Hi

Before diving into this newsletter, I want to let you know that I'll be livestreaming two hours from now (at 11 CET). Just yesterday I got my hands back on a long-lost codebase I wrote over a decade ago, and I'll roast my old self on stream. It's going to be a lot of fun, and I hope you can make it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLxZ0_JBvjU.

This will also likely be the last newsletter of 2025: I'm taking three weeks of holidays, in which I intend to spend as little time in front of a screen as possible. It's not that I don't like doing all of this online stuff — I love it — but the years have thought me that taking longer breaks from time to time is one of the best ways to reenergize and be able to focus again on code and content. So, no worries: I'll be back!

Another lesson I learned recently is to look back on the year and truly appreciate all the things I managed to achieve. It's easy to focus on the things that didn't go well, but giving deliberate attention to the wins of the year is the best medicine for that. I want to challenge you to take five minutes today: write down the things you were proud of this year. The things that made you happy and gave you joy. You can share them with me if you want to, or just note them down for yourself. If you'll indulge me, I'm happy to share my list with you:

• We released Tempest this year. What an incredible achievement that has been. I'm so honored to work together with so many talented people.
• I wrote 40 blog posts on two blogs. I often felt like I was lacking this year when it comes to writing, but seeing these numbers makes me super happy. A lot more than I realized.
• I hosted PHPVerse, which is something I'm super proud of. And — good news — the conference is coming back next year!!
• I wrote and published a book.
• I published a second version of my sci-fi novel as well.
• I converted my blog and aggregator to Tempest. A task that I had been postponing for a year. In hindsight, it was super fun.
• I sent out 15 newsletters. Considering the fact that I was planning on not doing that all together anymore last year, I think I've found the drive again to keep going with it (honestly, you replies are such a huge motivator).
• I did 24 livestreams and published 23 videos. I do wish I could have spent more time on PHP Annotated this year, but at the same time I'm again surprised by these numbers, not bad at all.

All in all, I'm happy. I'm proud. I hope you'll find some joy and pride in doing the same. For one final time this year, I want to invite you to press that reply button and share your thoughts if you want to: it's so encouraging and inspiring to me.

Thank you for following along, and I wish you an epic journey in 2026.

Until next time

Brent

PS: don't forget about that livestream