Going through your calendar

• 2016
  
  • Moved to California with Kailin.
    
  • Got into Makersquare, completed the bootcamp, became a fellow, and turned programming into a real career.
    
  • Got the Electric Imp job and crossed from financial precarity into a six-figure engineering income.
    
  • Broke up with Kailin and began trying to understand love, honesty, and the harm caused by avoidance.
    
  • Daniel Masters' wedding, family visits, the 2016 election, meetups, job interviews, and the first taste of a new San Francisco life.
    
• 2017
  
  • Bought the motorcycle and made motorcycling part of your identity.
    
  • Built a huge social year: hikes, concerts, parties, hackathons, camping, Japan, Tahoe, Vegas, Defcon, New York, Mexico, and endless dates and friend groups.
    
  • Took Tammy seriously and discovered that a central partner could matter more than endless novelty.
    
  • Paid off the car, read a lot, photographed a lot, journaled more, and started to see discipline as something that had to be defended.
    
  • Overspent, overdid it, and learned that vigilance was necessary for money, food, work, and character.
    
• 2018
  
  • Lasik, moving into San Francisco with Gino, NERT training, drum lessons, therapy, and more effort to make a real adult life.
    
  • Traveled to Japan with Tammy, motorcycled through Shinjuku and Hakone, and had some of the most vivid travel memories of the decade.
    
  • A car accident and anxiety/depression knocked you off course for much of the year.
    
  • Google interviews and a broader job search re-ignited programming study, algorithms, Python, Go, Emacs, and a sense that you had been coasting.
    
  • Got off Reddit/news/Twitter for a meaningful stretch and realized how much processes and environment matter.
    
• 2019
  
  • Left Electric Imp and started at Potato.
    
  • Traveled heavily: Paris alone, Paris and London with Tammy, south of France motorcycling, Taiwan, Hawaii, Vegas, Socal, New York, Houston, Tahoe, and many local trips.
    
  • Moved in with Tammy in the Mission.
    
  • Family and Tammy's family became more intertwined, including hot pot, holidays, Hawaii, and visits.
    
  • The journal was calendar-rich but Year Compass-thin: the life was full, but reflection trailed behind the density.
    
• 2020
  
  • Pandemic year with poor retention, but a major reset.
    
  • Spent extended time in Houston with family and Tammy and became closer through proximity.
    
  • Worked from home, faced hard lessons and setbacks at Potato, and enjoyed the flexibility.
    
  • Got deeper into running, occasional programming projects, Unreal, music production, the OP-Z, and reading.
    
  • Bought useful and fun tools: T14 laptop, watches, music gear, and learned some hardware buying lessons.
    
• 2021
  
  • Moved to Taiwan, quarantined, picked up the Gold Card, found an apartment, and began building a life in Taipei.
    
  • Curative and contract work proved you could maintain a remote contractor life.
    
  • Taiwan opened socially: rooftop parties, Turtle Burn, g0v, Crossroads, book clubs, dinners, motorcycle rides, Thanksgiving Airbnb, and a huge new friend web.
    
  • Bought the MT-07, rode huandao, explored Taiwan, and made motorcycling feel expansive again.
    
  • Got Richard, fish, plants, cleaning habits, meditation, Mandarin study, and a more domestic partnership with Tammy.
    
  • Learned that you could do math, contracting, hard focus, event organization, Mandarin in public, and a full expat life better than expected.
    
• 2022
  
  • Built 508 more seriously and took on major contract work, especially Cofactr, where you functioned as architect, lead, and project manager.
    
  • Quit Curative to focus on Cofactr and proved you could run a team, delegate, organize tickets, and deliver.
    
  • Traveled intensely: huandao, Gaoxiong, Green Island, Yushan, Mexico, London, Switzerland, Greece cruise, Europe, Japan, the US, and many Taiwan trips.
    
  • Deepened community through g0v, twa11y, Crossroads, burning events, food camp, medical team, photography friends, Emily/Jesse, and engineer circles.
    
  • Got sued over the article, handled legal stress, and learned that outrage and fear can hit you harder than expected.
    
