Things I changed my mind about in 2025

It's still the tail end of January so I am going to use this time as an excuse to sneak in a '2025 reflection' type post. This could easily be just about things I've changed my mind on recently but I figure I'll use the new year as a framework.

LLMs are all hype.

My position on this, especially recently with things like Google Stitch and some experiments with coding agents is that they're only mostly hype. I still think there are a lot more people talking about 'game changing' results than people showing said results which is always cause for skepticism but I can attest to them being useful for a few specific small things.

My plan is to continue experimenting here with a strong bias towards avoiding LLM driven laziness.

iOS is a good operating system.

There's enough said online on this already but the latest iOS and all this "liquid glass" has really left me wishing there was more competition in the mobile operating system space. The constant need to do new things to continue a brand of 'new' seems to be wearing a little thin. I've considered switching to an Android phone but for now I'll keep my current iPhone until it gives up the ghost.

In person sales is only for early sales and big accounts.

The more that sales get flooded with AI SDRs and email after email I feel like in person matters now more than ever. I've always been a fan of in person meetings and spending face time with customers but I'd previously reserved that for either the 'early days' or big accounts.

My advice now would be that if your CAC can sustain it (and most of the time it can) try spend as much time with your customers as you can. If you're not involved in sales the same advice applies to product and dev, knowing your customers as people is well worth the effort. There a lot you'll miss if all you do is sit on zoom with them.

Second brains.

I've tried a lot of these tools with a grand vision of building some vast repository of knowledge to call on. The reality is I almost never reopen notes that I took on a whim.

What works for me is having a note to a day/week/planning period that I add dot points to and one note per recurring meeting like 1:1s. I also keep notes about things I am very deliberately doing research on. The daily/weekly notes could probably be deleted at the end of the week without losing much. They exist to help in the moment but aren't anything profound.

I still think there is a lot of value in writing, but I don't need notes on every blog post I've read or podcast I've listened to. Keep the ones that really make an impact. Being deliberate makes a big difference.

Steam Deck.

I've had a gaming PC for a long time as well as whatever the latest Sony and Nintendo consoles were. When the Steam Deck came out I thought it was neat but mainly there for people who didn't have a gaming PC.

After a recommendation from someone at work I decided to get one. I took some long flights overseas in the middle of the year and many somewhat long train trips and I can confidently say I was wrong. It's a great form factor even if I have a PC at home.

For almost anything that isn't pushing the limits of a GPU I probably spend more time playing on the Steam Deck. It's quick to boot and shut down and the battery life generally exceeds the time I have available.

I'll be interested to see what Valve's other new hardware releases are like. I am somewhat interested in the controller and the other devices are interesting but I don't think I'll make the jump to owning a VR device just yet.

That's about all that comes to mind without being too much of a stretch. No doubt there were plenty of small things in the mix as well.