This time last year, I had just nervously hit “send” to share the first draft of the manuscript with beta-readers. The book didn’t have a cover. We didn’t even have the final title.
I felt quite lost and had to apply all the principles in the book to enjoy this dance — one that had no clear steps, set to strange music I had never heard before — and trust that things would unfold in time. It was a meta-exercise in curiosity.
Now, the book has been officially announced, and I can’t wait for it to be in readers’ hands. As someone who loves feedback, this is the longest feedback loop I’ve ever had to go through!
Here are some of the other highlights of 2024:
- Published several research papers, received a research award, completed my PhD in Psychology & Neuroscience, and secured funding to continue my work at the ADHD Research Lab.
- Grew as a public speaker and I’m now feeling comfortable in front of fairly big crowds.
- Bought a house with my partner who moved back to London from Singapore after three years of long distance.
- Deepened my personal exploration of psychedelics as a medicinal tool and spiritual practice.
- Spent more time with my family, even if that meant lots of traveling.
- Saw flying foxes and swam with whale sharks.
- Connected with many amazing minds, whether through Ness Labs, the book, or my academic research, and even made a few new friends.
Read on for a detailed account of my year, along with the experiments I’m excited to explore next year. You can also find my past annual reviews here.
Building health
Let me start with my proudest accomplishment: in 2024, for the first time in my adult life, I didn’t drink a single drop of alcohol. Given my long struggle with depression, this feels bigger than any other milestone.
Over the past twelve months, I explored how to build healthy routines upon this foundation. It started with a meditation experiment where I committed to meditate for 15 minutes every day for 15 days, and to learn in public by documenting the process in a shared Google Doc.
This simple experiment completely changed my relationship with meditation. I went from “this isn’t for me” to “this is a tool I can learn to use.” I shared my notes, including the parts I found challenging, and people left comments suggesting different techniques, from breathing and visualization to shifting my posture. Today, meditation has become part of my toolkit.
Two other important tools this year were journaling (to connect with the mind) and dancing (to connect with the body). Although I missed a few days, I always journaled several times a week. I also attended Ecstatic Dance sessions (a freeform dance practice) several times a month.
Intentionally building those moments of self-connection into my routine has been crucial to managing my mental health despite a busy schedule. However, it wasn’t always perfect.
Around the summer, I started experiencing early signs of what my best friend and I like to call “wobbliness” — when you can feel yourself losing balance and instinctively grabbing for your usual crutches.
For me, since I quit drinking, those crutches have been sugar and social media. At first, I treat myself to a snack or some mindless scrolling, but soon enough my reward system becomes overstimulated. Those bad habits impact my sleep, which affects my decisions, and the cycle repeats… You get the idea.
I’ve found that psychedelics help a lot when I’m on the verge of falling into such a vortex. They play a crucial role in my mental health. This year, I worked with Ayahuasca again, designed our own mini psilocybin retreat with close friends, and regularly used mushrooms on my own in a medicinal / ceremonial way.
Things still get wobbly at times, but thanks to these tools I’ve learned to trust myself to regain balance when I stumble.
I also froze my eggs at the start of the year — a decision my partner and I made when we didn’t know when we’d live together again. What a rollercoaster… As someone who’s usually emotionally level, I was stunned by the wild mood swings and how quickly my body changed.
On top of it all, navigating the medical process was incredibly complicated. Brainstorming titles for Tiny Experiments during that time became quite emotional! I was fortunate that one round was enough, and my heart goes out to anyone who has to go through this more than once.
Working and growing together
Tiny Experiments is my first book, and every decision is one I’ve never had to make before. I didn’t have ready-made heuristics or mental models to rely on — but I do have access to the internet.
At first I looked into hiring freelancers and spoke to a few agencies. I set the bar high, inspired by James Clear who went to great lengths to find Lyndsey, his “Executive Assistant / Master of Many Things.” I kept telling myself: I need to find my Lyndsey!
But I eventually realized the right people were already around me. The Ness Labs team had the skills to take on tasks related to the book — it was just a matter of transferring their expertise from one project to another.
What started as a search for outside help became an opportunity to grow together, and I feel so lucky to work with such an incredible group of people.
This was a recurring theme this year — how the people around me helped me learn, grow, and discover more about myself and the world. I attended two life-changing retreats for entrepreneurs, kindly hosted by Tiago Forte and Rand Fishkin, and was invited to give talks at incredible conferences. Friends offered to introduce me to their friends.
As a result, I connected with several people I’d previously only known online and deepened relationships with others to the point where the lines blurred between friendship and creative collaboration. What these people have in common is that I could just as easily spend hours discussing the meaning of life with them as jump on a quick call to brainstorm an idea.
I’m not going to list them all here — they’re all in the acknowledgement section of my upcoming book — but I’m deeply grateful for these friendships.
Looking back to look ahead
Something has become crystal clear for me this year. My creativity and productivity are fueled by two streams that must flow freely for me to do work that feels alive and connected: my intellectual health and my relational health.
Taking care of my intellectual health means having ample time to conduct research and write, whether that’s the Ness Labs newsletter, academic papers, or even another book. It means being able to read purely for curiosity’s sake and having space for those nourishing conversations with fellow curious minds.
I’ve been fortunate over the past years to work with Prof. Ellie Dommett at the ADHD Research Lab. She’s always supported my hypercurious mind and the many projects I love to juggle. We’ve now secured funding to continue working together in 2025, and I’m also applying for longer-term funding to investigate the intersection of ADHD and curiosity, hopefully with Dr. Vincent Giampietro, my other wonderful PhD supervisor.
To make space for deeper exploration, I’d like to work with the Ness Labs team to design a system where I can continue contributing to our educational content while empowering them to manage — and even lead — the business aspects.
The other stream is relational health. In 2024, I prioritized spending time with friends and family whenever I could. I jumped on trains and planes, traveling to more than a dozen cities across Europe and the world.
I had my parents over several times, and we went on house-hunting visits together. We dressed up for a big Halloween party, I introduced them to my research supervisors, and overall included them more fully in my life.
We also spent much more time together with my siblings, particularly my sister, who lives in Seoul. This year, I saw her in San Francisco, Paris, London, Singapore, and the Philippines, where we saw flying foxes and swam with whale sharks — making many lifelong memories.
In 2025, I want to spend even more time with the people I love: building a home with my partner in London after years of long distance, enjoying as much time as possible with my parents, and deepening connections with old and new friends by creating shared spaces for meaningful connection.
I see my spiritual health as the land between these two streams: it serves as the necessary foundation that supports both my intellectual and relational health. I plan to keep exploring psychedelics, journaling, and other mindfulness practices.
One possible experiment for 2025 is attending my first silent Vipassana meditation retreat — something I’m both excited and a little nervous about. Some other questions I’d like to explore include:
- What creative practices might I enjoy outside of writing the newsletter?
- How can I better bridge my work at Ness Labs with my academic research?
- What other modalities could I experiment with for my physical and mental health? e.g. along with meditation, I’m also curious about breathwork, running, and the role of music in mental well-being.
In short, I don’t know what 2025 will look like, but I want it to be a year shaped by curiosity and to have many opportunities to learn from others throughout this big experiment we call life.
P.S. The title of this year’s annual review is a reference of the original title of my book, which was supposed to be called Liminal Minds. In a fun twist, I had to embrace a long period of uncertainty until we settled on what I now think perfectly encapsulates the themes of the book.