Goodbye, 2025.
A year of embodied knowledge
It’s time to say goodbye to 2025.
I’ve thought a lot about how to characterize this year. The word doesn’t exist, it’s beyond language, beyond knowledge. It’s been a lot. Good, bad, and ugly on macro and micro levels.
For me, 2025 was a year of embodied knowledge. At the beginning of the year, I was lost. Not sure what I wanted to do or who I wanted to become. The only thing that kept me going was the idea of keeping going until I arrive.
The year didn’t resolve itself neatly. It just kept revealing.
I stopped writing for a while. Completely stopped writing about career (the early subscribers may remember this was all about career). And then at some point I restarted. Perceptio was born. I don’t remember what pulled me back, but I do know this: writing is one of the most useful tools a human can return to when you need to think and imagine.
And through that thinking, a few things clarified:
Key decision: I used to look outward for inspiration, thinking others may know better than me. This year I went inward. Turned out the inspiration was always in me, I just needed to learn to turn to it.
Key lesson: Be yourself all the time. Look for what you notice but no one else sees. This is where your power is as a strategist.
Key idea: The ability to look deeply is the root of creativity.
Key highlight: The true instrument is me. Through me, the right ideas find the problems they’re destined to solve. My job is to protect the flow so they can.
Key focus: Art, literature, culture. This is where my heart beats fastest. I want to continue being an art lover, supporter. I want to witness art.
This year I published 6 essays:
→ In Praise of Unstructured Time — on the quiet rebellion of creativity without a brief
→ The Hermès Way — what heritage brands understand about time
→ Decentering English as the Default — when the world doesn’t speak your language
→ The Traumatized Consumer — building brands in an age of constant crisis
→ Why We Can’t Manufacture Third Places — because community belongs to everyone and no one
→ The Anti-Consumption Paradox — how AI relocated the cognitive load problem instead of solving it
Some LinkedIn moments that captured where my head was at:
→ On personal knowledge management — the systems that help us think
→ On seeing the messy middle — we’re good at seeing extremes, but the interesting work is in between
→ On complexity demanding curators — what strategists actually do and where to focus in 2026.
→ On how teams start projects — and why it feels wrong
→ On optimism — what I took from “What If We Get It Right”
A conversation I’m proud of:
→ Interview with Jennifer Palais on “The Void We’re Filling With AI” — through a brand and experience lens
The core idea I’m carrying into 2026:
I am here to create, to reimagine, to inspire. Do what I can with what I have. Nothing more is needed to start, restart, continue.
Looking ahead:
In five years, life can look very different. I want the world to be all about amazing collaborations, friendships, mutual inspiration. I am looking for co-shapers, co-creators.
If you like what Perceptio is becoming and want to be part of this—reach out.
Thank you for reading, for thinking alongside me, for being here.
See you in 2026.