regularly encounter days, weeks, and months where I don’t have a lot of ideas. It is almost always because I haven’t been “doing the work”, which often times is becomes I am working too hard. ;-)
As I work to communicate with people directly and indirectly at scale in this AI way of being grabs hold of so many of us, I am confident that in the future there will be two camps of people. Those who live in the real world, and those who live in the world powered by AI. I am also convinced that these two groups won’t understand each other. Literally. The scope, verbosity, and complexity of how those of us in the AI realm speak to each other is no match for the organic frame rate of those who read books, walk places, and have experience socializing with the humans.
One of Poppy’s favorite places to poop is in front of the BMW dealership. On our walks to the park each morning she’ll save it up an then b-line for the entrance so that she can express her opinions about the car manufacturer.
Audrey kicked ass in the NRR Women's Half in Central Park this weekend. She has been sick alongside me, making it even more impressive that she was able to not just race, but actually kick ass. She pulled off the race in 1:50 and 576 of 5197 overall, and came in 12 of 274 in her age group. Pretty goddam impressive. So proud of her sticking with running and staying sane in this crazy world.
I am going to slip in one of my characters from some fictional stories I am writing into this newsletter each week. I want to introduce you to my characters, but I also want to bring my characters to life, fleshing out their back story. This week is #HEX, who is my latino delivery driver who lives throughout San Francisco in the cracks of the city. #HEX only delivers at night, and sleeps during the day in some places he has carved out around the city. #HEX, born Hector, is proud of who he is, sends money home to his grandma ever day, and has a best friend in the Mission that gives him purpose as he fights with the city each night.
Fried Dumplings and Dumpling Soup
Audrey and I went for dumplings and noodles on Sunday after her race. We go to a place called Hand Pulled Noodle in Hell’s Kitchen. It is the best. Their noodles are the best, and their dumplings are exactly what I expect. It is the salt boost that Audrey needed. It is one of those no frills places where you get the best food possible for not much money. I love the options we have within fifteen minutes of us. The diversity of people and food is one of the number one reasons I’ll pay a premium for living in NYC.
Work is going well. I spend most of my time focused on the artifacts and storytelling of what we are building at Naftiko. I’ve found a healthy balance for what I expect of myself while building Naftiko. I’ve found a healthy balance in how I approach an irrational market fueled by AI delusions. I enjoy the startup life. I enjoy the amount of work and uncertainty involved. I have found way to stay grounded week to week with my newsletter, and quarter to quarter with my API Evangelist and Nafitko Signals work. When you see mention of my work here in my personal newsletter, you know things are going well.
"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving." — Lao
