How long is a year?
My sense of time is variable at best. When it comes to planning or teaching a lesson/workshop, I can pretty accurately judge how long something is going to take. On the other hand, I'm always surprised by how long ago something was. Calendar years are somewhat arbitrary, but I thought I'd find it helpful to recap everything that's happened this year to remind myself that although a year can feel like it's whizzed by, there's actually a lot you can fit into it. Also, my impostor syndrome probably needs to hear all the things I've done.
Book
First of all, my book The Well-Grounded Data Analyst was published!
I still can't believe there is an actual physical book out in the world that I've written. It took me two years to write, only an entire year longer than I initially predicted, and I'm really proud of it. It feels great to have followed through on something of this magnitude and to get my vision out there. I'm particularly happy that I don't feel I had to compromise - this is pretty much the book I set out to write. I'm way overdue writing a retrospective about it - on my list for 2026.
If you like solving data problems and want to get better by practising on true-to-life problems, I think you'll like it too!
If you want to know more, start here: https://davidasboth.com/#book.
If you want to hear me talking more about it, my friend and podcast cohost Shaun McGirr also interviewed me about it on our podcast: https://halfstackdatascience.com/s3-finale-the-well-grounded-data-analyst-with-david-asboth
That brings me on to the podcast.
Podcast
Perhaps the reason you're even reading this is that you've heard our podcast Half Stack Data Science. It's also a project that is exactly as I envisioned it back in the day. We post sporadically partly because we only want to bother with a new episode if it's something we believe in. You may not get weekly episodes from us, but you'll always get us.
This year saw us record five episodes but boy were they something. I got to chat to amazing people like Simon Willison, a fantastic presence in the tech community, or Kirsten Hill who's empowered by AI technology to build bisque, The Thing of her dreams. And best of all, junior developer David back over 10 years ago wouldn't have believed it, but we got to sit down with actual Scott Hanselman. They say "never meet your heroes" to which I say "pick better heroes", because Scott was funny, engaging, and generous with his time. In early episodes of the podcast we talked about some of his work, and to have him sit down with us for an hour was an honour.
We have some ideas for 2026 so expect to hear from us again at some point.
Out and about in the data community
I've been around in the online data community, for better or worse (more on that shortly), but the highlights from my "social calendar" for the year were hanging out with people on Discord and giving a couple of talks.
Talks
- I got to give a talk at PyCon UK in Manchester and it was a fantastic experience. Hopefully next time I'll be able to spend more than a single day at the conference. You can read my write-up of it here: https://davidasboth.com/pycon-uk-2025-roundup
- I also gave a talk at Randy Au's DataBS Conf, which was a really fun one-day conference that reminded me of the legendary NormConf. The data community might not be as vibrant and easy to find as at the height of Data Twitter, but it's there and the people are still awesome.
You can see both of my talks in my YouTube playlist.
Streaming
I've also tentatively started my YouTube channel and have streamed a bit more on Twitch. I like the idea of "working out loud" so expect to see me streaming more, but still sporadically, in 2026.
Discord
Earlier this year, I started a Discord server for fellow data project enthusiasts. If you like solving data problems, come and hang out with us!
I also posted a "data challenge", a small project you can attempt yourself, and livestreamed my own attempt at a solution. I still need to write that up - something for me to do early 2026.
Client work
In the background, I've been designing and delivering Python and data workshops and courses. One goal for 2026 is to talk more about my work (my brain immediately went "ugh, marketing") but one thing I do want to say now is that I'm starting to see the shift towards AI already. People still want courses in things like Python or Tableau, but more and more clients are asking for AI courses for anyone from software developers to senior execs.
This finds me at something of a crossroads...
Personal
This year I've had waves of feeling like the entire tech industry is whizzing past me. I need to remind myself that AI hasn't taken over the world, ChatGPT hasn't replaced all the data professionals, and that I should spend less time on LinkedIn. That's only partly a joke, I'm really starting to feel like spending time on these platforms is a net negative.
Social media
I said earlier I was active in the data community "for better or worse". The "worse" part is the FOMO I just mentioned.
In the new year, I will try to keep places like LinkedIn and Bluesky as "output only". I'll be there, probably check in most days, but won't spend too much time scrolling but instead signpost people to things I'm doing elsewhere. Blogs I write, videos I post, that sort of thing.
You can find me on Discord though. I'm fairly active on Randy's Discord as well as my own.
For me, 2026 will be about figuring out where I want to fit in in this brave new world of AI. It'll probably be something about doubling down on being human.
Play
This year I'm really rediscovering the value of play. I'm happiest when I have a fun puzzle to solve or a strategic board game to dig into. At work, the most fun things to work on and teach are projects. I suppose ideally everything at work is part of a "project", but what I mean is when you're dropped into a situation and need to come up with a solution given the constraints. And crucially something that doesn't drag on for months. That's always been my preferred type of work as well as my preferred way to teach data skills so I'll be continuing down that path.
Fun, playful projects are coming to a YouTube channel/Twitch stream/Discord server near you.
Reading
I rediscovered a love of reading as an adult and I've probably read more this year than ever before. It's almost impossible to even pick favourites, but here are a few highlights.
Fiction
My go to genre is usually sci-fi, but I read a lot of random stuff this year including:
- The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson: I randomly found this in a charity shop and was vaguely intrigued by the blurb but it was one of my favourite books of 2025. I don't like reading too much about a book before I read it, so I'll say no more, but it's worth your time.
- The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu: the second, and in my opinion best, book in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. I was pleased the TV adaptation for the Three-Body Problem turned out great.
- Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel: a really easy to read, exciting sci-fi trilogy. The storytelling mechanism is clever and really adds to the pacing of all the books.
- Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky: this was something of a mind-bender in a good way. The sequel was good too, but I loved this first one. I hope you like spiders.
- Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel: hard to describe other than it's a beautifully human sci-fi story. Can't wait to read more of her work.
- Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: I added this to my "to read" list, borrowed it from a friend months later having forgotten what it's even about, and absolutely couldn't put it down. One of my favourites of the year.
I'm at risk of listing all the great fiction I read this year so I'll stop there.
Nonfiction
I actually find reading nonfiction quite hard, possibly because most nonfiction books are ~200 pages too long. Having said that, here are some good ones I read this year:
- The Game Changers by Tim Clare: a history of board games, what's not to love? Both this and Tim's other book "Coward" are well-researched, engaging, and come from a suitably random mind that they keep me interested. Bonus fun point that I went to school with one of the experts interviewed in "Coward".
- Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad: I wasn't aware of the book or Chris's YouTube channel, but I've been to, and loved, Japan and this was a really fun read about someone's experience of moving there.
- Why Can't I Just Enjoy Things? A Comedian's Guide to Autism by Pierre Novellie: probably my favourite nonfiction book of the year. It's funny, well-researched, and very personal.
I already have a pile of books I'll be digging into in the new year. Also, recommend me things!
What's next for 2026
I'll finish by saying that writing this has been therapeutic for me. So much has happened this year, lots of it good, and here is another timely reminder to myself, and perhaps to you, that you can fit a lot into 365 days.
Next year I plan to follow my interests more aggressively, listen to myself about what sort of things I want to do more and less of, and exponentially increase the amount of true human connection in my life. That means less time mindlessly spent scrolling algorithmic feeds and more time connecting with people. People like you!
Here's to a fun and lovely 2026!
About David
I'm a freelance data scientist consultant and educator with an MSc. in Data Science and a background in software and web development. My previous roles have been a range of data science, software development, team management and software architecting jobs.
