2018.
悪いエネルギーは遠くに留まります
(This read – and honestly any other one – would be nicer if you had Feral Thing by Josin playing.)
*Cue the longest, most unnecessary intro ever!*
Since 2014, I’ve been writing these end of the year things on Medium. It’s that time again and I’ve spent the last 2 months struggling with whether or not to publish yet another one. I’m also struggling with possibly deleting the previous ones from the internet.
For one, I feel less inclined to share stuff about my personal life (in the way that I’ve done in the past) on the internet. I think this apprehension is caused by a combination of things:
I have a much larger internet following than I used to. More people (for some reason) pay attention to what I put out. In my head, with previous things, it felt like the majority of people reading my shit were friends and their friends.
Recently (this year especially), I’ve decided to live (pretty much all aspects of my life) my life in ways that are considered unconventional, at least by the standards of the environment I love. What we now have is way more people, likely with dramatically different beliefs, who are more disconnected from my life (and have less context), reading and opining (not to themselves).
In 2018 internet fashion, it’s easy for out-of-context tweets/excerpts to spread like wildfire, which is not really a problem if people didn’t feel the need to bombard you with their misguided thoughts.
Most importantly, details about my life aren’t about Timi alone, they’re equally about other people (that I care immensely about). It’s easy to see how talking how I live to such an audience will affect those that I perform life with.
It’s possible that I’m overestimating how much of a shit people give but this caution is borne of actual (albeit smaller scale) experiences and as such, shouldn’t be easily discarded.
It’s also very likely that I’m overthinking this like I do with every single thing. One tenable and ridiculously obvious solution is to attempt to strike a sort of balance between over-sharing and writing a short list of bullet points.
So yeah, I’m gonna try to do just that!
2018
The Mantra…somewhat
There are two phrases that were stuck in my head for a good part of the year.
- “BAD ENERGY STAY FAR AWAY”. I don’t even have bad energy around me most of the time or at the very least it’s so good at hiding itself that it essentially doesn’t exist. I like this line because it’s lit, the jam is fire, Wizkid is a magician!
- “We’re all living such different lives”.
This is a thought that has stuck with me for pretty much the entire year. It echoes mostly as result of all the “different lives” I’ve had (and witnessed) as I’ve moved through socio economic classes. It echoes when one truly listens to others – their problems, the things they consider to be achievements or failures etc.
It echoed even louder in April when I started to understand the relativity of time & time dilation. That even time, the thing that we treat as uniformly flowing isn’t experienced the same way for different bodies. It affected me so much that the equation for velocity time dilation became my first tattoo. Got inked on May 13. I wrote something #fakedeep about it too.
I think this is the most important thing I’ve imbibed this year, because it helps me navigate interactions with other human beings.
BuyCoins
I remember last year, when I was about to start writing the code for the MVP of what will eventually be BuyCoins. I told both Oluro Olaoluwa & Efeturi Money that I want to build something that would get into YC. This year, on the second try, we got in. It’s a nice feeling to have a target and achieve it.
~5 months later. Since BuyCoins launched in August, people have bought and sold N1.3bn ($3.6m approx.) with the app. With ~$1m traded in December and November. I know this is just the beginning of this long, arduous road. I know these stats are early days, learning-to-walk numbers. But I think about the fact for almost a whole year (prior to BuyCoins’ launch, with the MVP (Bitkoin), people only traded ~N36m ($100k) and…it feels good to make such progress.
Now we’re a team of 6 (from 3 last year lol) and we’re moving into our first office space in a few days.
There were so many downs too. Every now and then a problem that seems like it’s going to destroy one’s entire product rears it’s head. At the very least, I’m thankful that they happened in the early stages, because now I’m used to them and will be mentally ready for bigger scale problems as time goes on.
Another thing I learned is the value of building the right team. The people you work with are probably the most important besides the product itself.
We’ve definitely gotten it wrong a couple of times but I’m proud of the team we’ve managed to put together.
Travel
In 2018, I spent 4 months abroad in Mountain View (for YC). I also visited Chicago, NY (love the comedy clubs!) & Seattle, all for the first time. That’s the longest amount of time I’ve been outside the country (or even Lagos) in my entire 25 years of being alive.
There are many things I liked about the Bay Area. It really appealed to me inner nerd. Loved driving a Tesla and seeing them everywhere. Loved leaving the house with just my phone and using Apple Pay. Loved the ridiculously fast internet. Loved going to Apple Park to get some work done and fawn over all the devices in the store. Loved seeing AirPods on everyone etc
Seems like a lot of shallow shit and it probably is, but it made me feel light & happy!
Like a lot of people on the planet, I’m obsessed with music. In California, I saw my favourite band, Sylvan Esso (it’s a tie with Linkin Park) live for the first time and it was amazing.
I also went to OUTSIDELANDS this year and saw Florence + The Machine, Future, Beck, Bon Iver, Portugal The Man, Odesza, Tycho, Børns, The Weeknd, N.E.R.D, Janelle Monae & Future live.
I can’t even begin to describe how that experience made me feel. It reinvigorated my appreciation for the craft of creating music. It made me appreciate the planning, rehearsing and infrastructure that must be in place to pull off such a huge festival.
On a not-so-pleasant note, paying attention to the distribution of people in the different sections of the audience(s), and the distribution of people in different roles of the festival staff made me realize (moreso) just how deeply entrenched in systemic racism America is. I’d like to write more about this in a separate post, someday.
It was overall a fantastic experience and I can’t wait to do it again, as soon as I can afford to.
Why do Americans like dogs so much? Why?
Being away for “so long” made me understand why Nigerians who live abroad (think they) want to come back home. Being around people that look like you, people you’re 100% don’t think you’re inferior, people that understand you (more, as a result of growing up in the same environment) feels good. It’s especially worse if you left home at some older age, and didn’t get to make a ton of new friends in college etc
Nigerians & Africans always find each other though. Shout out to all the Afropolitan parties that had me driving 100 miles (round trip total) to the city for rocks.
Shout out to Ire Aderinokun, Tomiwa, Folasade, Ibrahim, Femi, Tamar, Kwame, Ada, Nkem, Tmxo, Bodunrin, Eche, Lola, Dola, Keren, Dochi, Dayo & Tonia for not letting me feel lonely. Not even for one second!
Closing Remarks
I’ve run out of stuff to talk about, and this rant is barely readable/coherent as it is. I wouldn’t want to make y’all suffer any longer.
Happy New Year! 💫
