Tyler Robertson

The Year of Foundation: Wrapped

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

I started writing this on my phone on December 1st, while making dinner (here's the recipe), because it occurred to me that maybe I hadn't done myself any favors with this year's theme (outlined at the end of this post from a year ago). The aim of The Year of Foundation was to get myself into a relatively comfortable space, so I could start just doing the work, with things like work and home and general surroundings in a space where they can just be without much input.

That was a stupid goal.

Over the last quarter of the year, I was reminded again and again that treating work, home, or relationships as stable and permanent is building a house on shifting sand, as the parable goes. All require constant effort, and none are guaranteed. Getting anything done on top of that is nothing short of miraculous.

So I'm calling the Year of Foundation a failure — not because I failed it, but because it was both too broad and too narrow a goal, too easily failed. "Building a Foundation for my life" is a wide, moving target, with no one clear path towards it. It expected me to have control over things well outside my ken, in a way I didn't realize until it was too late. Things aren't more stable than they were at the start of the year, and I don't feel more capable of taking on big projects outside of my daily duties. I'm just… doing the best I can. And I'll keep doing that for as long as I can.

I'm calling next year The Year of Being Nice To Tyler, and I invite you to participate in any way you see fit. I'm making a list of the things that make me consistently happy — I'm not going to publish it, but I'm going to do the things on that list as much as I can, and do my best to not worry so much about everything else.

Having said that, seeing as how it is the season of lists, I've made a few about my year that I'd like to share!

Things I made this year

It's not an overabundance of work like what I produced last year, but in general I think the quality of the ideas and their execution improved noticeably, which was something I wanted to be conscious of. Next year, I'd love to do something that really takes time to do. I was realizing this morning that a big part of what I miss about making physical objects is that that work often has a repetitive, meditative quality that's lacking in digital projects. So that's something I'm going to be looking for again.

Lessons I learned this year

Favorite new movies this year

Favorite not-new movies this year

Favorite new-to-me music this year