The first half of January's resolution probation period has ended, and so it's perhaps safe to post the goals for the year. So in no particular order, here they are.
- Blog more. There's a lot that's been happening, and very little of it sees the light of day online. There are plenty of projects to provoke, reflect upon, or just answer your organic search query. My blogging habits used to be a couple times a week, and slowly died down as life took over. It certainly shows in the analytics dashboard. By the end of the year, monthly sessions should equal the same numbers seen in 2015. This means content creation, content creation, and more content creation. You can probably already see that a mobile friendly theme has been refreshed, new categories, and a few posts already published.
- Divest. Financially, investors in their 20s can take a long-term view. This is the time to build up investing habits, and experience different markets. By the end of the year, I would like to invest in 20 different markets and start understanding my risk profile. Last year I experienced managed funds, blue-chip stocks, and rode the crypto currency roller coaster. This year will be more.
- Consume intelligently. The environment is changing. Now is as good a time as any to build habits to be a more ethical consumer. We vote with our dollars, and it is our responsibility to support supply chains that promote good values in our society. Once consumed, we should break the disposable habit that arose sometime in the previous generation, and go towards zero-waste.
- Improve digital security. The crypto boom is the public's first taste of moving more traditional assets into a decentralised network. Unlike centralised systems, decentralised systems are very hard to kill. I foresee more of our digital lives being interconnected, even if we don't realise it. It is pertinent that we promote more usage of privacy practices, such as password managers, secure protocols, self-hosted infrastructure, encryption, and signing.
- Begin longer term work and life. I've been in the architecture industry for a year and a half now after being primarily in software. It's probably time for training wheels off, and to start specialising in an area of architecture that is socially beneficial. Similarly, despite the prohibitive housing costs here in Sydney, the ongoing market correction suggests it's time to revisit settling down in the more traditional sense.
Until 2019, then.