Happy new year. I was able to take a nice 2 week vacation back home and returned to Tokyo refreshed and the batteries recharged. Got bitten pretty badly by the year of the snake but it's time to gallop in the year of the horse.

Had a chance to meet up with the infamous Eric Kim and engaged in an interesting and inspirational chat that gave me some good food for thought. The paths of our professional lives have not been dissimilar. The impact of certain events have shaped and made us reevaluate what is important in life and the pursuit of happiness.

Perhaps it's due largely to being raised in a materialistic first-world society, but often times we find ourselves always needing to add something to make us happy. The never ending cycle of wanting to own that new gadget, getting that promotion, buying that bigger home, hell, even nailing that hotter chick; it's not unlike the trying to experience that first high again rabbit hole.

However, instead of always trying to add things to make us happier, perhaps it's equally if not more important to subtract the negative things. I was never good at math.

The great Albert Einstein once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Here's to a new year.