I’m 36

Today is my birthday. Continuing a tradition I began half a lifetime ago, this is an update on my life over the last year and my plans for the year ahead. 

This year was a transitional one. My second book, Get Better at Anything, was published in May. It was a central project of mine for the previous four years. While the writing process largely ended last year, book publishing takes a long time, so I still had another year of editing and marketing to conclude the project.

Writing this book was the most challenging project I’ve taken on in my life so far. It started as a different book and became an odyssey into academic research. While likening the process to getting a self-directed PhD is an exaggeration, it was the first time I had to really stretch my research muscles, trying to go both broad and deep about a lot of questions I had about learning.

While it was stylistically and substantively different from Ultralearning, I’m happy with how the book turned out. And now that it’s finished, I’m excited to free up my mental bandwidth for new projects.

My New Foundations Project

The other big news of this year was starting a new project—a year-long effort at self-improvement and self-education: Foundations. 

The essence of this project is twelve successive month-long focuses. Each focus tackles an essential, universal ingredient for a good life: fitness, productivity, money, food, reading, outreach, sleep, reflection, connection, focus, organization and service.

For each foundation, I’m working to establish new long-term habits. But I’m also treating each month as a chance to do a deep dive into the research and expert advice in each topic area—a series of mini-ultralearning projects designed to grasp the essence of the theory and practice.

In addition to a personal project I’ll be writing about frequently over the next year, this project will also be the basis for a paid course we will offer later this year. Needing to teach something is one of the best mechanisms to learn something deeply, and working with more people should help to generalize the experience beyond just my (admittedly weird) perspective.¹

Some Quirks of Timing

In the past, when I’ve done big learning challenges, I’ve usually done them live. I announced my MIT Challenge as I started it and published my updates almost as soon as I recorded them. The Year Without English was similar, with the short recap videos being edited and published at the end of one country, just before we went to the next.

Doing projects live has benefits. You get to share updates with people and respond to feedback. My decision to incorporate programming projects into the MIT Challenge was a direct result of this feedback. (Originally, I was just going to do final exams.)

But also, it’s logistically challenging to produce content this way. It means all the research, filming, editing, and publishing must be done on a tight schedule that can be incredibly stressful. I remember Vat finishing the video edit for our three-month stay in Spain while we were technically homeless at the beginning part of our stay in Brazil. Despite the challenges of needing to speak a new language and finding a place to stay, we knew we couldn’t delay producing the video, or we’d be out of sync with the calendar.

Since this project is also going to be a course, I didn’t feel it would be in the best interests of the readers or students to operate on such a tight timeframe. I want the lessons of the course to be thoughtful, with time to reflect on each foundation, rather than slapped together just to hit a deadline. I also wanted the public updates to get the usual round of editing and polishing that we’ve built into our normal content production process.

This is a rather roundabout way of saying that I decided to “run ahead” of the course content and public blog updates about the project by about three months. Even though the course isn’t being offered until next month, and the “day one” update will be released on October 1st, I’m actually already in the second month of the project as I write this.

Despite this timing shift for logistical reasons, I’m still planning to publish my public updates about the project and the course content synchronously, with that three-month delay. For the personal updates, I’m writing the initial draft when the event occurs and not editing them for hindsight afterward, even though they will be published after a delay.

While it’s possible this delayed release schedule may impact some of the project’s spontaneity, the extra time will hopefully increase its longevity and, quite frankly, reduce the stress levels for me and my team in delivering a good course experience. 

Returns and Progression

When I wrote Ultralearning, it was with an awareness that the phase of my life that inspired the book was ending. I was no longer in my twenties, and the idea of dropping everything to study college courses or travel the world to learn languages was no longer as feasible or appealing as it had been.

I also felt that doubling down on my past efforts was risky. While my previous projects were hardly flawless, I was earnestly trying my very best during each of them. With new life responsibilities and constraints, trying to outdo my younger self seemed a losing bet. Still, there’s always a bittersweet feeling when an element of your life that provided passion and purpose is ending.

One reason I’m excited about this new project is that it genuinely feels like a way forward—a way to take on a new intensive learning project—that is appropriate for my current stage in life. 

Ironically, as much as this project is aimed at a new phase of my life, it also circles back to some of the earliest material of this blog. In working on my foundations, I’ll revisit many books and topics I studied extensively in my late teens and early twenties. So, while a focus on foundations feels appropriate as I am on the threshold of midlife, it is also a return to some of the identity-forming influences of my youth.

I honestly can’t say how all of this will be received. Maybe my project updates will be boring, and the course will prove unpopular. But, to me, the best projects I’ve undertaken on this blog are the ones I would have been excited to undertake even if I never shared anything about them. By that measure, I think this new project definitely qualifies. 

As always, I’m grateful to you, and all the rest of my readers and students, for your support over the years. That support is what makes projects like this possible. I hope you’ll join me on this next journey here or in the course.

1. Additionally, it goes without saying that the paid courses we offer help fund the whole enterprise. I don’t do ads or sponsorships, so everyone who purchases a book or course is effectively subsidizing all the free content we produce here.