Year in Review: The Wisdom of 2025

On February 18th, we launched this platform with a Manifesto.

We argued that we are living through an Inflation of Knowledge. We predicted that as AI made "knowing things" free, the value of "understanding things" (Wisdom) would skyrocket.

We were right.

2025 was the year the hype cycle crashed into reality.

We saw Agentic AI move from a toy to a terrifyingly capable intern. We saw Platform Engineering replace the burnout of "Shift Left." We saw leaders realize that Metrics (Goodhart’s Law) are not the same as Reality.

As we stand on the edge of 2026, looking back at the 53 Deep Dives we explored together, one theme emerges: The Return to Structure.

In a world of infinite speed, the only competitive advantage is the ability to pause, think, and build things that last.

Here is the Wisdom of 2025.

1. Strategy: Speed is a Liability (Without OODA)

We started the year with The OODA Loop.

The market told us "Move Fast and Break Things." We countered with "Observe and Orient."

We learned that in a high-interest-rate, high-volatility environment, speed is often just a fancy word for panic.

• The Lesson: Real strategy is not adding more features (The Feature Factory); it is the courage to kill your own darlings (The Innovator’s Dilemma).
• The Shift: We moved from "Growth at all costs" to "Antifragility." We stopped trying to predict the future and started building systems that could survive any future.

2. Technology: The End of the "Full Stack" Myth

In the spring, we tackled the mental health crisis in engineering.

We exposed the lie of "Shift Left"—the idea that developers should be experts in Code, Cloud, Security, and Ops simultaneously.

We championed Platform Engineering not as a tool, but as a cognitive necessity.

• The Lesson: You cannot build great software if your developers are drowning in Cognitive Load.
• The Shift: We moved from "Heroics" (The 10x Engineer fixing prod at 3 AM) to "Systems" (The Guardrails that prevent prod from breaking). We learned to respect Chesterton’s Fence: never tear down a legacy system until you understand why it was built.

3. Philosophy: The Rise of Phronesis

As Agentic AI began to show "Will," many predicted the end of the Senior Employee.

We argued the opposite in Aristotle’s Phronesis.

We defined the three types of knowledge:

1. Episteme (Book smarts) - AI owns this.
2. Techne (Craft) - AI is learning this.
3. Phronesis (Practical Wisdom) - Humans own this.

• The Lesson: The junior engineer who knows "How" to code is at risk. The senior leader who knows "What" to build (and what not to build) is more valuable than ever.
• The Shift: We moved from Technocracy (Rule by Skill) to Ethics (Rule by Judgment). We explored Kant and Dark Patterns to remind ourselves that just because we can manipulate users, doesn't mean we should.

4. Culture: Trust is Physics, Not Magic

Finally, we looked at the invisible bonds that hold companies together.

We used Dunbar’s Number to explain why your culture broke when you hit 150 employees. We used the Peter Principle to explain why your best engineer became your worst manager.

• The Lesson: Culture is not ping-pong tables. Culture is the Epistemic Environment—it is how we handle truth.
• The Shift: We moved from "Nice" to "Kind." We embraced Diogenes’ Radical Candor and Voltaire’s Pragmatism. We learned that a culture that cannot handle bad news is a culture that is already dead.

5. The Artifact: The 2025 Paradigm Shift

How has the worldview of the Chief Wise Officer changed this year?

🛠️ The Paradigm Shift Matrix

Summary: Amor Fati

We ended the year with Amor Fati—the Stoic love of fate.

2025 was not an easy year. Markets were tough. Technology was disruptive.

But the Wise Leader does not wish for things to be different. We accept the constraints, and we find the opportunity within them.

We are no longer chasing the "New."

We are betting on the Lindy Effect—the ideas that have survived for 2,000 years (Aristotle, Sun Tzu, Seneca) will likely survive the next 20.

Thank you for reading.

Here is to 2026.

Let us remain finite, humble, and fiercely effective.