What's going on, friends? Today's video is going to be probably more for the longtime followers, loyal to the channel, those who actually care about these kinds of things, but probably something that haven't done in quite some time, which is provide a life update, because so much has gone on in 2023 particularly, my life as a doctor, my personal life, and I really wanted to make this video an episode to kind of give you as an update of what's been going on, my biggest lessons, things that are going well, things that could use some improvement. Changes to the channels that are going to be happening, things about fellowship, careers, life as a cardiologist, and changes to the MD journey that will be happening in 2024. If you are not interested in any of those things, and I will put some chapters or bookmarks down below in the description, if you're not interested in any of those, it doesn't offend me. We'll definitely get back to our original tips and advice videos for the medical journey, but I do feel like there's going to be some pearls in here of things that I've learned throughout this past year, both good and bad, that hopefully you can relay into your 2024. And for those of you guys that have been following me for quite some time since my medical school days, hopefully you can kind of see the transformation of my journey, especially the channel, the YouTube channel. And so if I'm looking down, it is going to be because I just wrote a bunch of notes, and so that way I'm just not rifting, but there's going to be a lot that we cover. So it's probably going to be a long video, go for you to come back or just leave if you feel like none of this is pertinent to you. At the same time, if I have to record in bits because my daughter is waking up, you can see her move around already. She wakes up, then we pause this video and we do it at another time. But we're going to summarize kind of life going into 2024 with the means for the channel, the MD journey, things that I've learned and fellowship already six months in. And then what I have going on in 2024, including the planned new project that I have in mind. So let's get started with best parts of 2024. Number one, kind of hit on it, I became a parent. I honestly can't remember life before having my daughter. Well, I kind of do because time was a lot more predictable in terms of what I could have. Now her sleep schedule pretty much dedicates everything that I do and definitely lower on the sleep front than I used to be. And we'll get into that too, which was never that great to begin with. But there's so much from being a parent that I realized that just comes in this concept of purpose before. I feel like I was doing things for myself, doing things for you guys for the content, doing things for my wife and our future. When you have a baby girl, when you have a kid in any ways and you become a parent, but I think a girl in particular, every time you look at them, there's like every kind of decision you make, every habit you take on, every habit that you fail to take on is almost kind of a consequence that they face. Because then they deal with the person that you are because of those choices. So everything that I do is more purpose kind of driven.  And don't get me wrong, I still do some of those things, but it's definitely dwindle. As a motor over time is understandably spent with her. Number two is we bought a home. This is our first home, my wife and I, and we made this almost kind of by accident. The quick funny story about this is my wife and I were renting for our one year when I was working as a hospice. And I found out that I got into fellowship in the same city I was working in. We, thinking that we were just going to rent the same place for three years or maybe rent at a different place, asked our landlord what the rent is going to be in a few months when our lease was up. And number delta, the change was like astronomical. And I'm like, well, if that's kind of your decision, I'm going to look for a home. I was working as a hospice that had enough income and we weren't living on very much of my income. And so we had enough saved up for a possible down payment. Now in central Texas, the cost of real estate is really expensive. And in 2023, mortgage prices and real estate and real interest rates were through. So not the best time to buy. And so my wife and I took a look and probably after two or three showings, we had a great real estate agent and they found the home that we are currently living in now. And now that's how we have it. And funny enough, the landlord that we had rented the home that we were renting in for the same price that we were paying. So if he had possibly just kept her rent the same because we were good tenants, we probably would have been there for three years and not have this home. And I'll probably make a different video in the future about how I was able to buy a home as a doctor, what the process was because I used something called a physician loan. And so I know that there's people probably interested in buying a home and maybe you have a bunch of debt to your name because of med school or your income is not high because you're a trainee and kind of how I was able to circumvent that. And so buying a home is definitely one of the highlights of 2024. Number three, I left my first attending job as a hospitalist. This is for those of you guys who haven't watched the channel enough. I finished three years of internal medicine residency. And I took my first job as an internal medicine hospitalist. I moved back home close to my wife's parents. And this job was really nice because it was one week of work, seven days in a row, seven to seven.  That's kind of the typical schedule of a hospitalist. I'll link down below if you're interested of my life as a hospitalist in case you're interested in what that even means. But I was making a six-figure salary, good schedule. My wife and I traveled a lot in 2023 and laid parts of 2022. And it was nice. But I got into fellowship at the end of 2022. And so I already knew at the start of this year that I was going to be leaving this job. And if anything, it was sweet because I made a good deal of money for the last six months that I worked there. And they made my schedule even nicer because they needed somebody to work both weeks. So my schedule at the end of my hospitalist life was Tuesday to Thursdays, Tuesday to Fridays, every week. But then I would have either a three or four-day weekend depending on which variation of that I had. Which was really nice. It felt like I always had a vacation, not too long of a work stint in the middle of it and was able to save even more knowing that we were going to have their daughter, we were going to buy this house and going to fellowship where your salary significantly drops. And I'll get into that as well. And that gets into number four is I started cardiology fellowship. And now I'm the first of three years of cardiology training to be a cardiologist. I am six months in now and I've made an update video for the past four months which you guys really enjoyed. And it's been going great, really enjoying the field. There's a lot to learn, which makes me a little nervous. But it's been a great year. I definitely