JAN 1, 2025

2025 yearly theme: year of the forge

2025 is Year of the Forge.

Recently, I learned something new about myself—I learned that I want to create. I want to create to own, to have the absolute right to modify as I see fit, to experience what it is like to be intimately familiar with a thing in a way that only the creator can be. I do not want to have things exist, I want to make things exist. So Year of the Forge is about creating more by making it easier to create more, and it comes in three flavors.

First, make physical and mental space for creation. On the physical side, that means my desk at home is now a forge (though of course, the couch is still couch). It also means finding places outside that are conducive to creation—so far, I like study spots on campus and parks. The mental space comes from approaching media consumption more intentionally by viewing it in the context of creation. Consuming means putting noise in my head that will compete for my attention—will this help me create? Sometimes, the answer is yes. The creativity in research, for example, is about finding a pattern in a bunch of noise. But many times the answer is no, and in this case, I want to reduce the noise so that I can think.

Second, trust in myself and forge ahead. I’ve noticed that I tend to become—this is going to sound really hippie—“attuned to other people’s vibes” much more than I would like. This generally has a diluting effect on my creative excitement—it is and should be true that no one is as excited about my own projects as me, so “attuning” means “getting less excited.” Maybe counterintuitively, the effect is worst around people who are simply indifferent, not those who actively criticize what I’m doing—I have difficulty defending against a certain sort of purposelessness, this “what’s the point? why care?” kind of mindset. Good creative work comes from caring really hard about a thing™, so this is especially bad for creativity. ^[1] So I want to practice listening to myself—do I like the thing I’m doing now? Then that’s plenty.

Last but not least, rest in order to create. This is new for me—all of my past themes have been of the “clear the fog and push yourself” variety. That was what I needed at the time—I didn’t know how to do anything, how to turn the vague intentions in my head into actions that live in reality-land—but I’m not that person anymore. I am now a person who needs to be reminded that in the same way you can’t work metal before it’s hot, you can’t keep working yourself without rest. To me, this looks like actually taking weekends and highly respecting activities that help me recharge (even if they don’t seem productive). It means respecting the time I spend sleeping, eating, climbing, hanging out with friends—overall, it means respecting the fact that I am a human being.

So that’s the idea. Here’s to a new year!