 Good morning, Hank, it's Tuesday. So at the end of every year, I write myself two letters. One to the me from the past who just survived the year, and one to the me from the future who's going to be living in next year. And I look at the successes and failures and joys and heartbreaks of the last year and then make goals for next year. This is the thing that was suggested by my therapist, and initially I responded to it with the same suspicion I reserved for all therapy things. But actually, I found it incredibly helpful, because first, it offers an opportunity for reflection, and I feel like there aren't enough of those in our culture right now. It also gives you an opportunity to think about what from 2017 you want to bring into 2018 and what you want to leave behind. So today, I thought I would write kind of an open public version of that letter to myself in the hopes of improving accountability called Leave It in 2017. Alright, listen up, future me. There's a few things that current me is going to recommend you leave behind in 2017, beginning with the feed. You know what I'm talking about, the fact that you spend hours every day passively scrolling through information on the internet that does not leave you better informed or happier. I'm not saying that the social internet is inherently good or bad. I'm saying that right now it's bad for you, so you're going to leave it in 2017, at least for a few months until your resolve begins to crack, because the social media algorithms have so effectively hacked your dopamine receptors. Slight tangent, but the reason your social media feeds aren't making you happier or better informed is that they're not trying to. The algorithms are designed to keep you scrolling, to maximize the amount of time you spend on the site and ergo the number of ad impressions you provide, and the algorithms are very good at doing that. But on the other hand, John, you have a habit of believing that something, say, the social internet, for instance, is going to be the solution to all of humanity's problems, and then when it fails to deliver, you have a habit of over-correcting and announcing that, for instance, the social internet is nothing but a pile of burnt garbage. But both those extremes are equally invalid, so we're leaving those wild swings behind in 2017 as well and instead embracing something called nuance. Speaking of wild swings, let's talk about sports. So, sports are great, but with AFC Wimbledon currently in the League One relegation zone and Liverpool tossing away three-nil leads like Luke Skywalker chucking lightsabers, too much of your mental well-being depends upon the sporting endeavors of 11 mostly 20-something strangers who live 5,000 miles away from you. I'm not saying don't care. I'm saying don't shout everything is ruined, all your dreams will die, at the television in front of your children. All right, four more things you're leaving in 2017. One, prioritizing your career over your sanity. That's dumb. Stop doing that. Secondly, drinking more than two Lacroix per day. I mean, Lacroix is great, but show some restraint. Three, being snarky in the comments when you feel the urge to provoke or to respond to trolling or to meet hostility with hostility. Just stop. And lastly, somewhat related, let's leave in 2017 the notion that the avatar is the person and instead try to remember that everyone we encounter online and off is fighting battles that we don't know about. Now there's also lots I want to keep from 2017, the life-changing magic of regular exercise, the value of real-life events to celebrate usually virtual communities, and the reminders of why I love not only writing, but also sharing my writing, even if it's a smidge terrifying. I'd love to know in comments what you're going to hold onto from 2017 and also what you want to leave behind. Hank, happy new year. I will see you on Friday.