The #yearly_roundup of things that I enjoyed in 2024 is not too different from the previous one. In fact, looking back at the yearly roundups since 2017 I see some recurring themes: reading, work, football, traveling, health, a few TV series/games, maybe a device or a service that really brought me joy. So this time I’ll try to skip those and focus only on the things that stood up in 2024.

1. Learning how to swim. Perhaps swimming it’s too much, and ‘advancing in water one lap at a time without fear of drowning’ would be a more accurate representation of what I’m doing. Either way, according to my Apple Watch, I had 64 swimming sessions in 2024, covering over 32 kilometres. I call that a win.
2. Spending more time and energy on my kids growth. I even came up with a framework covering what they should know by the time they leave home. There’s a fine line though between helping them and overdoing things. Also a lot of frustrations along the way, but definitely worth the time.
3. Finding joy in little things. That colour-changing, ambient light lamp. A scented candle. The digital frame reminding you about a random photo you took years ago. Having an unscheduled beer with the neighbour while chatting about your day. The first warm days of the year. The nice wallpapers. Magnets. The scent of the garden leaves in September. That puzzle game with your kids.
   Sometimes you need to actively look for thin slices of joy.
4. Biking. Spending less time in traffic while also doing a good workout? I’m up for it (except when it’s freezing outside, because I don’t enjoy the cold).
5. The law of unintended consequences. “People respond to incentives, although not necessarily in ways that are predictable. Therefore, one of the most powerful laws in the universe is the law of unintended consequences.” source: the Freakonomics guys
6. Data science and data visualisation.

Yearly stats 2024:

• 10.300 pages read (up from 7100)
• 33 books read (up from 17)
• 5.10m steps (down from 5.19)
• 498 exercise hours (up from 459)
• 3870 kms covered (down from 3916)
• 259 Mcal energy burned (up from 246)
• 7h 52m slept on average (up from 7h 49m)

Until the next time 👋

The #yearly_roundup of things that I enjoyed this year.

1. Doing what I like. In 2023 I changed jobs. While remaining in the same field of IT security, the perspective, responsibilities and expectations changed. Combined with the working-from-home routine, it was a great year from a professional point of view.
2. Sticking to a healthy routine. Less active compared to 2022, but kept the wheels moving. Next year aiming for 500 hours of exercise time, 5 million steps and 4000 km covered distance.
3. Reading. Again a bit less than in 2022, but discovered a few good reads (Harry Potter among them ) and I enjoyed the new Kindle Scribe.
4. Refereeing football games. Loving it, looking forward for more in 2024.
5. The Worldle games (classic worldle, quordle, octordle, victordle, etc). Because sometimes you need to let your brain switch off.
6. Discovering the Loire Valley. One of the best holidays of the recent years. All thanks to my trusty 5 years old Tesla.
7. Two things that I am using for 16 hours every day: a Herman Miller Aeron chair and a Tempur mattress. None of them are cheap, but given how long I will use them I think they worth the investment.
8. The Titanium iPhone 15 Pro. For the first time since owning an iPhone, enjoying the case-less joy of using it.
9. A few series: Seinfeld, The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon. Some things will never change.
10. No longer wasting my time on Twitter (or whichever letter it becomes). I replaced it with a combination of Substack, Reddit and Quora, because one must still waste their time sometimes…

A missed opportunity for the MacBook Pro to make it to this list, mostly because of the Finder and keyboard issues. To be revisited at the end of 2024.

The #yearly_roundup of things that I enjoyed this year.

1. Getting over the Covid period. It felt good to be able to travel, socialize and play sports again. With the added value that the working-from-home routine continued.
2. Reading. A bit less compared to the last year (according to Goodreads). I particularly enjoyed the “Three body problem” trilogy, which made my imagination run like never before. “In the future people will take neuro drugs that will selectively erase memories of this trilogy in order to be able to read them again for the first time.” #
3. Sticking to a healthy routine. More active compared to 2021. Smashed the 1000 days record for closing the Apple Health rings, kept doing 10.000 steps every day during the same period and played football 2-3 times every week. That’s a lot of dopamines 🙂
4. Driving my Tesla. Almost 5 years in, and it doesn’t get old.
5. Refereeing football games. I still regret not starting this earlier.
6. The wallpapers on my phone. I know, quite silly 😋 but we need to look for thin slices of joy. The iOS 16 lock screen improvements made me look for colors and emotions and in the process, increased my appreciation for the digital artists.
7. A few card games. Hearts and Spades from the Apple Arcade gave my mind some time off while bringing back some teenage memories.
8. Learning a new foreign language. I’m nowhere near speaking Spanish, but I am quite happy with the progress I made this year in learning new words and understanding the language.
9. A series: For all mankind. Because the third season is just as good as the previous two. And because it accentuates the impression that we’re leaving a new golden age for the space exploration (perhaps soon to be powered by fusion?).
10. Attending the first concert with my daughter. Not planned, but it turned out to be awesome.