1-Month Projects

I want to spend some time over the next years following an idea I call "1-month projects". The idea is simple: spend one month at a time pursuing a single thing. Awesome projects that interest me and that I always wanted to do, but never gave myself the time to do. I want to take that time.

During those 1-month projects, I work on something, pushing myself to my limit. Going as far as I can go, so that at the end of the month, I have built a nice and beautiful demo to showcase on the internet (or something in the real world). Along the way, I want to produce at least 1 artifact – a post documenting the things I have learned during the month.

Why?

My main goal with all of this is to explore the wild space of possibilities that exist out there and live a life filled with "adventures" and learning. A life where I can follow my curiosity and maybe find something that I like so incredibly much, that I want to pursue it for a much much longer time (maybe even the rest of my life).

The idea that I am trying to fight with these 1-month projects, is that you can only do one thing if you want to "succeed in life". It somehow goes against my grain. And I don't want to accept it. There are too many aspects to life, too many things I love, that I don't want to chose only one of them.

Not another bucket list...

Something I realize is that the below is a bucket list of sorts. And I also know, that people usually never tick off things on their bucket list.

My plan to protect myself from this is to put this bucket list out here on the internet, because having it publicly visible, acts as a very potent reminder to my monkey brain. It keeps me accountable.

The second hack is that I share this with my friends. People like Marc Nitzsche who can and will keep me directly accountable for not following through. I want to do these things. If I don't I would regret that. Life is precious and time is short. Try to keep that in mind.

The Long List of Ideas

Done

• Build up this blog (/needlestack) – artefact: trebeljahr.com. (August 2022)
• Create a Fractal Garden Webpage – artefact: fractal.garden (September 2022)
• Build an article showcasing SAT – artefact: SAT algorithm (October 2022)
• Write 41 booknotes – artefact: Booknotes Page (November 2022)
• Learn 3D in the browser – artefact: Quaternius Page (December 2022)

Writing

• Write a science fiction book and publish it on Amazon Self Publishing

Photography

• Create a real-life photo gallery/exhibition
• Setup Instagram Automation
• Create a photo art book, detailing the Traumpfad or India (both?)
• Setup a website to sell photography prints

Art

• Paint Images -> Sell at least 1 for at least 1$
• Use Stablediffusion to create a digital art portfolio

Coding

• Build a "simple" 2D Physics Engine from Scratch
• Build a compiler for LISP (preferably in Rust)
• Build a Neural Network (including the Matrix Mathematics) from Scratch
• Build a "simple" 3D Rendering Engine
• Build a mobile app/game using React Native
• Finish writing Minecraft Clone (Lighting, Biomes, Save/Restore world)
• Write a custom CMS that integrates nicely with this GitHub and Markdown-powered blog.
• Participate in a Ludum Dare -> produce a Game within a month (and learn Unreal Engine along the way) and then earn at least 1$ from it

Building a computer from scratch

• Build a very simple CPU from soldered-together transistors
• Build a computer, using integrated circuits for components (memory, CPU etc.)
• Build a compiler for that computer
• Build my own very simple OS for that computer
• Build Tetris for that computer

Learning/Curiosity

• Deep Dive into Linear Algebra, Multi-Variable Calculus and Non-Linear Dynamics.
• The month of reading, how many books + book notes can I do in a month?
• Read the whole of "The Molecular Biology of the Cell" and write book notes on it.
• Read the whole of SICP, Operating Systems by Tanenbaum and Compiler Book and write book notes on them.
• Read the Feynman Lectures completely + Notes

Music

• Spend a month learning harmonizing, circle of fifths and chord theory
• Produce a very simple album
• Produce a more complex album

Traveling

• Spend a month hiking Iceland
• Spend a month hiking Kazakhstan
• Spend a month kayaking Norwegian Fjords
• Spend a month cycling around Europe

Hardware

• Explore Berlins Hackerspaces
• Use a laser cutter at Motion Labs + other machines to create physical art
• 3D Print Fractals + Lasercut Fractals
• Build a prototype barefoot shoe
• Play around with Arduino - build an automatic Gardening Tool
• Get Access to a "biolab" hackerspace and do some genetic engineering using CRISPR-Cas