feel like I made the right move and in a future video I'll make an update video on my decision to leave medicine to become a cardiologist or internal medicine. Number four is my future. And this is the part that people don't talk to you about enough because maybe there's not enough doctors making this kind of transition. Is that the future is a lot more clear for me which is really exciting is that when you're in med school people ask you what your five to ten year plan are. And honestly, most people don't know. I didn't know. When you're in residency people ask you the same thing and you're probably not sure then too. But when you're in fellowship like I am you can start to see what kind of cardiologist you want to be based off of the other cardiologists that are practicing with you and training you and saying like these are the people that I probably want to be like and I want my career to look like theirs. I want my week to look like theirs. And this is where I want to work based off where my home is. And so these are the institutions and employers I may be working for. So it's kind of fun planning my future and with now my wife, my daughter, or dog or families around us to think about what my career will look like what my life will look like in five to ten years. There's a lot more concrete which is really nice. And then finally this has probably been the best year in terms of business for the MD journey. The MD journey is not just a YouTube channel. It's not a blog. We do coaching and we have courses and this is something I've grown over seven years from just blog based content where I was just writing about my tips and strategies. You guys enjoyed those. So I became a YouTube videos, came Instagrams and emails, etc. And the main goal has always been making a majority of what we do free. But to allow team members to join our team and essentially offload me so I can be a clinician, be a fellow and now be a dad. We've had to bring team members and med students and staff members on and if you guys are interested, I'll link down below our application page if you're ever interested in joining our team. We always are looking for a great talent so it's been the best year. Something that I've never discussed in terms of the channel before is income. And I don't really get into that because that's not the point of this channel. The side hustle that which started seven years ago has made six figures in the past few years stably and steadily increasing. But the biggest change for 2023 is the income is fine but I feel like it's probably the year where I've worked the least in terms of the business where I've been making videos you guys may have noticed more or less that I was equally present. But in the background of things being created, things being done, like our coaching, I used to do all the coaching back in 2022 and now we have a team of four to five great study coaches who are better than I am providing excellent value to where our students are doing excellent and getting amazing results. And so growing that and being proud of seeing this team grow with the same mission of helping all of you guys succeed on your journey but doing it with less stress makes me realize it goes into 2024 that it doesn't have to be me. So it's nice to kind of see something that started from a blog become what it is today and there's lots more room for improvement. I'll talk about some of those changes that I'll be making, what that means for the channel but it's nice to just take a step back and saying I didn't work that much as I have in the past and we've done, if anything, better. So always a positive sign. So now let's transition to actually talk about updates for the YouTube channel. Overall, good year for the YouTube channel. If anything, saw more of a plateau in terms of our growth for a few reasons. The one I posted less predictably than I have in the past where I was very vehemently on twice weekly basis after having my daughter, after buying her house, after having fellowship it was hard to create a system to get back on that and with our team to do that on a weekly basis at the quality that I wanted. And number two, and I think every YouTuber and every content creator has this and I don't know if I consider myself a YouTuber but when you have 50,000 plus subscribers there's probably some element of that being true and you do have some experience of creative burnout because you have to balance what YouTube wants and that's, you know, God-holy algorithm versus what I want to make a video about or what I think you guys want to hear about and so this is kind of happy medium and at the same time that I want to make about it and then no one watches it and it makes me say, do I need to make another, you know, on key video or whatever it may be and you have to find that nice balance making sure that this is something that I constantly want to show up for which is provide value to you guys but for the things that I think that I can actually speak on new and differently and get inside and make sure it's valuable to you versus just doing it because YouTube is recommending that I make a video about, you know, the 25 study tips that you need to know to get into A tomorrow. So I think I've circumvented that by making more things such as my career a lot of you guys really enjoy the cardiology updates and I really enjoy talking about those because that's what I'm going into and that's what I'm talking about now. So kind of gathering all that things that are changing for the channel in 2024. One, we're going to get back to a predictable schedule now that I have a better system of creating content, planning it and knowing where rotations on my fellowship are going to be busier and probably better opportunities for me to record ahead. For example, in just a few days I'm going to start my C rotations not going to be ideal to record videos for YouTube. And so from the past two weeks I've been just kind of front loading a bunch of creations that you guys will probably see including this video a few weeks later, which is fine. And that way you guys can enjoy the content and I get to focus on taking care of sick patients and I see you. Number two is you'll be seeing using our team to create more videos. Recently you may have seen that we've done more animated videos just to give it a shot and I've really enjoyed the quality of them and I think you guys will hopefully like them as well but you may start to see different team members or hear different team members provide the help and content that we're creating and we can see what the results of that are but I'm really excited for you guys to hear some of our amazing study coaches and study team members do some of those voiceovers because not only they have really nice podcast voice in my opinion but they also provide really cool tips and advice. This is getting to the part of the channel that's going to be changing the most is that it needs to get away from Lach the YouTube creator to now the mission which is to help you guys succeed on your medical journey doing it with less stress and frankly I'm not the only one that can do that and there are people much closer to where you may be on your journey that are part of our team who can make