About the next level and failures I’ve heard about “getting out of your comfort zone” for decades, but it never really made sense to me. Yes, growing happens when you stop doing the comfortable routine and start doing something else, something challenging you are not used to, but why would you do that in the first place?! It is called a comfort zone for a reason. I mean I get it, but at the same…
And starting new ones! It is always nice to get excited for something new happening; new job, new project, new vacations, new house, new book, new anything. Is the expectation of what it could be, the freshness of something unknown. Sometimes it can be stressful, but most of the time that stress comes from the adrenaline of the new thing. Lean back, relax, and enjoy.
Concluding things It is slightly weird when a project finishes or when you change jobs. You put a lot of effort and energy into understanding how things work, getting along with the people you’re going to work with, and integrating; and then when things are over, the next day you’re no longer part of that team. It is too abrupt. There is something “unnatural” about this process; I imagine in…
Making things simple It is not trivial; every new thing added is a new thing that has to be maintained, and everything that is not added makes the existing ones work more, or simply there are no features. Then you have to think how to reuse existing spaces, how you would add more features without breaking the existing patterns. Not an easy task. Right now I’m trying to make this “blogging…
Gratitude I know a good way to handle your stress (and your life in general) is to practice gratitude. As with many other things I’ve learned in the past, I didn’t quite get why. The obvious way is to pause for a bit and “count your blessings”. And then after a couple of months, it is easy to forget to do it. Today I was commuting, a “long” commute (40 minutes instead of the 12 my train usually…
Empathy Not an easy trait but totally worth learning. It is easier if learned as a child, but even as a grown-up, being empathetic would save you a lot of headaches, helping you to understand why the person you interact with acts as they do. You don’t even need to agree with them, just understand what might be going on in their lives. What the stressors are. Being empathetic helps you too; once…
Some time off I had 2 weeks of time off after a long time without one. The bad We caught a cold on the plane and we were basically sick the whole time. Because we are in extreme saving mode we didn't go anywhere (even if we were not sick). So basically we stayed at a tiny house, with no wifi, watching morning shows like "Live Kelly and Mark", "The Price Is Right" and similar shows. The good The…
Goal Setting Whether it is explicit or implicit, setting goals is what makes life interesting, what makes me want to look forward to the future. They could be as simple as what I want to eat this weekend, which is borderline similar to making a simple decision because I’m selecting between multiple options, all the way to lifelong goals. Either way, small or transcending, explicitly mentioned or…
Just show up Sometimes, especially when I’m new to something or somewhere (new job, new gathering, new “something”), I get reasonably nervous. Depending on the situation, I might get more than reasonably nervous. I have to remember that this is normal; a new situation triggers the cycle of anxiety: high expectations, fear of failure, what-ifs, and I know these are usually self-imposed. All normal.…
Vibe Coding, 3 months later Pausing After 220+ commits and around 32k lines of generated code, I paused my vibe coding experiment. Around the 25k LOC mark, doing any modification became increasingly difficult. I tried refactoring the code several times to make it easier to modify but with no luck; some sessions turned into abysmal regressions and others, after many hours, into very small…
Vibe Coding in Practice "Just learn to prompt" I was very annoyed with the recommendations of learning to prompt to use AI. That is not how it was supposed to work! As a Software Engineer, I've been learning how to translate user requirements into working solutions that offer consistent results. That is, how to provide instructions to a machine (through a programming language, systems, platforms,…
Ask questions A semi follow up of: ”Stop! Just ask for help!” Asking questions sometimes might feel cumbersome. Who to ask? Should I send a message to a group channel? What happens if nobody responds? What happens if they respond and I don’t know the answer. What has been recently working for me is the following: Identify the original source/ Ask the source/ Then find out who was involved/ Ask…
