By Colby Kultgen
The 10 Best Things I Read in 2025
Read online / Read time: 6 minutes
I read so many great things in 2025.
Articles. Tweet threads. Essays. Interviews.
It was a struggle trying to narrow them down to 10, but here's what made the cut.
I hope they're as useful to you as they were to me.
Enjoy!
I'm not exaggerating when I say this article changed my life.
I think about it at least once per week (often more).
The key message here is "mirrored reciprocation"—basically, you get what you give. Be positive, people mirror it back. Be negative, same thing happens.
If you read only one thing on this list, make it this.
Probably my favorite resource I found this year.
A hand-curated list of publications, magazines, podcasts and YouTube channels focused on replacing fast-food content with slower, more nourishing learning.
If you're too lazy to find these things on your own (like me), this is gold.
I got 100+ responses when I shared this list earlier in the year.
It comes courtesy of Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired magazine and "real-life Most Interesting Man In The World" according to Tim Ferriss.
This is battle-tested advice from someone who's actually been everywhere.
Quick question: What's the most important idea of the 21st century?
In this article, George Mack argues it's "high agency"—the belief that you can change things instead of waiting for permission or complaining about circumstances.
According to George, more than 2 million people have read the essay already.
I recommend you do too.
Ok, this one blew my mind.
Journalist Olga Khazan set out to do something most introverts would only dream of: try to become more extroverted.
She spent weeks forcing herself to go to events, start conversations with strangers, and basically cosplay as an extrovert.
The results? Surprisingly positive.
P.S. you can use a tool like removepaywall.com to read paywalled articles (use at your own discretion).
If you don’t know Justin, he’s built a $10M+ one-person business from scratch: entirely online, without a team, and with zero paid ads.
What I love most about him—he holds nothing back.
If you have any interest in building an online business, this is one of the most valuable breakdowns you’ll find.
You know I had to sneak at least one Twitter thread in here.
This one from Dan Go is something I instantly bookmarked and plan to return to whenever I need gift ideas or just want to upgrade some part of my life.
Ok, this list just got way more legit—we've got an actual scientific journal in here.
This editorial from Nature argues that writing isn't just about communicating what you already know. It's a tool for thinking itself.
The kicker? In the age of AI writing everything for us, we might be outsourcing the thinking part too.
Short read, big implications for anyone who writes anything.
Morgan Housel is one of my favorite writers.
If you haven’t read The Psychology of Money, stop what you’re doing and go get it right now (seriously).
He also writes banger blog posts like this one, which is an excellent exercise in Inversion Thinking.
As Housel puts it:
It’s often hard to know what will bring joy, but easy to spot what will bring misery.
Instead of asking, “What’s the best advice I could give someone?”
Ask, “What would very bad advice sound like?”
I'll leave you with this.
A tactical guide to reducing "brainrot"—that foggy, overstimulated feeling you get from too much scrolling, too many tabs, too much digital noise.
Something we could all benefit from heading into 2026.
Now it's your turn
Reply to this email telling me the best thing you read in 2025!
Happy holidays friends.
— Colby
