2025 a Year in Review

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Another year has come and gone and many things have happened. It’s also half-way through September, time to get this out the door. Also, if you’re interested, here is a link to last year’s post.

1. Last years goals

1.1 Writing

2025 Blog Posts: 2
2025 Posts at Parse.ly? Who knows now lol
2025 Posts at PX: 12 (7940 words)
2025 The Link List Posts: 10

Looking back, my 2025 goal was slightly vague.

Research and practice writing more effectively.

The less specific the goal, the easier to claim it was accomplished (secret productivity hack). Do I consider this goal complete? No and yes: no research was conducted, but there plenty of practice. I have some writing books shelved that I might get to this year.

I started a newsletter called thelinklist.dev which helped me keep a solid monthly-ish habit of writing. I’ve also kept up my weekly writing habit after joining px.app. Maybe that counts as research through personal experimentation?

Let’s keep next year’s goal simple:

2026 Goals: Read a 1-2 books on writing and keep up the flow

1.2 Reading

Some notes:

Grokking Simplicity

I read this one as part of a book club for work and loved it. I’m actually re-reading through it again. A couple of weeks were quick skims so I’d like to re-read it thoroughly. The concepts are so good for helping you write maintainable code, which is still valuable in the age of LLMs.

Bigger Leaner Stronger

This was a great refresher on getting back into lifting weights after a number of years. I wanted to compliment BJJ with some lifting. I can only make it a couple days a week with kids and a busy schedule. Highly recommend reading this if you are looking for a place to start in your journey.

The Road, The Rape of Nanking, Fear and Trembling

I think these were a bit too heavy to read back to back. They were impactful, but left me exhausted. Having a critical look at the story of Abraham was fascinating.

Steven King

Most of this was driven by my friend (hi Sarah!) who sent me on a Steven King bender. I enjoy his writing, but his books are quite lengthy, so they take time. King has a knack for keeping you invested in his stories while using simple language.

Last year’s goal was:

2025 Reading Goal: 19 books. My focus is more on maintaining rather than increasing.

I didn’t hit 19, but I did maintain the habit. I’ll keep the 2026 goal the same as well:

2026 Reading Goal: 16 books.

1.3 Mindfulness & Leadership

2025 Goals: Develop a meditation habit, enroll in Automattic’s coaching program, and figure out what’s next for leadership

Deciding to use waking up ended up being a great choice. It’s got a great library full of meditations and a great daily meditation tool. There’s also a large selection of talks that are great for low effort listening. I renewed it again in 2025 to keep the practice going. I also enrolled in Automattic’s coaching program, which was a great experience.

Last year I was part of a big team running much larger projects. The dynamics of a small startup are much different. My focus shifted from leadership and more into mindfulness.

I purchased a Supernote Manta in an effort to get away from my phone for organizing things. I experimented with a couple different ways to find a flow that integrates with my Obsidian setup.

The goals for 2026 will still be around the same things:

2026 Goals: Continue building meditation habit, less screen time

1.4 Strength Goals

These all essentially went out the window, but not in a bad way. More about this below.

1.5 Technical Goals

These also went out the window. I knew that I was being a bit overly ambitious setting these with everything else going on. Don’t think I’ll get up to much in 2026 either.

1.6 Learning French

I continued learning french, but the progress from only a small daily lesson is less than I anticipated. Now that I look back, I should do some real validation to see what my actual progress is.

2026 Goal: Test French proficiency to validate progress.

1.7 Conclusion

I threw up some goal posts and scatter shot my way towards them. Overall I’m happy with the progress, but it’s been a real eye opener seeing what’s realistically achievable. Reducing the number of things in flight was my main take away.

2. The Big Ticket Events in 2025

2.1 Getting Ready For The Newborn Trenches

First, getting ready for kiddo #3 to arrive. Maeve was born earlier this year (2026) so that’s technically going to be for next year’s review. But, it definitely shifted priorities and time commitments (hence this post taking longer than usual)

2.2 Switching Jobs

My time at Parse.ly came to an end and a new chapter was opened at px.app! Together, with Andrew and Nelson, we’re building some cool stuff. And, having fun! Going from such a large company to small group of 3 has been a great switch.

2.3 Started Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

This wasn’t on my radar for 2025, it just sorta happened. I had enrolled my oldest son first and then my wife coaxed me into trying it out. This is why all my previous goals were pretty much thrown out the window, in a good way.

First, while I enjoyed my Peloton and calisthenics, Jiu Jitsu is another level of physically demanding. It blends cardio, strength and mobility all in one. All notions of me being in somewhat in shape were immediately dismissed. Instead of chasing my previously set numbers, I had one new goal: survive. That’s basically the life of a white belt.

I also started doing yoga to help compliment the Jiu Jitsu and help with recovery. Which was great for helping me improve my overall mobility and recovery. Being able to stay consistent on mats without injury is my main goal. My shoulder mobility has improved, but not to the goals I had set out to achieve. That’s because I didn’t realize how badly immobile I was in other ways.

While in between jobs, I decided to buy a squat rack and build a small home gym setup. Calisthenics are great, but they became less fun over time. Instead, I decided to get back into lifting weights, another compliment to the Jiu Jitsu training. It’s been a delicate balance figuring out what works, too much of both is hard on the body. I ended up tweaking my back for a bit in the early days and had to re-adjust to a more sustainable lifting approach.

So it’s not like I abandoned my fitness goals, they’ve just changed directions.

I decided to create my own Newsletter! At each job I’ve ever had, I’ve been a serial link sharer. Some of those links are lost, some are saved in my giant bookmark git repository. But I wanted to build something from those links, something that people would get a bit more value from. I also wanted to make sure that I continued writing on a regular cadence. So, the idea for the newsletter was born.

It has no end goal. I like reading articles and sharing the interesting ones with others. All while having something to keep me writing on the regular. It’s a great balance between being kept accountable and free enough to do whatever.

3. Conclusion

It took me way longer to get around to writing this than it should. I’m keeping my 2026 goals more about maintenance and growing a bit in fitness while surving the newborn trenches. Having a new baby has shaken things up, but we’re getting back into a groove. But, that’s a topic for next year.