Failed experiments

I just came back from my Japan vacation and had my mind set on cooking my own ramen from scratch. So I spent the weekend preparing chashu, soy eggs, and a pot full of bones and pig feet that simmered for ten hours into a tonkotsu stock. It was fun. It was also way too much effort for too little return. And the result was nowhere near what I ate in Japan.

Some experiments fail. That’s fine. It’s part of the point. This year I had many such experiments as I tried to become more self-reliant. Less dependent on rising supermarket prices. Less annoyed when a website changes a feature or removes content. More in control over what I use and how I live.

I tried to grow my own vegetables and herbs, but most plants stayed tiny. Some died. The few survivors were nowhere close to replacing a supermarket. I imagined I’d have lots of pesto stacked for winter. In reality I had a handful of basil leaves my girlfriend and I ate in one evening.

I made ginger bug for homemade lemonade. I watched videos about fermenting and storing things. I imagined a life where I would not have to buy simple drinks anymore. After a few weeks it was clear that the convenience of a supermarket wins for a reason.

Still, I don’t regret trying. I now have a better sense of what things really cost in effort. Even the prices of ramen restaurants in Germany feel more justified. And some experiments worked. I revived my old iPod and traded a cluttered subscription platform for a simple device with a long battery life that holds only the music I chose. No algorithm. No disappearing songs. Fewer dependencies.

The failures taught me as much as the small wins. They showed me what I actually want, not what sounds good in my head. I will keep trying things next year. Some will fail again, but each attempt shows me where to simplify and where to let go.