New Year’s Resolutions 2025

Last year, for the first time since 2018, I did not set New Year’s Resolutions. But for good reason.

2024 for me was one big Resolution: I took the year off from work, guided by a vision to Pursue Spiritual and Intellectual Clarity. In that pursuit I wrote, read, travelled, reflected, learned, and practiced new skills.

In 2024 I also succeeded in several efforts that had been repeat-failures as Resolutions in years past. This time I succeeded because these things were incidental to my greater purpose, and because I had few other obligations.

In 2024, I …

• Kept up near-daily writing and meditation habits
• Read a lot of books
• Made real improvements in diet and reductions in drinking
• Worked out a lot
• Invested in the spiritual dimension of my life in a way I never had before

After last year’s reset, I am back to formal resolutions for 2025. We’ll see if the accountability from posting them somewhat publicly increases my success rate. (In a few days I’ll try to post a recap of my success/failure rate in prior years).

In 2025, I will …

1. Boot up on classical music. I have had this thread pinned to my personal email all year and never got to it. But today I started.
2. Make predictions and measure my accuracy. In the Tetlockian/Rationalist tradition. This is another one I’ve had good intentions around for years, but have never quite gotten to. This will get its own post.
3. Do a programming project with new AI & web tools. This will also get its own post.
4. Complete five formal public speaking engagements. Can be anything, as long as it’s part of an event and there is an audience. Public speaking has been my most consistent personal growth focus for several years now.
5. Finish 10 books; sample and but not finish 10 others; attend six movies/concerts/shows. Review all of them here.
6. Reengage with the pursuit of spiritual clarity. If I do it, this will get its own post as well.
7. Get down to race weight. Even if I don’t race this year.

In the past I’ve broken my Resolutions into primary and secondary sets. This year I am just listing them in roughly descending order of priority.

Updates to come. Happy New Year!