It’s about that time – I hope you’ve had a good year. Here’s mine in brief:
I lived in San Francisco for about four months, which was quite an experience. There I (self) published a book and attended Psychedelic Science 2017. I applied to a master’s program in New York, got in, then was convinced by friends at the last minute not to go. I went to Montreal instead and started an apparel company with one of them.
That summer I fell in love for the first time and it did not end well. I went to a psychedelic music festival to distract myself, then an Effective Altruism conference. After those wore off I got depressed and didn’t write anything for several months. This was dark. I went to Poland, then London, and considered staying in both. Finally I ended up in Toronto, which is where I’ll stay for a while. No more nomad-ing, at least for now.
This advice from Naval Ravikant proved prescient this year in particular:
don't write to make money, write to build relationships with like minded people that you haven't yet met.
— Naval (@naval) December 14, 2016
In 2017 I met and formed relationships with many fascinating and admirable people, online and off, thanks to this blog. It’s been by far the biggest unexpected benefit of this whole thing.
To close off I have one recommendation and one ask:
If you’re off work and/or have free time over the holidays, I’d recommend that you start learning about cryptocurrency, if you haven’t already. As you probably have heard, crypto really started taking off in 2017 and 2018 could be even bigger. There’s a lot of opportunity here, and just as much risk to balance it out. What’s certain though is that this isn’t going away anytime soon.
A great place to start is the Hash Power podcast series. Don’t listen to the mainstream media about this and instead learn from people who are directly active or working in the space, and have been for a long time. This list of bitcoin resources is also great.
The ask is to look back over your year, but to really think it through and focus in particular on the gifts it’s given you. This sounds cliché but it’s meaningful if you actually do it. If you’re like me, you’re probably always focused on the future, on getting to the next thing and what you’ll be doing next. Rushing forward, all the time.
But now slow down a bit, if even just for a short while. Reflect back on what you set out to do at the beginning of the year. My guess is that you accomplished no small part of it. A year is a long time – hundreds of days and thousands of waking hours. You spent many of those hours well, and now’s the time to appreciate it.
Enjoy the holidays and I hope you get to spend some time with the people close to you.
Take care and talk to you soon,
Aaron