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It’s almost the new year!

I think the dawn of a new year is always exciting, but also a great time to reflect. 2025 was a real one for sure, and I did a good amount of reflecting for this edition of the newsletter.

Topic of the Week

2025 Year In Review

My reflections this year were about my endeavors in running, my first stint in engineering management, my awe at the magical tool that is Claude Code, and more thoughts about my next steps and how I decided it was the right next move for me.

My favorite books I read this year

I read a few great books this year, more than I aimed to complete which was great. My favorites this year, if I had to pick a few, are the following:

• Recursion by Blake Crouch

  • Absolutely could not put this book down, probably my favorite book this year. I read it in a single 10-hour plane ride, which is a rare feat for me. I highly recommend this book if you like Science Fiction and Psychological Thrillers.

• 11/22/63 by Stephen King

  • This was probably one of the best slow burns I’ve read this year. An incredible time-travel story, and one that any history buff will appreciate. It’s not at all what I expected as the first Stephen King novel I’ve read, but I loved it because it wasn’t what I expected.

• Scattered Minds by Gabor Mate, MD

  • This book made me understand myself a little better and helped me permanently change my POV on behaviors relating to attention and focus. A worthwhile read for anyone curious about ADD / ADHD and want to understand where it comes from and how to manage it better.

• The Simple Path to Wealth by J. L. Collins

  • This is a book I don’t think I would have appreciated until after 8 years of personal financial highs and lows. A lot of these insights have been validated by a bunch of mistakes I’ve made, and when I finished reading the book, I felt like I had a plan for a more predictable and stable life for myself. IMO, this is probably the easiest blueprint to a predictable financial life, and would recommend reading it if you are growing more risk-averse and want to build wealth in a meaningful way.

Ideas from around the web

• Don’t become the machine

  • This year was the first year where “996” became part of American tech culture. As someone with relatives that pull the 996 lifestyle in China, it’s definitely a hard one that I don’t personally find appealing, especially as I get older. I think this article captured a lot of the angst I feel towards this trend.

• A complete guide to TypeScript’s never type

  • A great article that really taught me how to use exhaustive checking in TypeScript, as well as other neat tricks around never.

• Tech debt metaphor maximalism

  • People love talking about tech debt, and I enjoy seeing the metaphor being milked to the max here.

And that’s it! Hope everyone has a great end to the holiday season. 2026 is sure to be a wilder joyride than 2025 was. See you all soon!