The 2021 Year in Review — Brendan Langen

2021 brought a year of change for your author.

I left the coziness of a decade making products and leading a Design & Development team full of friends to explore life on my own. I busted my Achilles and couldn’t walk for 6 weeks. I found a new team to research with. I became a published author for the first time. And on…

The moments brought joy, pain, and an ongoing fill of curious uncertainty. Take a look below, and read on for brief writeups of each section.

If we spent any time together in 2021, thank you. It’s been a pleasure.

Now, go on.

B

You can read on for more details, but start with the show above!

Projects

A steady stream of side-to-main projects was present again this year. I find that my project work represents what I actually want to do in the longer-term.

In February, I built a Roam plugin to retrieve important notes and journals and prompt me to write on the combination, in an Oblique Strategies-esque way. I found great use with this.

In March, Evan Meyer and I weekend-hacked at a pomodoro thinking companion - [[for thought.]] - building on our conversational Google Home plugin, Project Socrates (Nov 2020), and annotation recording tool, Thinking on Loud (Jan 2021).

In June, after I left Capsim, I went on a Twitter spree.

In August, I turned Donna’s AP Chem book into a live Roam book for her students to connect + build atop.

In September, Donna and I published our research on phone screenshots along with a prototype designed to provide context and reflection to your screenshots.
Also, I began a newsletter, so I would actually publish regularly. Join me!

In October, we built a computer. My first, a ripper. It wasn’t that bad!

Weeks later, Mike DeCero set up a Twitter data feed, and we’re gathering a million tweets a week.

In December, an essay I wrote was published in The Future of Text Vol. II, and for the first time I became a published author. I wrote about thinking on paper.

Honestly, it’s hard for me to choose a favorite. The year required my programming, research, conceptual design, writing, and making skills. I brought things to people. In 2022, I aim to produce something of physical, tangible value. I want you to hold — in your hands — a tool that will help you.

Travel

Travel continued in a local way in 2021. Donna and I shared trips to Tucson, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Columbus, Cincinatti, the backwoods of Michigan, and family homes in Pennsylvania and my folks’ new one in Indiana.

The best, oddly enough, was Albuquerque. We stayed in a casita on a vineyard, rather cheaply, and enjoyed my good friend, Andy Kalemba’s, brewery — High + Dry. The sun was lovely. The petroglyphs were incredible. Even with the city seemingly a generation behind, a spirit of change ran strong. I would wager on ABQ’s future. We solidified our love for the southwest US.

I also took a few solo trips to visit pals — to Kansas City, Minneapolis, and the Maryland backwoods. Of them, Kansas City surprised me the most. Even on an overcast weekend, the energy of local establishments beamed. The backdrop of a weekend project inspired our own spirits. Happiest of all, we were able to walk wherever we needed in the neighborhood. A low key 10.

Travel remains the best way we can learn about other cultures. I fiercely believe that city dwellers should spend time in rural areas, and rural Americans visit the cities. An incredible power comes from understanding that we’re all the same, even if we’re all different. Visiting places you’re not familiar with affords the realization of that paradoxical reality.

You may not recognize the view, but you will recognize the human spirit.

Reading

I read so much this year that my brain feels moderately overflowed. In fact, it’s been that way for awhile. My research work requires I catch up on academic reading and cutting-edge experiments. Fortunately, my personal interests align, but this inevitably means I read all. the. time. This is not a complaint!

I read portions of hundreds of books this year. Official counts are difficult to track because, well, sometimes I’m disorganized. That said, a handful of books changed the way I think.

Personal - The Making of Prince of Persia gave me a peek at the emotions experienced by the human behind the work. I can’t recommend anything more highly for creators and artists.

Sci-fi - The Three Body Problem trilogy was the most fun I had reading. Ignorantly, I didn’t know anything about the Chinese Revolution. Pitting that as a backdrop to how we would react societally to alien contact was perfect.

Design - Understanding Context gave me words for many of the musings I’ve had on our environments. I have to thank Afika Nyati for this brilliant recommendation. Nick Sousanis’ Unflattening opened my eyes to alternative forms of communicating reality.

Education - Changing Minds was my favorite read on learning, in the vein of the late, very great Seymour Papert’s Mindstorms.

Tools - The New Media Reader provided months of reflection, as I pored through the pioneering work in computing that I currently reside within. I’d been exposed to many of the essays before, but a wealth of new work entered my mind this year.

Thought - The Clock of the Long Now gave me an understanding of pace layers and maintenance that I never had before. I could talk to Stewart Brand and Brian Eno for days.

Tunes

My favorite music experience comes in album form. I love to dive into the artist’s sound over an extended period. Good albums capture the feeling of the time an artist has lived through. The best albums make you want to experience that time.

We don’t always resonate with music upon release, so I’ve broken this into three groups — New (2021), Recents (2015-2020), and Old(er). This isn’t all encompassing, but sums my time nicely.

New (2021)

Floating Points + Pharaoh Sanders - Promises. This was my favorite piece all year.

Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime

Nala Sinephro - Space 1.8. Lovely jazz, in the vein of Promises.

The Weather Station - Ignorance

Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview on Phenomenal Nature

Isaiah Rashad - This House Is Burning

Kanye West - Donda. Yeah, I love Ye.

Recents (2015-2020)

Helado Negro - Private Energy. This was my private energy this year.

Beirut - No No No

Khruangbin - Mordechai. Vibes for days + evenings.

Haliu Mergia - Yene Mircha. Cool blended Ethiopian jazz + guitar.

Resavoir - self-titled. A local Chicago jazz band, and the lead plays sax in Whitney.

BADBADNOTGOOD + Ghostface Killah - Sour Soul

Peter Cat Recording Co. - Bismillah. I don’t even know how to describe this, but I’d be surprised if you didn’t enjoy.

Old(er)

I listened to a ton of Thom Yorke, both solo and with Radiohead.

Brian Eno played in my ears most days that I needed to write code.

Evenings with Donna brought a ton of Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Outkast, Curtis Mayfield, and other funky hip-hop + soul.

Each album from Grizzly Bear, Blood Orange and Tame Impala played frequently. Great vibes for locking in and/or grooving.

Lessons

This year, I did things I’d never done before. The novelty was scary, exhilarating, and redemptive. My body had been calling for me to change, and I finally listened.

Perhaps then it’s fitting that my body also had enough of my youthful shenanigans. In late July, I learned a real lesson, in the form of a ruptured left Achilles. Yikes!

After a few hours (okay, days) of doom & gloom, I remembered the great thing about life - you can choose how to handle what’s in front of you! From then on, I resolved to make the most of the time at the computer.

In the process, I learned just how much I loved research work. I’d been diving into my own interests all my life, and the skills just so happened to cross over to a field I’m wildly interested in.

None of this would have been possible if I hadn’t learned the most important thing of the year — As soon as I felt, truly, that I needed to fly in other circles to live the future I dream of, poof! My decade at Capsim had ended.

I close the year with one final lesson — the clarity that I need to build with others, in-person. It’s truly fitting that the last decade has resurfaced the obvious pull I have for it.

Now, I look for my place. If it will be Chicago, I need to find you humans soon.

The year brought obvious change — much of it by my own doing. What else can I do but embrace the journey?