I'm just back from a debriefing of the year 2009 with Fabian in the beautiful Swiss mountains. We do this every year - take off one day to look back and assess what was important.

One question we ask each other is which topics were relevant for us in the last year. Here's my list, with some additional explanations:

1. Deep knowledge. I spent the better part of 2009 writing my master thesis (on propaganda in the Middle Ages). In the 9 months I worked on that, I dug deep into the topic of my thesis. I became an expert in a very narrow (and not really relevant) field, which allowed me to gain, probably for the first time in my life, something I call deep knowledge: A profound understanding of a topic that allows you to actually create knowledge yourself. I enjoyed this very much, and I hope to be able to do that again at least once in a while over the next years.

2. Structure brings calmness. For a long time I thought that the more you have to do, the more stressed you are. But when faced with the daunting  task of writing my thesis, I had to organize myself and give a clear structure to my work day. The result: I was more efficient, managed not only to write the thesis, but also do some Sandbox work, write a blog, teach a class and exercise (more or less) regularly. And I actually felt calmer, not more stressed. Since I have handed in my thesis, my life has become less structured again - and I have become both less efficient and more stressed.

3. It's about staying connected. I met and talked to many people this year, but I rarely managed to stay connected with them and build up meaningful relationships. I think that in an increasingly networked world, it's not about just connecting to someone anymore (that's mostly easy); it's about keeping up the connection and make it meaningful. Value comes not from having thousands of Facebook friends, but from being able to interact with many of them on a personal level. Fabian told me about how he cooks once a week at his place in NYC and invites people he meets to join him there. I think this is a wonderful way of not just connecting, but staying connected.

4. Storytelling. I've been fascinated by storytelling lately; and I've come to realize that it is the common denominator (or one of the common denominators) of many of the things I'm passionate about.