Answering 40 questions for 2025
I've been reading blogs again thanks to bear. One of the first blogs I picked up - thanks to the discover page - was this one and this week I ended up reading this post.
I've been off work thanks to the end of year slowdown, so I've been in my head a lot. And that's sometimes not a great place to visit. Fortunately, the above post gave me an opportunity to collect my thoughts and bring some coherence to the cacophony in my head. It also seemed like a fun list and only a little bit depressing. So here goes.
If you want to do this exercise for yourself here's where you can find the 40 questions (translated into several languages as well).
1. What did you do this year that you’d never done before?
Attended a friend's wedding. And it was a blast. Believe it or not, almost all my close friends are married, and I'd never been to any of their weddings till this one! A consequence of living 8000 miles away from home. This being the only wedding that happened in the US, I was fortunate to be present for it.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions?
I don't quite remember what my new year's resolutions were :) So that tells me how well I managed to keep them. So let me retcon based on what I think I'd have resolved to 12 months back. I kept up with my workouts. I lift some legit weight now which I'm incredibly proud of. I didn't read as much - I barely read anything. So I'd like for that to get better next year.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes, it's been a few years of my close friends having kids. And what an exciting thing to be a part of. I love all my little friends. And I hope there are more of them on the way.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes, unfortunately, being a bit older means you will be losing older family members nearly every year. Although it provides an opportunity to reflect, think about all the nice memories, you never get better at handling death. After amma, I don't think anyone else's passing would affect me as much, but every piece of bad news only makes me grieve more for my mom. It never gets easier. And in a way I don't want it to.
5. What cities/states/countries did you visit?
I went back to London — although it was for a very short period. It was every bit as lovely. Two 'boys trips' to Southern California — I think this is a fix I'll need every few months -- doing nothing was never more fun.
6. What would you like to have next year that you lacked this year?
More time with family and friends.
7. What date(s) from this year will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
4th of July weekend. Two close friends of mine got married to each other and it couldn't have been nicer.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Weights, weights, and more weights.
9. What was your biggest failure?
I don't think there was much in the way of failure; however I would have liked to run more. I signed up for a marathon and ended up not running at all.
10. What other hardships did you face?
A few small paper-cuts here and there which I'd like to completely get rid of in 2026. These paper-cuts have been a mainstay for many years now. I'd really like different ones next year please.
11. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Thankfully no. Nothing besides a small bout of fever/cold for a week a couple times.
12. What was the best thing you bought?
Do my codex, claude, gemini subscriptions count? Yeah.
13. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My sister and dad have been getting better at handling what life's been throwing at us.
A whole lot of my friends, and my girlfriend, changed jobs this year. Without going too deep into the lore, this is an incredible break from inertia for my social circle. I did too!
Liverpool won the premier league :)
14. Whose behavior made you appalled?
No one personally. But I'm finding it increasingly irksome how much worse my adopted home is deteriorating away from the things that actually brought me here. Starting from the man at the top.
15. Where did most of your money go?
To Anthropic and OpenAI.
16. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Did I say coding agents? Coding agents. I built so.many.things
17. What song will always remind you of this year?
Oorum blood intensifies.
18. Compared to this time last year, are you: happier or sadder? Richer or poorer? Healthier or unhealthier?
I'm not sure I'm happier, but perhaps less sad. Definitely richer - my funemployment days ended :). I think I'm healthier given how much my lifting has gotten better.
19. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Work out. Hang outs. Travel. Definitely more reading.
20. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Screentime.
21. How are you spending the holidays?
Mostly building tons of fun side projects. I feel like I have acquired a superpower. I should actually wind down the next few days and get some rest.
22. Did you fall in love this year?
It's an everyday occurrence.
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I don't carry hate.
24. What was your favorite show?
I watched Severance this year which probably should top the list. Succession as well. Pluribus was every bit as good, but I suppose I'll have to forget about it for another two years which I'm not thrilled about.
25. What was the best book you read?
There isn't one. Which is a problem in itself.
26. What was your greatest musical discovery of the year?
I can't point to anything. I've started tinkering with garage band with the help of claude code. And with some pitch correction I can actually make myself sound passable. But that's an experiment that cannot escape containment, not yet.
27. What was your favorite film?
Weapons was fun. I enjoyed Dragon. I quite liked One Battle After Another.
28. What was your favorite meal?
Honest Burger, Meard Street. Not kidding, go right now.
29. What did you want and get?
I wanted to make my friends invest more actively. And I think I was successful at it. Quite proud of that.
30. What did you want and not get?
I wanted to host a party and celebrate with my friends. May be next year.
31. What did you do on your birthday?
My girlfriend had planned a 'treasure hunt'. We visited several locations in the small town of Bellingham, WA. She doesn't believe it but I found it fun and amusing. I hadn't done anything like this ever before. Perhaps I should get better at showing appreciation for these things.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
If I'd run the marathon. If I'd got out of my house more. If I'd pulled off a wedding.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion this year?
Uniqlo.
34. What kept you sane?
Hanging out with friends. Hanging out with babies. Building things.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you admire the most?
Mo Salah. Best ever player to do it.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Immigration in the US. What are we even doing here.
37. Who did you miss?
Amma.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
My friend's 3 month old daughter :)
39. What valuable life lesson did you learn this year?
Joy multiplies when shared. There's no better feeling than being unabashedly happy for someone else.
40. What is a quote that sums up your year?
How you do anything is how you do everything.
I believe the two important things to cultivate in life are discipline and integrity.
Send me your 40!