Reflecting on 2025

January 10, 2026•4 min read

Started writing this in 2025 but unfortunately it's 10 days into 2026. This is the first time I would be doing a public recap of the past year.

University

2025 started off strong, it marked the beginning of my final semester at uni. This final semester was really hectic: school work, my final year project, and work all happening at the same time.

I finished working on the first version of issueIQ, which was my final year project by the way. I got an A in it, phew, the efforts were not put to waste.

Technical Growth

In 2025, I wrote a lot of Go, this started because of my job but it became my personal language of choice. I'm not sure I would be mentally stable writing a language without types anymore.

Python had been my go-to language for a long time, but trying Go made me realized that you actually find better tools when you explore outside your comfort zone.

I switched the frontend of issueIQ from reactJS to nextJS and that was probably one of the best decisions I made last year. NextJS just makes many things easier, ecosystem is really large and shadcn/ui has made things really easy for everybody too.

Low-Level Engineering

I started learning more about low level engineering, this phase was mostly trial and error.

In 2024, I built a minimal static file server called warp which pushed me to understand how servers actually work.

After that, I built portshield, a better version of the lsof -i :port_number command. I tried to get it into homebrew main official package list but unfortunately, it remains a tap.

Late 2025, I tried to build my own interpreter called xart following the book Writing an interpreter in Go, not done with it though but it's a WIP.

My Incompetence

Late 2025, I interviewed with [redacted], a fleet tracking and monitoring company. The interview went well until the leetcode questions. I don't specifically remember the exact algorithm but it was directly related to how the fleet tracking was handled in their system, it was a mess.

Interviewer told me he liked my personality but I obviously won't be getting the role because I failed the technical part. He compelled me to work more on DSA and reapply in three months. I haven't done that yet.

That failure made me realize how incompetent I was. I know a lot of people say "Oh, leetcode doesn't matter". Okay, yes, in some cases. But in this case it did and I could clearly see how. This failure also shaped some of my goals for 2026 in terms of personal and technical growth.

Travel

In terms of travel, I visited Port Harcourt, it wasn't what I expected, considering all the cultism and violence stories I hear from people. It felt like a cool city.

I also visited Germany, it seems like a place where everyone has their life figured out, a very beautiful place, except for the sparkling water which I detest.

Reading

Sadly, I didn't read any books in 2025. I started "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson but didn't get past the first page. I hope to do better this year.

Key takeaways from 2025

Explore new technologies outside your comfort zone more often

AI is getting better rapidly, if you don't know what you're doing, it would truly replace you.

Use AI to boost productivity, not to replace thinking completely.

Check up on your friends more often.

If you're still in uni, have fun. Really, have fun😂.

Goals for 2026

Write more Go

Do more leetcode

Learn more about blockchain

Maintain my relationships [Be a better person]

Write more (technical and life stories)