Taking more asymmetric bets, and reflections on 2025
The end of 2025 is closing in, and I've been thinking a lot about how I've been spending my time (particularly online).
There is a lot of cool stuff being built, and I don't want to be dogmatic about my decisions. However, I think I've come to some conclusions about how exactly I want to spend my time going forward, how my approach to using tech is going to change.
But first, some mushy life stuff.
I got married 💍
In the summer of this year, I got married to the love of my life.
A few months later I got to visit China, which has quckly become one of favourite places. Here's a cat on the Mutianyu Great Wall of China.
As life is coming at me in full force, I've decided I probably need to think about how I want to use and work with technology in the coming years.
Pragmatism
I now have a family, i.e. my wife, which I need to support. This means, generally speaking, I have taken a much more pragmatic approach to writing and programming.
I've always had a soft spot for Linux, FOSS, and general tinkering, but I'm trying to spend my time now more towards things which are valuable both for myself and the world around me. We all need to make a living somehow.
This isn't to say that you should throw away all of your niche playthings and just go and learn the most mainstream tools, as I also believe that can be counter-productive. But finding a balance between "productivity" and "fun" is probably a good thing for me.
Narrowing my focus
Some may think it's the best time to be a generalist given the landscape of tech at the moment, but I think I want to push to become more of a specialist.
I've been a generalist for a while, and while it is a very rewarding position to work in, I do find myself feeling like I have gaps in my knowledge due to the constant bouncing around between domains, topics, and work.
I'd like to take a more intentional approach to work in general and try and become a little more "T-shaped".
Writing, learning, and building in public
I came across the idea of asymmetric bets, a concept popularized by Naval Ravikant.
The general idea is that if doing something has little or no long-term downsides and has the possibility of a large upside, you should try and pursue it (not financial advice).
In the case of what I'm doing, this is writing more blog posts, producing more videos, and building more software.
Even though I'm a (somewhat) competent person, I'm always a little afraid to write about the things I'm learning or doing.
There is a fear in the back of my mind that someone might think I'm an idiot, or it might somehow hurt my "professional reputation".
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I want to pursue high-quality and intentional content, but not strive for perfectionism.
Another thing I want to do more of is use public forums.
Having a bit more fun
At risk of sounding like a hypocrite with all of my focus on pragmatism, I do think it is almost necessary to do this with a very heathly dose of fun.
Taking everything too seriously is exhausting. I think we can make very interesting, enjoyable, and cool technology and we should strive to do so.
I plan to make some more fun things next year!
The elephant in the room
Seeing the popularity of AI increase and increase has naturally given some rise to the future of knowledge work as a career.
So, what gives? Do I stop writing? Be a neo-luddite? Or just use the tools?
At the moment, I am simply going to carry on as usual and I'll see what happens. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
I also plan to focus on things like PL theory and compilers.
And if that, who knows. Maybe I'll just learn a different something until the robots replace those, too.
Thanks for reading!