  • Couples therapy revealed that your needs and emotions matter, and that Tammy can handle hearing them.
    
  • Photography, self-hosting, servers, keyboards, Steam Deck, baking, blog posts, and open source tools became major hobby pillars.
    
• 2023
  
  • Proposed to Tammy at Yehliu.
    
  • Hosted your parents in Taiwan and helped lead them through your life there.
    
  • Riley and Hannah's wedding, repeated US trips, Aunt Sara's cancer, Wisconsin, family mortality, and Qing's death made the year emotionally heavy.
    
  • Started the Ji Spot restaurant and leaned hard into 508/co-op expansion.
    
  • Led food camp at Burning Man under intense pressure.
    
  • Traveled to Japan, Korea, Australia/New Zealand, Taitung, Penghu, Wisconsin, SF, Houston, and more.
    
  • Fubu, friendship churn, Nadine/Aurelian, more photography, language exchanges, and endless social events filled the year.
    
  • Learned that your capacity for organization is enormous, but so is the cost of doing too much.
    
• 2024
  
  • The restaurant dominated the first half of the year, drained energy, strained money, and taught a clear lesson about limits.
    
  • Quitting the restaurant was one of the wisest decisions of the year.
    
  • Your parents moved to Taiwan, Colette and the Laundries visited, and you helped family settle into the country.
    
  • Richard died, Aunt Sara died, and the year carried grief alongside logistics.
    
  • Job hunting, 508 business development, crypto contract work, Cofactr, Favorited payment drama, and finally Reactwise defined career stress and recovery.
    
  • Reactwise gave you a real Taiwan-based job after the restaurant closed.
    
  • Hit 93 kg at one point, tracked calories almost perfectly, and learned that OMAD/fasting could work when life had structure.
    
  • Rediscovered analog reading, writing, fountain pens, long-term thinking, retro gaming, self-hosting, and a calmer relationship with distraction.
    
• 2025
  
  • Reactwise funded much of the year, then ended near the end of the year and pushed you toward your own thing and 508.
    
  • 508 expanded dramatically, especially through Michael Wu's network and better infrastructure.
    
  • Chose a wedding venue and hired Freya for wedding planning and life/admin support.
    
  • Family time in Taiwan was central, then your parents left Taiwan.
    
  • Relationship with Tammy improved significantly; you got more in touch with emotions and intimacy.
    
  • Trilium, Hobonichi, paper notes, daily review, and "what gives/drains energy" became major self-knowledge tools.
    
  • You explored drumming, taiko, OP-1, Dirtywave M8, writing, creativity, sailing, lifting, NAS/server stability, nvim, and AI-assisted programming.
    
  • You were hit by cars twice, started the Cone Club, coned many cars, and turned pedestrian anger into practical local action.
    
  • You learned that ADHD can be an advantage, dopamine candy harms motivation, physical writing is critical, and you actually enjoy lifting.
    

this is what my last 10 years were about

• Personal life, family
  

  The decade began with leaving Texas for California and a relationship with Kailin that helped make the leap possible, then ended with Tammy as fiancee, wedding planning, family in Taiwan, and a much more conscious understanding of intimacy.

  Family moved from something visited around holidays into something actively integrated into your life: Houston trips, parents visiting Taiwan, parents moving to Taiwan, Colette visiting, Tammy's family trips, hot pots, Hawaii, Korea, Wisconsin, weddings, illnesses, and deaths. Aunt Sara's cancer and death, Qing's death, Richard's death, and your parents' aging made mortality less abstract.

  Tammy is one of the central through-lines. The relationship went from dating and concerts to living together, moving countries, pets, couples therapy, proposal, wedding planning, and learning that expressing your needs is not the same thing as harming someone. The decade repeatedly asked you to become less avoidant, more emotionally present, and more able to lead without disappearing into your head.

• Career, studies
  

  The professional story is almost absurdly clean at the beginning: from not being a web developer to Makersquare, fellowship, and Electric Imp in one year. Then it becomes a longer, messier education in seniority: Google interview prep, Potato, Curative, Cofactr, Jovono, 508, Favorited, Reactwise, and a growing belief that you can build and lead things yourself.

