My favorite 10 posts from 2022

Mystical Silicon Year in Review

Dec 18, 2022

Hello! I'm David Gasca and this is Mystical Silicon, a ~weekly newsletter on mindfulness, how to make the world more alive, and a variety of other things I find interesting.

This week I thought I would close out the year picking some of my favorite posts I wrote this year. To try to keep it manageable, I’m limiting it to 10. I imagine some of you have seen some of them, but few have seen all, so hopefully you find something that you can carry with you into the new year :)

Without further ado… (other than a quick cute fenec fox interlude)

MY TOP 10 PICKS OF 2022

On not drinking alcohol - It’s been over 400 days now that I don’t drink. It’s becoming second-nature —when I now go visit friends & family, for example, they will even interject for me “oh, he doesn’t drink.” This is single-handedly the best habit I’ve adopted the last few years since it then enables so many other good habits in turn…
You Know Nothing - a Conversational Mindset - this summer I started trying in earnest to be better at conversations. I read a number of books and made a point of working to improve. I think I learned a lot of useful lessons and this post sums up the main thesis - to be better at conversations, I need to get out of my own head and recognize how little I know.
My Summary of Tyler Cowen’s Approach To Leading an Intellectually Fulfilling Life: This remains my most popular post by far after Tyler included it in his blog. I tried to summarize many, many hours of reading & listening to Tyler into one post. He remains one of my intellectual heroes.
On Morning Routines, Habit Cues & Remembering + How to remember what’s important + How I meditate: in retrospect, these three posts are a series. My morning routine (now 2+ years and counting), continues to be one of the most important things I do to recenter. If I have a day where I’m less focused, it’s almost always because my morning went straight from wake up → action…
A Review of “Everything everywhere all at once” - I think most people haven’t seen this movie, however, for those that have, I think this review is unique and hopefully interesting (I wrote it deeply in the samadhi afterglow of the movie).
Humans + Caffeine = Magic: I liked this post. It was a fun one to write (maybe that’s the caffeine talking ;)
Torii, Chuppahs, Sofre Aghd, The Golden Gate Bridge & making the world more alive: This post is one of my favorites. The idea that humans can make the world more alive through what we build is an idea I don’t see often but it’s something I deeply believe in now. This year I went deep into the philosophy of Christopher Alexander’s Nature of Order. I have a few more posts brewing on this I hope to get to in 2023…
Tech Memento Mori - I wrote this as Twitter (my former place of work) began to implode. This whole incident / episode / space-drama has been quite a reminder of impermanence.
All is Alchemy - so much of life is just about doing simple things for long-periods of time; dedication to the inputs and being patient. A great reminder I would do well revisiting more often…
“This is my favorite thing ever!” - this is one of my most recent posts but it is something I will try to take with me into 2023. It’s a pretty powerful mantra and if I find I can’t hold onto this notion, it’s a telltale sign I need to slow down and recenter.

As for 2023, what awaits?

Who knows! As the saying goes, “Want to make god laugh? Tell him your plans.”

The only thing that is starting to become clear to me is that the world around me is very much “going back to normal” in terms of social / travel routines. The past 2+ years I’ve been able to have highly consistent habits (including writing this blog) thanks to the fact I wake up in the same bed almost every day and I have been able to keep a great sleep schedule. As the world returns to pre-pandemic normalcy, I’ll have to make sure to stay mindful – the habits I’ve acquired become so important to maintain…

Thankfully, I have you all to keep me centered :) I am so grateful.

My next post will be in 2023 (inshallah).

I wish you all the happiest of new years!!

🥳 🥳 🥳