Hello! I'm Gina Trapani and once a month I round up the 10 best posts from Note to Self in this newsletter. This is the last edition of 2025, and I want to thank you for being a subscriber. Writing in public again has been the most fun and scary undertaking of my year. It means a lot to me that you're here for it.

A question on my mind: Would you prefer getting 5 links twice a month versus 10 once a month? Seriously, I want your opinion on this. Just reply to this email to let me know.

1. 'Tis the season for year-end listicles, and here's mine: the best things I watched, read, and listened to in 2025. Turns out I found most of my favorite things via human versus algorithmic recommendations.
2. Good things come when you show your work, even if it's put together with popsicle sticks and duct tape. In that spirit, here are four unreleased software projects I made just for me this year, including a triathlon training guide, an email inbox game, and a media cover art search engine.
3. Building things IRL never looks like a sped-up short-form video. Recently I had to re-learn the first rule of building a computer: It always involves a second trip to the store. (But it's so worth it.)
4. You can almost smell the machine oil in this delightful story about an apprenticeship and career pivot: Paul Lundy left his lucrative and unfulfilling corporate job behind to repair typewriters.
5. Back at the office, Brian Moore's absurd and awesome Busy Simulator helps you "feign importance with repeating app sounds." That Microsoft Teams sound spikes my cortisol the most. How about you?
6. A useful data visualization: Browse and search Jeffrey Epstein's email in Jmail, a convincing Gmail clone.
7. "High achievers are perhaps the most insecure people among us. They need constant reminders, promotions, or media attention to feel good about who they are." – my friend Scott Berkun doesn't mince words.
8. "Be bored. Be by yourself. Let your mind wander. Let your imagination breathe and watch what comes." – Rosie Perez’s advice in this NYT Magazine feature on Gen X, “the last generation that wasn’t online until adulthood.”
9. Netflix released 142 gorgeous pages of digital art and behind-the-scenes stories about the making of KPop Demon Hunters. The fashion, food, character, and weaponry details here are fabulous.
10. Digital tech flattens our experience of the world, writes Amelia Wattenberger in this beautifully-illustrated essay about how we might engage more of our senses when we interact with computers. I think about this idea in terms of how my kid observes adults getting things done: it all just looks like we're tapping on a glass screen.

I wish you and your loved ones happy, peaceful, and restful holidays. See you next year!

– Gina