  You repeatedly rediscovered learning: algorithms, Python, Go, Emacs, org mode, AI, machine learning, game dev, self-hosting, servers, keyboards, nvim, system design, Mandarin, philosophy, and AI-assisted coding. You also repeatedly saw the same pattern: curiosity can explode into deep focus, but it needs guardrails, realistic scope, and fewer concurrent commitments.

  By the end of the decade, "be a good engineer" has expanded into "build a life and organization around the way I want work to exist." 508 is the mature form of an old wish: second income, freedom, co-op, commune, people getting paid well, and autonomy outside standard employment.

• friends, community
  

  The decade started with bootcamp friends, meetups, dates, and San Francisco social ambition. It became an enormous network across the Bay Area, Houston, New York, Europe, Taiwan, g0v, Crossroads, Gold Card circles, burners, photographers, engineers, restaurant people, and 508.

  One of the strongest discoveries is that you are not just someone who attends community. You create it: parties, beach houses, Thanksgiving Airbnbs, food camps, cooking parties, coworking days, motorcycle rides, group trips, KTV, co-op calls, networking events, and restaurant experiments. You are a hub when you choose to be.

  The cost is also clear: communities can become obligation machines. Burning Man, the restaurant, 508, and trip planning all show that leadership gives meaning and status, but can also consume the time needed for health, learning, and intimacy.

• relaxation, hobbies, creativity
  

  The decade is full of attempted and recurring creative identities: photographer, writer, blogger, drummer, music producer, game maker, baker, cook, server admin, keyboard builder, motorcyclist, organizer, journalist, and note-taker.

  Some hobbies became durable: motorcycling, reading, cooking/baking, journaling, self-hosting, photography, keyboards, gaming, and travel. Others flickered but still mattered: drums, taiko, OP-Z/OP-1/M8, Ableton, drawing, Unreal, streaming, ink painting, sailing, fencing/climbing ideas, and game dev.

  The biggest change is that creativity no longer looks like a fantasy about being "known"; it looks like an energy source. By 2025, writing, physical notebooks, drumming, lifting, and building small tools are not just accomplishments. They are ways to generate the motivation that earlier years tried to force through discipline alone.

• physical health, fitness
  

  Fitness is the most repeated unresolved quest. In 2016 it was lifting numbers and body composition in pounds; later it becomes kilos in Taiwan, with 98 kg, 101 kg, 93 kg, 89 kg targets, and 85 kg wedding ambition. The unit change tracks the bigger life change: California body goals became Taiwan life-system goals.

  You have many partial wins: bootcamp lifting consistency, running phases, cycling, Yushan as a reality check, roof bodyweight work, fasting/OMAD periods, calorie tracking, river tracing, long bike rides, hiking, and late-2025 discovery that you actually like lifting.

  The pattern is clear: fitness works when it is tied to structure, identity, and energy, not shame. It collapses when life is overcommitted, sleep is poor, dopamine candy is high, and food is being used as comfort. The next version is not "finally be disciplined"; it is "build the day so lifting and eating well generate energy."

• mental health, self-knowledge
  

  The decade starts with depression, self-doubt, Adderall, anxiety, and the shock of learning you are more capable than you thought. It moves through therapy, car-accident anxiety, pandemic pressure, death anxiety, meditation, bupropion/ritalin experiments, couples therapy, ADHD reading, Hobonichi, Trilium, and a much more nuanced model of motivation.

  Major discoveries:

  1. Your capabilities are not hardcoded.
  2. You have needs and emotions, and they matter.
  3. ADHD can be a source of hyperfocus and creativity when supported properly.
  4. Dopamine candy directly damages motivation.
  5. Physical writing and daily review are not decoration; they are infrastructure.
  6. Leadership, travel, sex, food, and achievement do not replace emotional intimacy.

  By 2025, self-knowledge is no longer only retrospective journaling. It is becoming an operating system: daily questions, energy accounting, paper TODOs, Trilium, Hobonichi, therapy, and physiological experiments.

