My 2025 in review

I had many plans for this year, but I followed through on very few of them. To be fair to myself, the main reason I dropped the ball so often was that I had to juggle two demanding engineering and research jobs at the same time, which meant there were weeks when I had virtually no time for myself. Then again, I was the one who agreed to work two jobs in the first place, so perhaps it was my fault after all.

It’s one reason this blog is still built using React and not Svelte. It’s also why I haven’t done anything with robotics beyond building a (one) system that enables two universities of applied sciences – one in Hamburg and one in Utrecht – to share their lab facilities for robotics programming courses. It’s why you haven’t seen any updates about my work on AI-powered tools for combatting disinformation. And it’s why my personal bucket list remains essentially unchanged from last year’s.

When I look back on 2025, I don’t think it’s been a bad year per se. But there’s simply not much to write home about (side note: And I’m okay with that. It may be a bit boring, but to me boring is fine. I like boring.):

• I travelled internationally unreasonably often this year. I got to visit Hamburg, Brussels, Florence and Pisa for the first time, and Barcelona and London for the second time. Although I definitely enjoyed these trips, my key takeaway is that travelling is a lot more fun when you do it with other people.

• I went kart racing with colleagues for the first time in my life this year, and learnt that it isn’t really my thing. I miss my blinkers.

• I’ve had my car’s battery go dead because I barely drove it this year, and when I did, it was usually for short trips. This was the first time this has happened to me, and I’m sure it won’t be the last either.

• Not only did I take a long-distance international train for the first time this year, I did it twice, to Brussels and London. I disliked it both times. In fact, I disliked my trip from London to Amsterdam so much, I got off one stop early in Rotterdam.

• I got to experience first-hand how the rise of AI search is leading to a sharp decrease in human blog traffic, and how it can be compensated almost entirely when people unexpectedly share your work on social and messaging platforms.

Will 2026 be any different? What the future brings, only time will tell. At the same time, I think a lot has been set into motion this year and will likely pay off next year. And when it does you’ll probably hear about it here as well.