Apr 02, 2025
The Sum of Everything Valuable
Imagine somebody buys you a sports car. Let’s say it’s a Lamborghini—it doesn’t really matter. The point is, the fact that the car is incredibly expensive tells us something: on a societal level, it’s valuable. A great deal of people would find something like this desirable—something they want. Hence the price tag.
Now imagine someone gives this car to you, but there’s a catch: you only get it for a year. It’s a gift. There are no conditions. It’s yours to do whatever you want with for that year. You’re not even restricted from damaging it—there’s just a simple time limit. One year.
So what are you going to do with this car? You’ll probably hop in and drive fast. You’ll dress up nice, take it to clubs, restaurants, maybe take people you know out for a spin. You’ll invent reasons to go places you otherwise wouldn’t go—just because you can.
Why? Because you’ve got this amazing thing. And by some unbelievable stroke of luck, it’s yours—for now. So of course, you want to use it. You want to enjoy it while you have it, because you know it won’t last.
You can probably see where I’m going with this.
Now, let’s take your life.
In pretty much every way, it’s the same situation. You didn’t ask for it. You were just given it. So how do we know life is valuable?
Well, one way to look at it: everything else that’s valuable is only valuable within the context of life. That sports car, for example—it only means something because you’re alive to value it. You could argue that life is the most valuable thing there is, because it’s the sum of everything that can be valued.
So the real question becomes: what do you do with life?
And I think, if we follow the analogy, the answer is pretty clear. You make up reasons to live it. Just like you would with the car. You invent things to do. You create meaning and find enjoyment in the time you’ve got, because this is your rare opportunity.
Sitting around intellectualizing about what you should do probably won’t get you very far. It’s only through experience that you start to figure out what you truly want.
So get up. Go outside. Try something that seems even slightly interesting. Even if it sucks, at least you can cross it off your list. Life is the most valuable thing you will ever have—and one day, you won’t have it anymore.
So why not spend it finding out what makes it worthwhile?
At the end of each day, fall into bed completely exhausted—knowing you’re just a little wiser than you were yesterday, through nothing more than experiencing the world around you.
Feb 13, 2025
A Shift in Focus
Okay, so I'm deviating a bit—making a bit of a life change. For the last several years, programming has been a huge part of my life. It’s a very reason-heavy task, requiring abstraction and pulling yourself away from the real world.
There are many ways to look at the world, and one way is to think of people as operating in two modes: as individuals or as parts of a larger machine. Of course, we are both, but some people tend to lean more one way than the other.
My Journey in Tech
I’ve taken a deep dive into the world of tech, AI, gizmos, and gadgets—connecting this to that, making things work in new ways. And I absolutely love it. I couldn’t be happier with the direction I’ve taken in my career. I love tinkering with new things, playing with possibilities, and seeing what these innovations can bring to the world.
But I’ve decided to make a bit of a change. I’ll still continue my career in tech, but for now, I won’t be doing any extracurricular programming. Instead, I’m reconnecting with a part of myself that I left behind a while ago—my musical side.
Returning to Music
I used to write songs, play music, and perform, and I loved it. When I played, I felt connected to humanity in a way that’s hard to explain—like I was a conduit for creativity. Not that programming isn’t creative, but it’s a different kind of creativity. With music, I can share it with anyone. Sure, programmers can share code, but that’s a rare breed. Music, though—it speaks to everyone.
The Plan Moving Forward
So yeah, that’s a little update on where I’m at. My plan is to open up my YouTube channel, get some decent recording gear, and maybe, once a fortnight, put something out there. At the same time, I’ll work on writing music that really speaks to me.
For the first time in a long time, I feel genuinely excited about this. Not that there’s anything wrong with the life I live—I love it. But variety is the spice of life, as they say. So here’s to what’s next.
Jan 21, 2025
So, I just watched Donald Trump's inauguration as the 60th president. It was quite scary, though in a different way compared to the first time. Now, for full context, this isn't about right and left politics. As a matter of fact, before I say anything else, I need to mention that I think those divides need to be torn down because people are not in one camp or the other. They're usually a blend of these things, perhaps with a particular lean, but mostly a blend.
Those divides might be useful for statistical purposes—to determine if a country is more progressive or more conservative, sure. But on an individual level, they're just terrible. Listening to this inauguration and the toxic rhetoric coming from this man was terrifying. He's still talking about how Biden's administration stole the election. Four years later, he still can't accept that he lost. Somehow, that particular election was rigged, but not the two that he won, which seems pretty unlikely.
And then there was his behavior—acting like a vindictive schoolyard bully, saying things like, "Can you see Biden doing this?" as he signed a slew of executive orders to pardon people who had physically assaulted others during the January 6th riots—riots that he incited four years ago. As crazy as it is that he has been elected president again, I don't think all of his policies are terrible. Some of them, particularly his foreign policy, are very disruptive and could probably lead to meaningful changes around the world.
As I said, this isn't about politics—at least not politics in the way most people talk about them. I don't want to talk in terms of left and right. I don't care about that. I'm fine with a "conservative" leader in office. But someone as divisive as Trump, someone who enforces these boundaries around large swaths of the American public, I just can't see that being a good thing. He's very dangerous. So, in four years' time, when he has to concede power—or perhaps gets in for a third term—I'm genuinely scared to see the direction that republic is heading. It seems to be falling into an oligarchy, where the elites rule over everybody else and revel in it.
There seems to be a lot of politically uneducated people in that country. How can they just be okay with the blatant, pathetic, non-reflective rhetoric that Trump spouts? Place him next to someone like Biden, and you can clearly see that Biden wasn't much better in certain aspects. He wasn't a great president by any measure. But place Trump next to someone like Obama, and the difference becomes glaringly obvious. Obama's way of speaking, his ability to address people, and his competence in maintaining order—even if he was just another politician telling some lies and some truths—made him far more qualified to lead. He represented a semblance of protection for the Constitution and the principles America was built on.
Donald Trump does not do that. He protects himself. He comes before the Constitution. He comes before the American people.
I guess it's only a matter of time before we see the emergence of a new world superpower. Or perhaps the superpower of Trumpists and Trumpism. Maybe I'll get deported to the U.S. to be stoned to death for writing this post. Until then, good luck.