Here is my annual review of 2025 to answer the following three questions:

1. What went well this year?
2. What didn’t go so well this year?
3. What did I learn?

1. What Went Well This Year?

Work

• 0 acceptance and 6 submissions. I had 5 submissions to journals and 1 submission to a conference this year:

  • JMIS: 1
  • DSS: 1
  • JAIS: 2
  • ISR: 1
  • ICIS: 1

• Bootstrap Research Grants. I was awarded $6K (December 2025) from Ivy College of Business for research support in the next year. I will use it mainly to boost my AI skills and to start AI projects.

Reading

55 Books I Read This Year

• These are the eight that I highly recommend (with a short summary I wrote for each book):

  1. Know My Name - by Chanel Miller

  I admire both her courage and her writing.

  2. Wild Swans - by Jung Chang

  It is unsurprising that this book has been banned in China. The thoroughness with which Jung Chang approached the narrative is commendable. Her detailed examination serves to illustrate the detrimental effects of dictatorship on human societies.

  3. The Molecule Of More - by Daniel Z. Lieberman & Michael E. Long

  This book reminds me of many successful and unsatisfied (unhappy) people: Kobe Bryant, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates. It also reminds me to keep up with my daily meditation so that I can be in the here and now (H&N).

  4. Meditations For Mortals - by Oliver Burkeman

  The author Oliver Burkeman wrote one of my favorite books: Four Thousand Weeks. This new book is another gem.

  5. Never Finished - by David Goggins

  I achieved a 2:38:02 marathon time, which I’m really proud of! This book has inspired me to aim even higher—my next goal is 2:30. Here is my favorite quote from the book “The world needs doctors, lawyers, and teachers, but we also need savages to prove that we are all capable of so much more.” #neverfinished.

  6. The Running Ground - by Nicholas Thompson

  This memoir was both inspiring and informative for my training. I’ve ordered beet juice and will incorporate airplane exercises and z-presses into my strength routine. To improve speed, I’m adding two weekly sessions targeting VO2 max and threshold pace.

  7. We Did Ok Kid - by Anthony Hopkins

  I was captivated by the musicality of his voice and the poetic quality of his performance. I also appreciated learning about his personal struggles with alcohol and his journey to recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous—it added meaningful depth to his story.

  The influence of his father on his life struck me as particularly significant, reminiscent of the father-son dynamic explored in another book, The Running Ground.

  His dedication to his craft reminds me of Kobe Bryant’s approach to basketball: both exemplified relentless preparation and an unwavering commitment to excellence through consistent hard work.

  8. 大江大海一九四九 - by 龙应台

  The author compassionately recounts the Chinese Civil War (1945-1949), beginning with her mother’s experiences and expanding to the stories of ordinary soldiers in both the People’s Liberation Army and the Kuomintang.

Travel

This year, we traveled to Europe and to China during the summer.

Summer outside Colosseum at Rome Italy with my Students

Summer inside Colosseum at Rome Italy

Summer in Pagani at Modena Italy

Summer at Pompeii Italy

Summer on Yangtze River Cruise

Summer in ChongQing China

Running

• I ran 2,689 miles this year, which is around 7.4 miles (11.9 KM) per day.

2025 Run Summary

• I Finished 7 full Marathons this year:

  • Fastest Time (Min): 2:38:08
  • Mean: 2:43:48
  • Standard Deviation: 2 minutes 55 seconds

Piano lessons

I learned two songs composed by Joe Hisaishi this year:

• Summer - Theme from the 1999 film “Kikujiro”
• Memory - Main theme from the 2008 film “Departures”

Blog Posts

I wrote 5 blog posts this year (3 in English and 2 in Chinese), now organized into separate sections. Some of them are posted on both my WeChat account (爱学习的运动员) and my website (chengnie.com/blog).

English posts:

• Why Do I Run? in February
• Modern Web Scraping with AI: A 1-Hour Tutorial in October
• Chicago Marathon 2025 in October

Chinese posts:

• 那年的情书 (A love letter from 2003) in January
• 2025 芝加哥马拉松 (Chicago Marathon 2025) in October

2. What Didn’t Go So Well This Year?

• Fell Short of Submission Goal I aimed to submit 12 papers in 2025 but only achieved 6 submissions—half of my target.

• 30-minute daily research challenge broken. For the first seven months of the year, I maintained my commitment to spend at least 30 minutes daily on research projects, even while teaching in Rome. However, I broke this streak in August during my time in China. Multiple distractions, combined with stress from an upcoming MISQ revision deadline, made it difficult to focus. I found myself staring at my laptop before bed, unable to make meaningful progress. This marked the end of my daily 30-minute research streak in its fourth year. Upon returning to Ames, I recommitted to my daily research practice. Since then, I’ve maintained consistent progress, working on research projects for at least 30 minutes each day.

• Late Sleep Schedule My sleep schedule significantly impacts my productivity. When I go to bed after 11 pm, I wake up around 7 am. By the time I have breakfast with the kids and get to the gym, it’s already past 8 am. Sometimes I end up spending the entire morning and part of the afternoon there. However, when I sleep before 10 pm, I can wake up at 5:30 am and arrive at the gym when it opens at 6 am. This allows me to complete my workout and reach my office by 9 am, keeping me on track with my research and teaching responsibilities.

• Missed Revision Deadline I missed a major revision deadline this year (MISQ). I didn’t allocate sufficient time to the revision, compounded by traveling with my family during that period. Moving forward, I hope to better pace myself with future revisions to achieve a healthier balance between work and family commitments.

3. What Did I Learn?

• AI Integration

AI has become an invaluable tool across multiple aspects of my life: from writing and reading to coding and even personal counseling. I’m committed to deepening my understanding of AI technologies to further enhance my productivity and well-being.

• Running Fundamentals

Several running books I read this year (including The Running Ground and Never Finished mentioned above) helped me return to the fundamentals of running and refine my training approach. With this renewed understanding, I’m confident I can achieve my goal of completing a marathon in under 2 hours and 30 minutes within the next two years.

• Learning Through Teaching

I’ve discovered that teaching others is the most effective way to solidify my own understanding. Going forward, I plan to share more knowledge about running, writing, and my academic work through conference presentations and other platforms.