2025 Year in Review
My 2025 year in review.
Links to my previous year-in-review blog posts:
Ever since I’ve begun writing these year-in-review blog posts, there’s been a looming pressure to one-up the previous years. 2025 felt like a relatively tame year in comparison to the past two years, and I’ve made my peace with it. The first half of the year felt like a blur, but it did get better in the second half. And throughout 2025, a fair bit happened:
I got my blue belt in BJJ and competed for the first time.
I gave me first external conference talk.
I spent a month in Asia, and I visited Taiwan and Japan for the first time.
Overview of the year
I started the year feeling aimless. In 2024, I had moved and switched jobs, so I felt I should take a bit of a breather. But when you don’t have a goal, you’re usually quite passive with your time.
It felt like the first half of the year went to various one-off social events. I barely remember them, and I have little to show for it. Fortunately, external goals and obligations with a strict deadline (e.g. preparing for a BJJ competition and travel) forced me to snap out of it. Then the year started to pick up.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Around May, I decided to sign up for a BJJ competition. I trained for a while, but I never competed before. Nor was I comfortable fighting under pressure. So it was about time to give it a try.
I started increasing the time I spent on the mats and reduced my focus on other areas of life. Around two weeks before my competition, I dislocated my toe in training. It wasn’t bad enough to change any plans, but I did literally end up limping my way into the competition.
There’s a night-and-day difference between competing in BJJ and normal sparring. Someone is going at you 100% unhinged. Your adrenaline goes through the roof, and your field of vision decreases. And after a match, you find yourself completely gassed out. But you learn a lot. You notice what works and what breaks down when you’re under pressure.
I competed a second time shortly afterwards. That one forced me to deal with loss. It’s a rare and interesting emotion you feel when you drive an hour to some random sports center, lose in a single-elimination bracket, get handed a participation trophy, and stand on a podium to get your picture taken while wearing said participation trophy.
Later in the year, I got promoted to a blue belt. Honestly nothing changed, except the color of the belt.
BJJ really is a lot of fun. I enjoy it a lot, and you should try it out if you haven’t already. Next year, I plan to begin training Judo in tandem with BJJ, as I’d like to learn how to grapple while standing.
Career
It was a turbulent year at Google. My manager left early in the year, then layoffs happened, then Privacy Sandbox became defunct, and then came a giant reorg that dragged on for months. I’ve been at startups before, I’m used to volatility at work. It’s just unexpected for a company of this size. But Google’s stock price has performed well this year, so I’m happy.
On a less tongue-in-cheek note, things are picking back up at work. The reorg has been settling in a reasonable manner.
Halfway through the year, Meta “acquired” a 50% stake in Scale AI for around $15 billion. As a result of the deal, shareholders were paid a one-time dividend. It was a pretty neat experience shared between me and my former coworkers. Startups rarely have an exit, and Meta acquisition was certainly unexpected.
In the back of my head, I’ve had a desire to give conference talks. After coming back from Defcon this year, I was inspired to actually do it. After preparing proposals and slides, I spoke at 3 different conferences this year. Speaking is a lot of work: you do a bunch of preparation that culminates in an hour-long presentation. But it’s fun and I glad I did it. It’s a nice way to share my work outside of the workplace.
So how would I summarize this year career-wise? Pretty good, albeit unexpectedly adventurous.
Travel
Compared to previous years, I didn’t travel much. Or rather, I had fewer trips. I definitely had my longest trip abroad this year.
In August, I went to Defcon in Las Vegas. That’s been an annual tradition for a while now. Though this year, there was a speaker who gave a talk on Privacy Sandbox: it was cool to see someone external talk about my project at work.
For most of November, I was abroad in Asia. I was going to a conference in Kobe, Japan. But since I was already in Asia, why not stay for a while?
I started in Kobe, where I was mostly working. The rest of the month was a long vacation: I went to Taipei, Beijing, and Tokyo. It was my first time going to Taiwan and Japan, and I’m glad I fit so much into a single trip. A month in Asia is a long time, so I can’t really describe the details in a blog post. Needless to say, it was ton of fun, and I’m glad to be back home after being away for so long.
What’s next?
The big lesson I want to take into 2026 is to avoid aimlessness. You must always have a goal in mind and something to work towards. It’s better to have a bad goal (and later switch to a better goal) than to not have any goals at all. Why? There’s no pressure to change when you’re aimless, and a lot of time can fly by before you “wake up.”
So how do I want to go about 2026? The theme is to be dialed in. Tyler Cowen pioneered the idea of having a personal production function. Most people are consumers, not producers. I’d like to be the latter.
For example, I didn’t publish any blog posts (besides my annual reviews) this year. I’d like to change that. One blog post a month seems like a reasonable minimum.
I should be more aware of what’s going on in the industry outside of work. That means being an active member in external communities and opportunistically speaking at more conferences.
It’s important to have some side project to tinker on at all times, no matter how silly. For instance, I’m currently learning how to clone apartment keys. It doesn’t have to be ambitious, it just needs to exist.
And of course, I’d like to start learning Judo and be consistent with it.
Happy new year!
Miscellaneous learnings
On human nature
People don’t know what they want, and they’re quite receptive to what you want. So be clear with what you want, and go for it. (Corollary: the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I mean this in a positive way. People are usually happy to help you.)
I’m quite likable as a person. At least in the long term. Though I don’t give the best first impressions, since I’m robotic. The solution to this seems to be to just own it and be clear if I’m joking around/being sarcastic. (People are bad at recognizing sarcasm.)
Be approachable. Approach people. Most people are chicken, so you should minimize friction for them.
I used to say that courage is the limiting resource, not intelligence. Though I still stand by that statement, I think it’s actually agency that matters. Courage is more of a means to cultivating agency. Be as high-agency as possible.
On progress
What has taught me the most and the fastest is doing reps, reps, reps.
There truly is no perfect time to start. Excessive waiting doesn’t beget any benefits. The first half of the year was less interesting than the second half because I was just waiting around. (Note that this is not the same as “precrastination.” Quickly workshopping solutions in your head is a useful skill.)
Do not be aimless. Have a bad goal is better than having no goal. You must be in the driver’s seat of your life, or else you’ll be dragged around, and time will just pass you by. Your attention is precious and limited.
On mortality
My life is pretty good. Like really freaking good. So when things don’t go my way, I shouldn’t be all that sad when putting everything into perspective.
When managing finances, there are three states of being: rich, broke, and dead. Your life expectancy plays a huge role into how much you can and should spend.
Most things are just a means to an end, and you probably think otherwise because of your ego. Go to work and make money; your career isn’t a reflection of your value as a human. Apologize to others if you’re wrong; avoiding a moment of embarrassment isn’t worth a lifetime of regret.
On human relationships
There will be times that tempt you into exhibiting toxic behavior. Resist the urge; do not be toxic. Ever. On the flip side, you must have zero tolerance for toxic behavior from others.
Deal with interpersonal issues as soon as possible, even if they feel too small to be worth talking about. If problems grow and fester, it’ll be too late. Better to nip it in the bud.
And the biggest learning of the year: accept people for who they are. Just because you don’t vibe with someone doesn’t mean you’re broken or they’re broken. It doesn’t mean anyone did something wrong. Different people want different things, and you don’t have to change people. So you must learn to accept others (including yourself) for who they are, not what you want them to be. Then it becomes easier to appreciate the hidden beauty within everyone.
Links to my previous year-in-review blog posts: