Nine Minutes Later
A short story about my son turning nine, making a mistake at school, and learning a lesson just nine minutes later.
Alex Maltsev — Blog
Writing about learning, discipline, work, and life.
Latest posts
Built for a Future You’ll Never See
Two real-life stories about work done without recognition, and how care and patience can turn into lasting legacy.
A Big Heart
A short personal reflection on a medical checkup, a “big heart,” and choosing kindness, empathy, and generosity.
19358
A personal reflection on birthdays, time, journaling, and using numbers as a reminder to live each day more consciously.
My New Podcast
Discover my new podcast, 50 Lessons, where I share personal reflections on capoeira, teaching, leadership, and life. Listen to stories and lessons from my journey.
On People with Range
On valuing people who can stay grounded, think deeply, and move naturally between everyday life and bigger ideas.
A Professional Amateur
A short essay on being a professional amateur—why you don’t need mastery to enjoy your work, learn widely, and even earn from what you love.
Three words for the future
An exercise on choosing three guiding words for the year ahead—and how focus, sharing, and building shape my direction in 2026.
On focus, failure, and finishing things
Updated in early January 2026, from my home on Koh Samui, Thailand<br<br
My 2025 Annual Review
What went well this year? What didn’t go so well this year? What am I working toward?
On finishing my first book, webdev, and reading challenge
November updates
Updated November 2025, from my desk in Thailand
February updates
Updated February 2025, from my home in Thailand
January updates
Updated January 8, 2025, from my home in Thailand
My 2024 Annual Review
What went well this year? What didn’t go so well this year? What am I working toward?
"Switch", Chip and Dan Heath
nan
My approach to learning Thai
nan
"Make It Stick", Peter C Brown
nan
"Confession of a Public Speaker", Scott Berkun
nan
"The Daily Dad", Ryan Holiday
It is a great daily read on being a parent. Full inspirational stories, historical anecdotes, and other book recommendations. Here are my notes from "The Daily Dad" by Ryan Holiday.
Fixing "ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock'" on macOS
nan
The Launch of CapoeiraWiki
nan
Alex Newsletter: Quick Trip to China, Contributing Locally and Globally
nan
Alex Newsletter: What I'm focused on right now
nan
"How To Live", Derek Sivers
nan
"You Can Negotiate Anything", Herb Cohen
nan
Learning Thai
nan
"Ultralearning", Scott Young
nan
"Digital Minimalism", Cal Newport
nan
Alex Newsletter: Last posts for #50days50lessons challenge
nan
The camel in the room
nan
Journey to Formatura
nan
Third-party tools
nan
Teacher is a tool
Once, I asked Mestre Edan, a capoeira master and the teacher of many great capoeiristas worldwide, about the key quality that transforms a student into an extraordinary capoeira player. His response was unequivocal...
Don’t Send Your Ducks to Eagle School
Good people are found, not changed. They can change themselves, but you can't change them. If you want good people, you have to find them. If you want motivated people, you have to find them, not motivate them. (...) Don't waste your time trying to turn ducks into eagles. Hire people who already have the motivation and drive to be eagles and then just let them soar.
Alex Newsletter: Building Communities, Culture, Generations
nan
Three Formulas
Formula for failure, personal success, and building big successful communities
You Move, I Move
nan
Generations
nan
Over The Line
nan
Monthly review and last 30 days of the year
nan
Новый блог и рассылка
nan
Mindset and The Snowball Effect
nan
Building a Culture
nan
Alex Newsletter: Arguments, malandragem, and momentum
nan
The Aim of Argument
The aim of argument or of discussion should not be victory, but progress. Just like when we are playing capoeira, we are not trying to destroy each other, but we are trying to sharpen our axe, trying to get better...
Leaders vs Managers
nan
Action vs Drama
nan
Momentum
nan
What got me here won’t get me there
nan