amazing content and help us stay on a normal schedule so really excited to see what our team kind of molds into this. Three definitely more behind the scenes in my life as a cardiology fellow there's probably going to be a ton that I'll make over the future so I'm excited because you guys seem to enjoy those so keep your questions coming because they definitely stem more video ideas that I have for you guys in the future and then four creation with a less focus on the algorithm it's hard to fully avoid it but my goal is to think of video creation for you guys and these content ideas and the video ideas is almost like darts and the more darts I have if I'm consistent enough as long as the quality of the dart is good and making the idea is good enough then a lot of them will hit and hopefully you guys enjoy them and some of them main and I just have to be okay with that YouTube may pick up a video that I didn't think will do well but I chose to throw it anyways and I think that's going to be the best combination of how to avoid that burnout Next I want to kind of quickly talk about some updates for the MD journey in general one is more of a focus is going to be on content with the use of our team and trying to essentially not be relying on me and this is more of a business philosophy but you always think that you are the only person that can do XYZ I'm the only person that can do YouTube the only person that can write the blog post the only person that can write the emails or do the coaching in reality I realize we have an amazing group of students and team members and docs on our team that can do just as good if not better and so I'm excited to kind of see what they can do the second part of the business which I'm really excited about and this is kind of an update in a way is simplifying how we do our business in the past every time I felt like something on the medical journey was needed I usually created a book which we were like three or four in the past seven years I created a video course on things like how to study how to do well in your rotations essentially just packaged all my lessons into one place for you guys so pre-med stuff clinical rotations step on every time I would create it it would be kind of packaged by itself and unless you are part of something called our medallied academy you essentially have to buy each one individually and I would have to promote each one individually or talk about or you would have to find it in a way the programs were highly reviewed you know I level up your studying program I think has like thousands plus students now that have taken it and great results from people who have learned how to study from A to Z but from a creator perspective it's kind of annoying when you create something and then you have to think about promoting it again and there's like something else that somebody may have benefited from and so we're going to simplify how we do business and our offerings it's going to essentially come down to three buckets maybe like three and a half but for the most part we're going to have one bundle of everything where you'll have access to everything that I've created plus everything myself and my team have created going forward in one bundle likely for one price almost 99% sure it'll just be a one time payment and then you have access to everything in the future too because I understand people on the medical journey are not in a setting where you just have a tons of money just sitting around here a poor medical student if you or anything like me number two is we'll have still our group coaching which we do live group coaching on there she goes live group coaching on a weekly basis for one price we offer lifetime access you can jump on any of her calls including with myself ask any questions you have sometimes there's only one or two students on at a time so it's almost like having a one on one coaching call sometimes there's maybe tons and you get to interact with their community so it's really fun and all of our coaches including myself are doing this on a weekly basis and so that will still be there and then lastly and probably our most impactful and hand holding programs are one on one studying programs one bundle of everything group coaching and then one on one coaching no more if I create something else it'll just kind of be sold to loan it'll just be included in that bundle or one of those three buckets and that will help us create things without feeling like it needs to be part of a bigger package or fancier or you're about like that stuff for you guys most of it free and if I have to do something paid because I feel like that's how much effort our team has to do to put it together then if it goes behind a paywall just behind the same one so if you have access to it you can access to it all the way in the future and so that's what we're going to call our med school blueprint that's the name for now it may change it's our entire A to Z guide on how to succeed on your medical journey so if you're a pre-med if you're on your first rotation ever and your clinical rotations if you are learning how to do biochem as a first year medical student if you're a plan of residency if you're in residency and then eventually well in fellowship it'll all kind of be there a combination of text and courses and so if you're interested it may be live is the making of this video because video is two weeks ahead and so I'll link it down below if anything it'll be a wait list and you guys can check those out appreciate any of your feedback trying to make it a very easy yes in terms of this tool can help me on my medical journey it's not overly expensive and it's constantly being built upon and people are adding content to it I feel like that's what I would have wanted when I was a medical student myself and this allows my team to just say hey here's a hole of something we don't have a video that would be great or a workshop that would be amazing we don't need to sell it individually anymore we just put it in here and more people benefit and so over time it just becomes more and more valuable our seven to ten courses or whatever we may have at this point and programs it just allows me to just have one bucket of now three things that we can talk about and if you're interested in any of those cool if you're not totally understand enjoy the free content but that's kind of the biggest thing that would make it out number three is something that I really wanted to do in 2023 but for many reasons it just didn't happen but phasing myself out to my zone of genius when you're in any business of any sorts it's not a business it's more of a job if you're the person doing all of the small things and if there's something that my team member can do that I am doing then either not trusting them enough or I haven't delegated well enough and so my job in 2024 is to really identify where I do my best work for you guys which is creating content I think I do a pretty good job correct me if I'm wrong of sharing my experiences and then giving insights and reflections that hopefully you guys can use on your journey strategies that are more than just the typical strategies you may hear on the internet like advanced deep dives etc and I want to do more of