I don’t have anything to write about Oct 4th, 2025 It’s just a Saturday morning. It’s cold. It is cloudy. I want to write about how my last few weeks have gone, all the learnings and experiences, that while scarce, are significant. I’ve had many new “first-time” things happen and there have been many stressors I have gone through, but there are so many that it’s not very clear which topic to…
Stress causes more stress I just learned one of those “very obvious” things, that wasn’t so obvious until someone else said it. Stress is a response to a difficult situation, originally it was to activate our survival instinct, the flight-or-fight response, that has been in our nature since before we turned into humans. When we were wild animals, this helped us to scape predators or use extra…
Root cause To solve a problem, you must first understand its root cause. Even if you can't solve the root cause directly, knowing what it is allows you to create a more effective workaround. You can identify the root cause by repeatedly asking "But why?"—just like a child. While this process is simple, it can lead to complex insights. Knowing the underlying cause lets you make an informed decision…
Try again! Growing up, I internalized that you have only one chance to do a thing, and if you failed, that was it. I’m not sure where this mindset started, probably at school when the teacher asked a question, and if your answer was wrong, it was someone else's turn; you failed. Spilling the milk, falling on a bicycle, forgetting the lyrics to a song, getting rejected by your crush, failing a…
Life updates! It has been a while since the last post… I don’t even remember when was that. The past few months have been a little bit crazy, good crazy. We decided to move countries, and start applying for jobs, I applied to everything available in the Netherlands. A few week later I got a job offer that I accepted. Then the task to find a house for rent started, tldr; it was hard. A month ago…
It is hard to acknowledge mistakes I mean, it is really hard; it exposes our vulnerabilities, it highlights our weaknesses, and potentially reduces the trust others have on us. And yet, it is crucial to acknowledge them as soon as we realize we made them. That is the first step to learn from those mistakes, and if needed, compensate for the damage incurred if any. Failure to admit a mistake, often…
A Social Network without 30 June 2020, 5:20 am Imagine a social network without advertisement That doesn’t profile you With no Likes or Followers Without distraction machinery to make you crave for more What you have left is what really matters, your own stories, your own memories, your own connection.
How to get to sleep July 15th, 2020 Guarantee to work… almost Think of a fond memory of yours; it could be a trip, a childhood memory. Pretty much anything. Try to remember the details, how did you get there, what happened the day before or a few moments earlier. Remember the details of the event and let it flow into what happened next. Recreate it in your mind. Remember who you were with, details…
Why should we try to be a better person Why? Is it because if we don't try, we drift to worsen? What defines what's better or worse? Is it subjective? Cultural? A social construct? Assuming the meaning of life if to enjoy it, the better we are, the better the opportunities to enjoy it will be. For example, let's take sleeping all day long; we can argue that's something enjoyable and thus a good…
Always learning Aug 3rd, 2020 We are like no other specie, always curious about our surroundings, we are from a few weeks after being born, always trying to learn and understand how things work. Probably this curiosity slows down as we get older, but as far as I’m concerned I’m still trying to learn as much as possible. This trait has been exploited by the current state of the Internet,…
Continuous improvement I’m really impressed by people that do A LOT of work; think of someone that has written an 8 series book or ran an ultramarathon or learned all Chopin’s piano pieces, all of them. The common trait all of these people have is perseverance and consistency, these milestones are more often than not achieved through continuous and consistent work. Of course, natural ability makes…
Star gazing August 13th, 2am It took me three days but finally today I was able to watch shooting stars. I grew up in a place where going out after 8pm requires you to wear a sweater, no matter the time of the year, and definitely at least three layers after midnight. Now I live in Texas and my brain struggles to understand it's 30C (86f) at 2 am. I for one am glad as I could pull a chair in the…
Sunday It's 35C outside. I hung a hammock, pour a beer and turned on the fans. Took a nap for about good 20 minutes. I'm waiting for the Ragú to finish its mandatory 2hr slow cook, so technically speaking I'm cooking. Now I'm hungry and the good news is it will only take 15 more minutes to have dinner ready
