I think these yearly updates were a lot more interesting when I was younger and my life changed drastically year by year. Now it’s just a steady climb upwards, better every year but not all that different. As I read over last year’s post, I was most struck by how similar I felt one year later (and I’m also writing this one from London, coincidentally).
Anyway, life is amazing. On most days I think, at least once, “I can’t believe how good my life is”. I really can’t believe it. I didn’t write my gratitude post this year because I feel like I’m just a broken record and it’s a bit awkward going on and on about how good my life is. I’m so grateful for the people, places, and things in my life, and grateful to be healthy enough to enjoy it all to its fullest.
I feel a little bit bad about not blogging more. I imagine the impression is that I don’t care anymore, but actually just about every day I feel a little bit of guilt that I haven’t written recently. I also think a lot about why I don’t write more, and sometimes I think about writing a blog post about that, but what’s more disappointing than a post about why I don’t post?
I’ll just write a bit about it here instead. I’ve been blogging for twenty years. When I started, it was novel and unusual to put oneself on the internet. That was part of the appeal, I think. I also like that I had a lot of ideas that were controversial or at least very unconventional, and I was confident enough that they would work that I wanted people to be able to follow and see. I think there’s something a lot more appealing about “hey, I’m figuring this stuff out, come along!” versus “look how great my life is!”.
Anyway, maybe there will be some other phase of my life where I’ll write more. For now, here are some highlights of my year:
Trips with my wife
Most of my trips end up not being with my wife, but her schedule was much more flexible this year, so we got to do more together. We went to Yellowstone, which really exceeded all expectations except that there’s no good food anywhere in the park. My wife wanted to see “one baby buffalo, a herd of 30, or 40 individuals”. We went on a quest and saw hundreds. Mostly it was just really great quality time. We also did a great trip through Yunnan in China and a Hawaii trip. Her first trip to Hawaii was 24/7 rain and she almost died scuba diving on the second, so it was good to have a third that really turned around her impression of the place.
Island progress
Our first trip to the island this year was absolutely brutal work that left me in pretty serious pain, but boy was it satisfying. And then our second trip was like a victory lap where we got to finish up the details and reap all of the rewards. I really enjoyed working with my friend Brian on a tough project, and having my friends Ben, Mai, and Todd come on the second trip and get involved too. We also got internet on the island thanks to our incredible neighbors, so now I’m counting down the days until I can go back and build on our progress.
Finishing projects
I finished some big projects! The sauna and steam room are basically done (still finishing up the ceiling in the changing area) and the tea label system is totally done (and I need to write a blog post about it). Both of those projects dragged on way too long, so it felt good to wrap them up. I also did some other cool projects like rebuilding a 150″ electric projector screen and creating a mount for it, learning to use a table saw (I was terrified for years), rebuilding my virtual pinball machine, and rebuilding my desk.
Japan trip with my dad
I took my dad to Japan! He’d never been to Asia before and I honestly had no idea what to expect. Would he be interested in eating Japanese food? I’d never seen him eat sushi before. Would he be okay walking all over the place? Would he be jet lagged? The trip went as well as it possibly could have. He loved it, probably wanted to walk around even more than I did, and ate everything. It was so much fun to get to show him one of my favorite places to visit. I go on so many trips, but this is one that I will always remember.
I spent more money
This is a weird one, but I read Die With Zero and it was one of the most influential books I’ve ever read. A lot of why I’m successful is because I’m incredibly frugal. I lived on essentially poverty level income for many years (and had a great life and even bought an island). Die With Zero made me realize that this isn’t always the best way to be. Some examples: I bought a $6500 pinball machine I really wanted, I bought a $2200 projector that I didn’t need but really wanted, and I helped a family member financially. I think I’m actually still way too averse to spending money, but I’m proud to make some progress here.
Lots of cruises
I went on a bunch of cruises, mostly with my friend Michael. On one of them we got upgraded to a huge suite for no reason. It happened to be a Norwegian Fjord cruise (amazing itinerary), so it was awesome to hang out on our couch and work while we looked out at the fjords. I’m obsessed with Virgin cruises now and went on five of them in 2024. My Kazakh friends who showed me all around Central Asia came on one, too!
CruiseSheet
I made some big progress on CruiseSheet (more on the business side than the technical side), and removed about 95% of the stress of it. I also really became settled on just keeping it as a lifestyle business where I can tinker and make the site I want versus the one that is the most profitable and the best business. That realization has made me enjoy working on it more.
Quality Time
When I really think about what I care about, it’s quality time with people I care about. In some ways that feels like a small life— I have friends and see public people who have huge goals and want to change the world, and I respect that… but what moves the needle for me is quality time with people I care about. I feel so lucky to have such great family and friends, so spending time with them is what’s most important to me.
I was scrolling through this year’s photos to remind myself what happened this year, and it brought back so many happy memories to see all of the cool things I did with my friends and family.
Random Highlights
- A friend had a wedding in Japan, which brought a bunch of friends who don’t normally travel that way to Tokyo. It was fun to share that experience with them.
- We did a trip to Seoul, and I really liked it there. I hope to spend more time
- Lots of family members visited in Vegas. I loved that
- I continued to do steam/sauna/cold plunge most days
- The boat finally got fixed and it was nice to be able to go out on the lake whenever we wanted
- I did one Superhuman event and it was great! I should do more
2025
I don’t have any huge goals for 2025. I have a few house projects I’d like to do, some CruiseSheet stuff I’d like to implement, people I’d like to spend more time with, etc., but it’s all things that are fairly certain to happen. I have two pretty wild ideas of things to do, but I haven’t researched them well enough yet so I’ll save them for if I decide to do them. I also toy with the idea of doing Youtube or a podcast but I haven’t quite figured out whether I actually want to do it or not and what format I could do that would create something that isn’t already out there.
Every year I ask my readers to send me recaps of their years along with their goals. If you wrote me last year, just reply to the email so I can see what your goals were. You can also leave it here in the comments if you want to share with everyone. Otherwise email 2024 at my name dot net. If there’s anything you’d like me to write about in 2025, let me know. It’s a good way to get me to post more!
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Title is goodbye in Bosnian! Bosnia was probably the coolest new country I visited in 2024. Photo is from Yellowstone.
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