Looking Back, 2025

Created on December 25, 2025

2025

Edinburgh has been a gracious host to me the past few months. The city is so beautiful, and in so many ways. Recently I’ve been finding myself standing in the Meadows (a local park south of the college) frozen at the beauty of the cityscape. I swear to God. There’s a lot to say about the place. The people are warm, and I’ve found myself building a lovely community here. There’s also lots of great food.

Recently I’ve met a lot of new people. Building real connections with others is difficult, but immensely valuable once they’ve been made. Funnily enough, I’ve found myself making less friends overall. It’s not that I have less patience for others, but I’ve been focusing more on those I find myself caring about. The new friends I have made so far, my “Edinburgh mates” and others, I truly do admire. It’s amazing. I admire their ability, their kindness, their empathy, their infectious friendliness, their curiosity. And alongside these new friends, my appreciation for my old friends has deepened further. Another year has passed, I feel our brotherly bond growing stronger. Thank you lads. And thank you girly friends too.

This year has been one with a lot of change.

Hard changes. I’ve learned a lot. Read a whole bunch of papers. Wrote a whole bunch of code. I’m not going to list through video codecs, or Greece’s debt structure, or Irish verbs that I’ve memorised. I’ve learned a thing or two and that feels good. Still bad at pub quizzes. Oh and the way I’m learning things is different, a little more deep and mature. I think in large part thanks to those around me at the University.

There’s been a lot of soft changes too. Important, poignant changes. I think I’ve learned about others and myself this past year. Keeping up with old friendships has taught me a lot. Including what I think is important. Identity is one thing that has sat at the centre of a lot this year. In my first draft of this I went on and on about some deeply personal anecdote, but let’s save that for the pub. Instead, I’ll summarise thing with three completely contradictory bullet points;

  • Authenticity is important. Not just in being authentic “for others”, but also to yourself.

  • Spending energy searching for the right thing to do is a lot harder than just doing what feels right really well. Stop thinking and just do it, bub.

  • Getting things right might feel like a lot of work. That’s not a signal that things are going wrong. Embrace it. Get used to it.

Wasn’t that useful for no one? Ha. Good fun.

Turning into a new chapter in starting my PhD and moving to Edinburgh and everything has taken a lot of my attention, but I’m very grateful for my last push in university. I’ve never been too bullish on college as a whole. Having finished it now, however, I can truthfully say I’m glad I did it. For many reasons. And hell, I’m proud of myself too.

A brief note on life, happiness and the universe. I haven’t figured it out yet. But I think it has something to do with making and appreciating beautiful things. In all forms.

Some last picky bits before I sign off.

  • Technofeudalism, Yanis Varoufakis: Enjoyed both his recount of global financial history and his argument about the new age of capitalism we have entered. I can’t 100% see his vision, especially in light of Europe and the world’s recent race to reindustrialise. I might write a blog on this topic soon.

  • Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut: I finally read it and it was good. Vonnegut-style storytelling done as well as ever.

  • On Nationalism, Eric Hogsbawn: Some writings on a concept many believe worth dying/killing for. Audiobook form on Spotify.

  • Patrick Boyle: Clear, sharp and humorous economics YouTuber. I guess I never shared him before so let me do it now. Been a favourite of mine for a while now.

  • Tasting History with Max Miller: Food channel showing recipes from the past. I mean that’s amazing.

  • Hochelaga: Interesting video ideas on religion, history, literature.

  • Ryan Chapman: Video essays on politics. Didn’t discover him until recently, but I haven’t been disappointed by one of his videos yet.

  • Premodernist: Well researched explanations on various topics in history. Rarely uploads but always bangers.

  • Marú inar Measc: Irish true crime as Gaeilge. I’ve learnt a lot of useless vocab from hours of watching this show.

  • I made a podcast to Anki pipeline a while back. If I share it, it will be here.

  • Music, we got Sunday Service Choir, rusowksy, Geese, and The Sundays more recently. Further back I was listening to a lot of Linton Kwesi Jones, Black Sabbath, and Kokoroko.

  • Film of the year for me was probably City of God. Hadn’t watched it till now. I also watched the new Knives Out last weekend and dammit it was good.

  • Merab Dvalishvili vs Petr Yan 2: Might be recency bias but probably my fight of the year. If you want to watch a high-level MMA scrap, check it out.

Have a lovely Christmas and a happy New Year.

- Emran.