It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.

- Benjamin Franklin, allegedly

I spent too much time in 2024 being idle*. I wasn’t bored, per se, but I would spend hours a day daydreaming. From the beginning, some time was also spent being filled with anxiety, thinking about how the daydreams might not come to fruition. Those thoughts crescendoed over the months, until abruptly and very conclusively, there were no more daydreams to be had. Now that a painful chapter of my life has closed, it’s time to write a far more pleasant chapter.

In 2025, I want to do things. Many things. A great variety of things. None of these goals will make be a fundamentally different man. These goals will simply make me a busy person that tries his hand at many craft, spends more time with friends, and becomes evermore educated.

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

- Thomas Jefferson, allegedly

*I actually did accomplish a fair bit this year. See my Tweet celebrating the wins.

What’s a goal

A goal is tangible. I can absolutely build a piece of furniture (from scratch, not IKEA). I’ve proven to myself with smaller woodworking projects that I have at least a little bit of woodworking talent. Scaling up to larger items is the natural next step.

A goal is measurable. I want to begin writing and publishing essays. This isn’t nebulous. It can easily can be tracked by the number of essays I put out.

A goal is something you actually want to do, and make you closer to someone you want to be. I want to be a friend that is a nexus for social groups. What better way to approach being such a person than to host events more frequently at one’s place?

What’s not a goal

Wishes and desires. Do I want to find a wife next year? Absolutely; in fact, more than anything on this list. Can I guarantee that this happens? No. This isn’t defeatism. It just takes two to tango, and I’d be setting myself up for failure to put this on a list of objectives that are otherwise entirely under my control.

Unrealistic expectations. I’m building a small iPhone app (discussed later). It’d be neat for it to become profitable enough to pay for a couple more expensive hobbies I’d like to take on. The chances that it does is low, at least without sigificant effort that I am unwilling to put into a small project.

Presently-unrealistic expectations. I want to learn how to fly a plane. It’s quite doable. However, I do not have the time to dedicate my efforts to this next year. I’ll save this goal for, likely, 2027.

Something you aren’t willing to put effort into. Some of my friends take way better photos than I do, and it’d be nice to be more adept at taking photos to hold on to the memories I make next year. But, I don’t care enough to go out of my way to become an amateur photographer. I’ll let my friends take the photos.

Goals

Be warned, this list is long. Nevertheless, I do not think it is unreasonable. I’ve set relatively low bars for all of them.

If any of these interest you personally, reach out to me. Let’s do them together.

The Arts

Woodworking. Build one piece of furniture out of wood. Not a goal: I’m not committing to making any small woodworking projects, unless inspiration hits me and there’s the right person to gift it to. I already demonstrated to myself this year that I can do them.

Leatherworking Learn leatherworking. Make at least 3 wallets (one for self, 2 as gifts). Will do more if more friends demand them. Make one larger item (e.g. handbag or satchel).

Blacksmithing. Take an intro blacksmithing class. I would one day like to forge a sword. If I can make a letter opener this year, I’ll be one baby step closer.

Piano. Re-learn the piano. I was quite good at it, until I suddenly dropped it a dozen years ago. I’m going to make myself play The Pink Panther and In the Dark of the Night on a public piano by the end of the year.

Cooking. Once every two weekends, attempt to cook a new dish I haven’t cooked before. By request, I’ll have to make pasta carbonara.

Personal Development

Cooking. No, this isn’t a duplicate. In addition to exploring the culinary art, I also just want to just cook regularly. In 2023, I cooked almost all of my meals. In 2024, I cooked very little, relying on frozen meals, snacks, and El Pollo Loco. This year, I shall not buy any frozen meals, and eat out no more than twice a week.

Writing. I hate writing, but I loving expressing my thoughts. I think my distaste for writing comes from my ineptitude at it, and I’m willing to change that. I’m commiting to writing 6 small essays this year, each at least 500 words long.

Chess. After years of not playing chess, I suddenly regained the interest in playing a few weeks ago. Increase my chess ELO rating by 200 points. At my peak, in my early teens, I was 600 points higher than where I currently am, so I’m a long ways out from returning to my (still modest) glory.

Greenthumbery. Have 5 plants survive half a year. At least one plant must be edible (e.g. rosemary). I miss the greenery of Washington State. The least I can do is bring a little green into the Los Angeles hellscape.