• habits that define you
  

  Journaling, tracking, and reviewing define the whole decade, even when inconsistent. Org mode, Google calendar diaries, Hobonichi, Trilium, flashcards, GTD, time tracking, and yearly reviews are all attempts to make life inspectable.

  Other defining habits: motorcycling, reading, playing with tech, building your environment, cooking for people, hosting, taking long showers, stretching, arguing politics, buying tools, learning systems, and creating elaborate setups for future capability.

  The habit shadow is equally consistent: Reddit, Twitter, Hacker News, YouTube, memes, morning blorb, food as comfort, overbuying gadgets, and taking on too many commitments. The decade's repeated lesson is that the environment decides more than willpower does.

• a better tomorrow
  

  The political and civic thread grows from general values into action: g0v, Crossroads, twa11y, accessibility, MODA submission, pedestrian protests, cone club, Mapillary, 508, co-op salaries, traffic documentation, building community, helping people find work, mentoring, coaching, and making Taiwan more navigable for others.

  Your "better tomorrow" shifted from abstract leftist/anarchist ideals into practical experiments: can a co-op pay people better, can a restaurant be a community node, can cones get cars off sidewalks, can open source tools support autonomy, can writing and organizing inspire people, can community replace some of capitalism's loneliness?

  The answer is not complete, but the decade shows a growing willingness to stop only arguing and start building.

six sentences about my past 10 years

• the wisest decision i made….
  

  Moving first to California and then to Taiwan. California proved I could reinvent myself professionally; Taiwan proved I could build a whole life around freedom, friends, love, work, mobility, and community.

• biggest lesson i learned
  

  My capabilities are much less fixed than I thought, but they depend heavily on systems, energy, environment, sleep, emotion, and whether I am feeding or protecting my attention.

• the biggest risk I took…
  

  The visible risks were moving to California, doing the bootcamp, buying motorcycles, moving to Taiwan, proposing, starting 508, and opening the restaurant. The deeper risk was repeatedly leaving stable identities behind before the next version was fully proven.

• the biggest surprise of the decade
  

  That I can be a community builder and leader, not just a clever individual contributor. I can organize trips, contracts, kitchens, teams, friend groups, civic projects, and whole social worlds.

• the most important thing i did for others
  

  I created opportunities and spaces: helping friends get paid through contracts, organizing gatherings, feeding people, supporting Tammy and family, making Taiwan easier for others, and pushing cars off sidewalks through direct local action.

• the biggest thing i completed
  

  The life transition itself: from financially precarious Houston/Texas pre-engineer to a Taiwan-based senior engineer, fiance, community organizer, co-op founder, traveler, and person with a deep self-review practice.

six questions about my past 10 years

• what are you most proud of?
  

  I am most proud that I kept reinventing myself without losing the thread. I became a programmer, became a senior engineer, moved countries, built a life in Taiwan, built 508, proposed to Tammy, made huge friend networks, and kept returning to reflection even after years where I dropped it.

  I am also proud of my capacity under pressure: Cofactr, Burning Man food camp, the restaurant, family moves, job hunts, lawsuits, grief, travel logistics, and 508 all showed that I can keep a surprisingly clear head when things are complex.

• Who are the three people who influenced you the most?
  
  • Tammy
    

    She shaped the decade through love, conflict, travel, domestic life, therapy, Taiwan, proposal, and forcing emotional growth that career success could not replace.

  • Riley
    

    He stayed a technical and personal reference point: games, engineering, AI tools, Cofactr, family/friendship, Brooklyn/upstate visits, and honest pressure when you needed it.

  • Family
    

    Parents, Colette, Aunt Sara, and the broader family arc changed the stakes. Their visits, aging, moving to Taiwan, illness, death, and support kept reminding you that freedom is not only for yourself.

    Honorable mentions: Kailin, Alex, Gino, Yoyo, Craig, Michael Wu, Kevin, Emily/Jesse, Thomas, therapists, and the Taiwan friend/community network.

• Who are three people you influenced the most?
  
  • Tammy
    

    Through the relationship, travel, risk-taking, Taiwan life, 508, emotional work, and pushing both of you into a bigger life.

  • 508 members and contract collaborators
    

    You helped people access better-paid work, technical growth, co-op imagination, and a model of working outside standard employment.

