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2025 - Year Review

I do yearly review to understand how things are going with me (2024 review). It’s a way to step back and look at a very high level in order to identify patterns or connect the dots. This helps with following things -

  • what are the achievements/celebrations I had in that year?
  • what are the habit related improvements I saw Or any behavioural improvements in me?
  • what needs improvement?
  • what are my wish-list/goals?

What are the accomplishments/Celebrations?

  • I was able to meet my goal of reading minimum 12 books in a year and publishing 12 blog posts in the year. (list of books I read in 2025)
  • This is also the year when AI/LLM became a thing for me. I feel like there are rapid growths in that field which will have an impact on the Software Engineering field. I tried a couple of things with the help of LLM to test out the LLM skills
    • Created a chrome extension using LLM for helping with bookmarking web pages - https://github.com/harsha-kadekar/ObsidianP2Mark
    • Created a chrome extension to help with avoiding doom scrolling websites like X, Youtube and Reddit.
  • I created an Arattai Channel & an WhatsApp Channel where I share relevant blog posts/articles that helps Software Engineers grow their career.
  • I learned about DNS and how it works by going through - https://wizardzines.com/zines/dns/
    • Though, I may want to refresh it again this year.
  • I wanted to learn Rust Programming language. I read the book - https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/
    • Though, I do not have much depth in Rust yet but its a start.
  • Before beginning of the year, my wife and I had planned to visit a few places in 2025. This is the first time, we planned our vacations for the whole year at the start of the year. We were able to cover most of them -
  • On the financial side, it is trending in the right direction. Retirement corpus has increased, index funds portion has increased, emergency funds are sufficiently stocked up.
  • We started preparing our own ತುಪ್ಪ (Ghee) at home. I cooked a whole lot of recipes, some notable ones are
    • Babycorn Soup
    • ಶಾವಿಗೆ ಚಿತ್ರನ್ನ (Shavige Chitranna)
    • ಗೊಜ್ಜು ಅವಲಕ್ಕಿ (Gojju Avalakki)
    • ಕೋಸಂಬರಿ (Kosambari)
    • ಬಿಸಿಬೇಳೆ ಬಾತ್ (Bisibele Bath)
    • ಗೋಬಿ 65 (Gobi 65)
    • ಆಲು ಪರಾಠ (Aloo Paratha)
    • ಸಾಂಬರ್ (Saambar)
    • ಪಾಲಕ್ ಪನ್ನೀರ್ (Paallak Paneer)

This year was consistency towards my habits. Reviews like daily, weekly, monthly and yearly became regular. Based on these reviews, I did many important changes. I start my day at 5:30 AM in the morning, do Sooryanamaskara, do pranayama and Dhyana. I am regularly tracking core habits. Core Habits are some of the tasks that I need to do in regular interval to keep me sane. Some of the core habits are daily Yoga, daily Dhyana, daily walking, daily spending time with wife and daughter, daily focused work, reading book, coding, reviews, etc. This I developed after reading Backpack Personal unit tests. I am giving dedicated time for family. With wife & daughter, I like to spend time doing regular walking, cooking, watching videos or playing or even just talking.

What needs improvement?

  • “Deliver Results” - In 2025, I started 4 projects, but none of them got completed. For 2026, the target is to complete one project.
  • Regarding health, I need to reduce my body weight to bring my BMI to the green band. As of now, it is at yellow. I also want to get more sleep. This year I did regular ಏಕಾದಶಿ ಉಪವಾಸ (Ekadeshi fasting). After seeing these videos Lecture on ‘Successful Ageing: Ayurvedic Perspective - Part 1 , Lecture on ‘Successful Ageing: Ayurvedic Perspectives’ - Part 2, I want to change the way I do fasting to be more effective. To be precise, I want to achieve 24 hour fasting.
  • The other aspect, I want to improve is the extended family and friends interactions. I want to make it more consistent/regular calls.
  • “Front Load Heavy Work “ - Even though reviews are super helpful, they take a lot of time. Hence, I want to optimize it. From next year, I want to front load heavy stuff of the reviews. To explain, it is okay to spend little bit more time in daily reviews so that weekly reviews can be little bit lighter. Spend more time on weekly reviews to make the monthly reviews lighter. Spend little bit more time on monthly reviews to make the yearly reviews lighter. I think this is because, I cannot get a big chunk of dedicated time to do the reviews, hence it is okay to expand small chunks of daily, weekly or monthly reviews.

What are my wish-list/goals?

So, here are the things I would want to achieve in 2026.

  • Build personal blog in Rust and deploy in a cloud service.
  • Read Head First Design Patterns
  • Read 12 books and publish book summary or opinions for each of them
  • Publish 12 non summary blog posts

Insights and Some Learnings

  • Make LLM/AI your tool and don’t become a tool of AI/LLM - The relationship with LLM and why I need to use them has evolved over time in this year. I kind of understand that it’s a tool that needs to be mastered to be effective in the future. Rather than fearing that tool, look at it as an opportunity and learn to utilize it. I have some predictions or opinions
    • I feel with the advent of AI, a good developer’s value increases
    • More custom software will be built
    • It removes the barrier for entering into a new programming language or new project. Or basically, it shortens the research phase of the project.
    • AI can do research, it can produce what is told to be done but it cannot think on its own or direct its thought to generate new ideas. I, as a human, have to be there to direct LLMs energy in the right direction. As a human, my plus points are thinking of new ideas. Understanding in depth and creativity (coming up with new ideas) will triumph in this new world.
    • I should use the AI as my pair programmer. It helps in learning. I can ask something to look for or explain some concept. It can also do tasks but I will not learn from it. I need to constantly remind myself that it is there to teach me and not necessarily to do all the tasks. It helps to automate stuff that I do not want to invest time to dive deep on.
    • As I read more on AI, more people are saying it is an art and it needs time and effort investment to get good at it. It is a new necessary tool that needs to be learnt to be better at Software Development.
    • I have now started Claude Subscription.
  • Complete What You Start - Reading the Rust book was very time consuming with minimal effect. It dragged on. As it took more time, I lost interest and also I forgot what I learnt in the earlier chapters. Multiple times I questioned why not just stop reading this and move on to another project. But I reminded myself that I start things and leave them halfway too often. So, I stuck with it and completed it.
    • For reading the technical books, I need to do 2 pass technique. 1st pass - just read but fast. This is to get adjusted to the topic. Then 2nd pass go depth which I feel are needed.
  • Do not remain in indecision - Indecision will fester and become even more problematic. Decide something and many of the choices will disappear, which will optimize you for one path. You will be more lean and adaptable for future changes.
  • Commit Less and Deliver More - I want to do many things. Desire to do things is easy. Hence, I start a lot. Slowly, I will realize, I have too much on my plate. Then, we start eliminating them. Rather than doing this, commit less. Finish what I committed and then pick up new things.
    • In a day, I can have max one goal
    • In a week, max 2 goals
    • In a month, max 3 goals
    • In a year, max 4 goals.