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11 min read

A look back at 2025

Reflections, high scores, and the year ahead
A look back at 2025

Since 2018, I've been writing retrospectives at the end of each year (see: 2024, 2023, 2022) where I track my goal progress, what I read/watched, and where I went. It's a nice way to make myself accountable to the intentions I set and I hope it provides a little inspiration to anyone glancing through.

This installment will cover:

  • 2025 in summary
    • Fitness
    • Health
    • Brain
  • Details
    • Stuff I made
    • Long-form media consumption
    • 2025 in places
  • 2026 planning
  • 2026 goal summary

2025 in summary

I started the year in a grim mood. A couple of weeks into January, I was let go from a startup where I'd been working for a mere three months. I’ll just say this: I‘m never again going to work for 25-year-old first-time founders with no management or life experience.

This weird and frustrating start to the year turned out to be exactly the kick in the pants I needed. If 2024 was my year of climbing big mountains, 2025 was the year of a new career expedition.

I've always been dissatisfied with pigeonholing myself as a product manager, which was my role in the tech world to this point. Traditionally, you never get to build or design things. You sit a layer of abstraction removed. You have input on what your team makes, but you typically don't have formalized control or reporting authority over anyone. You find yourself in endless meetings, trying to wrest decisions you can't directly make in a particular direction.

So, I decided not to seek another job and just build things. For months, I revisited software engineering principles, taught myself JavaScript, TypeScript, and some of their frameworks in detail. And then I tried out Claude Code. It was a force-multiplier like I've never before experienced. And together with my improved technical skills, I started to become the product manager/architect/engineer/designer mashup I've really always wanted to be. That's where I find myself now at the beginning of 2026.

We did a lot in 2025, even if it did seem like a relatively travel-light year. Fiona and I climbed the Grand Teton together. I went to Ontario for a fishing trip with pals. We joined my parents in Banff for my mom's birthday. We finally saw Japan. I dabbled with Schopenhauer. We put epoxy down in the garage and gave it a coat of paint. I built two sizable apps by myself.

I'm entering the new year feeling optimistic and energized.

💪 Fitness

Without a big goal like Denali to push me through, it was harder to summon up the motivation to train like I did in 2024. This was the first time since I've been tracking my fitness like this that I haven't hit the mark I set out at the beginning of the year. Not letting this get me down, but it's something to note.

Goal:

  • ❌ 234:25/250 hours of training duration – any cardio exercise + strength training (vs. 278 in 2024)

Other things I tracked:

  • 97 hours spent running (vs. 124 hours in 2024)
  • 21 hours on cycling (vs. 84 in 2024)
  • 65 hours of hiking and mountaineering (vs. 54.5 in 2024)
  • 28,510ft running vert (vs. 26,959ft in 2024)
  • 131 total runs (vs. 153 in 2024)
  • 635 miles run (vs. 832 in 2024)
  • 298 miles cycled (vs. 635 in 2024)
  • 172 miles hiked (vs. 135 in 2024)
  • 41 highest Strava fitness level¹ (vs. 64 in 2024)
¹Strava Fitness: “Fitness is calculated using your Relative Effort (based on either heart rate data or Perceived Exertion input) and/or power meter data. This way you can identify patterns in your training and see the big picture of how all your workouts add up over time. Your score is entirely relative to you. It serves as a benchmark, to show how many points you currently have compared to any date in the past two years.”

🥕 Health

I didn't hit my sleep quality goal last year, but I did better than 2024. The second straight improvement year-over-year. The centrality of sleep to my wellbeing and my focus is prompting me to be more mindful of things like alcohol.

Goals:

  • ❌ 73.02%/75% sleep quality² (vs. 72.18% in 2024)
  • ✅ 8:35/8:00 average nightly sleep length (vs. 8:23 in 2024)

Other things I tracked:

  • 83.1 happiness index average³ (vs. 78.3 in 2024)
²Sleep Quality: From Garmin: "Your nightly sleep score is calculated based on a blend of how long you slept, how well you slept, and evidence of recovery activity occurring in your autonomic nervous system derived from heart rate variability data. The following categories are considered when assigning a score: Sleep Duration, Average stress score during sleep, Total deep sleep, Total light sleep, Total REM sleep, Awake time, Restlessness"
³Happiness index: Holistic spot-check of how good I feel psychologically and physically, based on my relationships, job satisfaction, financial well-being, goal completion, etc. on a scale of 1-100, with 1 being the worst and 100 being that life can’t get any better.

🧠 Brain

I completed all my writing and reading goals in 2025, but I don't think these are the right metrics.

Goals:

  • ✅ 22/15 completed books (vs. 9 in 2024)
  • ✅ 13/10 articles published, including newsletter issues (vs. 11 in 2024)
  • ✅ Complete a JavaScript course
  • ✅ Launch a software-based side project – to give myself something to learn for 

Like in last year's review, I'm shifting how I think about goals in this category. In prior years, I have been tracking the number of videos or articles I've made, along with books or various forms of media I've consumed. But I still feel like these metrics are misguided or at least misaligned with the actual underlying intention, which is to create healthy and good habits. As I'll talk more about below, shooting for a specific number of books often meant that I would just try to get to the end rather than sit with, enjoy, and absorb the material. It also denies something essential, which is that books vary immensely in their depth, sophistication, and struggle factor.