  • Friends and family who experienced Taiwan through you
    

    Parents, Colette, visiting friends, and new arrivals were shown a version of Taiwan made of scooters, trains, night markets, friends, restaurants, hikes, coworking, and possibility.

• What were you not able to accomplish?
  

  The longest-running misses are weight loss, Mandarin fluency, consistent meditation, deep nonfiction/philosophy/math study, steady creative output, and keeping attention fully away from dopamine candy.

  You also did not fully resolve the tension between ambition and overcommitment. Many years show the same pattern: a huge vision, too many projects, exhausted execution, then a later system to prevent recurrence.

• What is the best thing you have discovered about yourself?
  

  That capability is often waiting on structure, not permission. You can learn hard things, lead people, make friends, be creative, love, organize, write, lift, and build. The limiting factor is usually attention, energy, fear, or environment, not raw ability.

• What are you most grateful for?
  

  Tammy, family, Taiwan, friends, motorcycles, open source software, the internet, books, cameras, keyboards, therapy, health, privilege, visas, public transit, night markets, cafes, money, contract opportunities, AI, Trilium/Hobonichi/org mode, and the fact that your life repeatedly gave you room to start again.

the best moments

• Passing Makersquare, getting the fellowship, and getting the Electric Imp offer
  

  Joy, disbelief, and proof. The feeling that the life you had imagined was suddenly not imaginary.

• Driving through El Paso and early California with Kailin
  

  Transition, crickets, coffee, trailer-house intimacy, donuts, hikes, and the complicated warmth of someone helping you cross a threshold.

• Japan in 2017 and 2018
  

  Clubs, karaoke, old friends, cherry blossoms, cold motorcycle rides, Shinjuku lights, Kyoto tea, and the feeling of being inside a future you had imagined.

• Motorcycle rides
  

  California roads, Taiwan mountains, huandao, Yilan nights, cold fall roads with Yoyo, the MT-07, rental bikes in Japan, and the recurring feeling that speed and landscape can reset the mind.

• Tammy travel
  

  Europe in autumn, Japan in winter, Sapporo ice cream after restaurant freedom, the Greece cruise afternoon tea, Mexico poolside, Korea family trip, Australia spa, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Osaka, and the scone walk.

• Community meals
  

  Jay's birthday cookies, Turtle Burn cooking, Thanksgiving Airbnb in Yilan, Christmas beef Wellington party, beach house gaming, cooking parties, hot pots, KTV birthdays, and feeding people as a form of leadership.

• Taiwan arrival and first year
  

  Leaving quarantine, signing the apartment, rooftop parties, g0v, Crossroads, 7-11 crawl, jazz jams, rich Taipei nights, fireworks, and the sense that you had found a better operating system for life.

• Family in Taiwan
  

  Parents visiting, leading them around, scooter rides, Wulai, family holidays, Colette visits, the Laundries loving Taiwan, and the strange pride of showing your people the world you built.

• Cofactr and 508 wins
  

  Walking to the Cofactr office in NYC while talking Morgan and Tammy through the contract, getting people paid, solving hard tasks, and realizing you can run an agency-like operation.

• Quiet joy
  

  Rereading Anathem, filling Hobonichi pages, writing in Trilium, coffee dates with Tammy, museum cafes, tea with Craig, gaming with Riley, secondhand shops in Japan, and the realization that calm can be as valuable as novelty.

Three of my biggest accomplishments

• list your three greatest accomplishments from the last 10 years here
  
  • 1. Reinventing my career and becoming a senior engineer
    

    From bootcamp uncertainty to high-income engineering, contracts, architecture, team leadership, AI-assisted programming, and enough confidence to consider building your own thing.

  • 2. Building a life in Taiwan with Tammy, family, friends, pets, and community
    

    Taiwan became home: apartment, Gold Card, Mandarin, motorcycles, friends, family visits, parents moving, civic action, and wedding planning.

  • 3. Learning to organize people and systems at scale
    

    Cofactr, 508, Burning Man food camp, trips, Thanksgiving, restaurant operations, social groups, and self-review systems all show that organization became one of your core powers.