that instead of working on some of the background stuff that we have to do because we're a business and so using different team members who have those strengths and can replace me is going to be something that we do and maybe finding new team members so again if you're interested I'll link down below in the description that you guys can check that out finally just things to put on pause not everything that you do is going to lead to value or not everything you do should be the thing that you should be doing now things that we'll be putting on a pause include things like the podcast which we've gotten good reviews from but it's not something that is going to give us the biggest value for now maybe we'll come back in the future things like sponsorships associations with companies have things that we've done obviously because we're a business and a YouTube channel I feel like that's the thing you do but it does make almost like a pressure that you have to post a video about studying if you partner with a studying related program or company not that we won't do sponsorships in the future maybe we'll do them sooner than I'm expecting but I'm not in the rush to sign sponsors for our YouTube channel now we get into the fun parts which is my fellowship update again I've made a separate video my first four months as a fellow and you guys really seem to enjoy that I wasn't expecting the attention towards that video that it got so again if you're interested I'll link that down below that video is now two months behind as in I have now six months into my cardiology fellowship and things are still going amazingly well like I mentioned I'm going to start ICU in just a few days I'm really nervous about because I never enjoy critical care that much in residency there's always like this fine line of tension where you feel like people can just crash and crump at any moment and you have to go to this situation where things are not going well you have to make decisions pretty quickly and I really enjoy just like being thoughtful in medicine and taking my time to take all the data in and figure out what to do with my patients and you don't always have that luxury and critical care so it's going to be a challenging month for me but that's okay I'm excited the second part is what we talked about a little bit is career-wise I've kind of learned what I want to do and kind of confirmed that in my six months is that I want to be a non-invasive cardiologist what that means is it's easier to understand what the opposite is an interventional cardiologist as somebody who does procedures typically that means your cardiologists are in the cath lab putting in stents putting in devices somebody comes in with a heart attack and they have a blockage and they need that opened up or cleaned up or they need a stent then that is an invasive cardiologist if somebody needs a pacemaker or if they need an operation for a rythmia that they may have that goes to an electrophysiology doctor I don't want to do that one they require extra training and two the procedures of self are not what makes cardiology interesting to me not where I enjoy interacting with patients kind of treating them doing consults seeing patients at clinics reading images and so I'm excited for a future where I'll have a combination of days where I read echoes days where I read stress tests days where I read CTs days where I see patients in clinic and then depending on how my future group may be kind of situated maybe I'll do some weeks of consults where I work with trainees presidents etc and then the other part of cardiology is you always have to ask yourself or do you want to focus on a specific area and so there's areas like sports cardiology that people don't talk about areas such as prevention or preventative cardiology or areas such as like working with patients with Hocum which is hypertropic obstructive cardiomyopathy diseases that I always found cool when I was learning about them but over the next year and a half it would be nice to dive deep into and say like I would love to have a collection of patients that people send me because I enjoy dealing with these pathologies people may not feel comfortable and now I get to see those patients as a future clinician that's kind of where my career is going so I'm really excited about that next part in terms of finances my amount of moonlighting will increase if you're not familiar moonlighting basically means if you're a trainee so if you're a resident or a fellow you're essentially working shifts doing something that you have board access to right so I am board certified as an internal medicine physician I worked as a hospice so I can take shifts from a former employer or anything else anyone else who may offer a shift in terms of working as a hospice or anything medicine related that my board certification allows me to when I was a resident I moonlighted often in ICUs because I was doing it there as a resident and then they needed extra people to cover shifts and so I would do those and it would pay well and so now as a fellow to take some shifts for me is just my former employer but I could do it anywhere and that would be nice because just a form of reference as a fellow right now each of my paychecks after insurance 401k matches taxes social security is all that is about 2.1k so about 4 ish plus k a month which when you bought a new house have a new child your expenses if anything are higher is not the easiest to maintain budget wise we can definitely make it work but it's tight and so moonlighting will help off load that because in one shift as a moonlighter internal medicine hospitalist I can essentially make a thousand dollars so if I take a few of those shifts you can start to see the picture I can essentially quickly replace my fellowship salary and overload how much room we have and that buffer that budget so my goal is is that in lighter rotations how I'll probably take on anywhere from four to five moonlighting shifts on the weekends usually and then on busier rotations probably just one to two each month and that will be a goal for the next two and a half years next is this focus on improving how I study and balance it's still something that I've found to be really hard there's so much to learn in cardiology and I'm always finding it to be a struggle of balancing and being a dad and being content waking up in the morning early enough to work out and still have time to study then show up to work try to study in small bits of times that you get there and so still coming up with a great system where I can feel like every single day this is what I'm going to do to learn cardiology move the needle forward to pass my boards which you have to take in three years but just be a better cardiologist and so I need to improve on that but overall I'm really happy to shift final aspect now is looking more into location of where I want to work and making it clear to the people in my fellowship and just cardiologists in general in the area that I'm living in saying that like hey like I'll be looking for a job in two and a half years if you need somebody just keep me in mind and so that's something that I've kind of already started to going because we just bought a house so I don't want