♟️ The Metagame: #045: 2025 Recap

Sam here with a quick end-of-year recap on some numbers, lessons, and future goals.

These are my favorite stats from this year:

• Wrote 24 newsletters

• Read 30 books

• Flew 19,413 miles

• Listened to 46,696 minutes of music

• Used 1,015,477,586 Cursor tokens

And here are some of the lessons I’ve taken to heart this year:

• Put one foot in front of the other. Your goals are just daydreams unless you take small steps in the right direction, every day.

• Don’t take criticism from people you’d never go to for advice.

• Money is a tool to unlock wealth in other areas of your life.

• Always be first in line for the new Pokémon card preorders. They sell out quickly.

• Make time for the people who matter. Don’t for the people who don’t.

• Avoid pessimists. They suck the energy out of you like leeches.

• Always stay curious. If it kills the cat, learn what went wrong.

• Perspective is reality. How people see you is how you are, especially in a digital-centric world.

• Embrace new technology with open arms. AI is one of the greatest inventions we’ve made, and it’s helped me build some of my dream projects faster than I could have ever imagined.

• A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.

With next year right around the corner, what better way to celebrate than to share some of my goals:

• My ambitious reading goal is to hit 50 books in 2026. No reason why this can’t happen.

• I would love to play in the World Series of Poker Main Event. It’s been a bucket list dream of mine, and I might have the opportunity to make a deep run this year.

• I plan on making my own video game. Nothing crazy like the next Call of Duty, but something entertaining and mobile-friendly so I can officially call myself a video game developer (instead of solely a video game enjoyer).

• If I can hit a chess ELO of 2000, I can officially call myself a chess master. This will probably be the most challenging goal for me.

• Lastly, I want to continue sharing my thoughts, ideas, and dreams with you all. Between my following on 𝕏, LinkedIn, and this newsletter, I have thousands of fans supporting me and my content. And it means the world to me.

That’s all she wrote for the 2025 chapter of this life.

Here’s to 2026 🎉

Thanks for reading!

If you have any questions, hit me up on LinkedIn or on Twitter/𝕏 at @sam_starkman, or feel free to reply to this email!

— Sam