I’m 38

Today is my birthday. Every year, for the last two decades, I’ve used this opportunity to indulge in a personal post reflecting on my life and plans for the future.

Two years out from my Foundations project, I’m happy that, for most of the areas I worked on, things have stayed relatively strong.

I still exercise nearly every day. And while I didn’t run a marathon this year, I did finish a race going from sea level to the top of a local mountain (16 km, 1400 m of elevation gain). I’ve also been fairly consistent with eating, sleep, reading and keeping up with friends. I’ve had some backsliding on organization, but given my low starting point there, I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes a few more attempts before that one sticks.

The big project of the year was putting together the first session of my course, Everyday Energy. This was a fun project to research. I’ve always had a deep interest in the connections between motivation, productivity, health and well-being, so creating 75+ lessons for the course gave me an excuse to dive deep into a lot of topics I might have otherwise missed.

My Plans for Next Year

The big learning project I have for next year is trying to create more (and better) videos for YouTube.

I’ve always enjoyed video content, especially on educational topics. Channels like 3Blue1Brown, Veritasium and World War Two do amazing work that manages to be both entertaining and intellectually rigorous.

 So far, my own commitment to creating videos has always been somewhat half-hearted. Video production is a lot more time-consuming than writing, and so I never committed myself to climbing the skill curve to make content I was really happy with. So, even though I’ve had a YouTube channel for over a decade, I’ve been inconsistent as a video creator.

However, the overall shift of the online ecosystem towards video makes me feel like the commitment to learning the medium and creating the videos that I’d like to make this year is justified.

You can check out two of the most recent videos I’ve done here:

• How To Read One Book Per Week (Even If You Read Slowly)
• The Real Reason You Procrastinate (Scientific Explanation)

If you prefer written essays to videos, don’t worry, I’m not going to stop writing here. But I will try to share some of the videos I make on the newsletter.

Personal Goals

Outside of work, my main focus is continuing to deepen some of the foundations I worked on in my initial project. 

Health and fitness are going smoothly, but I might like to enter another race. I’m not sure I’ll have time to train for a full marathon this year, but a half-distance race or a triathlon could be fun.

For reading, I’m going to try to cast a wider net if time allows. Often I’m doing research for a project which narrows my reading list, so it would be nice to use this year to read more books that aren’t intended to make their way into my writing directly. Still, given my overall focus on video creation, I’ve (of course) bought a few books on film in general to help with learning.

Outreach was another area I realized had been somewhat weak during my initial Foundations project. A priority for the next year is to make time for friends, even if it sometimes feels less productive. The emergence of AI has served as a reminder of how much value flows through real relationships—they shouldn’t be neglected.

And, as always, it’s the relationships that I have with readers like you that make what I do for a living possible. I’ve been writing for over twenty years now, and I’m enormously grateful that I have the opportunity to share what I learn with you.

Thanks for sticking with me for another year!