Reading. I did a fine job of this, but was quite inconsistent throughout the year. I’d like to read on a regular cadence. Read one non-technical book per month.

Foreign language. I want to learn to read Russian. I can understand it orally remarkably well, but have yet to learn to read it.

Volunteering. I haven’t done so in a while. (The last time I did, it led to the accidental desecration of a house of worship.) I’d like to dedicate a measely two days this year to some non-proft effort seeking volunteers. Recipients of the volunteering efforts are still to be determined.

Fun money. I’m too stingy with money. Make a $1000 monthly fun budget that I have to spend. Most of it will go into obtaining the goals listed here.

Stonks. Put 80% of existing cash savings into stonk market. Despite having made and saved a substantial amount of money for my age, I have no idea why I’ve been letting so much money just sit there, not accrewing interest. Also, continue to not sell my SpaceX stonks.

Fashion. Build a wardrobe. I have nothing but company merch and jeans. Wear no company merch one day a week.

Mustachery. Wear only a mustache for 3 consecutive weeks. I do not know whether I’ll look like a Space Cowboy or someone who ought to be thrown into a woodchipper, but we’ll all find out together.

Adventure

Passport. I need to renew my very expired passport. I don’t have plans to travel abroad this year, but I want to see the solar eclipse in Spain in 2026. Also, who knows if some spontaneous international trip presents itself? Unlikely, but I should be prepared.

Stargaze. Stargaze in Arizona during a new moon. Two people have told me to do this in the past few months. I’ll also likely stargaze in other skies, but I have none in mind at the moment.

Weekend trips. Each quarter, do a weekend trip to some nature destination in California.

Athletics

Habit. Rebuild the habit of exercising daily for an hour. Not giving myself any performance targets until I can maintain this habit and see my trajectory with the present health issue I’m in the process of resolving.

Swimming. Get back into swimming. I was at my fittest when I was on the swim team. I’m going to start with the incredibly low bar of getting into a swim lane once this year, since I don’t know the availability of the pools in the area.

Archery. Try archery once. It just seems badass. I have no further comment.

Shooting. Every quarter, go to the firing range. I’ve yet to fire a weapon since moving to California.

Meal tracking. Not athletics, but health related. I’m at a perfectly fine weight. I’m just curious to find out how long it takes to lose and regain 10 pounds. I’ll use MyFitnessPal to log my meals and weight.

Social

Stranger in a strange land. Once a month, go to a social gathering with no more than one friend. Use 222.place if needed (trying it out with a friend next week).

Host. Once a month, host friends at home (dinner, game night, etc).

Bonfire. Once a quarter, host a bonfire.

Roadtrip. Go on one road trip with friend(s).

Twitter. Get to 1000 followers on Twitter. Tweet once a day, ideally about something on this list. Don’t care about clout; I’m just finding that the more folks I know on this platform, the more interactions I have with fascinating people.

Risk + Hot Ones. Play a game of Risk with friends, while we eat wings with Hot Ones sauces. I’ve done this once in college. It was quite the emotional experience when Kamchatka fell.

Projects

Brian’s crazy ideas. Participate in at least one of Brian’s personal projects. Need to come up with some quantifiable metric. At least half a dozen meetups dedicated to the project?

Unshelved. Publish, monetize, and maintain Unshelved. I’ve made a quick prototype of this small app that I’ll share with everyone later, in the coming month. Only performance target is that I don’t lose money.

Hardware project. I have a list of hardware projects I want to do. I just need to pick one and actually build it.

Education

Physics. Read the first Landau book on mechanics.

Math. Review math that enables me to comprehend the Landau book.

Signals and systems. I want to become a control systems engineer. Read Signals and Systems, by Oppenheim.

Family

Visit. Visit family once a quarter.

Call. I FaceTime my family almost every evening, and I don’t plan on stopping.

Gift. My family doesn’t really do birthday gifts anymore. But, I’d like to make my sister some handmade gift this year.

Career

Build a nuclear reactor. My job is pretty chaotic and I never know what I’ll be doing in a given week, so I don’t have any career goals right now. I’m just doing whatever I need to do to have a nuclear reactor at the DOME by 2026.