If I have to summarize my 2025, I'd call it a year of toddler parenthood and busy work. This is what I have pretty much done throughout the year with some exceptions. Not saying that it was bad, but this is the cruel reality with the schedule you get to live as a parent. :) You have to do brutal prioritization of things you have to do due to your parenting schedule that doesn't take no as an answer. Not complaining here at all, I loved every (almost, with some exceptions) second of it and this is nothing else I would rather do, but oh boy, there were some days that I was so physically and mentally tired that I'd dream about sleep in my sleep. But here we are, I got "some" things done nevertheless my hectic schedule and these are some of the highlights.
things i have done
I started 2025 training for yet another half-ironman with my friends, completing it successfully in Puerto Rico. I had a blast and every time I get to meet the community of triathletes, I am amazed and a bit ashamed of my body. It's a very welcoming community with a fire in their eyes and with a lot of endurance in their bodies.
I didn't read much sadly, maybe 2–3 books. One notable book that I read that I really loved was Ann Patchett's essays. It was a warm and cozy book to read in cold weather. I have read a couple of technical pieces on AI that I found insightful, but that was the extent of it.
I started a Substack blog here and posted a handful of posts that I'm proud of. I did write a lot at work though, mostly internal blog posts and memos, some of which I changed and reposted here on Substack. I mostly wrote about AI tools and how engineers should be using them to increase their output. I shared tips and a vision of where the whole industry is going and how Netflix can stay ahead by investing in AI tools and building AI-native teams.
I traveled to Europe (Germany, Munich) to attend the 2024 Champions League final (which sadly my favorite team lost), then France (Paris) with my family where we greatly enjoyed Paris as we always do. We love Paris. We love it so much that we're thinking to try it for a longer period, to live there and see if it's ours as a local. The experience is different when you drag your whole life into a new place and live it with your routine and compare the mental and physical cost of your experience there.
Most importantly, I did a lot of fun activities with my family, going to farms, parks, and all of the NYC zoos. Spending cozy mornings and afternoons playing games and a lot more. We had a great end-of-year vacation in the Caribbean just this month and we all had a blast.
things I want to do next
As I type this post, it reminds me how much I love to write, and finding time to put my thoughts together is both a spiritual and intellectual experience. Spiritual in a way that I can connect with my own thoughts and thinking that no other activity allows me to (playing soccer comes close but not quite), and intellectual where I can exercise my thinking and sharpen my thoughts further. I'll try to write at least every two weeks or so, hopefully with a goal that I can get to 500 Substack readers by the end of the year. It's a big goal, I know, but let the guy set his north star for encouragement and extra motivation. For me (I'm sure for many amateur writers), the hardest part is to open the blank page and start typing. I'll keep this in mind next time I procrastinate.
I want to write about almost anything that I find interesting instead of simply calling my publication AI-focused or tech-focused. I have many interests in different aspects of life such as health and fitness, productivity tooling, books, and writing that I can write about. "I can" here means not that I can, but rather that I have something to say about those topics at least occasionally that I usually don't. I still suspect that technology, AI, and computers will probably be the main topics I'll write about, but not setting artificial barriers against me helps me to be open-minded and write about things that I feel strongly about. After all, the best writing is the kind that feels authentic and warm, and I have no shortage of ideas that feel that way.
I'll also try to add some joyful and interesting links, which are typical of some of the Substack newsletters I love following. I read and bookmark many books, movies, blog posts, ideas, and X posts that I bet more people can benefit from finding. This might require me to keep an ongoing list of things I consume, but that could simply be my Todoist completed list already.
Oops, I did it again. I have signed up for another half-ironman race next year (mid-summer) happening in Nice. It's a very fun activity I do with my close friends every year, which has now become a good excuse to stay in shape throughout the year as well as a good and fun camaraderie activity I do with friends.
I loved my work at Netflix. In early 2024, I made a big career shift moving from the infra and dev tooling space to the ML/AI space, and that was absolutely one of the best decisions I have made. It has been challenging at times though, to be a beginner again, to be uncomfortable, and to be around a table where you feel dumb across many topics that are being discussed. That's how you learn, I guess? I have learned a ton, of course, and that has moved my work closer to the cutting edge of the AI world, for which I'm very grateful.
I'll continue to be in the center of helping Netflix become AI-native, mostly contributing to AI tooling adoption among engineers, writing posts about AI tools, and finding new opportunities where AI can add leverage to increase the economic output of engineers and Netflix overall. I love doing this work and I'm happy to have this opportunity. Expect more posts on this topic from me going forward, as I believe the work on the AI integration layer in enterprises is, and will be, one of the most impactful areas to invest in. This might seem like a niche area to work on, but it has a significant upside in almost any company.
On a personal level, I want to try to slow down my life and mentally be more present with my family and friends when I'm with them. This is hard, and sometimes switching from work mindset to family can be a challenge, but hopefully with the right attitude and habits, I can get there. I hope to read more fiction, starting from simpler modern novels and moving to classics eventually. Is there a better way to keep your mind intellectually engaged than books? I can't think of any. Though, I have started enjoying my daily sudoku rituals. It is fun! I want to use less social media, if possible. I have almost cut my time on Instagram for almost a year, but X still takes the big share in my media consumption. I'm not proud of it and plan to be more of a producer than a consumer there next year.
That's it for now. Thanks for reading!