Trends from 2025 hidden in plain sight.
Chicken fried rice has such a consistent, distinct smell—for the most part. That peppery, garlicky, soy-saucey thing.
I love it.
Last night Isobel and I got takeout from a Thai place we like but don't get all that often. We got to chatting about each other's day and I'd mentioned the messages I'd been receiving about my latest post on Substack. I was surprised, but she wasn't. I'm lucky; she's an amazingly supportive partner.
Sometimes people say nice things about the stuff I write, and while I'm hyper-aware of not letting it go to my head, it does feel good to know that something I wrote meant enough for them to go out of their way and tell me so.
Wrapping up a few things before we ate, I told her how I'd decided to go rogue. Pretty much at the last minute, I'd opted not to post what I'd planned to and chose to gamble instead. Across from me, she smiled. Again, she didn't seem all that shocked.
I've been trying to figure out the "where and when" of what to post for a while now (especially since starting this daily email series back in September). I'd been using my weekly newsletter on Substack to feature things I'd created for BUDS as a way of promoting it. But recently, I noticed something interesting...
What I write here doesn't land the same on Substack. At all. Not even with my existing subscribers. It just doesn’t seem to translate. As I explained my decision to swap what I published at the last second, Isobel's head tipped to the side inquisitively.
"There's too many open loops" I'd told her.
Since the stuff I write for BUDS is a daily thing, there's familiarity baked-in. I trust that you have a baseline understanding of where I'm coming from, or that you will eventually if you stick around. So I try not to over-explain things. I'm not in the business of telling people what to do, anyway. The unspoken rule here in the land of BUDS is that the throughline meanders between multiple pieces in the series at a time—the story picks up, continues, pivots, and circles back later.
"But on Substack" I continued, "I think sharing only one example of a daily snippet at a time leaves readers hanging... it's like the open loops make things feel disjointed and incomplete."
Recognition appeared on Isobel's face.
It was total speculation, but the couple of times where I'd reworked multiple BUDS entries to play supporting roles in a brand-new storyline? Those did very, very well. I'd noticed that pattern by accident when something I wrote using that approach became my third most popular essay of all time. That's how this entire hypothesis came to be. And it's the reason I'd decided to gamble on Sunday night. I told Isobel I'd felt like a chef, using the ingredients at my disposal to make something new on the fly. Like, using leftovers to make chicken fried rice.
This morning, after that conversation with Isobel, I had a bit of a wtf moment while making some updates to my personal website (derekmacdonald.com).
It's been a while since I've looked into my performance metrics, beyond surface level stuff. That's a habit I'm happy to have broken. But I was curious to see what other trends I might be missing.
So I looked and discovered that the total number of long-form pieces I published in 2025 is... 151.
151.
Um. What?
I was stunned.
And very curious to know which of those 151 published works seemed to resonate most with people. Here’s what I found when I dug deeper.
Top 5 Essays of 2025 (42 total)
- What Lonely Men Won't Say Online (Or In-Person)
- The Masked Destruction Of "Male Loneliness"
- A Cup Of What Sets Your Heart On Fire
- For When Your Spark Burns Out
- A Story All Your Own
Top 5 Podcast Episodes of 2025 (32 total)
- The Overlooked Half Of 'The Let Them Theory'
- Digging Out Of Content Fatigue With A Different Approach To Posting
- Talking About Suicide Saves Lives
- If Your Data's A Mess, Your Results Will Be Too—Even With AI
- The Other Side Of Shame And Fear
Top 5 BUDS of 2025 (77 total).
- Your Most Unconventional Self
- Grieving, Still Believing
- When You Least Expect It
- Hyper-Vigilante Injustice
- The Flow State You Requested Is Ready
The coolest part is that I launched BUDS on September 1st. So if 2025 were a football game, that means I scored most of my points in the second half. And of the top 5 most popular essays I wrote this year, three of them were created from BUDS leftovers.
Our Daily MAP Year Prompt
135/365
When's the last time you used ingredients you already had to make something new?
onward.
Help BUDS grow by passing this along to someone who’d appreciate it. Oh, and if something clicked for you while reading, let me know what it was.