2025 in Review: What I Built, What Broke, What I Learned

📅 The Year

2025 was a year of building, breaking, and learning. Here's an honest look at what I built, what broke, and the biggest lessons I learned.

✅ What I Built

1. Real-Time Chat System

Built a WebSocket-based chat system that scales to 10,000+ users. Learned a lot about horizontal scaling and Redis pub/sub.

2. Local AI Lab

Set up a local AI lab with multiple LLMs running on GPU. Learned about GPU memory management and model quantization.

3. Voice Control System

Built a privacy-first voice control system using Whisper. Everything runs locally, no cloud APIs.

4. RAG System

Built a RAG system for documentation. Took three attempts, but finally got it working.

5. Performance Optimizations

Optimized Laravel APIs, cut response times by 60%. Learned the importance of eager loading and caching.

💥 What Broke

1. Python 3.13 Migration

Upgraded to Python 3.13, broke production. Hidden breaking changes caused downtime.

2. Docker Desktop Update

Updated Docker Desktop 4.30, everything broke. Had to rollback and reset.

3. Backup Strategy

My backup strategy failed. Lost data. Learned the hard way about proper backups.

4. GPU Passthrough

Spent three days trying to get GPU passthrough working. Finally got it, but it was painful.

📚 Biggest Lessons

1. Test Updates in Staging

Never update production directly. Always test in staging first. This saved me multiple times.

2. Backups Are Essential

After losing data, I now have multiple backup strategies. ZFS snapshots saved me from ransomware.

3. Simplicity Wins

Complex solutions often fail. Simple solutions are more reliable and easier to maintain.

4. Performance Matters

Users notice slow applications. Performance optimization is worth the effort.

5. Security Is Important

Had an API attack. Learned the importance of rate limiting, input validation, and monitoring.

📊 By The Numbers

🎯 What I'm Taking Into 2026

• Focus on fundamentals: Master the basics before moving to advanced topics
• Test everything: Never deploy without testing
• Backup religiously: Multiple backup strategies
• Security first: Build security in from the start
• Keep it simple: Complexity is the enemy of reliability

💡 Key Takeaways

• 2025 was a year of learning through building and breaking
• Failures taught me more than successes
• Backups and testing are essential
• Simplicity wins over complexity
• Performance and security matter

2025 was challenging but rewarding. I built a lot, broke some things, and learned even more. Here's to 2026—more building, less breaking, and continued learning.