Sam Altman May Control Our Future - Can He Be Trusted?
The author analyzes a New Yorker article with concerning details about Sam Altman and questions whether entrepreneurs should prioritize ethics over growth at all costs.
Salomón Muriel
Salomón's little corner of the internet.
Latest posts
What education experts do you know who are active on LinkedIn?
Salomón Muriel asks for recommendations of education experts active on LinkedIn to diversify his feed, which is currently dominated by tech and political content.
How I Automatically Synced My LinkedIn to My Personal Blog
Salomón Muriel explains how he automated publishing his LinkedIn posts to his personal blog using Claude, Apify, and GitHub Actions.
This Time the Real Deal 🔥 — Has Anyone Read Grit by Angela Duckworth?
This time I actually have the right book. Has anyone read it yet? Is it as good as Miguel Vanegas Torres says, or is Migue overselling it?
I Read the Wrong 'Grit' Book by Mistake
I was finishing 'Grit'... and unlike everyone I'd talked to, I thought it was bad. Then I discovered I'd read the wrong book. Reminder: measure twice, cut once.
I Got the Scariest Email of the Year 💀 — and It Was a Scam
A supposed notice from Colombia's tax authority (DIAN). I broke out in a cold sweat. Then I realized — obvious phishing from a gmail address. How do we protect ourselves when one distracted moment is all it takes?
Utopias Do Exist: Colombia's Proyecto Utopía
Fernando Molano showed us Proyecto Utopía in 60 minutes: agriculture + entrepreneurship education, 100% oriented around doing, on a rural campus in Casanare. A massive inspiration.
🚀 I Was Elected to the Colombia Edtech Board
Co-building in community is my motto. Today I'm excited to announce I was elected to the Colombia Edtech board — dreaming of co-building the future of education with the whole ecosystem.
I Built Votabien.co to Compare Colombia's Presidential Candidates
Getting informed about the candidates was a nightmare — so I built the solution myself. Votabien.co: everything cited, sources linked, same prompts for everyone, total transparency.
Top 3 Candidates and Not One of Them Makes Their Government Plan Easy to Find
I just wanted to get informed about what each candidate is proposing. The information basically doesn't exist — or at least I couldn't find it. Isn't a government plan a requirement to run?
What Are We Building Toward? My Talk at Halcyon LAC ClimateTech
For the second year, I gave my 'Building Towards' talk at Halcyon LAC, a program for Latin American ClimateTech entrepreneurs. Incredible to meet people with fire for changing the planet.
When and How to Let Someone Go: My 2-Category Framework
The most controversial: any new hire who doesn't deliver in the first two months — out. The most common: the veteran who hits a rough patch. Here's my process.
6 Conversations About Passion: How Do We Find What We Love?
In 2 weeks I had 6 conversations about 'how do I do what I'm passionate about?' Some people went completely blank. How do we find and own our passions?
🚀 Hiring a Tech Apprentice to Work Directly with Me at Ignia
Looking for a Tech Apprentice with vibecoding experience and product skills to build 100% with AI. I'll teach everything I know and promise real challenges.
The 3 'Hard' Skills That Actually Matter Today
Design Thinking, agile business mindset, and technology — plus adaptive leadership and a growth mindset. That combo makes a winning professional in any field today.
Connect and Converse: The Thursday Ritual That Fuels My Best Ideas
Every Thursday, no matter what, I meet new, interesting, vibrant people. It's a BASIC part of professional growth — and where the best shower ideas come from.
Purpose and Life Path: Are We Building from What We Love?
A coffee with Miguel Vanegas Torres had me questioning whether it actually matters to work on things you love. I spent 10 years building in areas I didn't love — and honestly, it wasn't so bad.
We're Launching Bootcamps to Reimagine Higher Education! 🔥
The overflowing passion for changing higher education led us to launch in-person bootcamps in Bogotá — market-relevant topics, world-class instructors, max 40 spots.
