Its been quite a while since I last did a reflection on the previous year and it was interesting to read again about what feels like previous life. We achieved quite a lot back in 2011 and 2025 couldn’t be more different (or difficult if I tried.)

As I wrote earlier, 2025 has been a personal challenge for me following the failure of Codesign so I thought it was important to review achievements in among all the challenges. As you can see many of the “achievements” are not specifically achievements so much as trying to keep moving forward.

Running

Back in 2011 I had started running again and managed a respectable 753km. Over the last few years I have managed to run over 1,000km / year (or very close to it) and this year I set a new benchmark of 1,600km. It certainly helps when you have a lot of time on your hands.

I’ve also managed to keep my monthly running streak alive with at least one run every month since January 2017.

In addition, I set a goal back in 2020 to run a half marathon a month (or more specifically 12 in one year). While I didn’t achieve that in 2020, this year I ticked it off with a total of 12 including one “race”.

Reading

This year I have read 42 books and am in the middle of a couple more. This is down significantly on quantity from last year but not on quality.

While I mostly read novels I have – not surprisingly – read a number of books related to AI to [try] to keep abreast of developments.

Work

2025 was an unplanned and unexpected gap year (on top of 2024 which was that way as well.)

This has been the primary source of my 2025 challenges.

In total I worked (for income) for 51 hours (or 2.5% of a standard year.)

In addition I helped out at NXT BLD / NXT DEV which was great fun.

I applied for over 50+ jobs and have been rejected for all of them – aside from a couple of applications that are still open at year end. This has not been fun at all and mentally exhausting.

Web Apps

To keep my occupied and curious I have spent a lot of time developing apps.

I have developed 6 Rails Apps of various types and to varying degrees of completeness. Some have business goals in mind while others have been concepts to explore both Vibe Coding and the inclusion of AI Agents within the App.

Two (maybe three) of these apps will be launching in 2026.

Writing

I restarted my writing in 2025 with 10 Posts and plan to continue this in 2026. There is a huge amount happening in the AEC Tech space and things continue to accelerate so it will be interesting to watch developments. I think we’ll start to see some consolidation in 2026 in some areas.

Statistics

Overall these feel more like statistics then straight-out achievements but either way that’s a wrap for 2025:

• 10 Blog Posts
• 51 Hours Work
• 50+ Job Applications and rejections
• 42 Books
• 1,600km Running
• 12 Half Marathons