Clarity, A Year In Review

What. A. Year.

2025 felt like 4 years.

If you told me everything that would happen in 2025 at the beginning of the year I wouldn't have thought it possible.

Without a doubt this year provided one thing that I have never felt so vividly in my entire career. During conference talks on stages I didn't think I would be on. Through events that should be the highlight of a career.

You know, it's funny how in the middle of something that you always imagined would be one of the best events that could happen, you realize the things that mean so much more.

And for me that contrast was stark this year, and the number one thing 2025 gave me was clarity. Clarity in 3 specific times.

Aquisition

Crunchy Data was acquired, and over the next few months I realized that being there for my family was more important than what was in my bank account. I wouldn't say that this was a new revelation. However, I had never been put in a situation where I had no choice but to sacrifice some of the former and the result was more of the latter. I don't like it.

My 3yr old was a HUGE daddy's boy, but over the two summer months after the acquisition he became a mommas boy and my heart still hurts thinking it was because I couldn't be there the way he wanted me to be.

Relationships

The next moment of clarity came from the opportunities I had to attend and speak at conferences. Now, I went to WAY too many this year and will be scaling back in 2026, but what I discovered at all these events is that spending time with people who have the same interests as I do on the internet is not enough.

Saying:

You remember that tweet?

Doesn't quite hit the same as shared jokes in person, you know?

So for 2026 you better believe a few conferences and maybe even a trip just to grab dinner with some buds in Atlanta is in order.

Deep or Wide

The last one is less focused on a specific moment of clarity and was more of a slow burn throughout the year.

I’m not someone who uses AI to go broad, I’m someone who uses AI to go deep.

Don't get me wrong, I can do MORE in a broad sense and did at work on the daily. We shipped a public preview of Snowflake Postgres, and our first release of the service was done within 2 months of acquisition. This shook out to roughly ~70,000 lines of code that I wrote across a Go gRPC service and a React Router frontend.

Did I mention I had never written go before?

So yes, AI is great for doing…a LOT more of the same, especially when you nail the architecture and patterns early.

However, when left to projects of my own devising I didn't use AI to do a TON of things. I used it to do harder things. I push AI and myself to tackle projects I could have never done before…well, let me clarify that statement a little more…things I couldn't justify the time to do before.

And that is exactly how I want to spend my professional career from this point on.

• I would rather be flexible than flush…with caaAAash (iykyk)
• I want to prioritize spending time in person with internet friends.
• I want to tackle projects that push me past what I thought I was capable of.

And obviously I want to continue sharing all of it as much as I can both on social and weekly with Josh Cirre on Riff & Refine

A Special Thanks

The acquisition really took our summer and flipped it upside down, fresh prince style, not to mention all of the travel that came with speaking at conferences, and the job. Nothing that was done this year would have been possible without Ali. My hilarious, ball busting, best friend, and rockstar mom.

She hopped in when I needed it as all of our plans went out the window, and did it with humor along the way. Fun fact, I wouldn't even be in software if it wasn't for her, and I cannot wait to have a chance to return just a fraction of the support she has given me back to her this year as she gets her Masters!

PS - She told me I should have named this post "I can see clearly now 2025 is gone" and she is probably right, but I already had made the OG image.

Alright, lets wrap things up with a review on everything worked on this year.

Backstage with Aaron Francis

This was one of my favorite projects I worked on this year and I really enjoyed working on it with Aaron and Steve.

Successfully shipped. Aaron revealed the project at Laracon EU, and although Fusion did not take off, I think having a fresh start with the visuals on his OSS work was a success.

Outcomes:

I loved the logos above, but I also had a chance to design a digital ticket for the landing page I really loved, and the social post as part of the launch got a lot more reach than I expected:

• Landing Page
• Social post

LambdaConf

I made a goal of speaking at a conference this year and LambdaConf was the first one to say yes. I had been working on a game engine in a brand new function programming language called Gleam and it was a match made in heaven.

