Sorry for the slightly clickbaity headline, but this article is neither about my grey chest hair nor George Clooney’s. I will save this topic for a future Life-Sparring round.

As part of the blog's big Fifth Anniversary, I wanted to highlight five articles published on Life-Sparring.com that really aged like fine wine.

Life-Sparring.com covers a wide range of topics, and some, for example, product reviews, are, by nature, relatively short-lived.

Other articles are rather timeless or even anticipated future events with almost prophetic qualities.

Let me introduce you to the five top candidates for the George Clooney award for graceful aging:

5) Deconstructed me – What I learned about myself through DNA analysis

This article is to date the second most visited article on Life-Sparring.com. Even now, four and a half years after I published it, it is regularly amongst the top articles every week.

Apparently, the topic of DNA sequencing and how to interpret the results has become more mainstream over the past years and generated a constant visitor stream.

The success of this article also shows, how Google benefits quality long-form content over time. Nearly all traffic to the article comes via Google and has been very steady.

Maybe it is time to dive even further into the topic? Does anybody want a round two on DNA sequencing?

4) Job Security in Seemingly Unsafe Times

This article was published in September 2019, way before COVID wreaked havoc in a lot of industries. I was motivated by my discussion with a young graduate looking for a “safe” career. My answer was: “there is no safe job; the only safety is your own competence and experience, short your employability.”

COVID catapulted us within months multiple years forward in digitalization and structural changes in industries like brick and mortar retail. In addition, whole industries like hospitality and travel got completely (at least temporarily) wiped out by the virus.

What I wrote last year about job security in seemingly unsafe times is definitely even more true in the crazy environment of 2020. It’s an article definitely worth a read!

3) Going all Keto: Week One - Five Insights of a Keto Beginner

The Keto Diet has been around for a while now, and it doesn’t look as if it is going away anytime soon. Rightfully so, as a Ketogenic lifestyle, with all its challenges, it can be hugely beneficial, especially for people who do not tolerate carbohydrates well.

Over the years, the resources on Keto multiplied. From recipe collection to macro calculators, you can find almost everything online. However, it seems there is still not much out there in terms of detailed first-hand accounts and measured data. That explains while this Life-Sparring round attracted steady readers, most of whom googled “keto week one” or variations of the search term. I recently did a follow-up article with even more data and will continue to write about my experience with the Keto Diet.

2) I’m not Jürgen Klopp – Four Takeaways from the COVID-19 Pandemic from a Non-Expert

Hong Kong, with its close ties to the Chinese Mainland, was early alerted to the dangers of COVID-19, at a time when the Western countries only started to realize the full scale of the threat. Hence, my “preliminary takeaways” from the pandemic were published already on March 15, 2020.

Surprisingly, the Life-Sparring take on the topic has held up extremely well. My advice to stay informed through independent and credible sources, not to rely on governments to protect you, to focus your energy on things that you actually can control, and lastly, to look for opportunities in the middle of the crisis, especially when it comes to investments, has stood the test of time extremely well.

Ironically, I chose to ignore the last advice on stock markets myself, not believing in the V-shape recovery and expecting more pain to come. I would have been much better of, following my own advice much more closely. 

1) In Love With a Falling City? – Reflections on ten Years in Hong Kong

In Love With a Falling City is one of the most emotional Life-Sparring articles I have published so far. I wrote it in March 2017, when I just celebrated the tenth anniversary of my move to Hong Kong.

The article tells my personal HK story, but it also summarized the challenges Hong Kong was facing, from my point of view. Unfortunately, my conclusion regarding potential social and political unrest has been truly prophetic, even though I would never have imagined the scale and intensity of this disruption. Anyhow, in terms of Life-Sparring articles that stood the test of time, I think we have a clear winner.

Do you agree with the list? Or do you have other articles you returned to or just found valuable years after they were published?