My 2024 wrap-up is free

Hi Internet! It's your boy, Nikita, ringing again to celebrate the passing year and look ahead to 2025. Oddly enough, the words of 2024 for me are "change" and "sustain." I managed to maintain the pace of 2023 and make positive steps towards a better life. Read up to see what I've done 180 on down below.

What happened?

In my 2023 wrap-up, I talked at length about how time is our ally and how patience is a skill that needs to be nurtured to succeed at almost anything in life. After all, sucking at something is the first step to mastering it. In 2024, I've gained another complementary skill that is as difficult to master as patience—letting go.

It turns out that not doing something can be more difficult than doing it. Things like bad habits come up instantly when thinking about it, and—duh—of course, it is more difficult to not eat that cheeseburger than to eat it. However, things become more complicated when we reach beyond bad habits in the discussion on willpower.

It takes willpower and skill not to ruminate about past, present, or future events. Letting go when you lose something—especially something dear to you—is inhumanely challenging. Letting go when you don't get something might be as complicated. On the other hand, observing my kids (now 1 and 3 years old), I get it now. Their willpower and delayed gratification center in the brain aren't developed enough to put down a real cookie now for a hypothetical gain later. So, it is only human for us not to be able to let go.

This makes letting go ever so more enjoyable and beneficial to master.

But I diverge. Besides changing my mind on many things in 2024, I have more events to share. For starters, 2024 is the year I finally became a Canadian citizen and voted in provincial elections for the first time. The moment I submitted my ballot, I felt ecstatic. I haven't had a chance to make a difference in any elections since I came of age to vote with my Russian passport. None of my votes would ever matter in a dictatorship that pre-selects whom I can vote for, filtering out anyone who has even a slight chance of winning.

Reading my older posts, I see how much getting rid of toxicity mattered to me before. Having lived almost two years without any toxicity touching me, I feel like a recovered alcoholic who has been sober for years. Toxicity drags you down; it weighs on you as a burden and only becomes evident when you get free of it. I haven't given toxicity any thought during 2024 because, quite frankly, I haven't encountered any. I don't know if I subconsciously avoid it now or just don't care about toxic people anymore—but something worked. Like Malaria in Egypt, I can declare toxicity to be an eradicated disease in my life.

My 20,000 followers on Warpcast grew to 127,000 followers. We launched Lunchbreak at BWL and made $1,600,000 in volume and $100,000 in fees. The number of people who use my software daily grew to 100,000,000 and has been above this number for quite a bit, indicating that this isn't a fluke. I've read 50 books in 2024 with some notable titles (see the recommendations below). It is less than I've read in 2023, but I haven't put any effort into it this time (a year ago, I read 100+ books).

The numbers go up. I like the numbers going up. The trick is to convert the numbers into life quality improvement.

Apart from all the above, 2024 is the year I've torn my Achilles tendon. I decided to pick up skateboarding again, watching my older son scoot, but I hadn't warmed up enough. Having thought about it, I'm now confident that I ruptured the same tendon when I was 14 and didn't go through any rehabilitation, having been scared to admit the injury in front of adults. Nowadays, I understand that this was simply stupid.

Additionally, I now think I slightly tore this tendon two years ago in a mild snowboarding incident, which left me limping for a few weeks (but didn't have any apparent signs of a tear or rupture). This, and switching to barefoot shoes, might have contributed to the injury.

My body healed nicely, I didn't have a complete rupture, I didn't have surgery—and it seems like things are coming back to me six months after the injury. I still can't do a proper standing single-leg raise, and my tendon is still a bit tough, but I'm working up to my body weight in the gym. Fingers crossed, I'll come back to sports requiring rapid change of direction and explosive movement.

Take care of your tendons, warm up, stretch, and don't strain too much, especially after 30.