No keyboard, less entries I usually write at night when I have these ideas floating in my head. Unfortunately due to unexpected circumstances my Chromebook's keyboard stopped working (well not exactly “unexpected”, but I'm too embarrassed to explain how spills happen). Because of that I'm writing less. The other reason is because I'm starting to get self conscious of what I said because I might…
The best time of my life I have been very fortunate and many ways, and this lockdown has given me opportunities I never had before, namely work from home. At the end of the workday, I just walk out of the room I use as an office and I’m instantly at home, my commute was already good, but at some point in my life it was taking me up to 3 hrs each way, needless to say, I switched jobs. There are…
Things will not always go well though April 28 2021 Sometimes things that are not under our control will go bad, which is already hard to deal with but to some degree easier to get over, they weren’t our fault after all. But when things that are under our control go bad the feeling is terrible. We should remember not to be too harsh with ourselves in those situations either, this is how life is.…
A year of remote working May 13, 2021 I always wanted to do remote work, since the days I had to commute 4-5 hrs a day, every single day for years and years, the only thing I could think of was to move away from that. Then I’ve got a job where I had to commute 10 minutes (20 total) it was like a dream. That’s all fine and good, absolutely no complaints there. I even started to ride my bicycle to…
This is your life Do what you love and do it often. If you don’t like something, change it. If you don’t like your job, quit. If you don’t have enough time, stop watching tv. If you are looking for the love of your life, stop; they will be waiting for you when you start doing things you love. Stop over analyzing, all emotions are beautiful. Life is simple. When you eat appreciate every last bite.…
Learning a new language It’s been a while since I learn a new language… the only other language I actually can say I know is English. I learned it in a very long period of time. I took classes for two months every 4-5 years and in each enrollment, I “untangled” all the misunderstandings I’ve built in the previous years. It concluded with a 6 months period of advanced classes (1.5 hrs every other…
The second year of remote work I’ve been working remotely for almost two years. There has been a lot of good things about it . Now in this second year I’ve noticed the main reason is the interaction I have with my team. We’ve increased the social interaction we have; we talk more on 1:1’s, we stay longer after a meeting is over just to talk and socialize. The long-term effect is we have built…
Finally this blog has autosave It only took me (according to Wolfram Alpha ) 6 months and 4 days. I lost a couple of entries for postponing this feature so long, but not anymore! It’s a bit embarrassing to be honest but that’s ok, this blog is more like a “if I ever have time” kind of project, so it doesn’t stresses me at all. 14 mar 2022 #meta
My favorite analogy for writing code is writing a book When I want to explain the challenges of writing software I usually use writing a book as analogy (or any type of writing). I’ve heard and used others like building a house, but it doesn't quite cut it; the one that works almost perfectly is writing a book. Writing code -> Writing the book. Modules / Libraries / Components -> Chapters,…
The power of feedback It’s very hard to know what are we doing good or what are we doing right objectively. That’s why is important to request feedback and keep an open mind and practice active listening so we can understand and process that feedback. When giving and receiving feedback is important to know the communication style of the interlocutor and try to adapt to it. The most important part…
Mindsets Sept 2022 I came across this episode of The Hidden Brain podcast, where they talked about how the mindset we use to approach life affects our perception of reality. That is something I've heard before but was more in the realm of prep-talk or motivational speech than an actual tool, "think big", "cheer up", "if you put your mind into something..." etc., etc. I couldn't stop thinking that…
A routine that works After trying several productivity methods, I finally found/adapted one that actually works. The key is to keep it lose so that it’s easy to restart in case of failure. First, buy a weekly planner like this one . Every Sunday night, before going to bed, write down what you want to achieve, what new habit you want to form, or what new goal you have in mind. You might have dozens…
