2024 Year in Review
I’m a bit in disbelief that this is the third iteration of the recap blog post that I’ve done since starting DepressiveHacks. Time flies in web3. I’m grateful to still be here and be able to discuss this year.
2024 was basically a year to recover from 2023. My personal goals this year were pretty simple: do whatever it takes to enjoy being alive more than I did in 2023, and work on DepressiveHacks. I’m happy to report that the year was productive on both of these fronts.
I did a number of things this year to try to enjoy life more. First, I gave myself a break from my budget. This will be rebalanced in 2025, but I had a terribly depressing 2023 and I figured that having extra money wouldn’t matter if I didn’t want to be alive to begin with. Second, I did a lot of traveling. Exploring new places has always been a net positive for my mental health, so I visited more places in 2024 than I have in previous years, especially in the first half of the year. Third, I did more soul searching and introspection this year than I ever have before in my life. Finally, I tried to be more generous with my time and money.
This isn’t everything, but it kind of summarizes where my head was at this year. I was able to lose 25 lbs, get out and about more than I did in 2023, and play more golf than I think I ever have before. It was a year to be selfish and to grow as a person. I’m excited for 2025 and my thesis is that I needed this year to be who I needed to be going into a new year of new opportunities.
I want to continue all of these things and more in 2025 on the personal progress front. I’ve been making good progress in therapy, which is slow and steady, but cool to look back and see where I’ve come from where I was at. I want to lose more weight, which is going to require a more specific plan than I’ve had this year, so my goal is to continue my fasting schedule, exercise more (aerobic and anaerobic), and continue to force myself to get out of my comfort zone and do things that challenge me. Part of this is going to be creating smaller, more palatable goals, which I aim to put online in some capacity so there’s an elevated level of accountability. More on this next year.
Additionally, 2024 was a great year for DepressiveHacks. There still hasn’t been a windfall of cash, but I see a lot of growth in a lot of areas, specifically networking and social media management. As part of my own peace journey in 2024, I’ve deleted all of my personal social media, so if I want to access these websites, it will only be in a professional sense to grow DepressiveHacks, which will hopefully lead to less screen time and more productivity.
I’ve done very little work in web3 in 2024, but I have met a lot of people, joined a lot of new communities, and learned so much about blockchain, web3, and digital assets as a whole. After Birdie Golf shut down at the end of Q1 this year, I spent the rest of the year just trying to figure out what the purpose of DepressiveHacks in web3 is and how to add value to the space. I only completed one paid writing gig this year, which I am hoping to improve upon in 2025. I also didn’t do any consulting after Birdie Golf closed its doors. I think this time was beneficial to just enjoy being present in the space, plus, so much has been happening to close 2024 that it has been good to be a free agent and utilize my time and effort in whatever participatory effort I felt was the best use of my time for 3/4ths of the year.
My goals for 2025 for DepressiveHacks are pretty simple as well. I want to do more paid writing, both for projects and for publications. I also want to consult for at least one project sometime in 2025. It’s important to get a growing portfolio to increase the amount of examples of my work in the space that I have available, so I will be open to opportunities come 2025. Let’s connect in any capacity that I can help add value to whatever it is that you’re doing.
I also want to provide more mental health recaps and information. This whole experience has been a journey for me, and I think that both as a professional in web3 and as a human, 2025 is shaping up to be the best year since starting DepressiveHacks. I’m actually excited about what the future holds and I want to keep anyone who cares in the loop as best I can. This has always been my own time and money to grow DepressiveHacks and DHR&D, so I’ve never had a schedule for providing updates or information because I don’t owe it to any investors on a regular basis, but I love that people care enough to read and follow along, so I want to share more, meet more people, collaborate with more folks, and do my part to help move web3 into the future, as I’ve tried to do since arriving here in 2022.
I can’t believe the three year DepressiveHacks anniversary is less than two months away. I’ll do more about providing specific highlights that I’ve enjoyed since starting this on the anniversary. This is meant to be more of a reflection on the year, so I’m trying to keep it more broad and express my appreciation for everything instead of highlighting select portions of my experience. There is so much going on that I struggle to even specify anything, so I’m also going to need the extra time to get my thoughts organized.
2023 ended in a lot of sorrow. I feel that I’m ending 2024 more in a place of gratitude. There are certainly hard days with my clinical depression, and there will be next year as well, but I’m slowly learning how to progress forward, and I’m filled with a lot of gratitude now that I can see the progress I’ve made since creating this post last year. It just goes to show that the small steps and actions I’m taking on a daily basis, aka daily wins, are compounding. I aim to advance this next year, as I’ve seen a lot of progress in setting small and tangible goals, which is something I’ve been working on all year with my therapist. Just as staked tokens compound, so too do your life choices and actions. Especially going into the chaos that 2025 is expected to be, it will be more important than ever to take care of yourself, and I want to be an example of that for anyone who wants to follow along and make personal progress on any front they choose.
As always, thank you for being here. See you all in 2025 and thank you for everything up to this point.
-DH