It’s been a year since my last post—a fact that’s both surprising and, in retrospect, entirely intentional. At the beginning of 2024, I retired. Not just from my career, but, for a while, from the relentless busyness that so often fills our days. I made a conscious decision to put many activities on pause. No new projects, very few side hustles, not even writing. The idea was simple: create space, then see what (if anything) was worth letting back in.
The Art of Subtraction
Retirement, it turns out, is less about what you do and more about what you choose not to do. I started with the external—paring down material possessions, donating, gifting, or simply letting go. The goal wasn’t minimalism for its own sake, but to clear the decks for something more meaningful. I wanted to see what remained when the clutter—physical, digital, mental—was gone.
Trading Things for Experiences
With fewer things tying me down, I traded stuff for experiences. Some were planned, others wonderfully impulsive. In February 2024, I booked a trip to Alaska less than 24 hours later to chase the aurora borealis, standing in awe beneath shimmering green skies while the temperature stubbornly refused to rise above -20°F. Later that year I hopped a plane to watch the full solar eclipse.
I wandered the serene temples of Kyoto, Japan, soaking in centuries of quiet beauty. I returned to our favorite country in Latin America—Argentina—this time determined to learn the tango, which proved both humbling and exhilarating. I snorkeled reefs in Belize, explored the markets of Vietnam, and watched the sun set over the Aegean in Greece. Each trip was a reminder that the world is vast, fascinating, and best experienced with a light backpack and an open mind.
Rediscovering Old Joys
Back home, I rediscovered the pleasures of reading for hours, not minutes. I tackled the stack of books that had been gathering dust for years, and found myself following literary rabbit holes into history, science, and the occasional guilty-pleasure thriller. I also made a commitment to my health, and—somewhat to my surprise—am now in the best shape of my life. (It’s amazing what you can do when you’re not chained to a desk.)
I’ve also had the chance to reconnect with friends and family I’d missed during the years when work always seemed to come first. Long-overdue visits, shared meals, and unhurried conversations have reminded me how much these relationships matter. And for the first time in years, I’ve been able to put real energy into a seed venture investment group and mentoring local tech startups. It’s been a pleasure to help others build something new, and to witness the spark of innovation up close.
A New Tool for Curiosity
But perhaps the most unexpected discovery has been the role of AI in this new chapter. I started experimenting with AI tools out of idle curiosity, and quickly found them to be remarkable companions for deep dives into, well, almost anything. Want to master exotic African vegetarian recipes? Curious about the philosophy behind Zen gardens? Wondering about the history of Antarctic exploration? AI can help you explore, synthesize, and connect ideas in ways that sometimes feel a little like magic. It sure beats wading through scores of questionable links on Google.
What’s Next
Over the past year, I’ve gone down more than a few intellectual rabbit holes—some practical, some esoteric, all of them fascinating (at least to me). I’ve decided it’s time to share some of these explorations here, in a series of posts that will be part travelogue, part book review, part experiment in curiosity. If you’ve read my earlier writing, you know I bring a skeptical, occasionally contrarian lens—especially on the subject of technology. So, fittingly, my next post will be a dive into the hype, the hope, and the reality behind AI. Some future topics will be inspired by my travels, others by books or conversations, and a few by pure whim. I’ll also share how I’m using AI as a research tool, and where its limits (and surprises) lie.
If you’re still reading after a year’s silence, thank you. I hope you’ll join me as I dig into the questions, ideas, and oddities that have caught my attention in this new phase of life. Retirement, it turns out, isn’t the end of curiosity—it’s the beginning of having time to indulge it.
See you soon.
