2025 - A Year In Review
This is my seventh annual review. The ”blogging is dead” discourse is at an all-time high (I disagree by the way) but you can’t let a good tradition die.
I’ll start with a summary then expand into the details, covering sections on work, life and everything in between.
TLDR:
- I let go of needing to be “a business owner”
- I made over $450,000 (salary, projects, investments)
- I hit 2 years at Magic Eden: 0 to 11 EVM chains
- I worked on a $13M product launch that kid me would have loved
- I shipped a digital art project with 16,584 pieces minted
- I travelled less but made a bucket list trip to Japan
- Parenting got easier (we’re out of the baby phase)
- I broke my clavicle (pro tip: don’t get injured)
- I had my most relaxed year in a long time
- Contentment is my overriding emotion
Work
Working on a business idea or side project is now a nice to have, not a necessity. The weirdness I felt after walking away from my 14-year-old freelance business in web2 has fully dissipated. My work year was contented.
With hindsight, I’ve learned that it’s wasted mental energy to try and adhere to a label that you’ve given yourself. This unnecessary lift made little sense in terms of comparative outcomes, too. I’m making more now. I’m learning more now. My day to day is similar.
I often overplayed the difference between freelancing full time and having a remote job in my head. If you’re good at attracting people to your skills, that applies across the board. What matters most in your work life are the choices you create.
In November, I hit 2 years with Magic Eden. When I joined there were no EVM chains on the platform and now there are 11. Time flies in crypto.
I managed a small team in the first half of the year. We had improvements to make to our NFT launchpad product which I took ownership over. This involved individual contributions alongside system design and task management. Having run projects for over a decade in my consulting days, this transition was straightforward.
As a Pokémon kid, working on Packs was one of the highlights of my year. NFTs are a great fit for real world asset representation and digital entertainment demand is high. 115,000 packs were ripped ($13M worth) on Magic Eden within 7 days of launch. I worked on the smart contract and some front end finesse for the project.
I’ve been heads down on a new 0-1 bet with the team since late summer. If you’ve never experienced how this feels at a startup, you’ll learn more about building products in these times than most others. I’m enjoying the velocity.
Projects
Aeons was my one major project of 2025. I describe Aeons as an Internet Art Experience; a game running on the Base blockchain where the players decide the end state.
The novel concept in Aeons is time. Each NFT (piece in the game) started with 4 days of life and would die (be burned) if left unattended. Players could only extend the life of their Aeons by merging them with other Aeons.
The project was well received for its art and concept, with 16,584 pieces minted.
I got to flex my full stack muscles on Aeons. It’s a somewhat-complex system for an NFT project, needing a web app, indexer and bot to execute periodic blockchain transactions. I built these parts and wrote the smart contract suite. Traf handled the art direction, UI design and front end development masterfully.
I took my own advice from last year’s review and cut other projects. I stepped away from the price theory column I was writing and I didn’t do anything new on the educational product front. It’s a shame because I love to teach what I’ve learned. Until I feel ready to take a big swing at something in this category, I won’t pick it back up.
It was pleasing to make sales of my pricing book via historic recommendations and in person chats. 5 years since writing it.
Money
I wondered whether to include this section. In days gone by—when I was chasing goals like a first six-figure year—I found money more exciting to track. It feels less interesting to me now, but I know the information can be useful to others.
Between salary, projects, products and investments, I made over $450,000 in 2025.
Personal Finances
I often think in “years of runway”: cash reserves divided by yearly burn.
We’re ending 2025 with the most runway we’ve ever had. In past years, I used this measurement as a potential opportunity to take a year or two away from working. Now, at this better-than-ever point, I have no desire to. Funnily enough.
Paying off our mortgage has become viable. I’ll spend some time in 2026 evaluating our options but the balance is within reach.
I’ll continue to invest in experiences, especially with our kids. I’d rather spend on memories now than leave them more money than they need later. Far better ROI.
All larger purchases go through my British Airways American Express card (ref link). I’ve not had a chance to use the two for one flight vouchers earned, but I’ve stayed in hotels for free using Avios points.
I’ll switch to the Coinbase One Amex to get Bitcoin rewards once it launches in the UK.
Software Engineering
Someone recently asked me what my role is nowadays. Full stack product engineer describes it best. I’m working on front end, back end, blockchain and the glue in between. Mostly feature development and the iterative improvement of these features based on user feedback.
I’ve been using AI to help me write code for a while. This has accelerated in 2025. While I believe LLMs can’t replace the system design experience of a senior engineer, for everyday problems the chasm has been crossed. Models like Opus 4.5 are excellent at generating good code under guidance. AGENTS.md is your friend.
Much of my work now starts with a well thought out prompt in Claude Code. When I feel like things are working, I’ll review and modify this first pass in Cursor (now my default IDE). It’s useful to have quick access to alternate models. I often get the best (fastest) results from Grok Code.
I made 1,370 GitHub contributions in 2025.
Social Media
Twitter (X) as we knew it is gone. The “For You” tab is full of content that doesn’t benefit me and most replies to any remaining interesting posts are from bots. I’ve completed my mourning of Twitter in its 2020-2022 guise.
I don’t see enough posts from my friends of that era to inspire me to contribute as much as I once did.
I’ve created much less content myself. My main pieces on X were technical deep dives on the Aeons project. I still document trips and family events on Instagram so I can easily look back on them as snapshots in time.
Though my one-to-many network may be smaller, my one-to-one network has grown in strength. I’m using DMs and group chats on X, Telegram and Discord to stay in sync with my folks of similar interests.
Life
We’re happy where we are in Wakefield. We have a house we love in a location we love. But I’d still like to move abroad for a few years. Even if temporarily. We’re yet to find an appropriate destination and form a realistic plan.
Parenting is getting easier. Our kids are 4 and 6 so we’re out of the baby phase. At this current phase, the kids (and adults) enjoy whole family experiences way more. It’s great to see them get stuck into activities and build their confidence. The yearly Dubai trip was our best yet.
I broke my clavicle in August after landing on my shoulder playing football. Luckily, it didn’t require surgery and I have almost zero day-to-day discomfort. Things haven’t been easy in the gym. I’m 25% away from pre-injury strength four months later.
The forced rest was tough. I’m still trying to get back to my regular routine. Pro tip: Don’t get injured.
Travel
Internationally, I travelled to:
- Kyoto, Japan in May
- Tokyo, Japan in May
- Madeira, Portugal in May
- Amsterdam, Netherlands in August
- Dubai, UAE in October/November
This was lighter than last year. But I got to hit one of my bucket list destinations, Japan. I only wish I had more time in this amazing country. The contrast between the temples of Kyoto and the suburbs of Tokyo was the perfect balance.
I can’t recommend a trip to Japan enough. I’m hoping to go back in the coming years to explore more places with Steph and the kids.
Domestically, I took a handful of trips to London. Mainly to watch Arsenal.
Investments
I started being a bit smarter with my money in terms of savings. One service I’ve been particularly impressed with is Flagstone. Flagstone lets you save across multiple banks to leverage FSCS protection while maximising interest rates.
In addition, I rebalanced my portfolio to reduce my overall crypto exposure.
Not investment advice.
Wrap Up
2025
My most relaxed year for a while. Things are settled in most aspects of my life. There’s still a lot that I want to do, but I’m happy where I am. It’s been a solid year for our family.
2026
I have a few targets like building strength in the gym, but I didn’t need a new year to start that. My feeling for 2026 is to take it as it comes. I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out.
Wishing you and yours the best in 2026.
This is my seventh yearly review. You can read the rest here:
Let me know if you write one!