add post for 2025 in review

Author: noghartt

public/assets/bookmarks-heatmap-2025.png

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+---
+slug: "2025-in-review"
+title: "2025 in Review"
+pubDate: 2025-12-30T14:08:29.519Z
+draft: false
+tags:
+  - review
+---
+
+Here we go, following the tradition once again. Here I am again, writing my yearly
+review. As I said in the [2024 in Review](./2024-12-30T23:58:32.012Z-2024-in-review.md):
+
+> The next year, for me, will be a year of consistency, reconstruction, maintenance
+> and improvement.
+
+I’d say that if I were writing this today, I’d need to rewrite it as: _“The next year,
+for me, will be a year of discovering, understanding, and frustration.”_
+
+This year had some unexpected turns, and it was very different from previous years.
+I didn’t do well in some parts of my life that I consider important, but on the other
+hand, I had new opportunities and lived more this year, with more travel and more
+experiences.
+
+And also, as a tradition once again, this year I definitely do have things that I
+need to improve.
+
+## On health
+
+On the health side, it was a year of ups and downs. On the one hand, I started taking
+a bit more control of my health: starting my ADHD treatment, fixing some issues with
+my body, and going to the doctor to solve them (something I had procrastinated on a
+lot).
+
+In 2025, I was a bit more consistent with some aspects of my health: going to the
+gym turned out to be a fun thing to do. I started loving working out. It was the
+time of the day when I could just drop any thought and start focusing only on pushing
+(or pulling) weights. Something I noticed is that working out really helped keep my
+anxiety levels more stable. I still have some issues with anxiety, but it’s more
+moderate now.
+
+Another thing I would like to be more consistent with during the year, and which
+will be one of my health focuses for next year, is climbing. It was an insanely good
+hobby I discovered. Although bouldering is a bit frustrating sometimes, the feeling
+of accomplishment when you finish a project is really good. I want to have at least
+one climbing session per week, lasting 2–3 hours, mostly bouldering.
+
+But there are some things that didn’t go as well as I expected. Specifically, my
+sleep: I believe I could be more consistent. Based on my Oura Ring data, I had some
+discoveries and insights around my sleep that will help me better optimize the way
+I sleep.
+
+One of the core insights I had about sleep was:
+
+- Having 210 mcg of melatonin 2 hours before bed helps me a lot with having better,
+  more consistent sleep (especially REM and deep sleep).
+- Loud noises have a big impact on my sleep quality. I bought earplugs, and they
+  were one of the best purchases I made to improve my sleep.
+- Bedroom temperature. Living in Brazil is really hard, especially during the
+  summer, since it gets very hot. Having ways to better control room temperature
+  is a great investment for sleep quality.
+
+Something I noticed from my sleep-quality rollercoaster is that on days when I don’t
+sleep well, my mind becomes completely numb, I’m angrier, and more anxious. How do I
+know this? Because this year I had a lot of days with poor sleep.
+
+That will be one of my main focuses for next year: being more consistent with my
+sleep. From my point of view, sleep is the fundamental thing that creates momentum
+for everything else. If I’m not doing well with sleep, as a side effect, everything
+else also suffers. As a note for next year’s review, the first thing I need to fix
+is solving my sleep anxiety. I don’t struggle with sleep itself, but I struggle to
+go to bed.
+
+The last thing I want to mention here is that I started meditating. It isn’t a habit
+yet, but it’s something I’m working on. I believe that making meditation one of my
+core improvements in 2026 will bring a lot of fulfillment.
+
+## On reading
+
+This year was kind of disappointing for my reading habits. I set a goal of reading
+at least 12 books by the end of the year, and I finished a total of ZERO books.
+
+I started a lot of new books or continued some older ones, but my reading consistency
+dropped to its lowest level in the last five years. For most of the year, I was
+reading *Gödel, Escher, Bach*, but it was harder than expected, since I had to read
+and reread many pages to clearly understand what the author was trying to say.
+
+I’m not good at managing multiple books in parallel; it’s really hard for me to be
+consistent when reading several books at the same time. I also read parts of other
+books, like:
+
+- The Origins of Efficiency
+- Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
+- Nicomachean Ethics
+- Database Design and Implementation
+- The Elements of Computing Systems
+- The Mind Illuminated
+- Crafting Interpreters
+
+Those are the other books currently in my reading queue for next year.
+
+### Blog posts and bookmarks
+
+On the other hand, I read a lot of blog posts this year. You can check all of them
+in [my bookmarks](/bookmarks).
+
+I wrote a small script to extract metrics from my bookmarks for this year, and I’ll
+share some insights below.
+
+All bookmarks from 2025, grouped by month:
+
+![Bar chart showing my bookmarks grouped by month](/assets/bookmarks-monthly-2025.png)
+
+My most active month was **December**, with 193 bookmarks. To be honest, I think this
+is mostly related to a habit I developed of tagging everything as `#for-later`
+before actually reading it. This is also reflected in the next metrics.