Struggling through essays by Schopenhauer, as he muses about how to live life in the face of near-constant suffering of one kind or another, is far more rewarding than smashing through bubblegum fiction. The completion metrics flatten all of that difference.

✍️ Stuff I made

Applications

Hometrace - Professional Home Inspection Software
Create professional digital inspection reports with our modern platform for home inspectors.
Professional Home Inspection Software
Lucive - Privacy-First Journaling for Mac
A beautiful and lightweight journaling app for macOS and iOS, built with privacy as its core principle.
LuciveLucive Team

Writing/Photos

💿 Media

Books: I've italicized books that I read in part but put down or come back to as reference. I've bolded books that I'd especially recommend.

  • We are Legion (We are Bob), Dennis E. Taylor - Reread on audiobook for the drives between Salt Lake and Teton Valley.
  • Onyx Storm, Rebecca Yarros
  • Iron Flame, Rebecca Yarros
  • The Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros - Like a better Court of Thorns and Roses. The dramatized audiobook sucks you in.
  • The Pragmatic Programmer, David Thomas & Andrew Hunt
  • Essays and Aphorisms, Arthur Schopenhauer - Concise. Kind of emo.
  • The Science of Accelerated Learning, Peter Hollins - Super valuable strategies and takeaways. Easy to immediately implement.
  • The Terminal List, Jack Carr - Simplistic macho bubblegum.
  • Six Wakes, Mur Lafferty - I love this stuff: Space, clones, digital consciousness. All with a murder mystery layered on top. Very fun.
  • Mal Goes to War, Edward Ashton - Another roadtrip listen. Decent.
  • The Fourth Consort, Edward Ashton - listened to the audiobook on a roadtrip. Entertaining!
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses (got through book three of five and I'm out), Sarah J. Maas - Fiona and I started listening to these while driving down to Salt Lake. It's not good writing, but it's v steamy. Kind of feels like something on the level of Twilight.
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl (Finished books 1-6), Matt Dinniman - Hilarious and completely engaging.
  • East of Eden, John Steinbeck - Somber, contemplative. A little difficult for me to devote very long periods of reading to this one since I always came away from each session feeling mildly sad. It's obvious from the writing and the expansive ambition of the book why this is a great American classic.
  • Mickey7, Edward Ashton - Really fun!
  • Station Eternity, Mur Lafferty (58%) - I couldn't get into this one. The dialogue and the story drag.
  • Isaac's Storm, Erik Larson - Brutal, frustrating, well-told.
  • Circe, Madeline Miller - Excellently-written. A beautiful story. I enjoyed the foray into Greek mythology again.
  • Slow Productivity, Cal Newport - Well worth it. The book is forming the basis of my philosophy on this year (reducing the number and scope of my active projects).

Film and TV

  • F1 - solid, kind of predictable
  • Fallout, Season 2 - Love.
  • One Battle After Another - Well done. Funny, action-packed.
  • Pluribus, Vince Gilligan - Weird, refreshingly different story, excellent
  • Frankenstein, Guillermo Del Toro - CGI was a little rough, but the acting was great.
  • The Woman in Cabin 10 - Entertaining!
  • Rewatch: The Shining, Stanley Kubrick. I always notice new, small details each time.
  • K-Pop Demon Hunters - I'd heard a lot about this one from folks I follow. Very visually beautiful. Not exactly my cup of tea.
  • Alien Earth - Entertaining.
  • Alien Romulus - Pretty good! Brings together the good parts from the franchise.
  • Hot Fuzz - Another Simon Pegg flick with genius and subtle British humor.
  • Rewatch: Prometheus - Went on an Alien franchise kick while Fiona was out of town. I don't mind this one! Not my favorite, but not bad.
  • Rewatch: There Will Be Blood - Another from the New York Times top 100 of the 21st century. It's just one of the best I've ever seen.
  • Shaun of the Dead - Hilarious. I'd never seen it before, but count me among the cult fanhood.
  • Rewatch: Superbad - I haven't seen this movie in more than a decade and it is still absolutely hilarious. Really captures that 2008 vibe.
  • The Pitt (HBO) - Fantastic. Excellent character development and a fascinating glimpse into a busy ER.
  • Duster (HBO) - I love the '70s vibe and the music just slaps.
  • Murderbot (Apple TV) - Huge fan of the books and the shows seems to be a faithful and very funny adaptation.
  • Black Bag, Steven Soderbergh - Fun and British.
  • The Last of Us (Season 2) - I find Ellie's character to be very grating and angsty teeny but the story holds the attention.
  • Rewatch: Pacific Rim (2013) - Pure action indulgence. Over-the-top giant robot/monster action.
  • Mickey 17, Bong Joon Ho - Not a big fan of the movie. Really liked the book. The film felt like a kind of chaotic carnival, and they changed the plot significantly from the novel.
  • American Primeval, Netflix - Very interesting subject matter, very bloated dialogue. Bad things seem to happen at an incredibly fast pace. No chill. Could have been three episodes instead of seven.
  • The Bondsman, Amazon Prime - I couldn't get farther than one episode.
  • Sisu, Jalmari Helander - Like John Wick but in WWII Finland.
  • Rewatch: Zero Dark Thirty - Also excellent.
  • Rewatch: Sicario - Excellent.
  • Primal, Genndy Tartakovsky - A Reddit recommend for something similar to Scavenger's Reign. Pretty good so far. The artwork is beautiful.
  • The White Lotus, Season Three - TWL is always good.
  • The Substance - This was such an intense one. I learned I'm just not a fan of the body horror stuff. Had to split 20 mins from the end to go watch chess videos and wash out my brain.
  • Common Side Effects - From Joseph Bennett who also made Scavenger's Reign. The story and the animation are terrific.
  • Rewatch: Her - Damn, I like this movie. It still holds up, although the point of view on technology in the near future is amusing. The AI played by Scarlett Johansson just runs wild. There are all kinds of alignment issues at play that would terrify people these days.
  • Invincible, Season Three - Very violent, very good.
  • Anora - Very raunchy, very good.
  • Sundance 2025 Shorts programs - All of the animated ones are terrific. The live action ones...not so much.
  • O Brother Where Art Thou - Kooky. Dunno if I'm a huge fan. The music is great though.
  • Severance, Season Two - So compelling.
  • A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg - Keiran Culkin's character was unnerving and well-acted. The rest of the story was kind of flat for me.