Books

There are good years for books and bad years, and there are good titles and bad titles. I irrationally remember that 2024 was a good year for books and titles for me. Here are the good books I've read this year in no particular order:

• "Successful Aging" by Daniel J. Levitin
• "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins
• "Nothing to Envy" by Barbara Demick
• "Your Brain on Porn" by Gary Wilson
• "A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear" by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
• "Means of Control" by Byron Tau
• "Joy on Demand" by Chade-Meng Tan
• "The Pathless Path" by Paul Millerd
• "Feeling Good" by David D Burns
• "Your Brain on Love" by Stan Tatkin
• "Internet for the People" by Ben Tarnoff
• "Unwinding Anxiety" by Judson Brewer
• "10% Happier" by Dan Harris
• "Everything Is Obvious" by Duncan J. Watts
• "Search Inside Yourself" by Chade-Meng Tan
• "The River of Doubt" by Candice Millard
• "Mother of God" by Paul Rosolie
• "The Untethered Soul" by Michael Singer
• "The Singularity Is Nearer" by Ray Kurzweil
• "Buddha's Brain" by Rick Hanson, PhD
• "Who's in Charge" by Michael S. Gazzaniga
• "DMT: The Spirit Molecule" by Rick Strassman"
• "Compete to Create" by Dr. Michael Gervais
• "Patriot" by Alexei Navalny
• "Spies" by Calder Walton
• "The Surrender Experiment" by Michael A. Singer
• "Letting Go" by David R. Hawkins
• "Self-Help Is Like a Vaccine" by Bryan Caplan
• "The Age of Addiction" by David T. Courtwright
• "Same As Ever" by Morgan Housel
• "The Fund" by Rob Copeland
• "China Unbound" by Joanna Chiu

I can recommend all the books above; reading them will not leave you with a sour aftertaste (except the book on North Korea that literally traumatized me). Among the losers for this year are: "Infectious Generosity" by Chris Anderson, "Happy Money" by Ken Honda, "The Mindful Athlete" by George Mumford, "Full Catastrophe Living" by Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Already Free" by Bruce Tift, "The Science of Storytelling" by Will Storr, and "The Financial Activist Playbook" by Jasmine Rashid. Some books aren't bad, but they should've been a 10-minute YouTube video or a short article instead.

I'm glad that the list of losers this time is abysmally short. You can also notice why letting go has been a vast unlock for me this year. I meticulously researched it after finishing a course on MBSR that made me listen to the same meditation for two weeks for 30 minutes daily. At first, I resisted it, but I let go after a week or so. And letting go was so profound that I decided to go into the research mode with the force and curiosity rarely known to me.

Reading books is second nature to me, and I finally started my book club (you can join here, but it's in Russian). We read one book every two weeks or so and get together to discuss the insights we gathered from it.

As far as fiction goes, I've read the whole Expanse saga by James S.A. Corey. Books 5-7 were an insufferable drag, but the ending and the first 4 books are great. I'm not sure if I can recommend Corey's books just yet, though (primarily because of the books 5-7). However, if you like hard sci-fi and have already read Blindsight and Remembrance of Earth's Past, you can give The Expanse a shot.

Notable books that will stay with me are Patriot, Spies, Nothing to Envy, China Unbound, Means of Control, and Internet for the People. I have no idea why I went so deep into dictatorships and intelligence agencies this year, but what I'm left with is beyond disturbing.

Reading through "Patriot" made me cry multiple times. It is a collection of Alexei's writings from his point of view while he was still alive. It might not strike the same soul chord with you, but I still irrationally wait to hear "Hello, this is Navalny" from another YouTube video of his. Alas, the same people who took away homes from millions of Ukrainians also took away Russia's future by killing the only credible politician who could have replaced putler.

I don't have a clear winner on the book of the year, but you can pick any on the "letting go" topic (they are all very similar), and you won't miss it.

Things I've changed (and the best purchases of the year)

To preface this section, I'd like to note that many purchases resulted from the changes in my attitude towards something. Hence, I'm merging both sections together to avoid duplication. I have a running list of topics I've changed my mind about this year, simplifying this section's writing.

