Matan's Blog 2025 Year In Review
Happy New Year! I published 28 posts during 2025, which was my first year writing this blog1; since I just launched right into posting – without properly introducing myself or welcoming all of you – some solipsism may be warranted at this point.
My professional life has followed two parallel tracks. Formally, I have spent over 20 years in software engineering / management, starting back when we used to fit systems on physical servers and ship them to the customer’s premises, and through the fascinating shift to the cloud which completely transformed the software development; off the resume, I’ve been actively managing a portfolio of stocks for the last 10+ years. While many people trade stocks, I had taken very seriously the decision to switch from passive index funds to actively selecting stocks – after I had been studying Buffett’s letters and reading any book that seemed relevant – and I have been taking it as seriously as I was taking my day job.
I find writing online as a tremendously effective way for me to connect these two personalities and explore common areas of fascination. Matan’s Blog has been a great forcing function for me to try and live up to what Charlie Munger defined as a learning machine. So that’s what I try to do around here.
The name is obviously still work-in-progress, which reflects the fact that I am still figuring out additional aspects of this blog, such as the right voice, structure, and process. Although I’ve been writing another blog, in Hebrew, for 4 years now (meduplam.blog), I wasn’t excited about just AI-translating everything into English (you’re more than welcome, though, to try reading my Hebrew blog with AI; if you do - please let me know how it went!). And so I chose not to be beholden to what worked well for a blog limited to (mostly) Israeli audience, but rather start from scratch as I switch to English and open up to the entire internet. It’s been challenging at times, yet a very interesting exercise, and I can’t wait to find out where I end up taking this blog over the next few years.
A great source of motivation to keep writing has been, well, the fact that there are people actually reading it. And more so, receiving comments and feedback that helped me shape my thinking and explore adjacent topics and takes. Many thanks to every one of you of have been reading, sharing, or commenting, and joining me on this ride!
Now, to some highlights from the last year –
Five Most Viewed Posts
Back in March, I felt like the common narrative about Google being too fat and lazy to build AI products was wrong. My take was originally an email to Sharp Tech (still my favorite podcast); the resonant response it received from Ben Thompson, and later from MBI Deep Dives (Back To Google!), encouraged me to properly articulate this blog post, which garnered the most attention out of everything I wrote this year. The take itself seems to have held up very well in hindsight, though the AI race might still be in its early innings.
After Ohad Eder-Pressman showed me his mind-bending demo — a web server that simply forwards HTTP requests onto an large language model — I couldn’t stop thinking about what this could mean for the future of software. So I tried to capture some of my thoughts.
I’ve worked at Google for about 9 years, and was always fascinated with the culture and the peculiar way in which it operated. This is my attempt at explaining why what may seem as sloppiness and incompetence to an external observer, is actually a source of differentiation and strength.
The strange (and frothy) phenomena of stocks surging following a ChatGPT integration announcement is reminiscent of similar stories during the railroad and dot-com manias. It ended badly when Yahoo actually monetized it, which is something to watch out for with OpenAI.
Wix, one of the most successful tech companies coming out of Israel, is responding to the AI threat by acquiring an Israeli vibe-coding startup Base44, and putting its full weight behind it; it might be the best course of action, even if the market does not like it.
Five Key Themes
Looking back on everything I published this last year, I found that my posts mainly fall into these main categories:
Business Failures And Lessons From History
As much as I enjoy podcasts like Acquired and Founders, and hearing the stories of how the world’s greatest companies and entrepreneurs built their success, I also have a special interest in disruption stories, and how great leaders and companies can sometime stumble.
Google and AI
A few more Google-related posts that I wrote this year.
Technological Transformations Meet Everyday Life
Life Wisdom And Personal Advice
Israeli Tech
In addition to the Wix and Wiz posts mentioned above (similar names, but very different companies!), I wrote a couple of posts on the origins of the Israeli cybersecurity industry:
I Wish all of you a wonderful 2026, full of curiosity and learning (and also, some time with your families and loved ones…)
If you enjoy this blog, please help me spread the word and enlist more people:
Sort-of; I did publish 3 additional posts at the end of 2024.