It's me again, your friendly Thinking About Things editor. It's the time of year that I go back and crunch the data to see what most interested Thinking About Things readers over the last year.
In 2024 there was a noticeable mood shift. While last year's top articles list was dominated by articles about depression and mental health, this year's top picks show a very different trend. Not a single article on those subjects made the cut. Instead, our readers gravitated toward the practical: personal finance, stretching, the importance of calling mom, and actionable tips for living your best life.
Without further ado, here are the top articles of the year.
By Nick Maggiulli (@dollarsanddata) in Of Dollars and Data
Distinguishing financial ideas that sound better in theory than they work in practice.
In the world of personal finance, we are constantly bombarded with messages about the “one thing” that could significantly improve our financial lives. Whether it be a particular kind of investment, a novel mindset, or the latest money-saving technique, there's no shortage of ideas on how to get ahead.
Unfortunately, while many of these ideas are great in theory, they tend to not measure up in practice. These are what I refer to as the most overrated things in personal finance. So, if you’re interested in separating what truly matters from what doesn't, then this is the blog post for you.
By Khe Hy (@khemaridh) of RadReads
Managing money, status, and meaning.
Find places where your status doesn't matter. I'll be honest, I still flash my Managing Director card. But here are some places where nobody could care less. In the surfing line up. When I volunteer at a hospice center. When we travel internationally (and don’t stay at fancy hotels). You quickly realize that status is a crutch (yet #12 still applies).
By Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP)
The simple, low cost, low effort things for you that would make a big impact for them.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a consultant working on a deck for your stupid client. Send them a screenshot or email saying check it out. You know how when you’re a kid and you draw a squiggle on a paper and show it to your parents and they say "OHMAHGOSHH ITS SO GOOD!!"
That actually never stops. You can always just show your parents what “you did at school today”. Watch, I just texted my mom that I’m writing this post.
By Tyler Tringas (@tylertringas)
Ideas that changed the author's approach to mobility.
Train your nervous system, don’t just stretch. It’s easy to think of your muscles as just some kind of rubber band and flexibility is just a matter of mechanically stretching them out so they get looser. But that’s not how it works. Most of the time your body is already physically capable of achieving the position, but you need to train your nervous system that it’s safe for it to relax into that position. So it’s not very productive to just contort your body, grit your teeth and sweat for two minutes while trying to watch TV. You will definitely get some benefit from this, but the far better approach is to consciously focus on steady breathing and mindfully relaxing the muscles one by one.
By Kevin Kelly (@realkevinkelly)
101 bits of advice in honor of the author's 73rd birthday.
• Aim to be effective, but unpredictable. That is, you want to act in a way that AIs have trouble modeling or imitating. That makes you irreplaceable.
• Whenever you hug someone, be the last to let go.
• Don’t save up the good stuff (fancy wine, or china) for that rare occasion that will never happen; instead use them whenever you can.
• The best gardening advice: find what you can grow well and grow lots and lots of it.
• You owe everyone a second chance, but not a third.
By karlafaulks on Spirals of Progress
Countering "they will just spend the money on drugs."
I spent some time online trying to learn about starting this kind of organization, and was shocked to learn that in fact, many well funded organizations dedicated to this exact mission already existed. The money I had hoped to raise paled in comparison to the budgets I saw online. I was confused and wanted answers.
At my next opportunity, I left home early and walked a few miles to the nearest soup kitchen. They weren’t taking volunteers that day, so I stood across the street just watching, somewhat incredulous that this service existed. Partially wowed by the generosity, and partially dismayed that the low hanging fruit I imagined did not exist, and that the openhanded giving of free food was not enough to resolve society’s ills. I stopped trying to help the homeless for a few years after that.
By Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv)
You can only really find out who’s serious over time.
We do live in a world that’s full of unserious people. As I got older it became clearer to me that not many people are really serious about anything. Some people go their whole lives without ever having met anyone else who I might describe as actually serious, so they find it hard to believe that anybody could really mean what they say, since everything everyone says is nonsense. I remember feeling like that myself at some of my low points in life, when I was at my most depressed.
By Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv)
There’s a relationship death spiral that goes like this: 1. You’re tired, so you hit snooze on difficult conversations 2. your backlog from 1 is overwhelming 3. You start spacing out in each other’s presence (how was your day? fine). You’re not really there for each other any more. Life is now just a series of tedious chores you have to do. 4. The “spark” is gone. 5. Since it’s all chores and the spark is gone, you’re subtly colder and more uncharitable towards each other. You’re both play-acting corporate shells at this point and it’s very unpleasant. 6. This buildup of resentment and frustration ends up being ignited in a fight over some trivial thing like dishes or laundry. Hint: It’s never really about the dishes or the laundry. It’s about the relationship. 7. Everything gets worse, and the cycle worsens. The fight leaves you feeling exhausted, which brings us back to 1.
By Gurwinder (@G_S_Bhogal) at The Prism
On avoiding information that has no practical use, doesn't make your life better, and doesn't improve your understanding.
The most straightforward way to improve your information diet is to develop a habit for meta-awareness; to pay attention to what you're paying attention to. When you find yourself reaching unprompted for your phone, or hovering over the Twitter icon, invoke the "10-10-10 rule:" ask yourself, if I consume this info, how will I feel about it in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years? Doing this may help you realize that the brief sugar-rush offered by junk info is so transient and insignificant in the grand scheme of your life that it's simply not worth your time.
By Sasha Chapin (@sashachapin)
Insights on life.
I know that most people overrate the difficulty of hard conversations, and underrate how good it is to have them. Conflict avoidance slowly rots your whole life, and many people are about eight awkward discussions from a much-improved existence. In other words, go squash all of your beefs.
I know that the people who will make you feel warm and fuzzy when you’re sad, and the people who will give you brutally honest feedback, are usually different people. Ideally you want to have relationships with both kinds, and reward them for their strengths, rather than getting mad at them for failing to do what they’re bad at.
I know that talent doesn’t feel like you’re amazing. It feels like the difficulties that trouble others are mysteriously absent in your case. Don’t ask yourself where your true gifts lie. Ask what other people seem weirdly bad at.
A sincere thank you to the Patrons and financial supporters of Thinking About Things. Your continued backing is invaluable and I am deeply grateful for it.
Here’s to a 2025 filled with inspiration and virtuous living!
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