Going barefoot

I can no longer wear "normal" shoes. I don't want to. Since I've switched to barefoot shoes (primarily Vivo Barefoot), I feel claustrophobic and uneasy with toes squashed and not "touching" the ground by "clawing" myself into whatever I'm standing on when wearing "normal" shoes. Barefoot is a rabbit hole you absolutely need to go into. Read about why people go barefoot and the advantages; this will drastically improve your life. My whole family (including kids) only wear barefoot shoes now.

I love my Vivos, but they don't have a genuinely waterproof version (the ones they claim are waterproof don't handle Vancouver rain well). So I got myself Xero waterproof shoes, which are 100% waterproof (alas, the sole is a bit too thick for my liking).

If you decide to make the switch, give your ankles and tendons (I'm looking at you, Achilles) ample time to adjust before playing sports in the new shoes. Usually, this process takes 4-6 months. But you'll be glad you've switched. There's a reason martial artists fight barefoot—

Xylitol

I haven't had any cavities since I learned about Xylitol's effect on dental health. I use 1-3 mints with 100% Xylitol (mostly PUR-branded) daily. I don't like sweeteners for various reasons, but I make an exception for Xylitol. I probably won't bake with Xylitol, but mints? I love them. There is much research on how it affects dental health, and I suggest you read the papers.

Rust

Imagine a programming language that requires you to account for all edge cases without exceptions. Yep, that's Rust. I used to make fun of programming languages without try/catch syntax, but now I fully get it.

Alas, I haven't written a single line of functional Rust code that I use anywhere. Setting up the environment to write a simple ChatGPT API CLI wrapper was too time-consuming. I'm sure Rust will make a jump akin to Deno 2 in terms of usability someday. Nowadays, though, it made me reconsider programming language paradigms I'm comfortable with.

Oh, and let's get rid of the unsafe syntax. That's basically "any" in non-typescript NPM modules.

Hiring help to clean and cook

I spend around 2 hours a week prepping all my meals. My AI chef (ChatGPT) devised a 4-course vegan diet that I can't get enough of. It checks all the boxes regarding the nutrition and health of food. However, 2 hours a week is still a daunting task!

Instead, this year, we tried (and succeeded) hiring help to cook my meal plan. Fortunately, the dishes and instructions are so simple that you don't have to be a Michelin-star chef to cook them, so we asked the lady who was already cleaning the house once a week (two kids is no joke) to prep the meals for me.

Before, we only invited cleaners once in a while. In 2024, we started inviting help to cook and clean weekly, which was such a vast value unlock for us, giving us more time to spend with the family on the activities we all enjoyed.

Meditation

I think it's gonna be the third year I've been meditating daily. Most of the time, I meditated only for 10 minutes a day while in the sauna. While doing my body scans, I went through the routine quickly multiple times. The 2024 experience has changed my outlook on meditation.

I spent 8 weeks of the MBSR course meditating for at least 30 minutes a day. If I was initially reluctant toward the practices, at some point, something clicked, and I got it. Thinking about my ankle for 5 minutes straight might have helped.

Additionally, I learned to let go of the desire to achieve something with meditation. Now, I just meditate with no goal or purpose.

Porn

Every man indulges in watching porn from time to time—whether it is one of the "tube" websites or homemade. Unfortunately, a rising body of research has compared porn addiction to any other harmful addiction. Basically, porn changes the brain physically the same way smoking or hard drugs do.

I'm not 16 anymore, so I'm in the clear in terms of developing a lifetime addiction to porn. Apparently, people with brains actively forming have a much more complicated time overcoming addictions they've collected while the brain is forming after they reach adulthood. It makes sense, given that the brain changes are physical.

The issue with porn is its availability, affordability, and accessibility. It's free, it's one click away in the browser, there is so much variety. The variety is another issue: the more you fall down the addiction ladder, the more extreme your desires become. At some point, almost every man can find himself regretting watching a video that he just masturbated to. The question that follows is usually, "Is this me now? Am I into this weird stuff?" Fortunately, most likely, no, it's not you—it is the algorithm pushing you towards more and more instant gratification.

So what to do if not watching porn (including homemade)? The answer is so simple you'll be disappointed. Use your imagination. This will not push you towards fringe stuff; this will be you. Also, your brain will not form harmful neural connections, and you will still be able to get your johnson up in your sixties.

