2025 was a wild year. I don’t think I particularly liked it. But here we are - shot right out of the cannon that was 2025 into the welcoming arms of 2026.

We are truly fucked aren’t we. Destined to progress into this wilderness of confusion, the unknown, and a bunch of fucking weird. I can’t wait! Please join me in continuing to witness the future one year at a time!

Ok. So 2025 was pretty nuts.

Health

I ran a lot. It was awesome. I averaged about 10 miles a week. Keep in mind that prior to 10/2024 the last time I ran was in 1997. I notice all sorts of impact to my body. My knees no longer hurt (thankfully that continues), my IT band issues have seemingly disappeared - but more importantly - I don’t get winded as often, and I feel like I slept and move better. It is very nice.

I did another mayo run (which I highly recommend) and they were like “keep it up.” Which is nice to hear.

I think doing the ol’ “keep it up” routine is really hard. Sometimes, when I am eating well, working out, or running I think “will I have to do this forever? “ and I think the answer is yes. I do like most of it - so not too worried.

The goal for 2025 is to lose 3ish kg, shrink my waist a bit, and maybe increase my weekly mileage. Also get fucking ripped. Like Carrot top.

Work

The company is still rocking. Startups are hard. I do not like them. But I love them. I don’t know what else I would do.

We have the benefit of working with friends. We have all worked together for ages (average of almost 11 years!). There is a lot of good from that kind of environment. High trust, high fun, and good vibes.

Startups are always hard tho. And this one is no different. We are doing the work, and continuing to do so.

A couple fun notes:

• AI is wild. I don’t think we know where this is going.
• We have good merch.
• Our office is killer.
• The team is pristine.
• IDEs are for the past.
• Need more robots (who wants to send us a humanoid robot to hack?)

Essentially we just yell at computers while iterating towards a hopeful PMF.

Travel

Pretty chill travel year. Mostly just Japan for family, and a bit of domestic travel. I need to get to SF, and NY more. Time, man.

I do miss the days when I was traveling every week. I most do not miss the time away from the fam and company, though.

Time, man.

Macro

Boy are we in trouble.

2025 brought a lot of bad things to Chicago. It was, and is sad to witness. The fear, the cracks in the community, and the fact that we have no out.

However, Chicago is awesome and I am proud to live here.

2026

I think it is going to be weirder, stranger, and probably worse for everyone.

2025 was this strange vibe that has kind of been present since 2020. The idea that: inside my spaces everything was pretty awesome. Outside my spaces it was pure fucking terror.

A lot of friends rejoiced when 2025 was over: “Finally we can end this horrible year.” I do not think that 2026 is going to bring a reprieve from the horrors. Only amplify.

Recently I was playing with some AI tools and built a “worldview” builder. It would take anything that you added to it and use it to build out a worldview for you. Over a few weeks I added a constant stream of info, snippets, articles, a few book references, and some other fun stuff. And it output the following:

Systemic collapse is slow, then sudden. Prepare locally, fight systemically, find opportunity in the cracks. We’re fucked—but, hopefully, REM-fucked, not Mad Max. Build your crew, have fun, lean into danger. Life is hard; extend grace for pain, not harm. The children will judge us correctly.

I don’t know if I think this is my worldview, but I don’t hate the narrative.

So, 2026: This year of working together, having fun, and building the community. We will all have so much work to do so that we can ensure the path to the future isn’t shrouded in darkness.

Please join me. We can’t do this alone.