Overview
2025 was a year of transition, from following tutorials to building with intent, constraints, and accountability. This review highlights the shifts in how I learned, built, and shared my work. In 2025, my goal was to learn backend development. In pursuing that goal, I shifted from following tutorials to building with intent, constraints, and accountability. This review highlights the shifts in how I learned, built, and shared my work.
Highlights
Learning with Independence
Early in the year, most of my learning came from tutorials. While they helped me understand patterns and tools, they didn't force me to make decisions. I began shifting away from passive learning by building side projects where I had to define the problem, analyze my choices, and decide on my approach.
These projects required me to explore unfamiliar problems, apply new technical concepts without a predefined path, and critically evaluate my own implementations. When things broke, there was no reference solution; only debugging, refactoring, and iteration. This process exposed gaps in my understanding far more clearly than the tutorial projects ever did.
One project that marked this shift was an AI chatbot template I built from scratch. Starting from a core problem, where I noticed that many support chatbot's lacked a dynamic range of understanding, I came up with a working solution. I designed the data flow, handled asynchronous interactions, and made architectural decisions without relying on a tutorial for guidance. The project wasn't perfect, but it worked. More importantly, I understood why it worked.
Building independently changed how I approach learning. Instead of asking “how do I copy this?”, I now start with “what problem am I solving, and what trade-offs am I making?” That mindset shift gave me confidence that I'm not just learning tools, but developing the ability to build and reason about systems on my own.
Navigating Constraints
Building client websites isn't technically complex, but it introduces constraints that a weekend side project would not encounter. Deadlines were fixed, requirements were often ambiguous, feedback cycles came from non-technical stakeholders who cared about outcomes, not implementations. This pushed me to shift from “building features” to solving real business problems under pressure.
Client feedback cycles changed how I worked. Vague requests required clarification, prioritization, and iteration rather than immediate implementation. I learned to validate assumptions early, adjust scope when needed, and communicate trade-offs clearly instead of defaulting to over-engineering. Managing these workflows while working against the clock was a valuable reminder to the importance of project management.
In 2025, I completed two client projects. Early on, I learned that design decisions couldn't be made in isolation. I mapped user journeys to align stakeholder goals with user intent: simplifying navigation, reducing decision fatigue, and placing key actions where users were most likely to convert. The choices weren't aesthetic; they were deliberate trade-offs to reduce friction and improve engagement. Every decision worked in tandem to achieve small objectives, such as creating trust, that were orchestrated for broader goals like converting users into customers.
On the technical side, these projects exposed me to deployment and maintenance realities. I handled hosting, configuration, updates, and post-launch fixes. I learned that “done” doesn't mean shipped, but stable, maintainable, and adaptable.
Overall, these projects moved me closer to real workplace conditions, where success depends less on writing code quickly and more on decision-making, communication, and responsibility for the full lifecycle of a product.
Learning in Public
Midway through the year, I paused the tutorial loop to build something long-term: my personal portfolio. It wasn't just a place to showcase projects, but a space to think in public; sharing ideas, experiments, and reflections as I learned.
Initially, the site lacked substance. To fix that, I began writing: short posts, guides, and mini case studies that forced me to articulate why I made certain technical or design decisions. Writing became a tool for clarification and self-review, exposing gaps in my reasoning that wouldn't surface while coding alone.
By the end of the year, this approach led to tangible outcomes:
- My posts reached over 200k developers on daily.dev.
- Nearly 1,000 developers visited my portfolio and projects.
This mindset extended beyond writing into open-source. I began flagging issues, reading unfamiliar codebases, and having my first pull request get accepted. Contributing in public shifted my standards. Code needed to be understandable, defensible, and collaborative, not just functional.
Sharing work publicly changed how I learn. Instead of treating projects as isolated experiments, I now treat them as conversations, with feedback that sharpen my technical judgment and communication. In 2026, I plan to continue this through video, using teaching as a way to deepen my own understanding while learning how to think more like a lead engineer.
What I Learnt This Year
- I gained a fundamental understanding of backend systems and how they contribute to real-world problems.
- I further practiced my frontend ability, focusing on SEO, performance, structure, and user experience.
- I shared my work in developer communities and contributed to open-source projects to learn from the experienced, documenting my findings along the way.
- I built client and side projects with independence to reinforce what I had learnt.
Next Goals
In 2026, I aim to:
- Practice proficiency in building backend systems and DevOps, to allow myself to build full-stack applications from the ground up.
- Continue sharing my work in public and contributing to open-source projects.
- Actively document my successes and mistakes to stay aware of my learning dynamics.
- Expand my client website services to larger businesses that require custom solutions and systems.
- Work on my list of wacky and weird project ideas for fun.
- Begin searching for job opportunities as I finish my final year of high school.
Thanks for reading.
Ryan, 2025.