In October 2013 I published a list of 77 things worth doing for no reason other than capability — “just because you can.” The list had three categories: things I’d already done, things I wanted to do, and things that are “just too cool not to be done in this lifetime.” Item one was run a marathon. It’s 2026. Let me tell you what happened.

What Got Crossed Off

The marathon got crossed off several times over, and then the finish line kept moving. I ran my first marathon, then more. Then ultras. The Ultrabalaton is 220km — I did the full thing in stages. The thing the 2013 list described as audacious became something I do more or less regularly. Which says something interesting about what “just because you can” does to a person if you take it seriously: the boundary of what you can do expands with use.

A lot of the travel items got done — lived in multiple countries, moved with only what fits in carry-on luggage, spent extended time in places I’d only read about. The location independence chapter ran for years and produced experiences that don’t compress well into list format. Some of the things on the list turned out to be better than promised. Some were fine and forgettable. A few were overrated in exactly the ways the 2013 me couldn’t have predicted without doing them.

What “Just Because You Can” Looks Like With More Skin in the Game

Back in 2013, the opportunity cost of doing something audacious was real but not yet heavy. Now it’s heavier — not because I have less energy but because I have more clarity about what I’m trading when I say yes to something large. Time, specifically. Finite, non-renewable time.

“Just because you can” still works as a reason. But it competes with a more important filter now: does this pull me, genuinely, or does it just satisfy a version of me that wants to have done it? The 2013 list mixed those two up freely. Some items were on there because they sounded right in a list about capability. Others were on there because I actually wanted them. At 55 I’m better at telling the difference before committing, rather than after.

What I’d Add That Didn’t Exist in 2013

The 2013 list was constrained by what was imaginable in 2013. There are things on the list I’d write today that simply weren’t options then.

Building a functional iOS app by describing what you want in plain language and having an AI help you build it — that wasn’t on anyone’s list in 2013. I’ve now done it eight times, with three more in progress. The capability the 2013 list was pointing at — do things because you can — now extends into territory that would have read as science fiction. Building software without being a software engineer. Running personal AI agents that handle parts of my workflow. These belong on the 2026 list not as novelties but as genuine expansions of what a single person can build.

The other addition is quieter: things that are worth doing slowly, on purpose, for a long time. A 13-year-old list feels like it assumed most things worth doing are one-time events. But the best things on my actual lived list are ongoing — writing, traveling, building, parenting. Not items to cross off. Commitments that keep going on.

The Items That Didn’t Survive

Some things on the 2013 list are no longer on any list. A few because I lost interest in the category entirely. A few because the physical window closed — things I might have done at 43 that aren’t realistic at 55, not because of incapacity but because the energy budget goes to other things that matter more. And a few because I did them and they quietly dropped off. Checked, and released.

This is the part the original list couldn’t account for: not everything worth doing stays worth doing. Some aspirations have an expiration date, and that’s fine. The list was a document of what I wanted to reach for in 2013. In 2026 the reach goes in different directions — further in some dimensions, shorter in others, and into territory the 2013 version of this list had no coordinates for.