Ihor Dyrman

Just finished reading Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away by Annie Duke. Several interesting thoughts from the book that I'd like to save here, while I still remember them:

• Defining exit rules from the very beginning can save you a lot of time and resources that you would otherwise likely spend on a dead-end project.
• When we define goals, the goal itself becomes an object that we are pursuing. Usually, we see only two options - failure or success. But in fact, a goal is just a proxy for something we want to achieve.
• Since a goal is just a proxy and we live in a frequently changing environment, we should treat our goals accordingly. Instead of blindly following goals, we need to make them flexible and adjust them according to current realities.

The idea of exit rules is not new to me. I’ve seen it used by traders. All good trading frameworks contain entry rules and exit rules. The same applies to poker players. And yet, I have never met a person who defines exit rules for personal goals / projects.

Maybe 2025 wasn't the year of Linux on the desktop globally, but it was my year of the Linux desktop. After years of working only with Windows every day, I finally made the switch to Linux as my primary operating system. As a result, no ads, no reboots every week, no Microsoft Copilot, and no regrets. 2026 will be the year of self-hosting.