If you suffer from erectile dysfunction, try stopping watching porn. Feel free to masturbate, just not to videos.

After all, here's a good question: when you're watching porn, what are you watching? It is someone else having sex. You're literally cuckolding sitting in a corner. Wait, you're not even in the same room as the action. Isn't this worse than cuckolding?

Split keyboard and vertical mouse

I have never had any issues with carpal tunnel syndrome, and at this point, I question its existence (even though I've known many people who suffered from it). I genuinely believe that the syndrome is reversible and easy to manage with some unorthodox stretches and massage. However, it doesn't hurt to make the workspace more ergonomic.

I've been working standing for more than three years now. Recently, I switched from macOS to Linux, and this time, I haven't looked back. Even though the keyboard on my X1 Carbon is a chef's kiss, I still would like to avoid curving my hands unnaturally.

I've tried many split keyboards before, but none of them fit. Most have a learning curve that is too steep, and I didn't want to spend time learning; I wanted to build stuff. So I picked up Kinesis Freestyle 2 with wrist pads and dome attachment. I could use it from the first minute I unpacked it. You know what, keyboard geeks, I think the industry got it wrong. We don't need to do piano-type chords to access that one feature (looking at you, VIM, lmao); we just want to type.

Granted, I switched to Colemak a while ago, so blind typing is second nature to me. I'm sure it helped to jump into action.

As for the vertical mouse, I'm not going to do competitive FPS gaming (I use my Xbox controller connected to Quest 3 with Virtual Display connected to my gaming tower anyway), so I picked up Logitech Lift. As simple as that. This time, I had to spend some time adjusting after over a decade of not using mice (I've been using touchpads all this time). However, a few hours later, muscle memory kicked in, and now I'm operating the mouse as easily as in 2007.

Changing people's opinions with facts

Lol, this doesn't work. It took me over a decade to finally let go of this one. I might be the nicest person you'll ever talk with now. Do you know why? I'll listen to you wholeheartedly as if you're the center of the universe, and I will not try to come up with something to reply in the meantime. You're sharing something with me; I will soak it in.

And if you're wrong about something? That's your choice and your right to be wrong. Who am I to disagree with you, and is disagreeing worth something? I'd instead focus on your personality and how you have formed your opinion. Understanding why you're wrong is way more interesting than trying to convince you otherwise.

You might think that I will still pursue trying to change your mind somehow. No, I let go. Even worse, an alarming set of papers indicates that facts don't change opinions. I don't play games that are impossible to win.

Socks don't have to be 100% cotton

Why the hell did I even think that socks must be cotton? Surely, this is the devil's work, convincing me to believe this dumb idea. Apparently, cotton sucks at dissipating moisture, which leads to blisters.

As a bonus, I finally removed the hard skin on my heels and foot soles. I no longer go through a pair of socks every 2 weeks. Before, they would wear out faster than I could buy them. Nowadays, my skin is soft, and I no longer get any blisters or wear out socks prematurely.

Of course, you can get Merino wool socks, but I'm a simple man. I got my stretchy split-finger socks (I'm barefoot, remember?) from a random Amazon seller, and they last me at least four months.

Gym

I had complicated relationships with gyms. First of all, I still believe that gyms don't help to lose weight—on the contrary, it helps to gain fat and weight if the diet is wrong. However, this year, I've read about "Fuckarounditis" from Leangains and was like, "What the hell, is this all true?" I started to research, and everything seems to be checking out.

You don't have to split your gym workouts into three days by groups of muscles. Instead, you can train the same muscle all three days! I do this now: I go to the gym three times a week and do squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, chin-ups, bench presses, and calf presses (to improve after my Achilles tendon injury). I consume 125+ grams of protein daily and no longer have a calorie deficit (I eat ~2200 kcal daily).

I use the third hole in my belt for the first time in forever. You might not think it's an achievement, but I don't just squeeze into this hole. I comfortably wear all my pants, and all my belts are fitting thinner than ever.

