2025 Wrap-up

Kevin Carpenter

— 3 min read

2025 brought many new things, both professionally and personally. I'm grateful to have had a great year supporting great innovations with my team at Duo Security, while growing as the father of a happy, healthy little boy. When moments, days, or weeks are challenging, I try to remind myself that I am one of the luckiest human beings who has ever lived. Sometimes it helps, and sometimes it does not. Below are some things that I was super into in 2025.

Music

I listened to two albums that landed on Pitchfork's top 50 in 2025, and no, I didn't listen to a single second of music by Geese. Ones that I think will stick with me, as great albums do:

  • SABLE, fABLE - Bon Iver
  • Sinister Grift - Panda Bear
  • Live Laugh Love - Earl Sweatshirt

I didn't tune into the new Danny Brown record, which I hope I find time to digest before the year's end. Generally, I think I'm getting to an age where I mostly like what I like and will continue to revisit old favorites instead of discovering new music as much.

Podcasts

New to the rotation was How Long Gone. It has become a great way to stay dialed into pop culture, plus contemporary style and taste. Not every interview ends up being a banger. The hosts are just Guys Talking™, but sometimes that is all you need.

Otherwise, sports podcasts reign supreme in my day-to-day. Two of my favorites are:

  • The Right Time with Bomani Jones
  • Brian Windhorst and the Hoop Collective

A change for my podcast consumption this year: I suddenly could no longer listen to NFL podcasts. Is it the disappointing performance by the Lions this year? The disappointing performance by my fantasy teams? Who is to say?

Blogs

Ed Zitron’s Where’s Your Ed At
The Words of Ed Zitron, a PR person and writer.
Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed AtEdward Zitron

Ed Zitron's tech blog has been invaluable while trying to understand what's going on with the generative AI industry, which is trying to infect many aspects of our daily lives. While my overall view of LLM tools has softened with more hands on experience, Ed has been incisive and thorough in his questioning of the LLM bubble. When it bursts, you won't be able to say no one warned you.

I would be committing a major omission if I didn't also plug MGoBlog here. Despite the disappointing football season for Michigan, MGoBlog serves a role in my daily life, keeping me connected to my biggest obsession: Michigan Football.

Travel

Having a young child has limited my enthusiasm for long-distance travel. We did make it to New Orleans this fall to visit friends, though. It remains my favorite city in the world. There are so many kid-friendly spaces and activities, which only increased my appreciation for it.

Technology

As mentioned above, my view on LLM tools has softened a bit. This is true only in the context of software engineering, where I have the expertise to see some degree of value-addition happening. The newer models, especially Claude Opus 4.5, truly excel as pairing partners. When using Claude Code, I feel best when I am working in a technology stack I am already familiar with, I've established clear architectural rails, and work in smaller units as part of larger plans. Environmental concerns remain, and the unit economics of LLMs remain, but it genuinely feels like an inflection point for software engineering and it seems foolish to choose to remain on the sideline.

I hope to have a silly, fun web app published in the next few weeks. I have the concept for a Mobile app cooking right now, too, and that will hopefully be shipped in the spring. I am currently in a state where it feels like these tools enhance my creativity. Let's hope it stays that way.

Thanks

Thanks for reading. A 2025 review is an easy first blog post, and I hope this helps me spring towards new posts in the near future.

Read more