• What did you do to achieve these?
  

  You kept taking the next slightly impossible step: applied to bootcamps, moved, studied, interviewed, accepted discomfort, put yourself into social spaces, tracked your life, used tools obsessively, asked for help, took contracts before you felt fully ready, and converted anxiety into systems.

  You also repeatedly returned to reflection. Even when incomplete, the journals kept enough signal alive for the next version of you to learn from.

• Who helped you achieve these successes? How?
  

  Kailin and family helped make the California leap possible. Tammy supported, challenged, traveled, planned, and grew with you. Riley connected you to work and technical pressure. Michael Wu, Nestor, Morgan, both Tammys, Sean, Craig, Yoyo, Kevin, Emily/Jesse, Thomas, therapists, and the Taiwan network each opened doors, gave feedback, carried logistics, or believed you were capable before you fully did.

Three of my biggest challenges

• List your three biggest challenges from the last 10 years here.
  
  • 1. Attention, discipline, and energy
    

    The recurring antagonist is not laziness but unmanaged attention: Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, HN, memes, food, long showers, sleep procrastination, overbuying, and overcommitting.

  • 2. Physical health and body composition
    

    You have wanted the same transformation for almost the whole decade. The problem survived many systems because it is linked to sleep, stress, food-as-comfort, social life, and identity.

  • 3. Emotional intimacy and mortality
    

    Kailin, Tammy, therapy, family aging, Aunt Sara, Qing, Richard, death anxiety, and the wedding arc all point to the same challenge: becoming emotionally present enough to live the life you are building.

• Who or what helped you overcome these challenges?
  

  Therapy, couples therapy, Tammy, Riley, family, ADHD books, How to Take Smart Notes, Trilium, Hobonichi, org mode, meditation, bupropion/ritalin experiments, fish oil, exercise, AI tools, open source software, notebooks, daily questions, and the friends who made life active enough to resist stagnation.

• What have you learned about yourself by overcoming these challenges?
  

  You need guardrails, not heroic self-contempt. When the environment is right, you can hyperfocus, lead, exercise, write, learn, and be kind. When the environment is wrong, you will burn energy fighting systems you could have designed around.

  You have also learned that you are resilient, but resilience is not infinite. The restaurant year made the limit visible. The next decade should use that lesson instead of testing it again.

Forgiveness

Letting go

The past 10 years in three words

• Reinvention
  
• Taiwan
  
• Attention
  

The book of my past 10 years

• Building the Life I Kept Trying to Optimize
  

Goodbye to your last 10 years

dare to dream big

This is what my next decade will be about

• personal life, family
  

  Marry Tammy and build a relationship where intimacy, play, sex, planning, conflict, and tenderness are all practiced directly.

  Help family stay connected to Taiwan if that is still right for them. Be more deliberate with parents, Colette, Riley, and old friends. Create traditions instead of only reacting to trips and emergencies.

• career, studies
  

  Make 508 or another self-directed business financially sustainable. Build products, content, tools, or services that compound instead of only trading hours for money.

  Finally choose a narrower learning track at a time: AI-assisted engineering, one new language/framework, Mandarin, writing, civic tech, or FOSS. Make learning output-driven: projects, essays, talks, commits, demos.

• friends, community
  

  Become a durable community builder in Taiwan. Build friend systems that do not rely on chaos: recurring dinners, coworking, rides, reading groups, cone club, 508 events, and creative sessions.

  Make more Taiwanese friends and stop letting language friction be the excuse.

• relaxation, hobbies, creativity
  

  Treat creativity as energy infrastructure. Write regularly. Drum or do music regularly. Take photos with lower editing burden. Cook and bake for people. Play games intentionally. Keep reading fiction and nonfiction.

  Use hobbies to make life vivid, not to collect gear.

• physical health, fitness
  

  Get to a weight and strength level that feels settled. Wedding motivation is useful, but the real goal is the rest of life: lifting as identity, walking and cycling as normal, food as intentional joy, sleep as protected infrastructure.

