In 2025, Jake Simonds crisscrossed continents—starting in Guadalajara, Mexico, and nearly ending in Buenos Aires—embedding himself in tech hubs while grappling with a universal developer conundrum: the push for technical excellence versus the pull toward real-world simplicity. His experiences, documented in a personal year-end reflection, highlight pivotal moments in AI, open-source evolution, and the human side of tech culture.

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Simonds' tech immersion began in Guadalajara, where he participated in a hackathon for Mentra smart glasses and later attended Llamacon, Meta's open-source LLM event. At the time, he speculated that "Llama could be the Linux of LLMs," signaling optimism about Facebook's role in democratizing AI. This foreshadowed a year of deep engagement with emerging technologies, particularly after his "ATProto pilling" on September 27th. Inspired by Dan Abramov's writings and guided by Simon Willison, Simonds dove into the decentralized protocol powering Bluesky. He praised the technical rigor of ATProto's architecture and the collaborative spirit of its community, noting, "I admire the hard work of so many people who have been thinking hard about protocols for a lot longer than I have."

Beyond the code, Simonds confronted the emotional toll of tech culture. He critiqued micro-blogging's impact on relationships, quoting journalist Ezra Klein: "Twitter makes me dislike people I like, and podcasts make me like people I dislike." Simonds expanded on this, warning that public disparagement on platforms like Bluesky—where all content is inherently public—carries disproportionate weight: "Would you say what you're saying about them to every single person on the planet? Because that's kinda what you're doing." This introspection led to a broader revelation about developer burnout. After years of intense coding focus, Simonds admitted to conflicting desires: "I wanna be a computer genius who knows everything and is widely celebrated for my remarkable computer accomplishments" versus "I wanna close my laptop lid and never ever open it again."

Simonds' journey underscores critical industry shifts. His involvement in events like Llamacon reflects the burgeoning open-source AI movement, while his ATProto engagement highlights growing interest in decentralized alternatives to monolithic social networks. Yet, his ambivalence about constant connectivity—evidenced by his habit of leaving his phone behind and relying on a Wi-Fi-enabled Kindle—speaks to a wider reckoning with digital overload in tech professions. As he quit his job in 2025, Simonds' story is a microcosm of a field balancing innovation with sustainability, where community-driven protocols offer hope but cannot fully alleviate the craving for unplugged human connection.

Source: Adapted from Jake Simonds' personal blog post, 2025 Delights.