to be moving anywhere I'd like to stay close to where I'm living the last kind of part of this reflection and update are just kind of lessons that I've learned and I'll kind of rift on these pretty quickly number one is the simplest best and I've learned that over complicating things especially when you get busy as a dad and as a fellow the most simplest version is usually the best one at least it gets things done number two is discipline over motivation I had a student ask me on a coaching call once of all of the fancy ways he can stay motivated to study and ultimately what I told him is like look man you're asking for the short term benefit of how to stay motivated but what you really need to be asking is how do I develop the long term asset of being disciplined and that is sometimes you just show up for things that you're motivated to do so you have to build that discipline muscle by creating little hacks to be more motivated by having like rewards for example or taking more breaks that's fine but discipline is a muscle you know like I went to go run after a 28 hour shift to where I got some sleep and I needed to get that run in to train for a half marathon that I have coming up in a few months I didn't want to but I did because that's more of a discipline than being motivated to do so next is something that I have to be very honest with myself and that's monitoring the whole process of snapping but I've experienced this with family members interactions with my wife interactions with clinicians interactions with staff members of the hospital and by no means a mean person sometimes I may say something with the intention of just saying what I meant versus the tone that it came out with and I know sometimes I'll have a conversation with my wife for example and reflect him saying there's just a better way to say that or have a conversation with somebody at the hospital and saying like I didn't need to be snappy even though my intention was to ever be mean I could clearly see I could come off across that and you have to be careful with that and so a lesson of how to just take a second think about how you're going to say things and what the perception is and stopping your ego at the door before talking final ones are future potential all come behind a consistent action I was thinking about this when I was running one day and realizing that the more you do the right things consistently you are closer to a version of yourself that's kind of just waiting to grab on and saying like welcome I think about that a lot and there's a version right now that is just waiting and being like keep going make those right moves and you'll get here every time you kind of deter away from that due to procrastination or laziness or lack of discipline then you kind of get away from that person and so if you're excited to meet that version of yourself as you're excited to be one day it requires that consistency next is this idea of risk of plateaus you have to be very incentivized to constantly be working for more and pushing to be better it's completely normal and expected to find periods to the status quo to be okay I've definitely bent that where months go by what has changed in my life for the better you realize not much as a fellow as a dad as a husband those things can have improved more my physical fitness and so when you see those plateaus it should be a light bulb moment of saying I need to make some improvements now finally is really just and this is big for me is minimizing burning the candle at both sides I've had streaks where I've waken up after only three and a half to five hours of sleep and not all of that is from just my daughter waking up some of it is from her waking up and me having an option of going back to bed but instead saying I need to do X, Y, and Z on my task list and only getting that much sleep and that's not sustainable finally closing off the video just some goals for me for 2024 and hopefully I can watch this in a year you guys keep me accountable number one is most important is being more intentional as both a father and a husband these are relationships that mean the most to me and thus there can be no status quo there can be no plateau but both of these roles for both my daughter and my wife number two is to really be the fittest that I've ever been this is a year where I knew I was fit I ran a marathon at the end of 2022 and beat my personal record about like 27 minutes and did less of that this year because of all the life updates that happen and I'm still physically fit where I can like run 10, 11 miles without much training and do fine but I want to be faster I want to have my weight honestly be lower where I feel lighter on my feet I want to be stronger but now having a gym and so goal is to run a half marathon which I already have signed up in February and then one marathon at the end of 2024 to just force myself to train and really push myself number three is to simplify how I run the empty journey and increasing our impact our simplicity and the med school blueprint is going to be a big aspect of that again I'll link that down below whether it's out or it's just for a weight list next is to perfect two skills and perfect is not the right word to take on two skills in the form of coaching both those skills are piano and singing I do a lot of singing at our temple or at our church a lot of it has been YouTube and free resources but I hear enough about the impact of having a coach I might as well go ahead and have somebody who can teach me the foundations and help me pick up on the aspects about singing and playing things like the harmonium or the keyboard I would love to do but do it more in a refined traditional way next is something we talked about which is to have a system on how I want to grow into cardiology how I want to learn and educate myself and then finally is this personal project which the name may change actually was something that I wanted to do in 2023 and I am a little sad that I didn't do it but also happy that I didn't do it because the year would have just been so hectic I wanted to do it mainly because I feel like I would have been much further ahead in it but the end of 2022 I wanted to start something outside the empty journey without the concept of necessarily being a business but just the ability to create content on some of the principles that we talked about which is being a better version of yourself and essentially I called it in my head the beyond average project and whether it's going to be a YouTube channel or just emails or podcasts but in 2024 I will have a version of this project whatever the name may be that is 100% going to be focused on asking yourself what your personal level of average is and what small things you can do to improve on the things that you care about you may be at a level that you consider to be the average version of a husband a significant other a child sibling care provider and then asking yourself how do I become a better version of that I'm an average runner how do I become a better runner I am an average content I become better at that and so the entire platform is going to be based off that so if you guys are interested I will link down below in the description of a wait list or