• mental health, self-knowledge
  

  Keep the reflection stack, but do not let it become another toy. Hobonichi, Trilium, paper TODOs, therapy, daily review, and meditation should answer one question: what helps me live better today?

  Practice emotions, not only analysis. Practice calm. Practice boredom. Practice starting.

• habits that define you
  

  Journaling, planning, stretching, lifting, Mandarin, writing, reading, meditation, clean environment, and intentional social planning.

  Avoid: Reddit/HN/Twitter/YouTube/meme spirals, morning blorb, sleep procrastination, comfort eating, and adding projects before subtracting old ones.

• a better tomorrow
  

  Grow 508 in a way that materially improves people's lives. Keep working on pedestrian safety and traffic problems. Build or contribute to open source. Write things that make people braver, freer, or more capable. Create community structures that make capitalism feel less total.

Magical triplets for the decade ahead

• I will love these three things about myself.
  
  • My ability to reinvent without losing continuity.
    
  • My curiosity and ADHD-powered creative focus.
    
  • My capacity to gather people and make things happen.
    
• I am ready to let go of these three things.
  
  • Dopamine candy as default comfort.
    
  • Shame as a motivator.
    
  • Overcommitment as proof of value.
    
• I want to achieve these three things the most.
  
  • A strong, lean, energetic body.
    
  • A self-directed livelihood through 508, products, writing, or community.
    
  • A deep, emotionally alive marriage and home life with Tammy.
    
• These three people will be my pillars during rough times.
  
  • Tammy.
    
  • Riley.
    
  • Family and close Taiwan friends, especially Michael, Thomas, Kevin, Bogdan, and the people who keep showing up.
    
• I will dare to discover these three things.
  
  • What I can build when I stop fearing failure.
    
  • What kind of leader I become when I protect my energy.
    
  • What Taiwan feels like when Mandarin is no longer a wall.
    
• I will have the power to say no to these three things.
  
  • Attention traps.
    
  • Food as anesthesia.
    
  • Projects that are exciting but not aligned.
    
• I will make my surroundings cozy with these three things.
  
  • Cleanliness and organization.
    
  • Books, notebooks, pens, keyboards, and useful tools.
    
  • Good music, tea, and spaces where Tammy and friends feel welcome.
    
• I will do these three things every morning.
  
  • Move my body.
    
  • Review the day on paper.
    
  • Stretch or meditate before the internet gets a vote.
    
• I will pamper myself with these three things regularly.
  
  • Baths, hot springs, and intentional showers.
    
  • Good fiction, comics, and games chosen on purpose.
    
  • Photo walks, motorcycle rides, and small Taiwan trips.
    
• I will visit these three places.
  
  • Taiwan mountains and east coast roads.
    
  • Japan, repeatedly and more slowly.
    
  • Southeast Asia or another region where I can widen my world without turning travel into chaos.
    
• I will connect with my loved ones in these three ways.
  
  • Initiate plans instead of waiting.
    
  • Say the emotional thing sooner.
    
  • Create recurring rituals: dinners, calls, rides, coworking, holidays, trips.
    
• I will reward my successes with these three presents.
  
  • Clothes that fit the body I built.
    
  • A Japan or hot spring trip.
    
  • Dedicated creative time with no guilt.
    

Six sentences about my next decade

• This decade I will not procrastinate any more over…
  

  My health, Mandarin, writing, and the hard task of choosing what kind of work I actually want to build.

• This decade I will draw the most energy from…
  

  Physical activity, writing, friends, Tammy, Taiwan, good systems, creative output, and work that compounds.

• This decade, I will be bravest when…
  

  I am hungry, uncertain, emotionally exposed, tempted by distraction, or facing a task that feels too large to begin.

• This decade I will say yes when…
  

  The opportunity is aligned with health, intimacy, community, creativity, learning, or freedom, and I have the actual capacity to do it well.

• This decade I advise myself to…
  

  Choose fewer things, start earlier, ask directly, write it down, move first, sleep on purpose, and remember that daily votes become identity.

• This decade will be special for me because…
  

  I am no longer trying to prove that I can build a life. I have built one. Now I get to decide what it is for.

My word for the decade ahead

• Integration
  

Secret wish