Reflection time again. 2014

I find that it’s a good practice to establish and maintain personal rituals. This helps us anchor ourselves in the unpredictable reality of everyday. Previous December I reflected on my year and as I found it quite valuable, I plan to keep on doing it also in hopes that some of you might find it interesting as well. So how was it this time?

I traveled a lot. I was on a plane over the Balkan mountains when I decided to change my life this year.

I went to SXSW in Austin and held a panel called Feature Assassins in front of a surprisingly large audience for a such an early hour. Few months later I found out that all of the 5 co-panelists quit their jobs this year to start something else. Talk about synchronicity.

I looked up the St. Peters dome in Rome and couldn’t help but marvel at what humans can build if they just believe in something with all their heart.

I wrote a Medium post before leaving SoundCloud because I felt I needed to say something to the world about how it felt after all these years. People seemed to be interested in it. I also wrote another article to explain what I plan to do now and why, and I kept it in a draft for months. It’s coming out in January together with some additional news. Some milestones take time.

I rediscovered photography for myself and finally pushed my simple SLR camera to it’s limits.

I almost joined a startup accelerator 3 days after leaving my job. Thanks to my wife I realised that I should take some downtime first. She was right, as always.

I read and read and read this year. Books on business and books on samurai warfare, books about Disney and books about anti-Disney, books on childhood psychology and toy history, toy history and toy design. Books about the technology we were suposed to have by now and books on Japanese design principles and a book about most beautiful house in the world. I read toy companies financial reports and toy safety regulations in EU, scientific papers on play in school and in playgrounds.

I went to Lithuania in the spring on a very sad occasion. It made me clear that nothing in our lives should be taken for granted.

I went to Lithuania in the summer and rediscovered my own country. We traveled through the places we have never visited before, we stayed for a week in a most beautiful and simple house I ever lived in. I visited toy manufacturers, coffee roasters and a museum of one of the most enigmatic artists of the 20th century. I met new friends and old friends, I met relatives that I recognized only because they had the same prominent eyebrows like me and my daughters.

I made a tumblr blog with the best pictures I shot in Lithuania and for some strange reason the most austere one was shared the most.

I got hooked on stand up paddle boarding.

I saw some really good films this year — more than a dozen of hypnotic Ozu pictures and a great one by Visconti.

I met so many smart people this year because I wanted to learn from people who know more than I do. I liked this method and I plan to keep on continuing it in the future because some things can’t be learned just by reading.

I was looking for a co-founder but couldn’t find the right person. I even considered starting the new project on my own. And then I suddenly met a person who’s as passionate about the future of toys as I am.

I learned electronics, Arduino programming and debugging, the intricacies of the Bluetooth LE standard and how to write iOS apps in Swift. I learned the language of business accounting and did a course on play and a course on branding. The ideas started taking shapes.

This year we didn’t do many events at our unusual Berlin home — but at least we hosted a great coffee tasting, a light arts show and a live concert by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah in our living room.

My youngest started walking 1 week after her 1st birthday and I have discovered that my 7-year-old has secretly learned English on her own.

It was a good year.