Five lessons from 2023

A short review of the best worst year ever

A belated Merry Christmas, and here’s to a Happy New Year!

Apologies for missing last week’s deadline. I got the plague and, as a man, it was time to begin Christmas shopping. Fun times. 

I’ve been going back-and-forth about doing a Year-in-Review listicle kind of thing. After all, reviewing lessons learned is kind of what I’ve been doing here all along. And since this and other endeavors aren’t exactly at the humblebrag level yet, it’s tough to make hay with that. And then there’s the ever-present, “Who cares?” 

Well, that’s one thing I’m extremely grateful for about the year: A couple hundred of you do care to read this between 47% and 63% of the time.

How it began: solid plans, strong ambition (plenty of motivation), and a stretch goal of a dream hike through the Zion Subway.

I’ve also been reflecting on whether I really mean it when I say it was a great terrible year. I mean, it was a year full of challenging (sure, we’ll call it that) events that force a man to choose whether to keep going and live or else drink and binge-watch trash until one’s skin fuses with the couch cushions.