new year, same me

January 6, 2026

Hi! Happy New Year! I started the year by doing a super fun podcast episode with Tom Johnson and Fabrizio Ferri-Benedetti.

I was sick for 30 days in December. I had a cold, then Flu A, then one blissful day of feeling great before I was struck down by some dramatic ear thing with a terrible cough. I read a lot of books and I slept a lot, and I eked out the work I could. I feel like I'm still getting back on my feet, but I thought I should drop a quick line about my 2026 goals.

my work reading list

I'm going to read (or finish) each of these books for work, and produce a book report (I mean, I guess adults call them reviews?).

How to Make Sense of Any Mess (Information Architecture)
Understanding Context (Information Architecture)
Knowledge Graphs and LLMs in Action (LLMs + KGs + RAG. I lost this on a trip in November so I need to find it or repurchase it)
The Accidental Taxonomist (Taxonomy / IA)
Stuck? Diagrams Help (Content Design)
Strategic Content Design (Content Design)

professional goals

Most of my professional goals this year are company confidential, but I do plan to work on putting together writing workshops and doing work to address a personality trait that needs work (I'll just name it -- I am a verbal processor and I should process more quietly). I'm also planning to do more work on deliverable types that don't excite me, but are important.

personal goals

I am taking a few creative writing workshops this year and have a goal to produce 80,000 words worth of creative writing over the year (blog not included).
I plan to post 26 blog posts. I don't have much to talk about, so this is the goal that scares me the most.
I plan to read 50 books (including my work list up there ^^). I've finished three already this year. I'm on story graph if you wanna follow along (or send me recommendations)

Okay, here goes! I'm still pretty low energy after spending a month being sick, and I'm also low on ideas. So if there's anything at all you want me to write about, let me know!