When I think about Atlas, Unfold, YouTube, and all the other things I might create in the future, I ask myself what it is about building and creating that I enjoy so much.
I think it's learning. For me, that means picking something I've never done and finding out if I can do it. I'm not trying to become an expert, or a guru trying to sell you something. I'm curious about ideas and things I never knew about, and the part I enjoy most is imagining something, working toward it, and then actually using what I made. To me, that's the challenge of being human, and of creating.
Atlas is the biggest example. I've wanted my own trading platform for years. I taught myself HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, and some Python, even though I never enjoyed writing code. I built a trading bot. It sucked, though. Earlier this year I took a 30-hour course on writing forex trading algorithms in Python, and that never turned out the way I wanted either. Then AI coding agents came around and sparked my curiosity, and one thing led to another. Atlas has taken three rebuilds so far, and each one taught me something about what AI can build on its own and what still needs my direction, testing, and judgment.
Unfold is a smaller example. I'd never made an iPhone app before. I wanted a private voice journal that didn't send my thoughts to somebody else's servers, and I was curious whether I could build one. Now it's on my phone and I use it.
With YouTube, I'm learning filmmaking. I've made trading videos before, and they took me forever. This time I'm learning the craft itself: storytelling, filming, and editing. Writing these posts is part of it too, and so is working out. All of it is for learning, about myself and about the world.
At some point I'm going to die, so I think the reason I'm on this earth is to learn. That's all I can do: take it all in so I can grow and help contribute to something that makes my life better and the lives of the people around me.
So I think I'm living my purpose. I'm just learning, creating, and living life.