Written by me, proof-read by an LLM.
Details at end.
2025 has been quite a year for me. The big ticket things for me were having the majority of the year on a non-compete, a new job, and some videos and conference talks.
It was a bumper year for my public talks, which included:
I also appeared in a number of Computerphile videos:
On the Compiler Explorer front, I finally solved a three-year-old problem with CEFS — our new content-addressable filesystem that mounts compiler images on demand instead of all 2,000+ at boot time. I also launched the experimental Claude Explain feature during my CppCon keynote, and wrote about how CE works and our cost transparency. As always, CE is a community effort and I’m grateful to all the contributors who keep it running.
Ben and I kept up our monthly Two’s Complement podcast, releasing all 12 episodes on schedule. Highlights included pondering AI pair programming, debating C++ and Rust, worrying about vibe coding replacing junior developers, and bonding over Factorio.
I ticked off a bucket list item by appearing in a Tom7 video, alongside such greats as Matt Parker and jan Misali in a bonkers Secret Santa video. Such fun, and thank you Santa for my very awesome comic book.
Finally I had my very own series on YouTube - the Advent of Code Optimisation - 27 videos in all. That was a huge amount of work: with the blog posts, filming and editing I estimate I spent around 10 hours on each 5-10m video!
A very busy year, ending with me starting work at Hudson River Trading. I’m only a month in, but I couldn’t be happier with my decision to work here: it’s a fantastic place full of impressive technology, interesting problems, and perhaps most importantly, kind and thoughtful human beings.
Here’s to whatever excitement 2026 will bring! Happy New Year everyone!
This post was written by a human (Matt Godbolt) and reviewed and proof-read by an LLM.
Matt Godbolt is a C++ developer living in Chicago. He works for Hudson River Trading on super fun but secret things. He is one half of the Two's Complement podcast. Follow him on Mastodon or Bluesky.