Documenting Success

How to make and keep New Year’s Resolutions 29 comments
Published on December 24th, 2006

Does this scenario sound familiar? As the year draws to a close, you look back fondly upon last year’s resolutions. Since you forgot where they are, you decide to make this year’s resolutions instead, and come up with something like this:

Lose weight

Eat healthier

Quit smoking

Go out and make friends

Make a lot of money

Feeling quite satisfied with yourself, you put the list “away”, and make a valiant effort to follow it. Maybe you last a couple of weeks, maybe only a few days. Maybe even less (I believe a record belongs to my friend Anonymous, who broke his resolution to quit smoking exactly 15 minutes after midnight on January 1^st.)

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How to save money, become smarter and more successful 2 comments
Published on December 6th, 2006

“See, the sad thing about a guy like you is in 50 years you’re gonna start doin’ some thinkin on your own and you’re gonna come up with the fact that there are two certaintees in life. One, don’t do that. And two, you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on an education you coulda got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library” – Will, Good Will Hunting.

I love reading. I read a lot. And ever since getting my first apartment a few years ago, I nurtured a dream to build an extensive personal library. I envisioned vast walls filled with most fascinating books, and every one of them would be special to me. The dream was born from thinking fondly back to childhood, when I used to spend a lot of time in my grandparents’ apartment. My grandfather was a prominent scientist, and his library was FANTASTIC. He had books on every possible topic – history, philosophy, archaeology, paleontology, biology, languages, science fiction, mystery novels, classics, poetry, books in Russian, English, German, Ukrainian … I credit much of how incredibly smart (and modest!) I’ve turned out to spending time at my grandfather’s library.

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