something to join or emails it will be more refined the commitment to doing it now that I'm making this video and announcing it is pretty exciting I'm excited to see creating something from scratch all over again but using everything that I've learned through the empty journey of doing it for the past seven years the empty journey is not going anywhere I'm not going anywhere from it through experiments through books through lessons that I've learned I'm excited to share those obviously friends this was a long episode so I appreciate any of you guys who's stuck around if no one's around then I'll watch this myself next year but there's a lot to unpack lots of goods so I hope you guys enjoyed the breakdown hopefully there's some value that you could take for your own future into 2024 but most importantly I appreciate all the support all the questions I hope I really continue to be dedicated to helping you on your journey the same way I was when I wrote that first blog post more of a commitment to doing the same I'm going to 2024 a commitment for myself to be a better version to be there in terms of supporting you guys for our team to do the same so as always my friends thank you for being a part of my journey hopefully I was a little help to you guys on yours in 2023 happy new years and I'll see you in the new year peace


Okay, let's start our next topic that is on smart sensors concept Okay, so I'll tell you what what it is and I know how it is very useful for many different sensors and then like No, we'll talk a little bit more on compliant mechanisms It's a little bit of it analysis and anything like that for me catonic purpose Like no, there's kind of mechanisms that we would we have seen in the CD-ROM drives and things like that Okay, so let's begin with the concept here for the smart sensors Let me get a pointer, right? Okay, so So you need to think about like how we can make a sensor which can be smart in some sense in the sense like See it can self calibrate itself. Okay, or Maybe like, you know, it can have Range and resolution Tussle, usually there is a tussle between the range and resolution the sensors that can measure at a very large range That the resolution will be typically low Sensor that can measure at a smaller kind of a range there their resolution can be high Okay, so This tussle between resolution and range is always there like we cannot have something which is measuring very large kind of a quantity at very very very high resolution Give an example You have seen Same we say we talk of like a measurement of the weight Okay, so if you go to the If you want to way like no way a gold for example, you go to this goldsmith or Jewelry manufacturer and like you know, you give the jewelry to way He'll have the small little micro balance, which will give you very very accurate kind of a weight of the Jewelry that you are measuring Now If you talk of like no other extreme like no, there are these way bridges You might have seen in the in the What do you call? You're Some some kind of a you know There are these vendors who are like having these way bridges which can be the cars actually cars and trucks Wait, you know, they can measure So you'll find like the way you have these gas pumps or like the petrol pumps like that Is this way bridges will be there If you ask them like what is the accuracy of measurement of the weight it'll be in hundreds of If not, like no tens of kgs. Okay Mostly hundreds of kgs. They made like no tons of material there Okay, so there is a huge kind of a Difference in the resolution of measurement or like no the accuracy of measurement in In on one side like if you go for very small kind of a Sensor very small kind of a range like a gold measurement versus like in a car measurement Of course One sees a need whether there is a need for like such a high accuracy We don't need like no the car weight to be known to such a high accuracy But the point here is that like no the things which are made to work with a Larger range typically give you a lower resolution Okay, and if you now demand like no, though, I want both No little bit extend the range of measurement Okay, say for example micro balance can go up to maybe 800 grams kind of a weight that can measure But if you want to measure like no step to 500 grams Okay, by the with the same resolution or up to one kg with the same resolution How can we make it possible? Okay, that is a kind of a question here So think about it like you know what kind of a thing comes to your mind to do that Okay, so we'll talk and discuss a little bit more about this example what kind of ideas that can be incorporated to enhance like the range of So let's talk specifically about this weight measurement Okay, so how the weight measurement principle is done. Okay, think about that and we'll come to that in a minute So let's say you have to enhance the range of the sensor with this kind of a specific example of Way balance, okay, the way balance typically has a spring Okay, you put some weight this spring will deform and like it will go down and typically on the scale You'll see some weight measurement One of the ways of measuring weights, okay Other way you you may have this kind of a you know the balance that your Subchip vendors they use but I try to know we just focus about You know these kind of a system for weight measurement Okay So so the the markings here, okay are Typically say save one mm marks which which we can identify from one to other maybe one mm we can identify now if I want to wave very very small quantity or very very small kind of a resolution kind of a measurement, then I use a spring which is Little low kind of a flexibility Okay, a little low rigidity Okay, highly flexible spring so even for a small weight it's going to get deformed and I can see it's marking on the on the base scale here okay now if I get this spring to go smaller in the Stiffness or higher flexibility Then you see that like no from this point to this point if the pointer can move Say this point being a limit that spring gets kind of completely compressed here, and this is a starting point So if this is a range that you'll be able to measure is proportional to Like the stiffness times the displacement, okay, so that will be the range So this is our whole displacement that can be possible for the spring and then stiffness times that will be like a small range Because like no more the stiffness is very very small okay, if I Increase the stiffness then like you know the the the range can be increased But then what happens is still for a moment of 1mm like I'll have to See that like no larger weight needs to be put So that means like my resolution for this 1mm kind of a measurement is going to be Like no little lower for higher stiffnesses. Okay, so this is a point like you can you all see this point? So now We are not right now, you know what worried about like no, there is a friction that will also play some role and all those kind of things Are going to be there. Okay So so we are not right now kind of like no bothered about those things. Okay, so The question is then how do you kind of make like no enhance this range of measurement even for a small resolution, I mean even for a high resolution kind of our small stiffness kind of a Scenario in in this particular case. Okay, so So let's talk about that now So so you appreciate this point that you know the sensitivity would decrease if we have a demand for high range or resolution will be low for higher range Okay, and vice versa So If you want to increase weight, then like no, I propose that okay, we put an actuator in the sensor Okay, suppose we put an actuator in the sensor.  