2025 in Review

by Cody on 2025-12-31

Hello and Happy New Year's Eve! I know we're all excited to pop the champagne bottles, move into 2026, and pretend like this crazy year never happened. But before we can do that, let me do my part by sharing my 2025 In Review.

Over the past few years, I've had a lot of fun writing an end of year post (2024, 2023, 2022), sharing it around, and hearing from old friends / coworkers / interesting folks afterwards. 2025 was certainly a doozy for us all, but we made it! Let's walk through it together, and let's do it with my trademark blend of excessive length and unnecessary detail.

Professional

2025 marked another year as CTO at Seesaw and let me tell you: a lot happened. We launched several new AI features to save teachers time, we made a ton of security improvements and received our SOC2 Type 2 certification, and we acquired a company based in Amman, Jordan called Little Thinking Minds. Time zones made it tricky, but the folks over there are excellent and I've seen that so much of software engineering / product development is universal. It's been a fun challenge to see how we can unlock better learning experiences together.

One side benefit was making a trip to Jordan. I had never been to that part of the world and I didn't really know what life was like there. Now that I've been, I can report the people were lovely, they try to feed you your body weight in food at each meal, and I learned so much being so close to the war in Gaza. I also managed to squeeze in a trip to Petra which was truly amazing. I remember being in a CS course in grad school and the professor scrawled on the chalkboard, "CS == AIRPLANE". I think he was trying to tell us that if you got good grades in computer science and math, you opened up a lot of professional opportunities to travel. I am here to report this is true: computer science does equal airplane.

Of course, work wasn't 365 consecutive flawless victories. The US educational landscape and its funding sources get more challenging every year. We lost some good folks. But my professional goal this year was to effect positive change on the world via technology and I think we got the job done. I'll try to keep that going for 2026.

Physical Health

For the past 6 years, I've set (and met) a goal to run 500 miles. At the beginning of each year, I think, "Hmm, maybe this is the year I aim for 600 miles. Or heck, 700!" Then, at the end of the year, I stagger my way to mile 500 on the last week of the year and collapse in a heap in my driveway.

How did it go? I ran mile 500 on Christmas Eve and I'll end the year around 510. Yay! It was another year of frequent colds (I blame my children) and nagging injuries (I blame time itself), but I was out there every week for 10-15 miles. That's the magic of this goal. It gets me out every week, investing in my health, appreciating / suffering through nature, and listening to things I love (shout out to Blank Check, Comedy Bang Bang, and 10% Happier). That's now 6 years in a row of this goal and I'll shoot for it again next year.

Mental Health

It took a lot to stay sane in 2025, but I tried some new things that are worth relaying. For years now, I have been a mediocre meditator. I would try it periodically through an app like Headspace, feel calmer for 10-15 minutes, then gradually descend back to my normal level of craziness.

This year, I tried an app called Waking Up and found some meditation courses that really stuck with me (a few good ones: 28 day intro to meditation, Unfolding Insight and anything from Joseph Goldstein). I now meditate every morning before the family gets up. Are people frequently mistaking me for a zen monk? Not quite. But I have a better gauge on my thoughts + emotions, and that helps me when things get tough. Anyway, if you're interested, you can do a month free here. I hope I keep this up next year.

Family

My family goals for 2025 were to be there every day and deliver 2 family highlights.

How did it go? Well, I was certainly there every day. As someone who works from home and rarely leaves his house, it's hard to avoid me. But I enjoy the little things like making breakfast every day and checking math homework. It's slightly less magical to be an unpaid Uber driver for 3 maniacs who trash my car and have never once tipped me, but somebody's got to do it. As for family highlights, we had plenty. We had perhaps our best family vacation ever on our trip to London, Oxford, and Scotland over Spring Break (that's us on the mean streets of Edinburgh). Then we did another great trip to Kauai in the summer with the grandparents. It was a full family year, and I hope to keep this up in 2026.

Books

Every year, I aim to read 24 books at an average of 2 per month. I don't really have a lane that I stay in when it comes to reading, I like to read it all.

How did it go? I finished 31 books. Woohoo, literacy! Here are a few favorites:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I mentioned above our trip to the UK. To prep for this, I got way too into this historical fiction series on Henry VIII, his advisor Thomas Cromwell, and the machinations that led to his many marriages and the founding of the Church of England. It was fascinating to read this, then walk around the Tower of London and see where Anne Boleyn *spoiler alert* was tried and executed.
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. My work pal Jennie recommended this sprawling sci fi / video game / fantasy / D&D comedy thing, and my oldest son and I had a ridiculous amount of fun with it. It's a big series and we're working our way through it quickly.
Open by Andre Agassi. I was a serious tennis player in my teens and Agassi was my dude. However, I didn't really appreciate his life story, like his lifelong clashes with his father, his hatred of tennis, his drug abuse, and then his astounding life rebound. Not only was Agassi a better all-court tennis player than Pete Sampras, he's a far more interesting person and I will not be taking questions on this.

I enjoy reading good books and I will continue this goal in 2026.

Music

In the 2024 writeup, I talked about all these fantastic concerts we went to and how we'd make this a cornerstone of our family. I immediately forgot all about that in 2025. Oopsie. Hopefully we can do a better job of getting us all out of the house and appreciating live music in 2026.

Now, what do the streaming services have to say about my 2025 listening habits? Well, Spotify informs me my listening age is 78 years old. There are a lot of people who are angry about technology, its impact on our lives, and a lack of accountability across tech giants. I now completely get it.

Listen Spotify: this is a family account where the top artist was, by far, Taylor Swift. Your output makes no sense! Since Spotify will surely not fix this problem, I will instead use it to my advantage. Spotify has declared that CodyPowell.com is the #1 site on the Internet for elderly Taylor Swift fans.

I'm more of an Apple Music guy anyway. Here's a playlist of some of the songs I liked in 2025.

Wrap Up

When I look back on 2025, I can now see there was a lot that went right. As someone who spends too much time both on the Internet and reading the news, it often didn't feel that way. In fact, there were exactly zero days when I opened the front door and shouted out to my neighbors, "We're all having a great year!" But I can't argue with everything I wrote above and the joy I feel when I take a step back to appreciate it all.

I hope you feel the same way about your 2025. If not, this crazy year only has a few hours left anyway. 2026, here we come!