2024 was unreal. Met some amazing people, including my girlfriend. Relationships felt differentâlike my personal and professional lives were finally starting to converge. For the longest time, I kept those worlds siloed on purpose, but maybe they don't need to be. Time will tell if it'll drift back to how they were, but for now, things are fine.
Life has shifted dramatically since summer, and it's remarkable how quickly we adapt to new realitiesâto the point where our old lifestyle becomes almost unrecognizable. I've grown considerably, or at least I'd like to think so. I didn't know how I wanted to write this. At first I considered listing my accomplishments, but that felt unnatural and unlike me. Rather, I want to share some meaningful reflections from this year.
1. Follow your own path. Trust your gut.
This past year, I've crossed paths with some incredibly smart peopleâmany my age or even youngerâdoing what feels like the impossible. I'm proud of them, no doubt, but it's hard not to feel a step behind sometimes. Urgency and insecurity have a way of creeping in like that.
But conversations helped me realize that everyone has their thingâsome shine in engineering, some in art, some in writing. As for me, Iâm still figuring it out. Maybe Iâm a generalist, decent at a few things, but one thing I do know for sure: Iâm exceptional at building strong relationships. What excites me isnât always what excites othersâthatâs been a lesson of its own. Weâre all wired differently, and thatâs more than okay. The key is to trust your wiring and let it spark in its own way.
Probably a bit of the Dunning-Kruger effect mixed in there too.
2. Always give more than you take.
It sounds obvious, but looking back, all the best relationships I've built this year started with some kind of giving. And what's funny is how often that giving loops back around in ways I never expectedâleading to opportunities that never would've crossed my path otherwise. Give for the sake of giving. Give for the sake of giving.
3. Creativity as a lever for holistic growth.
Whenever people ask what my hobbies are, I never have a good answer. But when I think about the people I admire most, they're always creative in some fashion be it writing, philosophy, or storytelling. Sure, there's a cultural obsession with logical thinkingâmath, physics, and biologyâbut creative thinking is what drives movement across the board. Distribution, design, problem-solving, even engineeringâit all feels rooted in the ability to think abstractly.
I keep coming back to this Patrick Collison quote: "One of the main things you should try to achieve by age 20 is some sense for which kinds of things you enjoy doing." Although I'm past that age, that's exactly why I started writingâit's a late but intentional pursuit of creativity and hopefully an answer to that question. I'm genuinely excited for the year. 2025 will be real.
- Eddie