This is a submission for the 2025 New Year Writing challenge: Compiling 2025 and Retro’ing and Debugging 2024.
As a freelancer who's seen how deep specialization creates unexpected opportunities, I'm approaching 2025 with a "T-shaped growth" mentality - going deep enough in my core skills (the vertical bar of the T) to fuel broader explorations (the horizontal top).
Here's what that looks like in practice:
🏔️ Code & Growth
-
Ship First - current focus queue:
- Building client's internal DB (React + RxDB)
- No-nonsense Personal Finance Calculator (Next.js + Typescript)
- Multi-Persona Chat Generator (Next.js + Elevenlabs or Kokoro)
- Challenge-Driven Development: Monthly coding challenges (start small: 30-min daily sprints)
- Learn Expo, to make one app for web & mobile (Android & iOS)
- Learn cybersecurity by doing hands-on projects and build simple tool
My ongoing personal side project
🌿 Nature Reboot Protocol
There's something magical about standing on a mountain peak after hours of hiking. To be alone with nature, feel that same feeling of what our ancestors feel. During my university years, I lived this magic frequently—once four different mountains in a single month, including an adventure that took me 8 hours by bus to another province. Add snorkeling to the mix, and you get the picture of someone who was deeply connected to nature. I was.
This year, I'm making a conscious decision to return to these roots. Why? Because I've learned that more nature equals a happier me. It's as simple as that. Let's be real - nature's my original mental health hack. No subscription required.
- Reigniting my university-era outdoor cadence:
- 1 mountain bi-monthly
- Getting back in the water (snorkeling, diving maybe, idk?)
- Rediscovering bus/ train adventure days (>5-hour rides = perfect audiobook time)
- New phone rules:
- No devices above 2,000m elevation
- No devices when it is nature time
As Trump, (hypothetically) said:
"Folks, our nature - it's tremendous, absolutely tremendous. The trees, they're doing things nobody's ever seen before. And the mountains? Big, beautiful mountains. Nobody has mountains like we do, believe me. It's fantastic, maybe the most fantastic nature in history. That's what everyone is saying!"
😂😂
But, it is beautiful, isn't it?
🤝 Connection Stack
The post-pandemic world left many of us, including myself, retreating further into our shells. While my introverted nature served me well during isolation, 2025 is about finding balance. Starting from zero? Perfect. No legacy code to maintain here.
| Metric | 2024 Baseline | 2025 Target |
|---|---|---|
| IRL Collabs | 4/year | 1/month |
| Tech Coffee Chats | 0 | 1/quarterly |
| Mentorship | None | 1 mentee |
📔 Journaling 2.0
In 2024, I started a journaling practice that, like many new year's resolutions, faded after two months. But I was approaching it all wrong. I saw journaling as a productivity hack, but its real value lies in its ability to make us more human. If I wrote it, I was alive that day. That's enough.
Thankfully, my undated journal is patient, waiting for me to continue our conversation in 2025.
New rule: If it's written, it counts. Even if it's:
console.log("2025-02-01: Ate rice, debugged things, survived")
The undated journal is my anti-perfectionism weapon. Now tracking:
- Some daily wins (any size)
- 1 curiosity nugget (non-tech allowed)
- Sunset time (forces outdoor break)
- Mood
- Habits
🔥 Core Realizations
These two brain bombs keep me grounded:
- I read psycho-cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz and I think this quote capture a principle very similar to what his teachings is about:
"I stopped thinking life was so hard and it stopped being so hard"
- An infoblessing + infohazard in one quote:
"There is no audience to perform for, there is no approval, no admiration to attain. There is no role worth playing, there is no one to convince. Let it go."
All pictures above were taken by me and are from my own personal gallery during my trip.
Your turn: What's one non-technical goal that'll make your 2025 coding better? Mine's "nature will take care of you". Let's compare roadmaps 👇
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