--- id: post/thinkaboutit-be/7414 type: post title: "Looking Back at 2025: What This Year Taught Me" summary: A personal reflection on 2025 blogging and development work in Business Central, emphasizing that intent and clear thinking matter more than tool features. The author shares lessons on using GitHub Copilot effectively, the importance of code structure in AI-assisted development, practical community guidance, and the power of thoughtful AI use. tier: community language: en tags: - github copilot - al development - intent - structure - power bi - ai tooling - business central release waves - community learning system: development review: state: reviewed by: opus at: "2026-10-08T01:57:32.961Z" flags: [] generated: at: "2026-10-08T01:26:53.141Z" pipeline: 0.2.0 prompts: extract-post: 1 input_hash: 10d82b43846b10d1bdb4b4f5d9908c40cdad80f95c4157d6c78e6dff6b030aac evidence: - kind: blog url: https://thinkaboutit.be/2025/12/looking-back-at-2025-what-this-year-taught-me/ title: "Looking Back at 2025: What This Year Taught Me" date: "2025-12-30" commit: null t: null quote: null - kind: blog url: https://thinkaboutit.be/2025/12/looking-back-at-2025-what-this-year-taught-me/ title: "Looking Back at 2025: What This Year Taught Me" date: "2025-12-30" commit: null t: null quote: Productivity does not come from using more features, but from choosing the right interaction at the right moment. - kind: blog url: https://thinkaboutit.be/2025/12/looking-back-at-2025-what-this-year-taught-me/ title: "Looking Back at 2025: What This Year Taught Me" date: "2025-12-30" commit: null t: null quote: Explicit intent leads to predictable results. Without that intent, even powerful tools quickly become frustrating. - kind: blog url: https://thinkaboutit.be/2025/12/looking-back-at-2025-what-this-year-taught-me/ title: "Looking Back at 2025: What This Year Taught Me" date: "2025-12-30" commit: null t: null quote: Tools change quickly, but clear thinking does not. links: learn: [] objects: [] features: [] topics: [] localizations: [] videos: [] posts: [] guidelines: [] post_id: "7414" source_id: thinkaboutit-be source_name: think about IT - Steven Renders url: https://thinkaboutit.be/2025/12/looking-back-at-2025-what-this-year-taught-me/ published_at: "2025-12-30T08:09:51.000Z" author: Steven Renders full_text: false words: 1446 quotes: - text: Productivity does not come from using more features, but from choosing the right interaction at the right moment. why_it_matters: Core insight that intent and deliberate tool selection matter more than feature abundance - text: Explicit intent leads to predictable results. Without that intent, even powerful tools quickly become frustrating. why_it_matters: Directly addresses how to work effectively with AI tools like Copilot by being intentional - text: Tools change quickly, but clear thinking does not. why_it_matters: Encapsulates the lasting value of fundamentals and structured thinking over chasing new capabilities code_objects_mentioned: - other Power BI Monitor systems: - development - copilot - reporting versions_mentioned: - 2025 Release Wave 2 - v27 preview: embeddable: true frame_url: https://thinkaboutit.be/2025/12/looking-back-at-2025-what-this-year-taught-me/embed/ image: https://i0.wp.com/thinkaboutit.be/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Community.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1 image_alt: null image_w: 1200 image_h: 800 site_name: think about IT favicon: https://i0.wp.com/thinkaboutit.be/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/cropped-SiteIcon2-1.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 probed_at: "2026-10-07T11:51:06.288Z" --- # Looking Back at 2025: What This Year Taught Me [Read the post](https://thinkaboutit.be/2025/12/looking-back-at-2025-what-this-year-taught-me/) · think about IT - Steven Renders (Steven Renders) · 2025-12-30 · 1446 words · tier community · reviewed (checked by Opus) > A personal reflection on 2025 blogging and development work in Business Central, emphasizing that intent and clear thinking matter more than tool features. The author shares lessons on using GitHub Copilot effectively, the importance of code structure in AI-assisted development, practical community guidance, and the power of thoughtful AI use. ## Key points - Intent and choosing the right interaction mode matters more than feature count when using tools like GitHub Copilot - Structure and responsibility separation remain critical in AL and Business Central development, especially when working with AI - Quick tips and how-to posts balance immediate practical help with deeper contextual guidance for the community - Slowing down to clarify explicit intent before acting produces better results than moving fast and correcting later - AI is most effective when guided, constrained, and reviewed rather than used without deliberate thought ## Quotes - "Productivity does not come from using more features, but from choosing the right interaction at the right moment." (Core insight that intent and deliberate tool selection matter more than feature abundance) - "Explicit intent leads to predictable results. Without that intent, even powerful tools quickly become frustrating." (Directly addresses how to work effectively with AI tools like Copilot by being intentional) - "Tools change quickly, but clear thinking does not." (Encapsulates the lasting value of fundamentals and structured thinking over chasing new capabilities) ## AL objects mentioned As named in the post. A name that matches one object page by exact type and name links to it; the others stay as named. - other "Power BI Monitor" ## Context - Features: GitHub Copilot Chat mode, GitHub Copilot Ask mode, GitHub Copilot Edit mode, GitHub Copilot Agent mode, GitHub Copilot Plan mode, Power BI integration, Report objects and layouts - Versions: 2025 Release Wave 2, v27 Source: think about IT - Steven Renders, community blog. Summary, key points and quotes are derived (CONTENT-NOTICE.md); read the original for the full text.