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Hello! If you don’t know me, I’m Ben aka @typeoneerror.

I’m a systems guy, software creator, volunteer firefighter, and a producer/DJ. I co-founded Oki Doki with my partner Marie Poulin, and over the last half a decade+ we’ve been co-creating the Notion Mastery program together (among other things).

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Summary

Overall, this was more of a maintenance year for me. Sometimes it’s necessary. I think it was really hard to follow up a year where our dog of 14 years died and we traveled in Japan for a full month.

Last year was really a significant year in my life, and when I look back on this year it’s hard(er) to pinpoint events of significance. However, they’re there if I look more closely.

And that’s what this year has been about really: radical maintenance; the understanding that maintaining what's already valuable is not a passive or lesser act, but rather an active, vital, and even revolutionary commitment. It's "radical" because it runs counter to our culture's bias toward novelty, disruption, and constant creation.

https://bsky.app/profile/typeoneerror.com/post/3lbd25motv22l

If I learned anything this year it’s in discovering joy and appreciation in the mundane, and noting “isn’t it wonderful that you get to do this mundane task” because, hey…you’re alive. This was largely influenced by Art of Accomplishment’s Great Decisions Course (which I participated in in January) and by my favorite piece of media I consumed this year: Daniel Schmachtenberger on The Great Simplification, who had this to say about maintenance:

"Most of our life should actually just be an odd appreciation at what is, and then the desire to maintain and protect it. Because it is so unlikely and so much work went into bringing this about."

Highlights!

1. Spoke at Second Brain Summit with Marie!
2. Finished my Fire Officer I certification!
3. Launched Principles of Dashboarding masterclass!
4. Started a Podcast with Marie called Grief & Pizza!
5. Watched Marie speak at the Make with Notion conference and got to hang out IRL with all the Notion Ambassadors!
6. Released 12 original songs!
7. Voted in my first Canadian election as a newly-minted citizen!

Lowlights!

I over-committed this year. Too many clients, too many projects, and—a classic—saying yes to way too many courses. The usual culprits! I love to learn, and I love to help, so saying no is really challenging for me. Doubly so when your body and mental health is compromised. That coupled with the anxiety of speaking a a conference lead to a long-term depressive state towards the end of the summer and, to be honest, I was burnt to a crisp by October.

I made a bunch of promises I didn’t keep in the second half of the year and didn’t ship some projects that many of my customers/students were excited about last year.