25 things to close 2025
- I always wanted to write one of these. It feels very thought cataloguey for those who remember what thought catalogue is. as I am no longer 25, the last day of 2025 is perfect to achieve this dream
- I’ve always thought of myself as having bad memory. But this year has taught me that forgetting doesn’t mean bad memory, it means I didn’t write it down.
- It’s not even reading what you wrote again that’s the key. It’s the actual writing.
- And it doesn’t even have to be comprehensive (ie long). It’s just putting thoughts onto paper or screens.
- I’ve been typing out thoughts for a long time, and writing down thoughts for even longer. What I really need is consistency and immediacy. With a little discipline, we’re gonna get there.
- In 2025, I worked on that discipline. I also decided it was time to be my own curator.
- This personal website is the work in progress of that curation. I’m happy with where it’s come so far but need to think about what I’d like it to be next.
- It’s curation that elevates standalone writing into coherent narratives and arguments. A book is nothing but curation. We see the final product but not the building blocks, the drafts, the editing…that’s curation. That’s why they’re good.
- Same for movies, games, art, buildings, programmes…all curation.
- Create for yourself, curate for others. Cooks need ingredients to make meals, but they don’t serve you whatever they got from the market.
- I took a sabbatical this year, the first one of my working life. I highly recommend it.
- I also recognise that not everyone can. I am grateful, but I also made decisions that put me on a path where I can do it.
- That’s what I hope for everyone, and for myself to continue. Make the decisions that put you on the path you want to be.
- The true, straight path is of course the path towards Allah’s pleasure. If my path is any other than that, then it’s a misguided and destructive path that I seek protection from.
- And if my decisions put me on any other path, then they are the wrong ones I seek forgiveness for.
- Having seen 33 years now, my body, mind and soul knows very well what a year feels like. A year feels long.
- A year is too long to grasp without writing. You can barely remember last week. There is no way you can reflect on a year passing by if you don’t remember what happened in it.
- So write.
- You also know what a quarter, a month and a week feels like. 4 quarters a year, 3 months a quarter and 4 weeks a month. Different things take different time horizons. But nothing really takes a year. An entire season is over in a quarter, and we want a whole year to take action, make change, see impact?
- Forget about it. No, I mean we will forget about it.
- Nothing gets done in a year. But if you stack enough days, weeks, months or quarters where things do get done, then you’ll have a curated year to look back on.
- This brings me back to consistency and timeliness – but this time, in curation.
- Consider the report. I started out skeptical – reporting is a waste of time, we could be doing actual work, nobody will read this anyway, its just storytelling.
- But do enough reports, in regular intervals and you start to realise the value. Reports are curations of work done. Without them, we’d find it hard to talk about the work.
- Beyond that though, reports are accountability – which is far more valuable than data, analysis or stories. Tell me what you did this year. And if you can’t, did you really do them?
Alhamdulillah for a good year. May our deeds be counted for good, and may we account for our own deeds before Allah holds us to account.