This conference was exactly what I needed it to be.

A conference with 7 different tracks where not a single person knew who I was. So, when I got on stage to give my first ever conference talk it was to only ~15 people. I was over prepared and feel like it went as smooth as it possibly could have gone.

Fun fact, I am the most viewed recording on the LambdaConf YouTube channel from 2025 other than the keynotes.

Outcomes:

• Watch the talk
• Dev Log: Game Loop
• Dev Log: Update Loop
• Dev Log: Render Loop
• Dev Log: Camera & Focus

Laracon

I could talk about Laracon and the Laravel gang for an entire post. So I won't. What I will say is that I was incredibly honored to be included in the speaker lineup and without a doubt will be a regular attendee every year that I can be.

Fun Facts:

• I ate at a fantastic Indian restaurant.
• I was way too nervous for my talk and look forward to taking it easier the next time.
• I had to help a group of very drunk and very nameless Laravel employees into the hotel when I was leaving for my flight the day after the conference at 4AM.

Outcomes:

• Watch the talk

Soundfall

After Laracon I decided I didn't want to have the demo from my talk be only that. A demo. So I took time after to make it into a project anyone could play around with.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, soundfall is a video game creator that allows you to create a one of a kind video game level based on audio that you record. The map, enemies, player location, and audio are all generated from that audio. Curious how I made it? Check out the talk above.

One of my favorite details of the project is the way the device changes color based on dark mode vs light mode.

Outcomes:

• Play Soundfall

ValioCon

This was the dark horse conference. I did not know what to expect and didn't know many people who were there. However, Drew sure knows how to throw one chill conference. I have been in dev world for sooo long I forgot what it was like to be in a room full of creative and design focused people, and I want more of it.

The numbers were small compared to something like Laracon, but it was one track and felt like everyone was buddies. I am most proud of my talk here as well as the AI panel that I was a part of. IYKYK.

Fun Facts:

• Met the fellas over at Conversion Factory and we are all BROS now. Great dudes.
• Everybody was so excited about AI so they could finally make the work they have always be capable of designing, but not making a reality.
• Made a few life long friends.

Generative Playground

Similar to Soundfall, I didn't want the work I put into my talk to be stuck inside the talk. So, I made a playground that allows you to create your own generative art.

It is so satisfying to drag the controls around and see how the design changes. Go ahead and try it out!

Outcomes:

• Generative Playground

Riff & Refine

Me and and Josh Cirre started a LIVE show this year that has quickly turned into something I look forward to every week. We have kept it as low maintenance as possible so that we can make it a habit, but I think in 2026 we are going to try some new stuff with the show.

We have a special year end show coming up on the last day of the year, but go ahead and check out the show below and come hang out with us in the new year!

Outcomes:

• Riff & Refine Channel

No One Asked Us

Ali is absolutely sitting on G waiting on O to reply about how I don't care about this anymore. However, this has been one of my favorite uses of “Well, we have the equipment, why not?” ever. The summer table flip has made it to where we (aka I) have not had the time to record, and edit and publish the show, but that is changing in 2026. See babe, we even just released a new one.

I just finished looking through old episodes to find a thumbnail and without a doubt this is the best time investment we have made. Having these moments and stories documented is going to be the greatest gift we can give to our future selves.

Outcomes:

• No One Asked Us Channel

The Cottage

Above and beyond all of my conference talks, the demos, the designs, and the work shipped this was the project that I am MOST proud of this year. Ali would butt in here and say “and it sure took the whole year”. Designed and built by me for my kids. It was an absolute success. I will never forget over hearing my daughter saying to her little brothers

When daddy comes up with something you know it is going to be AWESOME

And I will hold on to that moment for the rest of my life.

2025 was a fantastic year. There were bumps and bruises along the way, but if it wasn't hard would it be worth it?

I am already spinning my wheels ready to drift full speed into 2026 so keep your eyes and ears open. It's going to be a good one.