Okay, so I measure these on the scale Could take its feedback To my actuator and then like no actuate the actuator such that this reading always points to zero So if I even if I put some weight there like Then like actuator will come in place. So so so look there's a sequence will happen like that Okay, I put a weight on the surface then this pointer is going to kind of like no go down That means there is some error that is produced part from away from the zero position And then that error is fed back to the actuator and actuator kind of give some force and brings it back to zero. Okay, and This way like no, you can always maintain like you know some small Some some like no zero as a balance. Okay, it's called null balance. Okay, so you null balance the system Always no matter how much is a bit. I'm putting I mean my system is always balanced and now Depending upon what is the strength of your actuator? You can get now the the higher forces possibility. Okay, so you can use a spring still like no lower stiffness But now the spring has no deformation at all because actuator is providing like no the force to balance the weight So that is a kind of a idea that is utilized here to enhance the range by using an actuator Okay One can think of like, you know, what kind of actuator how we can put it and all those kind of things We are not right now worried about okay, but making sure that you know that actuator also doesn't have somehow any kind of additional friction force anything like that. Okay, so So see can you see this idea? So with this idea one can kind of like no enhance the range of sensor and Keep the resolution same and you get some additional advantages just a moment any Nonlinearity is that are existing in the system. They won't bother you here Okay Sorry about my Mobile Okay, so no Nonlinearity in the system like no say for example a spring as you deform more and more it would have it might become nonlinear Okay, instead of like no the your scale is linear, but spring is behaving in some kind of a nonlinear fashion because of the large deformations Okay To compensate for that you would have like no this marking also put in some kind of a nonlinear way but Because we are doing this null balance with actuator here, we don't need to do that Okay, you see this is a big advantage that you you get Okay By by doing this so now one can think about okay a little bit more detail about This concept and say okay. Oh look if I'm doing this okay putting this actuator here How do I know what is actuator force I should apply? So that will come from some kind of a feedback control now and one can think about what kind of feedback control now You can put here. Okay, so you have studied some like no PD control You know PD PID kind of controls or a proportional control one can kind of employ that and say that okay. Oh look if I Apply the actual force proportional to the error Okay, with some kind of a gain constant when slowly like you know, it will go go back to making make the error zero Okay, so that is how I can determine the actuator force So so you you you you might have like no Some other kind of a ways you just proportional algorithm may or may not give you great kind of advantage or those kind of things can be discussed more but but the basic concept is is Essential to kind of capture here is that like no, I'll always maintain like null balance or zero kind of a reading on the scale and Okay, then the question is okay. Oh look, I'm maintaining zero there But how do I know how much is in my weight that I'm putting on the surface? Oh that can be there then calculated by just saying seeing like, you know How much is a extra actuator force that you need to apply to maintain that? balance, okay, so When I put something on the on the on the way balance, I'll Have to apply some actuator force which will happen through some kind of a feedback control strategy And finally once it is settled in the final position Whatever is a like no the value that bias value that I need to apply I'll I'll get to know from that value What is a bit that I put on the surface? Okay, that is how like no one can get The the actuator based on actual force like you know, what is your? Weight that is put on the surface Okay Now one can do some kind of a mathematics to do like you know that okay. The actual force is a proportional KP kind of a control we can do then how do you analyze this is cementing that one can do a lot of this kind of Mathematical jugglery beyond is to find out. Okay, what kind of proportional constant I should use or I do I need In addition some kind of a derivative also probably you'll need a derivative control also to kind of make sure Your system settles into the final position rather than oxidating in the in the in the study state Okay Typically like no that friction will be there in these kind of practical systems So even if you don't put the derivative control in place like no There'll be a natural damping that will happen because of the friction in the system and like no your system will finally settle down Okay, it's not going to continue oscillating forever Okay So You can kind of think of this mathematical model to represent like you know this dynamics of a system and then like you know Formulate like your control strategy and validate how your error behavior happens and things like that. Okay, so Maybe you can try this exercise yourself and then like no look at some of these Developments that are given in this slide. Okay so so For any kind of a system will come to this in more in the detail when I when we start modeling different different kinds of systems But typically for modeling any systems they says you have understood this system, you know, actually there is some some mass That will happen for this You know the station that the dead weight of the stage itself and then there is a stiffness and then some kind of a You know the damping you can consider here and then this becomes like a simple spring mass damper system and for which like no, you know very well known equation which is You know the force that I'm applying on the system will be mass times acceleration plus c times x dot and plus k times X will be will be there in addition. Okay so So so So this f that we talked here like, you know This f is is a force of actuator. Okay, that has to balance like Finally like no some kind of a dynamics of a system. Okay, I'm sorry, okay so The the the steady state value of the force. Okay, we'll we'll give you the final reading. Okay, so Expression, you know, so these are the two expressions for the force one is like no based on the dynamics of the system and other expression is what you would Develop as a control strategy. Okay based on the feedback So these the previous expression that you saw here was we are considering that okay We'll apply the