Twennyten
Posted on January 1st, 2024 in braindump, making things
Hello, New Year. There’s so many lovely metaphors for you: you’re like the first page of a fresh empty notebook, the first brush-stroke on a newly-stretched canvas, an empty plot of land just tilled for a new crop, the first needle-loop of a new skein of yarn, and all the other sorts of things you can start with old tools and known skills and a bit of something new to use them on.
Which is the sane way of stating what the cynics in the room (which I’m only ever accused of being when people don’t like my jokes, haha) will have said at midnight: It is, after all, just the day after last year.
Optimists and pessimists and soon-to-be pessimistic optimists are all flippity flopping about how 2024 will be better or worse or just the same as 2024. Of course, from where I’m sitting, it’s already better: today’s weather is just a touch warmer than yesterday’s, a little bit of nagging elbow pain faded overnight with some ibuprofen (and that same pressure change that brought the weather, likely), and people have started saying “twenty” instead of “two thousand” – so that’s three points to 2024, just in my first ten hours of it.
But, yes, of course – there are bound to be colder days again, this elbow is a chronic condition, and some people will I’m sure, continue to say “two thousand” for as long as we’re in it. You pessimists and already-broke-your-resolution-and-so-shortly-joining-them optimists can stop reading now, warm in the assurance that my 2024 may look better but it certainly can’t last.
Silly kids.
Everyone that’s still here, lemme start with the good news: 2024 is going to be better than 2024. Honestly. This is based not on some vague feeling or gambler’s fallacy, but on absolute fact: lately I’ve only been on about one thing – making things, and how, and just get ‘er done – and if you’re still here reading me, it’s because that’s what you want to do. And if that’s what you’ve decided to do, then 2024 can’t help but be better than last year, when you didn’t. Can (and will) things go wrong? Yeah. They can. And will. I’m not going to lie to you. And that possi-probability for disaster is the bad news, sure. But that’s no worse than it’s ever been, so there’s really no need to dwell on that. All you need remember is that this is the year you decided to Do More Stuff, and so loong as you don’t sabotage yourself, there’s no reason why you won’t.
Eventually. But very probably this year. Barring that self-sabotage thing.
Take a look at this pretty little site I found this morning: My Someday. It’s yet another to-do/goal/planning network amongst the gajillion others already online. I’m not endorsing this particular site over any of the other apps/widgets/sites/etc that already do much the same thing, I just liked the timing of it (it is a rather New Year’s sort of site, innit?)… and it reminded me of something that’s a good thing to remember any time, but especially on January First, while we’re thinking about it. A little copy paste from the site:
For each Someday, we’ll show you related step-by-step Plans for achievement. You can copy and customize a Plan or build your own.
[. . .]
Help others by posting a Plan with the steps you used to achieve your Someday.
There you go. Don’t forget those bits, yeah? I’m not saying sign up for yet another site (although if it floats your boat, then go right ahead. I can already see little mini-nets piggybacking on the service), what I’m saying is that achieving, making, doing anything does require some sort of plan. And it needn’t actually be that detailed – god knows I make shit up all the time – but parceling your plan into easily managed (and swappable/changeable when necessary) modules never hurts.
And that second part is what I do here, sometimes, and what I always like seeing from other people: there is, again, no harm in lending a hand to other folks that want to make things, too. There are very few actual trade secrets, in any trade. More often there are just folks that are terrified that if they tell someone how to install a word-processing program, those other folks will finish their books, first. Which is a ridiculous and, worse, lonely way to work. It’s worth noting that when you make friends by helping them learn how to do their things, you’re not usually making competitors – you’re making a network of folks that may very well be your first customers, sure, but will certainly be your first supporters. And that second bit, support, is something you’re not going to succeed without, period.
Of course, don’t give yourself away completely – unless your goal is to become an advice columnist, you can’t spend all your time giving advice. But there’s a lot to be said, as you all start your new years and your new projects (well, for some of you, that might come after your new hangover, sure, but you know what I mean), about how you’re going to exchange information in 2024. If you’ve got things you’re going to need to learn how to do to get your thing done, chances are other folks do, too. It won’t hurt for you to ask, and it won’t hurt for you to offer, either.
That little segue done, let’s circle back to the start of this post: I can’t honestly say how the year’s going to play out all across the board, but I feel pretty good about mine, and I’ve got a hunch yours is going to turn out all right, too.
So welcome along in 2024, thank you for reading, and let’s see how it goes, shall we?
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SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!
