the years end

it’s been a year of a lot of highs and lows, but i’m glad to finally be on the other side of things. i don’t wanna get stuck on the lows as i’ve already talked about some rough spots in another post so let’s talk about some positives now being on the other end of things.

a new day

something that’s kept me going through 2025 and still today is the cliche of “tomorrow is a new day”. obviously problems can last longer than a day, but there’s no reason we cant start to change things with a new day. be it learning new skills or fixing bad habits, we as people are more flexible than we think.

introducing my grandfather

a spectacular story for this (that i’ll tell more of throughout the year). i’ve been helping him get a lot of his computers updated and windows has been more struggle than it’s worth so he suggested and is wanting to learn linux. i’m so keen to work on this little project with him this year and i’ll be sure to tell how it goes, but to me it’s the perfect example that even late into life you can still learn something new.

and the friends around me

i think with how difficult things are getting, the small things friends do for you mean so much more. it’s one thing to celebrate and party on the good days with people, but when shit hits the fan and someone really cares through all the mess is when it really matters. i am very lucky to have the people i have around me and feel so privileged to be able to support them in return.

predictions and tomorrow

okay enough gushing and sappy yapping. to say the past few years in the industry have been volatile would be an understatement, so these predictions are just me guessing and nothing serious outside of a fun mental exercise (inspired by a certain ”A”).

AI will slow down and have a “winner”

it’s almost like a stuck record but to not mention AI would be ignorant of what’s going on (whether you like the tech or not). but i think we’re starting to see the “race” end and there are less companies trying to innovate the tech and now it’s just what is the “best” (especially between google and openai). i think this year we may see the switch going from “proving the need for AI” to “the best selling AI”.

unfortunately i don’t think this will make it cheaper, as i don’t think there’s ever a chance for the “winners” to be releasing models through anything but a paid API, but the business will become the focus.

the collapse of social media’s image

being in australia and having worked in the education industry before, i’m generally positive leaning in the direction of regulating social media (not to say i don’t have issues with specific details but am glad we’re starting somewhere).

for a while now people have been looking to detox and step away from social media as they can feel it affecting them, but i think this year will actually start to bring some discussion into the mainstream and more legal talk where we start to see mass exodus of some platforms. twitter (x) is already slowly doing this to their art and creative community but the public tolerance for things like this in instagram and facebook is getting short.

the spread of web tech

it’s happening in windows and macos with webviews becoming more fundamental to the core UI of the actual operating systems. i think web tech is really impressive it’s come this far but this won’t come without it’s consequences. apple has not had amazing feedback and not really lived up to the expectations for “liquid glass” and i think we will see more like it with the browser being the tech behind the scenes.

web tech i think sometimes gives a sense of false confidence. through abstractions, simplifications, and impressive work to make it all accessible. there’s no denying it’s amazing tech, but it’s getting abused and stretched further than it was meant to go.

a year of disappointment

this sounds more depressing than it actually is but stick with me.

before i mentioned how apple’s “liquid glass” was not what people expected and they are having to walk back a lot of the problematic features and i think things like this will become a common theme this year. perhaps it’s a very pessimistic perspective but with AI now at (what feels like) it’s peak, people will be getting that false confidence to be promising everything and delivering nothing.

now i think there’s a footnote, that this will quietly bring rise to the underdogs putting in real care and love to their projects. people have been saying “this will be the year of the linux desktop” but i don’t think that’s how that will happen. when something is truly nice to use and work with where it out performs the rest, people will just use it. there won’t be any announcement or parade, people will just find a place their happy to be.

though the outlook for this year doesn’t sound great, i think it will become the breeding ground for new players to bring something amazing to the table in 2027.

goals and projects

i won’t be putting everything here to keep some goals to myself but i think it’s fun to share some big ones that might help remind me and try keep accountable to it.

learning to read and research more

i think unless it’s a technical absolute or something i use day to day, my intuition on topics in the world is very surface level. there are a lot of good videos that come up on my youtube feed to compress some things into a nice 10 minute couch watch but i couldn’t feel confident bringing some of those points to a conversation. so even if from those videos, going into the sources, finding how the stats are collected, and generally having a stronger foundation in topics with sources to results and research would be something i want to try and do more. i also would like to think this helps in applying better understood facts to issues and problems i’m trying to solve or better understand others issues when assisting.

posting and being more vocal

i spend a lot of time in my head thinking over topics and having conversations with imaginary people in my head when something comes to mind. i think it’s good to be able to think about important things but it’s entirely different to actually talk about it and get it out there.

so this year i plan to try and post a bit more. not really on social media as “content” or trying to be a creator, but more in technical and conversation spaces. just make my own nice little corner of the internet that i can share with the people i love.

the end of the start

i am actually sick while writing this, i don’t know with what (i think just flu or a bit dehydrated a bit). so maybe some of these predictions or goals are a bit delirious, but i know in a few days i’ll be feeling better again. and am excited to get into the new year at my own pace, building something i’m proud of.

see you soon in 2026;