2025 in review

This year was the first time that several co-workers and interviewees referenced my blog during conversation. A couple of folks even encouraged me to write more on it, which I intend to do in 2026. Below are some of the highlights from the year that just ended.

1/ I won’t publish a full reading list like in 2023, but I can say that in 2025 I devoted most of my reading time to Bible In A Year from Ascension Press, which I’m set to complete in about 20 days. I started BIAY in 2022 but had many stops and restarts. The only way I’ve managed to consistently work on it is by waking up early and doing it first thing in the morning. I spend about a third of my BIAY time doing the readings, a third on reading the commentary and a third on ChatGPT/Claude asking for clarifications.

2/ Besides BIAY, I had another Princeton-centric reading practice this year. I met four Princeton authors at reunions and read much of their latest works. They were: Sweet Fury by Sash Bischoff, One-Star Romance by Laura Hankin, Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle and The Devoted by Blair Hurley. I’m also very grateful for Ruben’s excellent ALPA-DMV alumni book club. I participated less this year to make room for BIAY, but the book that made the strongest impression on me was Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas LLosa. One of my biggest Princeton regrets was not taking Vargas Llosa’s class when he was visiting one year.

3/ 2025 was the year of desktop Linux (ha!). At least for me. This year I bought my first non-Mac computer in over 20 years. I’m writing this blog post on a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (10th Gen) running Ubuntu. It all started with an old 2013 iMac that I was about to recycle. It could barely run macOS Catalina. As a last resort, I installed Ubuntu 24.04 LTS on it. Everything on the old iMac is now blazing fast and I’m super productive on it. There are no pop-ups, product nags, or runaway processes. One thing led to another and here I am typing away on a ThinkPad. Apple was very influential in how I developed as an engineer, forming how I think about software design, aesthetics and the end user, but my “Apple era” seems to be winding down.

4/ At some point this year I watched this YouTube video where Fr. David Mary Engo explains the Franciscan vow of poverty. I’ll be the first one to tell you that my life is wildly different from a someone who has taken a vow of poverty. But as a way to grow in humility and solidarity, I decided to live out some of its principles. If I deemed something created distance between me and the poor, I tried to either not buy it or discontinue it. I canceled Amazon Prime. I closed nearly all rewards credit cards. I started to take the bus to more places. I committed to not buying myself any new clothes in 2025 unless absolutely necessary, which turned out to be very difficult, uncomfortable and at times embarrassing. Despite some sacrifices, there was new freedom and detachment. There was no point in spending hours researching, planning and optimizing (worrying over?) big and small purchases. So much mental energy freed up. Something else that I noticed is how much more grateful I felt when receiving a gift, especially of something I needed.

4/ For most of the year, I traded my Peloton subscription for running outside. I figured out what all the heart zones meant and focused mostly on Zone 2 training for my aerobic exercise. I ran a 10k for the first time in support of Fairfax CASA. I don’t have a timeline for completing half-marathon, but that’s my next goal. This year I also began doing barbell exercises. I’m following the methodology outlined in Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe so it’s been just 4 exercises: squat, deadlift, bench press and overhead press. It was exciting to see the fast progress throughout the year. The program calls for three workouts a week, but I hit around 1-2 a week. I recommend barbell exercises to everyone.

5/ Meadow continues to be the most impactful company I’ve ever worked on. In 2025, our net price calculator demystified the cost of attendance for over half a million students. Meadow’s payment platform processed almost $130 million in tuition payments, helping students move closer to graduation. The Meadow team almost doubled in size this year. Engineering now has defined teams within itself: product engineering, integration engineering and security. This year we outgrew many of the AWS services and systems we initially relied on. We’re routinely requesting limit increases from AWS support these days. Everything at Meadow is still accelerating. I’ve been tracking my working hours with the excellent Tyme app for over a decade, and in 2025 I worked more hours than ever before, which was also true of 2024 and 2023. I also traveled more for business this year than ever before, traveling to NYC for leadership team and full-team onsites. On top of that, I also attended my first higher ed conference, which was Anthology Together.

6/ Finally, there’s a new habit I started in the last half of 2025 that quietly restructured my entire day. Like I mentioned above, I’ve been getting up much earlier than before. My alarm is going off around 4:45 am these days. I’m using the hour and a half in the morning to work on BIAY, read, journal, and plan for the day. Things that I want to consistently work on day after day, I’ve been doing very early in the morning. In the past month I’ve also created physical checklists that I run through every morning, afternoon and evening. These external aids have been a huge help.

Happy New Year!