22 Things to Learn from 2022
That can shape our thinking for 2023
Hey Guys! Hope you’re doing what you love…
Time is important. So without wasting it any further, let’s get into it.
1. Bitcoin — What the hell happened to you?
Bitcoin hit $69,000 at the end of 2021 and came back to $46,000. When everyone was expecting that the recession would hit the world in 2022 and Bitcoin would cross the $100,000 mark, it dipped further. What seemed like a small blip at the beginning, became a huge downfall and took everyone by surprise. The entire year was bleeding red.
2. The stock market bleeds
This year in 2022, the stock market was losing more than it was winning. Meaning, the number of days the stock market was red, was more than the number of days it was green. Some stocks have lost 65% to 80% in 2022. All in all — the year was not great for the stock market or investments in general.
3. The interest rates are up — Again! And again!
Remember the days back in 2020, when the interest rates were down to zero? I miss those days. I constantly feel that I should have brought a few properties back in 2020. This year in 2022, the feds in the US have been increasing the interest rates again and again. They’re not stopping. In fact, the rates are at 4.5% at the beginning of 2023 and are not expected to come down anytime soon. This is killing the home-buying demand.
4. I say it again — Have some safe cash ready for yourself
I’ve mentioned it before on this blog and now at the end of 2022, I want to stress this point again. Always have some money saved for yourself. You should only invest that amount of money that you are okay to lose. Whether it’s in stocks or crypto or any other investment you like. You should always have some amount of cash in your savings account ready for you in case you lose your source of income.
5. Freedom of speech should not be paid
One of the biggest news this year was that Elon Musk purchased Twitter. One of the reasons behind the purchase that he said was that he loves Twitter because it’s a place that supports freedom of speech. But as soon as the purchase was complete, he announced that he will be charging $8/month for the Twitter blue plan. So what happened to the freedom of speech then? Should the freedom come at a monthly cost? I don’t think so. And as far as profitability is concerned, Twitter can make money from other sources too.
6. The government finally ran out of paper
The government didn’t print any more money this year. Finally. But instead, they were trying to find the solutions to the mistakes that they made back in 2020 and 2021. All the additional cash that was injected into the economy now needs to be taken out. Solution: Inflation. The government raised the interest rates which caused a domino effect and raised prices on almost all the daily consumable items.
7. Inflation is here to stay
In 2020, and 2021 we were saying that Bitcoin is here to stay and now we’ve come to a point where we have to say that inflation is here to stay. Some people are saying that the inflation that we started getting in 2022 is going to stay with us for a decade.
8. How to save money during the inflation
While I am planning to write a separate article about how to save money during inflation, I want to discuss one of the most important ways here and it’s called — saving money. Save as much money as you can by cutting back on all unnecessary expenses.
Saving money is making money.
9. Remote work advertisements continue
HRs used remote work in their advertisements to persuade candidates to work for them. Remote work is here to stay for a long.
10. Single-screen work culture explored a new level
I discussed what single-screen work culture is and how it changed the way we work in my previous articles. In 2022, it explored a new level. A couple of my teammates went on a four-month-long road trip across the country with their work laptops. They attended all the meetings and worked from different states while having fun on the weekends and holidays. Yes! This is also possible now. It’ll be interesting to see how things go in 2023.
11. People do not want war. Politicians do.
The Russia-Ukraine war caught the world’s attention in 2022. The videos of people from both countries talking about not wanting the war were going viral all over social media. This was a clear message to all of us that people are busy living their day-to-day lives and they do not want the war. It’s the greedy politicians that cannot seem to be satisfied.
12. China’s zero COVID policy failure
The COVID cases in China are on the rise again at the end of 2022. China is facing a critical failure of its zero COVID policy. The videos of the dead bodies piling up in the hospitals and people facing difficulties getting treatments are going viral on social media. And the worst is that China is still denying it.
13. Do we need another Pandemic?
Looking at the current situation in China, it seems like we’re going to see another variant of the COVID-19 virus spread across the world. But do we need this to happen? The flights to China are still not closed and governments across the world are delaying the steps to be taken in order to prevent the spread of this new virus. Have we learned nothing from past mistakes?
14. Social media is showing its power
Social media is serving as a great medium for people to get true news across the world. It’s the true power of social media.
15. Social media is also showing us its true weakness
While it’s serving as a great medium to bring reality in front of the world, it’s also portraying a wrong way to support the cause. Social media is leading people and especially gen-Zs into thinking that liking a post or commenting on it is the way to solve the problem. Yes! At times it may provide a little comfort to someone to feel that people are standing with him, but there is actually no one standing with him.
To solve the actual problem, sometimes you have to get out of the house and go to the victim to stand with him.
16. COVID-babies are crawling now
Haha! This is a funny one. All the COVID babies are crawling now. Their parents however do not want to go to work. Some unfortunate folks have to go to work in offices and it kills them. Walking away from their cute cupcakes is becoming hard.
17. Toilet paper rolls are still not finished
Remember how the world went crazy over toilet paper rolls back in 2020? They are still not done with their stack of rolls from 2020. However, toilet paper is expensive now due to inflation. So maybe it was not such a bad idea to buy it back then. #lol
18. Marriage industry is booming again
Yes! We’re back. The Indians and I think many other people across the world are back to square one. We have started putting on extravagant shows of marriages. Cocktail parties are back with full passion. Uncles are drinking an extra one coz they couldn’t do much during the pandemic. Their wedding dances are still not improved though.
19. No matter how late it is, share your content
This is a personal one. In 2023, I shared the two articles that I had written back in 2020 and 2021. You can check them out below —
You don’t know how much you’ve got. So whatever you have, share it with the world, no matter how late it is.
20. In times of need, we all come together
2022 proved to us again that in times of need, we all come together. We care. We stand by the righteous one. In the Russia-Ukraine war, the world supported Ukraine in every possible way it could. I hope that no matter what happens, we’ll stand by each other.
21. Life is fragile.
In the last three years, nobody thought that we may not have that one friend, that family member, that relative, that neighbor, or that colleague with us when we reach the end of the year.
And yet, we all know someone who couldn’t be with us for welcoming 2023.
But if you think about it, this was always true. We all are going to die one day and we don’t know when that day is. It could be today or tomorrow or after 10–20–30 years. But the fact that we all will die one day is inevitable. At the back of our minds, we all know this fact and yet we keep moving through life as if we’ve got forever.
The last three years made us realize that life is fragile.
22. Time is the most important commodity you have
We all have a very limited time on this planet. So use your time wisely, and live the life that you’ve always dreamed of.
If today were the last day of your life, would you want to do what you are about to do today?
Thank you for reading!
-Sumeet
