2026: Year in Review

Closing out 2026 with a look at what I learned, accomplished, and hope to carry into 2027.

lifecareeryear in review

Headshot portrait of Dustin Schau

Dustin Schau

Oh hello, welcome again to my annual review of my life and work in 2026. I do this for a few reasons, but mostly I think it’s useful to myself to force reflection upon the year and turn that into improvement next year. I do this because I think that looking back on them in the past 5/10/20 years from now will be illustrative (both for me and for my children!). And, I do this because I like to write and writing creates clarity. Maybe you, dear reader, can also learn something, be inspired, or just enjoy!

At a high-level, 2026 was some of the best of times, and some of the most mid of times. I joined a startup called Adapt in April 2026 and unfortunately left pretty quickly after, not due to any fault of Adapt, but largely due to my distaste of personal agents and the sameness of AI. However, in so doing I also am proud of a pretty obvious realiziation with the benefit of hindsight: life is short, and there’s more to life than work. I am proud that I had the conviction and support system (that’s my wife Maggie and my friends at Mastra) who were there for me and helped give me the time and space to process, think, and focus a little inwardly on myself and what I want to do.

What I accomplished

  • Joined and quit an early-stage startup as VP of Product & Engineering. I built the team in the Bay Area, shipped the first version of our product, and supported the team through a pivot towards an open-source framework (a space I know well from Gatsby, Mastra, et al).
  • Read XX books. As usual, I set a baseline of 24 books and this year I was just able to clear that baseline reading 25 books. The real highlights of the year are below, but Demon Copperhead and The Song of Achilles were by far the highlights.

What I learned

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What I’m proud of

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What I most enjoyed

I think you can learn a lot about a person by what they like, and I think the world could use more positivity. Thus, these are a few of my favorite things (see also my all-time favorites). This is a running list I’ll keep adding to through the year.

Albums
  1. Cry Baby by Vince Staples

More to come. Vince Staples’ pivot into post-punk and rap-rock on Cry Baby was one of the boldest, most fully-realized records I heard all year.

Songs
  1. TODO
Books
  1. Make Believe by Mac Barnett
  2. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
  3. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

More to come. Demon Copperhead was an absolute gut-punch of a novel and easily one of the best things I read this year.

Movies
  1. Obsession directed by Curry Barker
  2. The Odyssey directed by Christopher Nolan

More to come.

Series
  1. Widow’s Bay (Season 1)

More to come. Widow’s Bay nailed the tonal balance of horror and comedy and was the most fun I had with a new show in 2026.

Things
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What I’m Going to Focus on in 2027

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See you in 2028!