Things I learned in 2025
2025-12-01
I borrowed this concept from Tom Whitwell as a way of cultivating a habit of curiosity.
My 2025 highlights: It was a year of exploration. I left Macro Oceans. I “interned” at Roo Code and got an early peek at how AI is changing software development. I had so many coffee chats. I launched a podcast about building with AI, built a an agent orchestration prototype and spent a lot of time hacking on HeyRecap. I started working with Istari Digital using AI to build aerospace / high performance hardware systems.
Here are 52 things I learned along the way:
- The U.S. Mint estimates that there are 300 billion pennies in circulation, about 3 times more than the number stars in the Milky Way Galaxy — The Atlantic
- Coca Cola didn’t became cocaine free until 1929 — the Associated Press via Stan Veuger. No wonder the market crashed!
- There are more people under the age of 25 today in Africa than there are in all of Europe — Stephen Kotkin
- The Centers For Disease Control estimates that a baby born in the United States is 10 times more likely to be killed during its first day than at any other time in life — Pacific Standard. Bonus: about 1 in 2,500 women are in denial about their pregnancy until birth.
- Shows like MTV’s 16 and pregnant led to a 5.7 percent decrease in teen births, 1/3 of the decline in teen births during the period — Liam Delaney
- International adoptions in the US are down 94% since the peak in 2004 — Pew
- Japan now produces more diapers for incontinent adults than for infants — London Review of Books
- There are more senior citizens than children in 11 states and half of the counties in the US — US Census
- The under 20 population in the United States is 20% smaller than it was in 1990 — Aaron Becker via Cremiux
- For the first time in 35 years, there are no rap songs are in the top 40 — Rolling Stone
- “In 2022, adults spent an additional 99 minutes at home on any given day compared with 2003.” —Derek Thompson via Bucco Capital
- Monarch butterflies produce a super generation that live 8 times as long as the other generations and allow them to complete their migratory cycle — Country Living. Could you imagine if once every four generations, you had a set of humans that lived more than 500 years??
- Brand Mascots can measurably influence the eating behavior of children — Obesity Review
- The more males and females of a bird species look alike (e.g. cranes), the more likely they are to mate for life. The more males and females of a bird species look dissimilar (e.g. mallards), the more likely they are to be promiscuous — my friend Oriana
- Male snakes have two penises — Nautilus
- A group of kangaroos is called a mob. A group of jaguars is a shadow — Brevard Zoo via ChatGPT
- Costco’s Kirkland Brand drives more revenue than all of Procter and Gamble combined — Eric Ries
- Silicon Valley companies will cross reference each other’s patents more when their employees frequent the same coffee shops — National Bureau of Economic Research. See also Austin’s 3 types of luck.
- Non-linear ethnic niches: 90% of grocery stores in Detroit are owned by Chaldeans; 95% of Dunkin Donuts stores in the Midwest are owned by Indians; 90% of the liquor stores in Baltimore are owned by Koreans; 60% of Dunkin’ Donuts stores in New England and New York are operated by Portuguese immigrants — Aporia Magazine. I guess you file this under the importance of networks, tacit knowledge, and the availability bias?
- The only right protected in the main body of the US Constitution is the right to intellectual property — ChinaTalk. Bonus: The first patent examiner for the United States was Thomas Jefferson.
- Peacock is the name of the males only; the female are peahens. The species is called peafowl— The Animal Book
- A single mushroom can live for thousands of years — Scientific American via The Long Now. Bonus: They are among the oldest life forms on earth, predating plants by more than 300 million years.
- Humans are unique among mammals for not creating their own vitamin C — Survival of the Sickest via my friend Chris
- China installed more industrial robots last year than the rest of the world combined — Gizmodo
- German chocolate cake was invented in United States — the Kroger App
- Marie Antoinette never said “Let them eat cake” — The Rest is History
- Life expectancy for dogs has been growing faster than life expectancy for humans — Frontiers of Veterinary Science via my wonderful friend Uri
- We call them piggy banks because of the type of clay (pygg) that was used to make jars for holding coins. Shaping them like pigs was a visual pun (probably) — BBC
- Badgers air out their beds to keep them clean — Secrets of the Forest
- The Pangolin is the only mammal with scales — The Animal Book
- The air that the dinosaurs breathed had substantially more oxygen in it than the air we breathe. Jurassic Park couldn’t happen because the dinosaurs would asphyxiate — John Cramer
- Saturn’s rings are younger than the dinosaurs — Rohit
- Squirrels in Berkeley and Oakland are becoming carnivorous — Smithsonian Magazine
- In Switzerland, you are never more than 16km from a lake — About Switzerland
- The English Monarchy asserted a claim to the French Monarchy until 1801, only releasing it after Napoleon had become dictator — The Rest Is History. Some would say it’s been all downhill for France since then 🤣.
- 12.3M hectares of US cropland was abandoned between 1986 and 2018 — Environmental Research Letters. Note that this figure does not include cropland taken out of use via urbanization or development.
- More than 98% of new vehicle sales in Norway this September were EVs — Elective via Anton
- Chicken tikka masala originated in Scotland; kilts did not — Sukhi’s and Wikipedia via Jason Crawford
- Home field advantage in the NFL is real. We know this because it disappeared in 2020 when there were no fans in the stadiums — The Ringer via Crémieux
- 79% of American adults report making at least one drunk purchase in the past year; the average amount of drunk spending was $444 per year — The Hustle
- The value of returned purchases in the United States would make it the 16th largest economy in the world — Rohit
- D.A.R.E. anti-drug interventions in schools seem to have have increased drug use among suburban students — Drug Library via Atoms vs. Bits
- Holding back students in the 3rd grade improves long term performance for the students who were held back — The 74 million
- Half of recorded history came before the Old Testament was written down — The Literature and History Podcast
- More Romans were killed at Cannae than Americans in the entire Vietnam War — The Rest is History
- The distance elasticity of trade (the rate at which trade between two cities drops off as they get farther away from each other) seems to be the same today as it was in ancient Assyria — Maximum Progress
- The oldest bond in the world dates from December 10, 1624; pays €13.61 of interest a year — the Financial Times via The Browser
- Pine needle tea has more vitamin C in it than orange juice — Nautilus
- All of the world’s gold is estimated to fit in one 20 meter cube — BBC
- Eyes have evolved more than 50 times — Salon via Rohit
- The largest newspaper in California by subscribers is the New York Times —Ezra Klein
- Walmart takes 25% of all SNAP dollars — Kyla Scanlon
Previous lists: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020
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Most of my professional energy right now is spent on how AI changes creative work and the electric tech stack. If either of these is of interest to you or if you just think we’d have a good conversation, drop me a note (hello @ jdilla.xyz) or put time on my calendar).
Have a wonderful holiday season and stay curious!