I realized that I've always had not just Fuckarounditis but also an irrational fear of essential exercise. I've always feared squats, but bench curls? I loved doing them. Nowadays, I avoid bench curls, and I've never felt so strong. I look into the mirror, and I love how I look. How many of you can say you love how you look in the mirror? How many of you pose in front of a mirror to see how pumped you are?

Strength training has never been more fun and rewarding. In under two months, I now squat and deadlift my body weight for three sets of five reps. In fact, that's all I do with squats and deadlifts: three sets of five reps. Every week, I increase the weight by five pounds.

I reached my body weight so fast because I once picked up kgs instead of lbs, and my working weight doubled. Granted, I was still figuring out my working weight in the first three weeks.

Anyway, it's difficult for me to stay out of the gym now. I want to work out for the first time in my life. I attribute this to how simple and fun workouts became. I strain with the last reps (2-3 reps away from failure) but no longer end my sets hating it all.

Gardening

You put seed into the soil and get a crop out of it. It is that simple. I'm dumbfounded that people don't garden. It's one of the easiest, most satisfying, and least maintenance-heavy hobbies. I'm reading "The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It" by John Seymour, and I'm learning so much about such basic skills.

For instance, being vegan, I've never considered having a cow on my (still hypothetical) farm. Now I'm convinced I need one. I also need pigs, and I will keep bees. All of them, hopefully, rescue animals. I want to give them a second life, and yes, I want them to fertilize and plow the soil for me. They'll do it anyway, and it's cruel to keep them from doing it.

I've learned much about organic farming, its processes, and its workings. I've also learned about natural and physical pest control that doesn't include spraying chemicals. When spring comes, I will sow many little fun things on my small plot of land to start my new hobby of growing food from soil.

You should, too.

Stainless steel cookware

I donate blood twice a year. Even though it helps people, I do it for selfish reasons. Donating blood for men is one of the few ways to get rid of heavy metals and forever chemicals from the bloodstream. Women can also give birth and breastfeed, but this doesn't apply to me.

However, all this can be easily negated if I feed myself harmful chemicals. No matter how much the non-stick pan companies claim they are safe, I never took good care of my cookware, and I'd be surprised if my non-stick pans didn't leak all sorts of chemical residue into the food after I used them for half a decade.

Enter stainless steel cookware. Apparently, it is so simple to use that I'm never returning to non-stick. You heat up the pan, add oil, wait a bit, turn the heat down a notch, and boom—nothing sticks. And if it sticks? Nice, I have a sauce foundation. If it sticks and burns too much? Well, let me boil some baking soda and a bit of water. Boom, it's as clean as new.

Watch this video to learn how to cook with a stainless steel pan.

Aeroponics

I've tried hydroponics in a small five-pot commercial setup before, and even though I liked the fruits of my labor, I hated maintaining it. The yield was also underwhelming when considering the setup's price. The thing is, hydroponics is just a water pump and maybe some growing lights.

Enter aeroponics—it uses 95% less water and allows vertical farming. I 3D-printed my aeroponics tower and germinated the seeds in a cheap tabletop humidity dome. We'll see how it goes but regarding farming with synthetic fertilizers? I think this is worth an experiment.

Linux

I have had an on-and-off relationship with Linux as a working machine since 2008. I finally switched to Linux in February 2024, though. I've expressed my thoughts in one of my previous articles, which is worth reading!

This time, I installed Pop!_OS and had no issues with the setup. It simply worked out of the box on my Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 10. Frankly, every time I touch my MacBook, it feels sluggish, like I've had to use iOS after I've switched to Android.

I tried setting up NixOS but miserably failed. I do not know why I couldn't get it to run on my Thinkpad out of the box, but the audio and touchscreen didn't work, no matter how hard I tried. Granted, I haven't tried too hard—but I want to build stuff, not tinker with configs.

Overall, I'm happy with Pop!_OS and finally switched. I'm not looking back; I no longer need the Apple ecosystem. And as far as hardware goes? Thinkpads are sturdy enough for my needs and have an outrageously better keyboard than anything Apple spits to the market. I think I paid around $700 for my main dev machine? Crazy.

