Daniel's 2024 Annual Letter
Dear Friends,
I thought I was slowing down. For years, I watched myself becoming less productive, less driven, less able to finish anything. I figured it was the price of growing up—a gradual mellowing of the ambition and insecurity that burned red hot in my twenties. Then came 2024. Defying all expectations, it became my most creatively fertile and intellectually exhilarating year yet.
Collaborating with Aliens
The catalyst? Not a productivity hack or jolt of willpower. Rather, all my experimenting with AI started paying off. Just on nights and weekends (I still had a full-time job taking most of my days), here’s some software I built last year:
Underlines News — Frustrated with news bias, I wrote a program that automatically analyzes headlines across the spectrum. (Sign up and tell me what you think!)
LP9 — For years, I tracked life goals using messy spreadsheets. In a few weeks, I transformed it into a web app anyone can use.
And more — Several open-source tools, including a library for juggling multiple AI models. Plus, two big efforts I can’t talk about yet.
All this has me thinking differently about the future. One sci-fi scenario already feels closer to reality: not Skynet taking over, but humans fumbling with alien-like, AI-generated marvels they barely understand. Ted Chiang's short story "Catching Crumbs from the Table" imagines exactly this. I’d bet we’re only a decade or two away.
But today’s AI partners still need babysitting. One evening, I let a coding assistant work unsupervised. What a mistake. It twisted my project into a black hole of absurdity, overwriting files with broken versions that took hours to untangle. Even drafting this letter, my robot copyeditor tried inserting a cute—but completely fictional—story about Flora chatting with an elderly lady in Osaka.
As we step into this bewildering new world, a good guide can make all the difference. Andrej Karpathy’s recent YouTube video provides a down-to-earth look at how he integrates AI into everyday work—worth watching if you're curious about adopting these tools yourself.
Japan, again
Before we’re all uploaded to the cloud, Flora and I are having some real life fun. In 2024, we took several trips to Japan and passed 700 consecutive days studying Japanese on Duolingo.
Learning languages as an adult is brutal, though. My inner critic pounces at every stumble: "How many times must she repeat that?", "You've studied this word fifteen times—why can't you remember it?", "Look at his polite confusion—you're holding up the line again!" Fighting the shame and disappointment sometimes feels like wielding a pitchfork and flamethrower against my own mind.
AI helps here too. Impromptu video chats with Duolingo’s chronically bored AI character Lily offer practice anytime. However ridiculous my mistakes, Lily stays unfazed and ready for another round.
In 2025, more adventures await: language classes with Nihongodekita, a trip to Kyushu, another Fuji Rock Festival—hopefully navigated entirely in Japanese. もっと上達できるように頑張っていきます！
Deepening Spirituality
Wait, he’s talking about God again? Yeah, I can hardly believe it myself. Last year’s spiritual awakening hasn't faded; instead, it's become central in my life.
Almost every morning, something strange and powerful happens. As I pray alone, a poetic line glimmers from a Psalm, a vision of universal beauty overwhelms me, or a simple phrase like ‘take heart’ echoes somewhere deep inside. And then—bam—tears. Full-on sobbing. What? Why? How am I, a grown man, crying in my living room at 7:42am on a random Wednesday? Am I happy? Sad? Afraid? Awestruck? Yes, absolutely all of these. I don't fully understand it, but those bursts of emotion reset me each morning, shaking loose lingering frustrations and pointing me toward love and kindness for the rest of the day.
Even my marriage has shifted beautifully. Flora and I renewed our vows in the Maldives—not a religious ceremony, but unquestionably spiritual (especially given our wedding song). Scripture speaks of becoming "one flesh," and I’ve felt it. I’m becoming more patient, less defensive, quicker to understand. I'm still far from perfect, but we're undeniably closer.
While the human subconscious shapes everything we do, it’s a wilderness none of us truly controls. For me, faith tempers that hidden landscape. It’s not rational; it’s the most practical and reliable way I’ve found to live better. If you're curious about exploring spirituality in a skeptical way, Rainn Wilson (yes, Dwight from The Office) shared thoughtful reflections in a recent interview. Similarly, non-dogmatic translations of The Bible and other spiritual classics go far deeper than the fairy-tale caricatures poking fun at them. They might feel jarring at first—they certainly did for me—but their timeless precepts hold joy and peace that’s always ephemeral elsewhere.
So much for slowing down. AI unlocked a level of productivity I never thought possible, and the year reignited a deeper passion for life than I've had in a long time. I'll always fluctuate, of course—some seasons better, some harder. Yet throughout 2024, one question returned continually: Can I surrender to the imperfection in myself and the world? In those fleeting moments when I could, the very idea of 'slowing down' no longer made any sense.
And Now, Over to You
Since publishing these letters on Substack, I've been touched to see readers I've never met following along. I'm genuinely curious: Who are you, and what drew you here? Longtime friends, please share your year too—victories, struggles, discoveries. Your replies are highlights that keep our connection alive across time and distance.
Warmly—and a little tearfully,
Daniel