So I'm that age, apparently

by Samir Talwar

Saturday, 10 January 2026 at 09:00 CET

I’m 37.

Apparently I’m now at that age where I feel the need to make sweeping statements about life, the universe, and everything.

So here’s my wisdom, collected over the last year or so. Perhaps I’ll do this every year.

Life

• The three most dangerous words in the English language are “they”, “should”, and “is”.
• When someone talks about “you”, they are usually talking about themselves in the second person.
• Reality may have a left-wing bias, but perception has a right-wing bias.
• Anyone who tells you about a perfect system for life has someone else (a wife, a mother, etc.) taking care of all the messy bits, while they remain oblivious. Often intentionally.
• “I’m tired and I don’t know” is a valid response.

Learning

• Those who don’t ask stupid questions give stupid answers.

Work

• Do less, and do it better.
• It’s harder and more important to finish things than to start things.
• But it’s more fun to start things.
• If in doubt, organise, read, procrastinate. It’s not fucking about, it’s internalising.
• Responsibility only works if it’s paired with authority.
• Sales and marketing are often harder, more important, and less understood than technology.
• The people are more important than the product. The product is more important than the technology. (But they’re still important.)
• Technology is the most expensive solution to a problem, and the hardest to change.
• The only 10x developer is the developer that makes the 10 people around them twice as good.

Software

• The watchmakers were correct. They’re “complications”, not “features”.
• Legacy code is tough. Legacy data is impossible.
• The worst kind of accidental complexity in software is the unnecessary distribution, replication, or restructuring of state, both in space and time.

Here’s to another year

I made it around the sun once more. I hope to continue doing so.

If you want to talk about any of the above, ask me to elaborate, or challenge me on something, you know where to find me.