It feels like a couple months ago that I wrote some thoughts for my 36th, but here we are, another year in the books.  It’s was a quick one, but a full and satisfying one.

  1. It is still surreal to have a 20 month old baby I see growing everyday, and is the most profound experience I’ve ever had.
  2. The older you get, the more you want to settle down because you get less dopamine from novelty and more from family/friends/nature.
  3. AI is changing the world far faster than most people realize.
  4. AI has enabled you to do things that weren’t possible just a few months ago at many different levels.
  5. Being sober is perhaps the greatest way to maximize energy and your experience of life.  Easier said than done.
  6. People form different views of reality based on what their mind pays attention to.
  7. Be around people who make you better, not worse.
  8. It is fascinating how quickly priorities can shift.  For example, if you get sick, your highest priority is to get healthy.  Same is true for many facets of life.
  9. Preserving strength as you age is vital to having muscles that hold your skeleton up.  Joint pain is often due to lack of proper nutrition and lack of muscles to hold your bones.  Use it or lose it.  Or better yet, always be getting better.
  10. Being genuinely curious about other people is a superpower.  Never assume anything about anyone.
  11. If you think you’re at the beginning or the end, you act and behave differently.  Tomorrow is day 1 of the rest of life.
  12. I feel like I’m just getting started – just learning to create and raise life, lead, and it feels like everything up to this point is setting me up for what is beginning now.
  13. Feeling good is in large part a function of having energy to go out, learn, explore, meet people, build, exercise, etc.  So optimize everything for energy.
  14. Planning and focusing deliberately is how you make progress.
  15. You see what is possible through the people around you.
  16. Simple is almost always better.
  17. Don’t take too much time, but take a little time.
  18. It is a strange and bizarre situation to be in where you’re having the most profound experience of your life, one that all of our ancestors had before us, and in modern day doing it pretty much alone.
  19. Good ideas about every part of life should be shared. The better every one is off and living, the better we are all collectively.
  20. Everyone should be in growth mode. You’re either getting better, learning, adapting, and gaining wisdom through experience or you’re stagnating or getting worse.
  21. Make your contribution to make the world a little better than it was before you came into it.
  22. Everything is new and fresh in the eyes of a baby. And when you see them experience that new, you experience it too.
  23. Important point almost everyone misses – You don’t know the boundaries of where you can go, you just keep doing the best you can. One rational view is just because someone else can do it, you probably can too.
  24. Humans learn by doing. Do the thing you want to learn.
  25. Not only after 4.5 billion years of Earth that led to us existing, it is mind blowing how many people went into the process to make us exist.
  26. The paradox of pure self indulgence is you end up actually less satisfied and happy than if you’re selfless.
  27. People who think kids are a burden or an obstacle to life are deeply confused.
  28. If you’re well rested, fresh, and healthy, your intuition is almost alway right.
  29. We’re living in the most interesting time in perhaps all of history.
  30. Fortune favors the curious.
  31. Meaning, purpose, and ultimately satisfaction are a function of the responsibility you have.  Responsibility for things you believe matter.
  32. Optimists solve the problems and make the future better.  Pessimists rarely do more than complain.  Be optimistic and contribute to a better future.  Be part of the solution.
  33. Humans learn by doing.  Do the thing you want to learn.  And if you aren’t doing anything, start learning by doing.
  34. Uncertainty is fundamental in life, embrace it.  Uncertainty often paralyzes people from doing anything, don’t be like that.
  35. Be a good leader to the people around you.  You influence the people around you in similar ways to the ways they influence you.  Lead by example.
  36. It is easier today than ever to be distracted.  Focus is the super power of the modern world, more so now than ever.
  37. Continuously throughout life be as useful as possible to others. Build things for others and contribute to the greater good to the best of your ability.

Here’s to a great 2026 and to an awesome year ahead.  All the best.

 

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Patrick

Web Developer
I write for fun, I travel for fun, and I enjoy learning. I hate sugar-coating things. Understand the world in reality, not by dogma. Question everything.
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