This is not a New Years Resolution post. Those have an abyssmal success rate. This post is simply an outline of things I would like to do more of in 2025 and things I would like to do less of.
More Writing
I started 2024 with a popular 30-day writing challenge, but quickly determined that the approach does not work for me. I’m just not interested in adapting my life to fit the expectations of social media algorithms in a way that will make me “popular”. My personal definitions of success and happiness are far removed from a need to be “popular”.
I would much rather have one nice blog post a month that I can be proud of than 30 posts that are less impactful. More wood behind fewer arrows.
I have one post in particular that I’ve been meaning to write for quite a while, detailing an exciting hackathon-style project that I built with my sister in 2023. I literally worked through the night to have the project ready for a live audience, finishing with less than an hour to spare. It was a thrilling and fulfilling experience and I look forward to sharing it with you.
On the work side of things, I’ve recently renewed an old habit of writing a weekly summary email to my manager. This achieves several goals:
- It helps me to reflect on what I’ve accomplished in the week.
- It helps my manager have visibility into what I’m working on.
- It removes the need to cover “status reports” during valuable 1:1 time.
At GitHub we value asynchronous communication, and this is a great example of that in action.
More writing code
As a software engineer, I get to write a decent amount of code. Engineering is of course not just about writing code, it’s about solving problems based on given constraints that serve the needs of a business.
I enjoy having a separate creative outlet for writing code where I get to dictate all the constraints. I have two projects in particular that I would like to work on in 2025:
- A simple email waitlist tool (Want to know when this is ready? Sign up here! No one signs up? No need to build it!)
- A home inventory system (Which closet/cabinet/drawer are the replacement toothbrush heads in, and how soon do we need to order more diapers?)
More reading non-fiction
I used to read lots of fiction, especially fantasy books with swords and dragons and magic. I would get most of my reading done on long international flights, which I have not taken in a while. In 2024 I was able to get back into fiction with the help of audiobooks, which has been enjoyable and I will continue to enjoy them while walking outdoors.
But I would like to read more non-fiction in 2025. I have a few books on my shelf on various parenting and self-improvement topics that I intend to read.
More exercise
My primary exercise these days is running around after my two-year-old son, picking him up and putting him down, and playing with him at the park almost every day. I would like to add some basic calisthenics to my routine in 2025.
More community
I have a two-year-old son and caring for him is my top priority, which places constraints on my time. But I can’t care for him at the fullest if I’m not caring for myself, and I need community. We all do!
Less social media
My usage of social media has been trending down for a long time, and I would like to continue that trend in 2025. I almost never post, and only infrequently scroll, and only rarely did that scrolling bring me joy. Doomscrolling is miserable.
Less Factorio
The Factorio 2.0 release and the new Space Age expansion coincided with two weeks of PTO that I was already taking for my son’s second birthday.
Factorio is a phenomenal game. Many people who have found they enjoyed it have gotten into software engineering because of it. Many people who are software engineers find they get sucked into the game because it includes so many of the fun parts of software engineering without the boring parts. Optimization! Scaling! Automation!
I’ve now expanded my factory to three other planets and on New Years Eve built my first “Spidertron” vehicle that can walk over obstacles and shoot rockets. I’m approaching the ability to reach the final planet and the “end” of the game.
While I’ve managed to not let it take over my life or impact my responsibilities, it has virtually crowded out everything else I would like to do with my limited free time.
Less taking on too much of others’ emotions
I’ve made more progress in 2024 in various aspects of self-awareness than in probably any previous year. This hasn’t happened spontaneously or without help, but I am grateful for the progress I’ve made.
I believe in the responsibilities to “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15) and to “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2), but I also believe that I have to be able to remove the log from my own eye before I can help remove the speck from my brother’s eye (Matthew 7:5).
In order to provide the best service to my brother, in order to help them with specks in their eyes, I need to be able to see clearly.
Empathy is a wonderful thing, but it also needs to be balanced with boundaries both for my own sake and for the sake of the person I’m trying to help.
Less worrying about things out of my control
This is a hard one. I think becoming a father has accelerated my realization that there are so, so many things that are out of my control.
I’m naturally inclined to want to fix things, to optimize them, to make them better.
But I am a finite human being. Life is better if I acknowledge that.
That doesn’t mean that I don’t try to make things better. It means that I don’t weigh myself down with guilt, shame, or grief when things don’t go the way I want them to.
Life is a race, intended to be run with endurance, so it is vital to lay aside every weight and encumbrance, along with anything that can so easily entangle (Hebrews 12:1).
More sleep
My now two-year-old finally started sleeping through the night shortly before his second birthday, so my own sleep has finally started to improve.
I get the most “productive” work done in the evening after he goes to bed, but I have the tendency to stay up too late while chasing the feeling of being productive even if objectively I would be much more productive if I went to bed earlier.
It’s getting late, so I’m going to end this post now and go to bed. Goodnight!