Microplastics

I sincerely thought this to be a sham for the longest time. However, this year, we have finally paid enough attention as a family to get rid of all the plastics that touch our food. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that we've replaced every single utensil in the kitchen!

Ok, we're a bit weird. We loved using IKEA plastic plates and glasses and everything plastic. Something about it was just... tasty? Even the forks we used were the ones for kids. However, I only realized what I was missing out on when we switched to "real" cookware and plates. Well, weirdly enough, whatever you drink and eat from directly contributes to the taste. So, having switched to glass and stainless steel, it became evident that food tastes much better.

The most controversial part of our transition was water. I love tap water in Vancouver—it is one of the rare places on the Earth that doesn't treat water with chemicals. Instead, it uses other ways of filtering and purifying. This leaves us with mineral-rich tap water without much forever chemicals and pollutants.

However, microplastics—that shit's everywhere. So, I installed a simple carbon filter for the cold water at our place with pores small enough to catch most microplastics. I hate that we have to filter Vancouver tap water, but at such a low cost of around $75 every few years, I think it's worth it.

The worst part about plastics? You can't microwave it even if it says "microwave safe." What the producers mean by that label is that the plastic part won't melt in the microwave. They mostly say nothing about harmful chemicals leaking into food when heated up.

Safe alternatives are glass, wood, stainless steel, and silicone. The most challenging part to replace was my coffee travel mug—producers don't care enough to replace plastic lids with ceramic. Unfortunately, our glassware is prone to breaking and my coffee mug isn't spill-proof. Hopefully, the world will see better alternatives to plastic in the upcoming years.

GrapheneOS

I'm easily spooked when it comes to privacy. From time to time, I run a simple experiment: I talk about a product I've never paid any attention to or talked about before around my phone. Then I turn off adblockers and see the web full of ads for this product. In my opinion, this is unacceptable. However, until recently, I had no idea how to combat this.

Fortunately, I came across GrapheneOS. I couldn't use it with any phones I had lying around (I didn't have any Pixels newer than the third generation), so I picked up a Pixel 8a for $350. This is the cheapest phone I've been using since 2005, and I love it.

GrapheneOS's primary focus is privacy. It is built from the Android Project, which makes it more pure than Pixel loaders. I love quick toggles to turn off the mic, location, camera, and other permissions. I love that all Google apps run in a sandbox, and I'm absolutely sure they don't have access to the Internet or can't run in the background when they aren't purposefully open.

The test I'm doing to check if the phone is listening? It failed for the first time since 2018 (when I started running this test). The best part is the battery: because the phone doesn't need to be constantly online to track me, this is the first time in a decade that my phone runs on the same charge for three days.

I had issues with NFC payments because Google doesn't certify GrapheneOS to use Google Wallet, but I picked up Fitbit Charge 6, which allows me to use Google Wallet on the smartwatch. The best part is that my Fitbit is constantly offline and can't connect to the Internet or the phone without my purposeful knowledge, so my privacy is unaffected.

Bicycle trailer

We live on the UBC campus, and the bike infrastructure here is top-notch. Roads are slow, buses are plentiful, and I have a direct bike lane to my kids' daycare. I can be anywhere on campus on my bike within 12 minutes! This year, we got a Burley Honey Bee trailer for 2 kids, and I like it so much better than driving kids around. It also allows me to get some warm-up exercise before the gym!

I picked it up for around $200 used (but it looks brand-new). Nowadays, I prefer riding with it much more than without it. I can even do quick grocery runs with it! Anyway, if you have kids and your place is bike-friendly, consider getting a bicycle trailer.

The video below is about cargo bikes, but these things cost $4500 a piece! Still, most of the points apply to bike trailers, too.

3D-printing

My 3D printer has more mileage on it than my car. I'm running it nonstop to print something new every few days. I've struggled with 3D printers for years, and I haven't printed anything until I got Bambu Lab A1 mini. This printer solves all the 3D printing issues on its own, and you only need to pick what you want to print and hit the "print" button. Sometimes, it feels simpler to 3D print than to print on paper, hehe.

