This year in video games was dominated by finishing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth early in the year, and then getting absolutely absorbed by Hollow Knight and Silksong. It’s not every year that you replace two of your top five all-time favorite games in the same year, but HK and SS did that this year.

Actually, early in 2025 I was working through the Rest Is History backlog before I decided that was a project I did NOT need to commit myself to.

All the usual suspects in my top podcasts, by listen time. This category is interesting because it’s mostly a function of publishing schedule/length of episode rather than pure enjoyment. Didn’t really do any backlog listening this year so no huge outlier.

Movies were even more sparse than usual. Nuremberg got us going on a bit of a Russell Crowe groove with Gladiator and Master and Commander. Watched Rogue One (rewatch) immediately after Andor S2 which added a new dimension to the movie. Loving the expanding Tim Robinson universe (Friendship).

TV was somewhat minimal, as is typical for me. Still trying to get caught up on Drive to Survive. Andor, Slow Horses, Foundation, Severance, Shrinking, and The Last of Us were all memorable. Really liked Murderbot and Pluribus, too.

I split my time between Spotify (first couple months of the year) and Apple Music (the rest of the year) this year, but I think my Apple Music summary is most representative. No surprises here, with Petey & Coheed taking the top 2 positions (like the past couple years).

Only two books I read this year were re-reads, which I’m pretty sure is much lower than usual. 28% of the books I read this year were fiction (but the pages percentage must be much higher because most of the longest books I read were fiction).

A few of my favorites: The Sirens’ Call by Hayes, The Calculation of Volume #1 and #2 by Balle, Anathem by Stephenson, Apple in China by McGee, and The Etched City by Bishop.

A few books I’d consider part of my “attention project” (i.e. I chose to them because they have a reputation of being long/difficult): Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky, The History of Sexuality by Foucault, The Human Condition by Arendt.

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For what it’s worth, I find yearly reviews from complete strangers weirdly compelling. I’ll read it if you write jt.

I think it really depends on context. There's a place to continue using "transformation" because introducing new words can be fraught. If I have the time or space to explain, I'll usually try to use words like "adaptive org design" or "org evolution" or "continuous participatory change."

“Like a bicycle inner tube” is a phrase that has haunted my memory since YLNT.

“Should it be moving?”

“Not a lot.”

This was another fun one: in 2012 and 2013 I started a Tumblr called "Getting History Done" that was just quotes of famous people talking about their work process. I should pick this one back up...

gettinghistorydone.tumblr.com

Where structure, process, and cadence make care for the system part of the job—not something people have to remember to do on top of everything else? And where a few clearly defined roles take on more of that stewardship so everyone else can focus on doing their best work?

The real work isn't fixing them once. It's deciding how, where, and how often we're willing to inject energy to keep them livable.

This is the organization design I want to be doing.

How do we design environments where maintaining coherence isn’t heroic or exceptional, but ordinary?