actuator force to be equal to this amount. Okay. That was our feedback in some sense for the for the system So when x t is null balance or zero then like no you'll get this as a feedback expression for the for the force and then like no, this is a This is a system dynamics. I think these are there's a term corresponding to the spring missing here k times x also will be coming as an additional term here, but And then then like no, we'll apply like no some proportional control kp times No x as as this force. Okay. That's how that's how the things things are going to happen Okay So right now the friction in the system is needed So so when you do analysis of how this control would work or like no How this control will will take care of or settle in the system into then like no You need to substitute this value of force from like as you are proposing as a control here in the expression of dynamics And then do the analysis and then like no, you'll be able to find out the the Details of how this force is going to how this Proportional feedback that you are proposing is going to affect your system or affect your state of x of the system Or you can like no convert the state x into the error Dynamics and like no study like no what will happen to the error? How will it go to zero? Will it go to be zero instantaneously or to oscillate how I can kind of have like no the settling time of that Oscillations control all those kind of things one can talk about in in lot more details Okay, so we'll come to some some more kind of analysis of such kind as we as we progress Okay, you have done something already But now we'll see from a little bit more practical perspective when the friction and other In terms are there or if you want to model the motor also like the actuator also in the in the system in some some way Okay, how do you kind of take care of some of these things that will be seen here? Okay, so By the way to balance these if we use a screw kind of a system to drive Actuator means like no motor and a screw type kind of a system then since it is not back drivable that will not work here Okay, so anything which is having a friction a lot of lot amount of friction will will not work for for such kind of a thing So we will need to employ here a non contact linear actuator Which will kind of drive the system to kind of make things in zero So you need to be aware about this like we say we have seen okay Linear motion means like no we'll put some kind of a rack and pinion or like no this Screw kind of actuator if you start putting that it will for certainly balance like no this through null balance But now the kind of force that I need to apply is the system is locked in this place Actually you any place you you take the system will be locked So even if you now say okay if it is at zero and I play some more weight on the system since it is not back drivable I am not going to get any deformation up here So this crew kind of actuators will not work here unless they are like no very smooth back back drivability is there Okay, so typically screwed it screw act pictures will not have a back drivability So here we need to have a non friction non contact kind of a Linear actuators to do drive the system. Okay, then things are going to work here much better Okay, so You can think about and like no see whether you yourself are able to kind of do this You know error analysis here with one control expression or some other kind of a control expression And like no we can talk about that in more details later. Okay


So you talk a lot about money in your work, or at least in your earlier work. You've written about money often. And like scarcity in the sort of role with that. So why do you think artists and like art, so creative people, why do artists not make money? Like what is it with the, obviously there are some, you know, if you have a big blockbuster movie or book, they make money. What is it about just the everyday art? Cause then it's like they're giving gifts. Most artists are gifting something for free. So I'm just curious your thoughts on this. Yeah. That has to do with what I call the cult of quantity and the economic system that's related to it, which is based on the exchange of commodities.  It's a quantitative measure. And when you, so, and it works really well if you are using it to exchange standardized things that you can reduce to a set of specifications. And I want to order 5,000 widgets from you and I want them at this weight and this level of purity, et cetera, et cetera. Like I can specify that and market competition can operate. But an artist, a true artist is creating something not just good enough to meet a set of quantitative specifications, but an artist is in service to the work itself and wants to make it, wants to fulfill that work regardless of the demands of the market, of the boss, of the art critic, of the customer, the market. Like there's, we can detect art that tries that. It's called a sellout when it's no longer in service to itself, but it's in service to something external. And that, but that's what lends it to commercialization.  You might get lucky. Like I'm not saying that just because something does well, commercially means it's a sellout. But the converse is very often true. When it's not a sellout, it often does not do well on the market because you're not doing it for that. Do you consider yourself an artist? Yeah, I do. Yeah, sometimes I spend inordinate amounts of time on just one sentence because it just doesn't sound right. And so we're going to get the point, like anything that I could specify as it's practical function, it works, but it's just, it's not right. So yeah, and yeah, I'm not doing it solely for aesthetic purposes. And in fact, the exporting of art onto aesthetics is a big problem. Art is not something separate from practical goals. It's in service to those goals, but not only that. And or you could say that the full service to the goal depends on things that are beyond our understanding. Like probably, if I write something that's really beautiful, that is more beautiful than it has to be. It probably actually serves what it has to be even better than I understand.


That little critter back there extinct why because it's gone Make sense right same thing happens to behavior When you have a behavior that has been previously reinforced at a certain level in other words behaviors engaging in all sorts of things And you remove the reinforce for that behavior that the behavior tends to go away That would be extinction right so let me try that a little bit slower All right So the point is behaviors engaging it or you're engaging in behavior at a particular level whatever that is it could be up here Could be down there doesn't matter right so you're engaging in behavior, and then we remove the reinforcer for it The removal of reinforcers for that behavior will Ultimately not immediately ultimately Result in the decrease of that behavior right at least a pre-reinforced levels it might go away to zero like genuinely extinct There's other things that sometimes behavior comes back see another video for that But the point is is that extinction is the removal of reinforcement with the end goal the end effect of that behavior being reduced