As a bonus, I learned to use FreeCAD software and can design the parts to 3D-print myself! So far, I've fixed our unfixable child stroller (the company doesn't produce the stroller or sell the parts anymore) and our boat (which hasn't had any parts for purchase since the 90s). I couldn't do this without spending a few hours in FreeCAD to get the hang of designing models. The part for the boat? I modeled the replacement in under 15 minutes in front of my friend, with whom we co-own the boat, to his amusement.

If you have ever considered printing anything in 3D, this is the time to start. You don't have to be smart to do this anymore. There is no more setup time. Pick a model, press print, and that's it!

Letting go

The last but certainly the most important thing I've changed this year is learning to let go. I've repeated this multiple times in this article already because it is such a vast unlock that I can't find words to describe how awesome it is to let go.

Letting go also doesn't feel the same as not caring. I do care about a lot of things, but as they happen right now, not as they could potentially be in the future. I encounter everything the chaos of the universe throws my way with dignity and do the best I can with every task I have.

Letting go means not having any expectations, whether positive or negative. I don't expect people to be cruel, but I don't expect them to act in good faith. As a result, I'm pleasantly surprised when good things happen, and I don't get devastated when bad things happen.

I've always been a proponent of changing people's opinions. However, in my life, I changed how many—like five people's opinions on a handful of topics? Even my book is technically revolutionary regarding the "they've always lied to us" narrative. However, I doubt it has drastically changed the lives of at least 50 people.

I don't play the games rigged against me. I don't play to lose. I win everything when I care about people and let go of their opinions.

If you ask me what was the most important thing I did in 2024, I'll say it was learning how to let go.

Gaming

For various reasons, the only game of 2024 for me was Baldur's Gate 3. Life got in the way, too much work, moving again, and my dedication to finishing Baldur's Gate 3 because everyone praised it so much.

I quit at the beginning of the third act. I just can't do it anymore. I'm playing alone because getting a party of 4 people in your thirties who want to play D'n'D with you is difficult as hell—we've spent 2 years finishing Divinity 2 a while back! Shuffling and role-playing four different characters, leveling them up, restocking supplies, and managing spells are so daunting that they feel like work.

I've never been able to launch the rocket into space in Factorio, and I haven't played the new expansion for the same reason. I don't want games to feel like work; I go there to explore and be inspired. I loved Death Stranding and RDR2; they never felt like work (even though Death Stranding was pretty much an Uber-eats-delivery-person simulator).

I watched the summary of the story for act 3 on YouTube. The story is meh and not worth getting through another 20 hours of grind with the same two things to be done repeatedly: infinite dialogues and battles. Maybe if we haven't spent 2 years battling in Divinity 2, I'd be more excited about the combat.

Don't get me wrong: I get why people love BG3. It perfectly represents D'n'D, and you can even play multiplayer! You can spend so many hours fooling around with friends that it feels like Skyrim got a multiplayer upgrade. I'm simply not looking for such a game at this point in my life.

The funny thing, though, is that during the endless evenings after my kids are asleep, I watched the walkthrough of "Mouthwashing." God, it is so good. You don't have to play it yourself to enjoy the story and the gameplay, but everything here is top-notch, even though it doesn't have the same production value as BG3.

I know that saying that I liked Mounthwashing more than BG3 is kinda weird, but it is what it is. Let it go.

I'm very excited about 2025, though! I'll try to go through S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. Death Stranding 2 is coming out, and I can keep salivating on the GTA 6 trailers!

So, what am I up to in 2025?

I have absolutely no idea. I have projects, plans, plane tickets and hotels booked, a desire for the numbers to go up, and we're working on a new experiment at BWL that should rock the boat enough for the company to get recognized.

But, mostly? Screw planning, I'm just going to keep doing what I do best: live and let live.

Imagine waking up in a tent on a camping trip. Imagine taking a full breath of fresh air. Imagine taking the first sip of hot coffee overlooking the lake you stayed on.

This is my life. One breath at a time.

Universe, I'm ready to catch the curveball when you're.