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By Colby Kultgen

The Best Ideas of 2025 (So Far)

Read online / Read time: 6 minutes

Well friends, we’re officially past the halfway mark of 2025.

Felt like the perfect time to hit pause and revisit some of the best ideas I’ve come across this year.

So I opened up the archives.
Reread every issue.

And pulled the 10 that seemed to resonate most.

Here they are in all their glory (plus a little extra commentary from yours truly).

Enjoy!

1. A list of tips from 50 years of travelling

These 50 years of travel tips comes courtesy of Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired magazine and "real-life Most Interesting Man In The World" according to Tim Ferriss.

Here are some I'll be using on my next trip:

I seriously could have included them all here, they're so good.

2. The Second Arrow Parable

In Buddhist psychology, The first arrow hits us when a painful event occurs—failure, rejection, loss.

Most people don’t stop at the first arrow. They fire a second one at themselves.

• The rejection wasn’t enough—they add self-doubt.
• The mistake wasn’t enough—they add self-criticism.
• The failure wasn’t enough—they add shame.

The second arrow is our reaction to the first.
It’s the emotional wound we inflict on ourselves.

But here’s the thing: the second arrow is optional.

Regret, guilt, and overanalysis don’t change the past. They only deepen the wound.

The real skill in life isn’t avoiding pain—it’s refusing to shoot yourself twice.

Next time you’re caught in a moment of pain, pause and ask yourself:
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​Is this the first arrow, or am I making it worse?

3. Avoiding the Anxious Middle

This is a trap so many of us fall into.

We work with a YouTube video playing in the background—just distracting enough to keep us from deep focus.

We "relax" on the sofa with our phone in hand—checking emails, skimming notifications, never fully unwinding.

It’s this awful in-between.

Always kind of working.
Always kind of resting.

Never fully doing either.

I'm guilty of it too.

My best days are the ones where I work intensely for 4-5 hours—completely disconnected from distractions—and then intentionally shift into slow mode.

My worst days? A blur of half-work, half-distraction—never fully engaged in anything. Bouncing between tabs, barely making progress, then spending a "relaxing" evening stressing about everything I didn’t finish.

And this doesn't just apply to entrepreneurs.

As a 9-5er, it's just as important to build contrast into your day with focused work sprints and real breaks.

Life gets better when we stop lingering in that anxious middle.

4. Developing an internal locus of control

Chess prodigy and martial art champion Josh Waitzkin on developing an internal locus of control:

5. The power of 5 good minutes

Something I remind myself of on tough days:

You're always 5 good minutes away from feeling better.

5 minutes of exercise—your energy shifts.
5 minutes of writing—your mind clears.
5 minutes of reading—your perspective changes.
5 minutes of breathwork—your body resets.
5 minutes of conversation—your mood improves.

Whenever the day feels overwhelming, I try to ask myself:
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​What’s the best way I can spend my next 5 minutes?

6. How to (actually) increase your luck

This tweet nailed it:
If you want to increase your luck, you need to expose yourself to more randomness.

But there's an important variable missing here:

You must be prepared to act on those opportunities when they present themselves.

Here's what this looks like in action:

1. Expose yourself to more randomness

- Take more 'moonshots': Once a month, do something with a <5% chance of working. DM someone you admire. Apply to something you feel underqualified for. You never know if you don't try.
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​- Start publishing content online: One of the best ways to create surface area for opportunity. You never know who’s watching—or what doors it might open. This changed my life.
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​- Talk to strangers more: This isn’t as weird as it sounds. Say hi in line. Ask a question. Some of the best opportunities start with small talk.

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2. Be prepared to act when opportunity knocks

- Know what you’re looking for: You can’t spot opportunity if you haven’t defined it. Write down your goals. Know your values.
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​- Keep your tools sharp: When your skills are dialed in, you’re more likely to recognize and capitalize on a lucky break.
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​- Have something to plug: Luck moves fast. If someone asks what you do, what you want, or what you’re working on—have an answer ready. A clear pitch = more traction.

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Remember this formula:

Luck = randomness × readiness.

7. Sentences that have changed my life

8. Purchases under $300 that will change your life​

I'm such a sucker for threads like this.

I don't consider myself a materialistic person, but I do believe a few key purchases can dramatically improve someone's life.

There are 1,700+ replies to this post, so I'm going to leave it up to you to explore.

9. An exercise for avoiding regret in life

At the start of this year, I sat down to do an exercise.

Just me, a sheet of paper, and one uncomfortable question:

If I died tomorrow, what would be my 5 biggest regrets?

Morbid? Sure.

But I didn’t want to wait until it was too late to do something about it.

So many of us live on autopilot. Telling ourselves: “I’ll get to that someday.” But someday has a funny way of never coming.

When you stop reacting to life and start being intentional, you take your power back.

Here's what I came up with:

1. I wish I had spent less time online.
2. I wish I had expressed my feelings more.
3. I wish I had better kept in touch with friends.
4. I wish I had been more connected with my community.
5. I wish I hadn't let anxiety stop me from taking risks.

But that wasn’t the end of the exercise.

The real magic was in step two:

For each regret, I wrote down one action I could take going forward to prevent it.

Here's what I've implemented so far this year:

1. I've consistently got my phone screen time under 1.5 hours per day.
2. I've been more open with family and friends (slowly but surely making progress).
3. I started a monthly book club with three of my closest friends who live abroad.
4. I joined two local sports teams that meet weekly.
5. I’ve committed to doing one thing every day that scares me (even if it’s small).

I know this isn’t an easy exercise. But I challenge you to carve out 15–30 minutes this week to try it.

You won't regret it! (see what I did there)

Bonus points if you send me your list.

10. How to live fully in difficult times

In our current political climate, it's so easy to fall into fear, cynicism, and despair.

You scroll the news, and it feels like everything is on fire.

It’s tempting to freeze—or to spiral.

But there’s a better way:

1. Do what you actually can to make a difference​
Vote. Volunteer. Speak up. Support good work. Take real, concrete action—if and where it feels right for you. We're not ignoring what's happening. We're facing it head-on and doing what we can.
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​2. Then, live your life fully​
Laugh with friends. Build things. Teach. Create. Love. Make memories. Stay human. After you've done what you can, you have to let go of the rest. You have to refuse to let fear hollow out your days.

Despair feeds the systems you want to change.

Joy and action break their grip.

If you made it this far, reply with one thing you've learned from this newsletter in 2025.

(I read and respond to them all!)

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