Video games

  • A quick revisit of Skyrim in VR
  • Yet another Baldur's Gate 3 campaign
  • Split Fiction - In progress with a friend. Very engaging! Feels a little like it was made for kids.
  • Replay: Far Cry 5 on co-op with my wife. A lot more fun with two people! Wish you could invite more players to the main campaign playthrough though. Like a lot of Ubisoft games, things feel repetitive after a while.
  • Age of Mythology Retold - Reminded me a ton of playing this as a kid, only with much-improved graphics.
  • Age of Empires 4 - Stepping back into RTS. This game has a lot of polish. It's not twitchy like Starcraft. I'm enjoying it well enough.
  • Sid Meier's Civilization 6 - Decent, but these games are super long.

⛰️ 2025 in places

December

  • Victor, ID
  • Salt Lake City, UT
  • Bisbee, AZ

November

  • Tokyo, Japan
  • Hiroshima, Japan
  • Kyoto, Japan
  • Salt Lake City, UT
  • Victor, ID

October

  • Salt Lake City, UT
  • Victor, ID

September

  • Bozeman, MT
  • Victor, ID

August

  • Helena, MT
  • Banff, CA
  • Columbia Falls, MT
  • Victor, ID

July

  • Grand Teton, WY
  • Gros Ventres, GTNP, WY
  • Lemhi Range, ID (near Big Windy peak)
  • Arco, ID
  • Victor, ID

June

  • Victor, ID

May

  • Victor, ID
  • Salt Lake City, UT
  • Toronto, Ontario
  • Temagami, Ontario
  • Haileybury, Ontario
  • Salt Lake City, UT
  • Victor, ID

April

  • Salt Lake City, UT

March

  • Victor, ID

February

  • Victor, ID

January

  • Victor, ID
  • Salt Lake City, UT
  • Victor, ID
  • Salt Lake City, UT

2026 planning

Exactly a year ago, I was immersed in Cal Newport's book Slow Productivity. I wrote then about how I wanted to work at a natural pace, obsess over quality, and do less in line with Newport's principles. I then proceeded to set out goals (many of which I didn't publish) that spanned tons of different categories: goals for exercise, goals at work, goals for writing or making videos, goals for reading books, and so on.

This year, I resolved to truly pare things down. The four goals I have below represent the complete list. Out with completionist goals, like "finish x number of books," or "write x articles" and in with goals that reinforce habits, like spend x number of hours studying or exercising.

I also want to align my goals so my activities compound and interlock in some way. For example, the idea of "study" as I have below refers to any activity like reading, exploring software architecture, learning nuances of a programming language, marketing, etc. all in support of the goal of building my app-based businesses to a self-sustaining level (essentially, cash flow positivity). Sleep and exercise are two other key support pillars of that same goal.

Goal summary for 2026

As always, this is a list of intentions, rather than a list of hard, inflexible commitments. See here for more of the reasoning on that.

  • Maintain a sleep quality of 75%+, sleep time 8+ hours average for all of 2026
  • Do 250+ hours of training duration (emphasize 2x strength per week)
  • Do 150+ hours of study
  • Build businesses to self-sustainable income

Cheers to a new year!

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