2025 Personal and Professional Year in Review

I carved out a little time to look back and jot down the main highlights of the year. 2025 was packed and eventful, especially when it came to my workflow and new tools.

AI and Workflow Automation#

This year was all about AI. I fully integrated AI agents and assistants into my work, which allowed me to completely rethink my daily routine and my entire workflow. Right now, I’m leaning heavily into MCP (Model Context Protocol) and custom automations. It takes a huge load off my mind and helps me solve tasks much faster.

My approach to learning has shifted in an interesting way too. I’ve realized that traditional courses are gradually losing their appeal for me. With AI chats, the process of mastering new skills is way faster. You get to work with live context and get practical answers immediately. As a result, I’ve started handling a much larger volume of work without sacrificing quality.

Blogging and Education#

I didn't have much time for actual content—I mostly just managed to post monthly photo reports. However, that kept me disciplined about processing my archives so they didn't just sit there gathering digital dust.

On the technical side, I migrated the project to Nuxt 4 and Nuxt Content 3. To keep the system stable and predictable, I covered everything with e2e tests. Maintaining and updating the blog is much easier now.

In parallel, I knocked out six serious courses, diving deep into Node.js, Next.js, and advanced TypeScript. My professional stack feels significantly stronger than it did a year ago.

Photography and Optics#

My lens collection grew with some interesting pieces. I picked up a few manual lenses from TTArtisan and a custom-made "Vanilla" achromat by the craftsman Victor Zharikov. Combined with my Saturn, it gives me a great foundation for experimenting.

Creatively, I’m moving away from standard shots toward what I’m actually into: landscapes, pictorialism, and abstraction. Right now, my priority is minimalism and finding my own visual language without worrying about trends.

Publishing#

My wife and I released her 12th book of poetry, titled I Live Like the Birds. We designed the book together, and I handled the entire layout myself in Scribus. I didn't want to outsource this—if you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself. It was a nice confidence boost to see that my typography and layout skills are still sharp.

Reading and Knowledge Management#

I finished 62 books total this year, across both audio and print. I successfully brought back my daily reading habit, which included plenty of reading in English.

The top three books I read in 2025 were: Use of Weapons (Iain M. Banks), the duology Ilium/Olympos (Dan Simmons), and Way Station (Clifford Simak).

To handle the massive influx of information, I finally switched to Tiago Forte’s PARA system in Obsidian, adapting it to my specific needs. My database now has 2,400 active notes, and the connection graph is looking pretty impressive.

Music#

I didn't get much time with the guitar this year, so I couldn't really work on my technique as much as I wanted. I mostly played to blow off steam. I did learn a few 80s solos just for fun. If you're curious about which albums hooked me the most, here’s a link to my top picks.

To sum it up: this year was dedicated to AI and optimizing everything I could get my hands on. Much of my home and work routine is now automated, and my processes have become way more transparent.

Next year, I plan to keep digging into AI business automation and exploring "vibe engineering". I’m not making any massive plans—life is too unpredictable right now, so I’ll just play it by ear.