How to get to sleep (again) What didn’t work Well it turns out my previous technique to get to sleep stopped working usually for one of these reasons: Sometimes the fond memory is too interesting and I just keep thinking about it and my mind starts wondering instead of falling sleep. I’ve had too much screen time and/or just played a video game and the adrenaline rush is still there. Too much…
Why forming a new habit is so hard? I’m not answering the question, just formulating it. Probably because I’m trying too many changes at once? Probably because I haven’t been able to get rid of some other habit incompatible with the new (e.g. try to wake up early when I still stay up until late at night). Probably the benefits are not completely internalized. Regardless of the reason, I think is…
Perfectionism, Procrastination, Stress, and taking deep breaths You might be a perfectionist and think people would judge you for your work, so much so you don't even want to start it because you know it won't be perfect. Try to embrace imperfection. Start doing the task at hand for 5 minutes and feel the discomfort (the pressure in the chest, the heat, the sweating, the lack of air), that's your…
Walk, and talk and eat. The day is new The sun is coming up. There are trees on one side, there’s the city in the other. The lake / river is so calm it creates almost a perfect mirror of the trees, the city and the sky. Only disturbed by the paddling, and the birds waking up, and the honking of the cars of the city that’s also waking up. And we’re talking. And I haven’t been this happy in a long…
RTO Today after 3 1/2 years of WFH I’m going back to the office. I’ll go in hybrid mode, 3 days at the office, 2 days WFH, which I assume eventually will go away. There are a lot of good thing about working remotely, mainly chat is the preferred way of communication . If face to face communication is needed, a quick video conference can be arranged in seconds with additional advantage we could…
It’s ok to go slow I mean, what’s the benefit of rushing unless you have a clear idea of what you’re doing and know exactly were are you going (just like in a race, where you have practiced and know exactly the track and now you’re just trying to do it faster), but if you don’t really know and are discovering the path, take your time, learn along the way, and keep moving. There’s an old saying…
Progress This is not an early celebratory post, because the progress I’ve made is not an end goal, thus is basically impossible to fail (or to mark as “complete”) Instead is a moment to reflect that in the last 6 months ( probably a year or maybe a little more ) I have finally made some small improvements in my lifestyle. I used to go to sleep at 11 pm when I was very young, then it turned into 12…
Online discussions Just like in real life, discussions are better when they are personal, with someone you know and when the parts already know how to have a civil discussion. Otherwise, they are just a waste of time really. Sometimes is worth trying but bear in mind you won’t change someone’s mind, when that someone has a preconceived idea. Obligatory xkcd
There are times When you just have to do it. There are times when you can think and analyze things, and that’s fine. Actually no, that’s necessary. But when you have already analyzed all your options, as good as you can, there is no point trying to guess what’s going to happen next, just go and do it!
Zettlelkasten method How to Create a Fleeting Notes Inbox Fleeting notes are raw, unprocessed notes. Keep references to source material if deemed necessary They will be deleted once they're processed. Process Fleeting Notes and Create New Notes in the Permanent Notes Folder Each new note should have a unique ID. Notes can be atomic or hub : Atomic : Keeps a single idea. Use your own words Hub :…
Living is exciting There are two things that I recently put together in my head, that are complementary: Routine creates discipline. When you get used to do things all the time they become easier and easier. Breaking the routine is important. Always doing the same thing is boring, breaking it brings excitement. While these two seems so obvious I didn’t realize they go in hand, having a good base…
How to go back to sleep Ok, I’m finally over the “go to sleep” phase in my life. Now I’m struggling with staying asleep. The first part got solved by going to establishing a routine and sticking to it: going to be around the same time, stop using electronics moments earlier, no caffeine, etc. Now, my problem is, if for any reason I wake up 4-5 hrs. after I feel asleep, my body feels it has rested…
My first conversation in a new language I’ve been learning Dutch on and off for about 2 years, and only until a few weeks ago, I’ve been consistently doing 5 minutes a day, which is not much. Yesterday while playing Chess online I notice my opponent was from the Netherlands, so I said: How gaat het? Dat is mijn een “phrase” or “How is it going? That is my one phrase” And then I continued with…