Personal Updates – Christopher Wink

My 2026 resolutions

For my annual resolutions, I thought more about my ends.

I think often of Vonnegut’s advice that the very point of life is “to experience becoming.” I get personal joy from identifying experiences and goals that give me meaning, and their pursuit is the point.

I find meaning in becoming a better version of myself, of becoming the man I want to be — and that is a lifelong pursuit. After years of resolution-making, this year I also wrote down a few areas I want to be stronger, and that better tied why my resolutions for the year fit now. Both areas of growth and resolutions are below.

What happens after Eureka?

We love to celebrate the spark of a good idea, but we too often skip over the long, uneven road it takes to get that idea into the world.

Research on innovation keeps pointing to the same tension: breakthroughs come from serendipity and “structural holes,” where people from different disciplines collide, but impact only happens when we deliberately smooth the path that follows. That’s what made a conversation I led at Baltimore’s University of Maryland Biopark, inside the innovation district’s year-old 4MLK building feel special.

I contributed Technically coverage here and here. The Biopark team had a photographer on site, so I also just pulled some of the shots of me in action below.

A vision for Philadelphia 250 years in the future

I’m deeply proud and honored to have helped develop a vision statement for Philadelphia for the next 250 years. An earlier version was shared last summer here. I shared this new version more widely for one last round of resident feedback in an Inquirer op-ed here.

The statement, a place to give feedback and information on the process can be found at PH.LY.

Below is the vision statement as it stands now.

We didn’t remove gatekeepers; we replaced them with algorithms.

I joined CURRENTLY, the slick video interview series from the creative agency [Electric Kite], hosted by principal Kevin Renton, to talk about local journalism, entrepreneurship and how we build healthier information ecosystems. (I wrote more about it on Technical.ly here)

Themes we hit: why geography still matters online; why “friction” is a feature of community; how luck shapes entrepreneurial outcomes; and why journalism is a strategy you attach to sustainable business models.

Below the full video, and a few points I want to stand out.

My storytelling keynote to Tech Hubs leaders in Montana

Meaningful commercialized science and intentional local economic coalition building does not correlate to high-quality storytelling about it. Economic development leaders should take storytelling seriously.

The kind folks at Montana’s Headwaters Tech Hub gave me the chance to address their summit of Montana ecosystem members and other tech hub leaders from around the country. I gave a storytelling presentation informed by this research — and led with the impressive tale of how Jeanette Rankin became the country’s first female Senator.

My response to a troll

I have a troll. I’ve had them before, and I’ll have them again. This one though has passed more standard comments and emails, and has shown up in person. He was there a year ago when I got struck in the face at an event by a protestor I had to remove. Now, last month, he wrote up and printed hundreds of flyers with a long missive about me. He and some others posted them up on poles around my work conference, and handed many more to the volunteers at the conference’s registration table.

I do not think about this man, but gosh, he sure does think about me — he appears to be a retiree with a lot of free time. (I’m beginning to assume he kinda has a thing for me). His attacks were fairly strange, but easy enough to dispute that I thought I’d do that here for my own well-being.

This is not funny. But it has the makings of a very dark comedy

The details were horrible, a gruesome murder scene. But, stay with me now, I was repeatedly sent screenshots of multiple local TV news segments about the discovery of a body on South Street in Philadelphia this month.

My Resolutions for 2025

This will be the last year of my 30s.

Might as well send this decade of my life out with a flourish. One way I do that is with my annual resolutions, setting goals and a direction for where I want to get.

Below, I share them for my own reference.

My 2024 in review

I closed last year having felt that I set a new normal I hoped to continue in 2024. I was right.

I traveled a bit more, spoke a bit more, wrote a bit more, all while feeling more comfortable as a parent and a bit more certain where my company had to go. Plenty of vulnerabilities remain but I feel more comfortable in my life post-pandemic and post-kid. I am blessed, if challenged.

Below I share the highlights.

THRIVING named top podcast by PA News Media Association

It’s another much appreciated honor for the two-year reporting, community engagement and qualitative research project. I was especially proud that we got the nod in the “large” newsroom category, meaning the most stiff competition. Find THRIVING here.