looking future 2025

I don't have a real anniversary for be the future. I started writing in 2019 but didn't getting consistent here until a few months later. But after 5-6 years I'm just one shy of 270 posts! This is my annual roundup of my favorite posts from 2025.

I'm proud of myself for staying consistent with writing and not giving myself a hard time when I take a break. My relationship to be the future now is very different from when I started writing essays here. In 2026, I strive to keep writing posts that resonate, come from my heart, and help make my thoughts a little clearer.

Past looking future entries: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020

faking it

"Fake it till you make it" is a term for outsiders. But why are we outside in the first place? The concept of whiteness didn't exist before the 17th or 18th century. People in power rigged institutions and political systems so cis white men could thrive. These rigged systems shouldn't still hold so much power over us. The rules for getting ahead are made up: they're flexible by design and always changing. Some qualifications exist only to shut some people out. Just because we wriggle and fight our way in doesn't mean we have to conform to every norm.

seek understanding

Clear the responses from your mind. Sometimes a conversation can feel like a tennis match. I've never played tennis, so everything I know about it comes from the film Challengers (2024). Someone serves us a statement and we hit back with one of our own. We may even stop listening as tempers and tensions rise, waiting only for our turn to speak again. If Zendaya and two sweaty guys are in the room, we might not even notice. But we can't begin to understand someone until they've said their piece. They can't know our destination until we show it to them.

hierarchy and the tyranny of leaders

Power based on authority can alienate people without it, even if those people are essential to the company.

Instead, decentralization shifts that power so that more people hold it. Power flows downward so people can make autonomous decisions about their roles. Without a formal hierarchy, peers across an organization can make decisions together. I can't tell you how many times an employee asked me to ask my peer to ask their employee something. It felt like setting up a playdate for children, if all the children had credit scores.

everyone dies but me

We remember what we survive. Our methods, and so many more, create new pathways for others to follow. "We can't go back" is more than a rallying cry. It's a reminder that we now know something better is possible. It's not fiction. It's a foundation. We can't go back, not to the past and not to the compromise. I want the full deal that everyone else has. We're all going to die, yes. But while we're here, together, on the only world we'll ever know? We can reject the death cult. We can choose to live.

don't be humble

Humility is not a virtue. The opposite of humility is pride! LGBTQ+ folks especially know the harms of conforming to society's demands. Pride is not the vice that dominant culture declares it to be. It's a celebration of difference, of specialness, that humility wants to suppress.

Instead, change the narrative that pride means arrogance. Kendrick himself says it on the song PRIDE., which comes right before HUMBLE. on the album: "I can't fake humble because your ass is insecure."

I'm taking a couple weeks off after the new year. Wishing you a happy winter / holiday season! See you in mid-January.