It's now been one week living in Brooklyn. I cannot say that I am settled, but I am starting to get to know my way around. This morning I woke up early and grabbed coffee down the street. I went for a walk, captured a few photos of the fall foliage in the neighborhood.

Now I'm sitting in my tiny studio, listening to my autumn playlist, reflecting on the changing of the seasons, changing of times and growing older.

I just turned 27 this month. This is the first birthday I've felt the time pressure. The past few years I lived in a different country, embraced new cultures, fell in love, fell out of love, saw new places, did hard things. And after all of that I moved home feeling empty because I wasn't onto something greater. But do we always have to?

Life doesn't always go on a constant upward trajectory. It's a bit zigzagged as we traverse. I view life through phases of ~4 years. That is enough time for someone to go through mental, physical and environmental changes. For example for me:

• high school: 14-18 years old

• undergrad: 19-22 years old

• grad school/early career: 23-26 years old

• next phase: 27 - ?

I don't have a name for this phase yet, but it is different than the others because there is no predefined path. The priorities of my peers and I were pretty similar through other phases; graduate high school, college, start a career. Now paths change. Some are getting married, having kids, climbing the corporate ladder, starting businesses, etc.

The time pressure I mentioned is the pressure to create something memorable before I am old and other responsibilities emerge. That is why I moved here to get the Permaweb Journal off the ground.

Of course this isn't the smartest decision for my pockets. I had a few people try and talk me out of moving here. It would be a lot easier if I took a normal job, saved my money and lived at home or in Philly with friends. Fortunately I never caught the gambling vice since I never felt the rush of winning. With that said, I am not scared to gamble on myself.

Brooklyn to start a tech and culture magazine? I know it sounds cliché, but I believe that we are at a turning point in technology. A lot will change in the next few years with AI and I don't want to live in a cyberpunk dystopia. I am very much pro-tech acceleration, but very much anti whatever this race to the bottom AI slop and big tech surveillance that increasingly creeps into our daily lives. Instead of relying on regulators to get the tech right, I'd much rather try and build better internet tech from the ground up. The Permaweb Journal covers the people and technologies trying to do exactly that.

This is why New York makes sense for what I am trying to accomplish. It is a hub for tech and media. It's hard living, expensive, and competitive, but a lot happens downstream from New York. I feel it every time I walk the streets of Manhattan. Everyone moves fast. People have places to be, you feel small and alone but that is the point. It is a pressure cooker that demands your best.

Now I am going to enjoy the rest of this sunny Sunday. Maybe get another outrageously expensive coffee and read outside. (Not performatively!) I have some thoughts on how performative we all are now that I may write about in the future, but for now I will enjoy the waning warm days as we shift further into fall without the internet's judgment.