My thoughts about software engineering, productivity, tools etc.
Elon Musk is not special. His system is. You can use it too. First Principles. Strip your problem to its basic truths. Ask "why" five times. Build from there. Big Goals. Small goals make you lazy. Pick something that scares you a little. Constraints force creativity. Ship Fast. Done is better than perfect. Put rough work into the world. Learn from real feedback. Execute. Ideas cost nothing. Doing…
I tried NixOS for a few weeks. It showed me more about what I value in a computer than it did about itself. The declarative model works. Your whole system lives in one file. No hidden state. No setup that slowly drifted from what you intended. I broke things twice. Both times I booted into a previous generation and was back in two minutes. The tooling fits together. Flakes, home-manager,…
Introduction I read 146 books in 2025. A year packed with fiction spanning multiple languages, deep dives into mindfulness with Thich Nhat Hanh, the complete Expanse series, and a wide range of non-fiction from investing to technology and leadership. Here are my favorites from this year's readings, in no particular order. Fiction Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang Short stories about free will,…
Fiction Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro In Klara and the Sun , Kazuo Ishiguro tells the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend, as she navigates the complexities of human emotions and forms a close bond with a young girl. Through Klara's observations of the world and those around her, the novel explores themes of love, consciousness, and humanity. Thieves Emporium by Max Hernandez Dive into the…
Theory U is a social science theory developed by Otto Scharmer , a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The theory is based on the idea that we can create positive social change by shifting our consciousness and the way we pay attention to the world around us. According to Theory U, this shift in consciousness involves moving from a state of ego-system awareness…
There are three main organizational structures that I'm going to cover in this post: Holacracy Sociocracy 3.0 Spotify model Holacracy Holacracy is an organizational model that focuses on self-management and distributed authority. Holacracy is a system that allows people to organize themselves, their roles, and their responsibilities into ever-shifting structures. It does this by replacing…
Some elements are critical for the team to work well and produce a high-quality product. Psychological safety This team does not hold mistakes against its members You can bring up problems and issues freely Being different does not cause rejection in this team It is safe to take risks on this team It is easy and natural to ask for help No one on this team would deliberately act in a way that…
"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young." - Henry Ford The most successful people are lifelong learners. Today we have access to an infinite source of knowledge. It is up to us to learn every day. Make learning a habit. Some examples of learning you can integrate into your life:…
Introduction I read 158 books in 2021. It is less than in 2020, but it was a peculiar year anyway. Here are my top 10 of this year's readings, in no particular order. Top 10 Hell Yeah or No: what's worth doing by Derek Sivers A collection of thoughts about saying yes to less, and making better decisions. Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi I don't like professional sport but I liked this…
October is approaching and the registrations for the Hacktoberfest 2020 are now possibles. As every year, the goal is to promote contributing to open source projects by offering a limited edition T-shirt or (new this year) planting a tree to everyone making at least 4 pull requests during the month of October. Everyone interested is welcome, whether you're a seasoned contributor or a beginner.…