2025 Year-End Reflection

A Caged Bird in a Small Space

For me, 2025 was defined by one word: change.

It all started with a resignation letter at the end of last year.

Last December, caught between endless overtime and family obligations, I finally sent that long-planned resignation letter to my manager on an ordinary Sunday evening. The next day, my colleagues and supervisors were all surprised by my sudden decision to leave.

Unexpectedly, I was persuaded to stay. In exchange, I was allowed to choose a new project within the department. Though I didn’t completely break free from that “cage,” the seeds of change had quietly begun to sprout.

After handing over my previous work, I spent nearly half of this year on the road.

I visited Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen, leaving footprints behind;

I worked with Feishu, Douyin, Meituan, and Bilibili, leaving some code behind.

In Beijing, I reunited with old friends and made new ones. Attending my first Web3 offline hackathon, I felt not the oppressive atmosphere of an “imperial capital” I had imagined, but vibrant human energy and innovative spirit.

In Shanghai, seven years later, I seemed to understand this city better. Once intimidated by its fast pace, I now find myself ordering a coffee on weekends and quietly coding alone in a café all afternoon. It turns out that fast and slow can coexist harmoniously.

This year, my work focus shifted from traditional Classic Coding to AI. Looking back, this was absolutely the right choice. In 2025, AI development exceeded all expectations—it’s not just another technological revolution, but a catalyst for many of my ideas.

In the second half of the year, I started exploring content creation, the possibility of a “one-person company,” product internationalization, and developing my first mobile app.

On WeChat Official Accounts, Xiaohongshu, and X, I began Building In Public, growing through sharing and expression, quietly hoping to build my own private community.

I took on two promotions on Xiaohongshu, though the earnings were modest; I wrote thirty to forty original articles on my WeChat account; my GitHub commit history became much denser than last year, and I participated in some open-source project remix competitions.

Looking back at this year, the value of that resignation letter has become clear. Even if I could do it again, I might still be persuaded to stay. It’s not that I lack the courage to quit outright, but what I needed to learn was how not to burn out under pressure, how to confront the source of stress head-on.

Next year, my employment contract will expire, and I probably won’t stay here. I hope to find a remote job and give my parents a taste of the “digital nomad” lifestyle. As for content creation and indie development, I’ll keep walking this path. I want to know where the boundaries of my abilities truly lie.

December 25, 2025, written in Shanghai.