Year in review 2025
2025 was quieter than I expected. Not slower. Quieter.
No drama. No catastrophes. Just a year of steady work, tiny wins, and a growing conviction that I've been overcomplicating things for too long.
Here's a quick summary of the year:
Professional
- Delivered my first keynote at NDC Porto
- Published 2 courses on Dometrain (Testable Code and xUnit)
- Launched my first independent cohort: Build a Full-Stack AI App with .NET
- Spoke at Azure Dev Summit
- Appeared on the Unhandled Exception podcast
Content
- 42 YouTube videos
- 13 blog posts (this one counts)
- Complete website rebuild
Personal
- Ran my first half-marathon distance (with Ankylosing Spondylitis)
- Read 15 books
- Taught my daughter to ride a bike
- Joined a chess club with my daughter
- Adopted a cat
- Became an FC Porto associate
A lot got done. Here's how it happened.
Professional
The keynote
I delivered my first keynote at NDC Porto. The talk was called "Imagine If We Made It Simple" and it was about exactly what it sounds like. Using simplicity as a competitive advantage in software.
NDC has been my reference point for years. I've watched hundreds of hours of their talks on YouTube. Learned countless things. When I became a speaker, delivering a keynote there became the goal.
Standing on that stage felt like validation. Not validation from the audience, though that was nice. Validation that I'm capable. That I can do it.
I also spoke at Azure Dev Summit and appeared on the Unhandled Exception podcast. Good conversations, good people.
The courses
I published two courses on Dometrain this year. One on Testable Code. One on xUnit.
I also created a bunch of small hype videos for the launches. Quick, fun, over-the-top promotional clips. From a numbers perspective, they probably didn't move the needle. From a joy perspective, they mattered enormously.
Not everything has to be optimised. Some things you do just because they're awesome.
The cohort
For the first time, I'm running a cohort completely on my own. It's called "Build a Full-Stack AI App with .NET" and it starts in January 2026.
Building and selling something independently is terrifying. There's no platform to lean on. No established audience to borrow. No Nick Chapsas to help me out 😅. Just me, my expertise, and the hope that people find it valuable.
Some days, that feels exciting. Other days, it feels terrifying. They call it Imposter Syndrome, I guess.
Content: 42 videos and a mindset shift
I published 42 long-form YouTube videos and 13 blog posts this year.
But here's the thing. I'm done posting on a schedule.
The realisation was simple. Posting for the sake of posting doesn't serve anyone. Not my audience, not me. I was creating content to feed an algorithm and be consistent, instead of creating work I was genuinely proud of.
So I'm slowing down. Quality over quantity. This mindset will continue into 2026, unless something proves me wrong.
The website
I rebuilt my website from scratch with a minimalist aesthetic.
It fits the theme of the year. Strip away the unnecessary. Keep what matters. Make it simple.
AI changed everything
AI became part of my daily workflow this year. Not as a gimmick. As a genuine tool that changed how I think, build, and work.
It's why I'm launching the cohort. I've spent the year learning what works, what doesn't, and what .NET developers specifically need to know. Now I want to teach it.
What didn't work
Some weeks I'd look back and realise I'd been incredibly busy but hadn't moved the needle on anything that mattered.
Emails answered. DMs sent. Small tasks completed. But the big work? The scary work? Untouched.
I noticed a pattern. My best work happens when constraints are clear. Hard deadlines, specific deliverables, external accountability. When deadlines are soft, procrastination creeps in. I fill time with activity instead of output.
2025 made that impossible to ignore.
Personal
Running 21km with a broken back
I have Ankylosing Spondylitis. It's a chronic inflammatory disease that attacks the spine and joints. Some days my back feels like concrete. Luckily, most days I move fine. You never know which day you're getting.
This year I ran my first half-marathon distance.
For a long time, running that far seemed impossible. Not difficult. Impossible. The kind of thing other people do. People without autoimmune conditions.
But I trained. Consistently, stubbornly, with a plan. And I did it.
Then I stopped.
I'm not sure why. The goal was achieved, the motivation vanished, and the weight came back. I'm working on it. But I know what I'm capable of now. That changes things.
Thank you
For the first time in my life, I wrote handwritten thank-you notes to people who made my year special.
It felt awkward. It felt vulnerable. It felt right.
My wife deserves the biggest thank you. Conferences, workshops, course releases, they all consume my energy. She was the backbone that made everything possible. I'm so grateful.
Family life
My daughter wanted to learn chess, so instead of enrolling her in classes, I joined the local chess club with her. We take lessons together every week. We're both terrible. We're both learning. It's become one of my favourite things.
She also gave me an FC Porto membership for Father's Day. There's a famous saying: "Football is the most important of the least important things in life." and FC Porto has been my lifelong passion. Becoming an associate was something I'd always wanted to do but kept postponing. My nine-year-old made it happen with a simple gift. It was emotional in a way I didn't expect.
We holidayed in Madeira and Valencia. We did a road trip through Spain. Salamanca, Toledo, Segovia, Valladolid. All of it was wonderful.
I taught my daughter to ride a bike. We adopted a cat.
I read 15 books this year. Probably my personal record.
2026
No grand plan.
A new cohort starting in January. Quality over quantity. Simplicity. Working on things I genuinely find awesome.
That's it.
2025 taught me that slower can be better. Not everything needs to be done. It's not about quantity, it's about aiming for excellence.
I'm carrying that into 2026.