I was looking back at my 2025 travel stats—75,000 miles and a fair few gray hairs—and realized that our weekly chats have covered almost as much ground as my favorite pair of RM Williams. It’s been a year where the “art of the possible” often collided head-on with the “reality of the glitchy,” and honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
We started the year warning you to fasten your seatbelts for the AI Race, and boy, did the engines roar. We’ve seen NVIDIA become the new North Star and Agentic AI move from a buzzword to a digital butler that sometimes forgets where it put the silver. We’ve wrestled with the “Apple Imposter”—that office drone using tech to fake a personality—and laughed (or cried) at the “Croissants and Courtrooms” drama in Provence.
I’ve ranted about “NoHo” (No Hospitality) and the “One Trick Ponies” that go nowhere, but we’ve also found reasons to be cheerful. We celebrated Microsoft’s 50th and acknowledged that, like a fine wine (or a perfectly stirred Martini), some things just take time to mature. We’ve navigated the “Panopticon” of people recording everything and stood our ground against “Unfriendly” airlines who seem to think a 15-tier boarding system is a substitute for dignity.
Through it all, the theme has remained consistent: technology is the road, but the human experience is the destination. Whether we were discussing the Pineapple Metaphor for commoditization or the Old Testament roots of a genuine welcome, we kept coming back to the same question: Does this actually make life better?
As we slide into the new year, I’m putting the rants on ice. Let’s raise a glass (not a pre-made one, please) to the wins, the “near-misses,” and the sheer, unadulterated chaos of an industry that never sleeps. It’s been a privilege to share my stream of consciousness with you every week.
Stay curious, stay human, and keep pushing for the “high touch” in a high-tech world.
Life is so tech. (And 2025 was a hell of a ride.)
Mark Fancourt