+
+Here’s a heatmap of my bookmarks in a GitHub-like view, which gives a clearer picture
+of how my bookmarking behavior is distributed:
+
+![Heatmap of my bookmarks in 2025](/assets/bookmarks-heatmap-2025.png)
+
+And the last useful metric shows the number of bookmarks per tag:
+
+![Line chart of my bookmarks per tag](/assets/bookmarks-top-tags-2025.png)
+
+As mentioned above, there’s some deviation due to the `#for-later` habit. Ignoring
+that tag, the most used ones are `#cs` and its subtags, with a total of 343 bookmarks
+this year.
+
+## On career and work
+
+This year was more like a year of consistent focus on my work itself. I had the
+opportunity to work on many different projects at my job, which gave me valuable
+insights into handling systems used by more than a million users.
+
+Projects like building a durable workflow engine to manage long-running tasks for
+LLM agents, or setting up simulations and benchmarks to maintain output quality,
+are good examples of what I worked on.
+
+For next year, there are a lot of exciting things coming, and I’ll be involved in
+many of them.
+
+Regarding my broader career, I’m still struggling to manage my side projects. I
+have some plans to better structure how I approach their development, so I can
+work on them alongside everything else.
+
+## On life
+
+One area where I achieved a lot this year was life in general. I reached milestones
+that my younger self wouldn’t believe were possible.
+
+### Europe trip
+
+This year, I had the opportunity to go on a trip to Europe with my girlfriend and
+her family. It was my first international trip, which made it especially meaningful
+to me.
+
+![Foro Romano](/assets/italy-2025-foro-romano.jpeg)
+
+I procrastinated a lot on writing a blog post about this trip, but it’s on my list
+for next year (I promise).
+
+Between late June and early August 2025, I traveled between Rome and Madrid, and it
+was one of the best experiences I’ve had. I’m not someone who enjoys traveling that
+much in general — I’m more of a homebody — but experiencing two different cultures
+and so much history was incredible.
+
+Rome is beautiful. Everything there tells a story, and as a history nerd, I was
+amazed by what the city had to offer. Every alley and street revealed something new.
+Visiting the Vatican, the Colosseum, and the Roman Forum opens your mind in ways you
+can’t fully appreciate without being there. I hope I can visit Rome again someday.
+
+![A street in Madrid](/assets/spain-2025.jpeg)
+
+We also stayed in Madrid for seven days. What a great city — bright and full of life.
+We visited the Museo Nacional del Prado, where I saw incredible works by amazing
+artists. I also ate some of the best sushi of my life (until now — I suspect Japan
+will change that someday).
+
+Toledo is a city close to Madrid with its own magic. It’s a medieval city that
+preserves much of its original structure. Sadly, I wasn’t able to visit the Toledo
+Cathedral because the line was too long, and we only had the morning and afternoon
+there.
+
+In the end, I can say that I truly loved this trip. Being there with my girlfriend
+gave the whole adventure a special meaning. I really hope to return someday, ideally
+with her.
+
+## Next steps for 2026
+
+That was my year in review. Overall, it was a year of ups and downs. I discovered
+and learned many things, and I started understanding myself better — especially how
+my mind works. Looking back at what I wrote last year:
+
+> I have a strong feeling that, given my 2024, it will be a better year in all
+> aspects. I have a lot of plans for the next year and I’ll commit to all of them.
+
+I’d say that 2025 had many good moments, but also areas where I completely failed
+and need to improve next year. In the end, what matters most is identifying those
+gaps and setting clear goals for the year ahead.
+
+One thing I want to change is how much I read blog posts. I don’t want to consume
+them at the same volume as this year. Why? Because much of it was driven by FOMO,
+not by genuine interest. I can clearly identify which articles actually changed my
+mental models. Going forward, I want better criteria for choosing what I read.
+
+Along the same lines, I want to revisit old articles and start creating flashcards.
+Building a stronger flashcard habit could be very useful, especially since my
+memory isn’t always great.
+
+On the health side, the three things I want to maintain are: improving my sleep
+habits and routines, controlling light exposure better, starting a meditation
+habit, and continuing with workouts (gym and climbing).
+
+As I mentioned last year but didn’t accomplish, I want to start tracking specific
+life metrics. Measuring what matters gives clarity, and I strongly believe in the
+idea that _“what gets measured gets improved.”_ If I want to commit to habits, I
+need to measure them.
+
+Overall, this was a year of gaining maturity. Even though I didn’t accomplish all
+my goals, and life felt chaotic at times, things turned out well. That’s part of
+the process of dealing with the chaos we call life.
+
+If this were me last year, I would have said it was a bad year. But looking back at
+the past months, I see real progress. I feel more mature, happier, and more excited
+about what’s coming. That’s the mindset I want to carry into next year.
+
+I also have many plans and ideas for this blog. Writing is one of the things I want
+to keep improving.
+
+Happy New Year, reader! I hope the winds of 2026 bring you success and everything
+you seek to achieve your goals!