Network: Looking for People with Toy Industry Experience 🧸
Do you know anyone from the toy industry — big brands or indie — who'd be willing to talk about how the ecosystem works? Tag them!
Leadership, Defeat, and Holding the Team Together
A great leader accepts defeat, learns from it, and inspires the team to keep going — all at the same time. Juan David Aristizábal showed me how.
Entrepreneurs Are With Juan David Aristizábal 🔥
Going all out tomorrow for number 111 of Nuevo Liberalismo — Education, Entrepreneurship, and Employment.
My First Political Post Ever: Voting for Juan David Aristizábal
I first heard about him 15 years ago at AIESEC. I ran into him again while researching education. He invited me to join his campaign as a volunteer CTO. This is my first political post — and I mean every word.
😍 Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution
We jump to a 'perfect solution' way too fast — without truly understanding the problem first. A Design Thinking session with Natalia Rodríguez Triana at the Action Lab was a masterclass in slowing down.
Difficult Conversations: Do We Actually Know How to Have Them?
A conversation with Maria Echeverri made me realize I've never had a TRULY difficult conversation — and I have no idea how to have one.
Building with Giants: Lunch with Henry May
A lunch with Henry May, the education entrepreneur I most admire in Colombia, filled with big dreams and maybe some Argentine accent impressions.
(Co)-Building on the Shoulders of Giants: Grateful for Our Action Lab Teachers
On a Monday of gratitude, thank you to the incredible teachers of our Action Lab — without whom Ignia wouldn't exist. One of the greatest joys of building this is sitting down with so many passionate, brilliant people.
Software Factories Are Dying in Under 2 Years — The Moat Is Now the Product
Hot take: the software factory as we know it today dies in under 2 years. Software is no longer a moat — the real value is in building proven solutions and products, not just code.
Your Kids Won't Define You By Your Job — They'll Define You By Who You Are
If you ask my kids how their dad is, they won't say 'he's great at tech.' They'll say 'he's fun, he plays with me.' We shouldn't define ourselves by what we do but by who we are — and mindset is the engine.
Claude Code Has Been Down for 3 Hours and I'm Useless Without AI to Code
The dark side of AI: we all become dependent on the providers. Claude Code down for 3 hours made me seriously consider downloading a good open-source model. What would you recommend?
Yesterday I Cried: We Filled Action Lab 2.0 Fully Bootstrapped
We filled our Action Lab cohort with 1/10 the budget and 1/10 the brand of other programs, but 100x the scrappiness. A win for the whole team, the fellows, the community, and an incredible network.
In Education, Sales Always Looks Like a 'J' Curve — And the Valley Is Brutal
Education sales always follow a J-curve: early believers sign up, then it drops, and in the final two weeks the cohort fills up. We closed Action Lab 2.0 fully enrolled — but the anxiety in the valley was real.
My New Weekend Role: Professional Paper Airplane Folder
Very proud to announce my new (weekend) role: professional paper airplane folder.
How Hard Would It Be to Switch Colombia to Ranked-Choice Voting?
Ranked-choice voting is demonstrably better than plurality voting — less polarization, better majority representation. Why are we still stuck with 'whoever gets the most votes wins'?
Language Matters, But So Does How We Interpret It: Assume Positive Intent
Language matters, sure. But Occam's Razor applied to human behavior tells us to assume good intent before malice. Indra Nooyi's 'assume positive intent' as a life principle.
Collaborate or Crush the Competition? The Zero-Sum Game Debate
I've seen two business archetypes: one that grows as a friend of its industry, and one that treats competitors as enemies to destroy. Which wins long-term? I'm betting on the collaborative world.
A Year of Co-Building with People I Admire: The Power of Long-Term Relationships
I met Andrés Méndez 12 years ago when we were both just starting to build companies. Today he's President of Colombia Edtech and we share the same passion for education, collaboration, and building a better country.
Having Someone Like Camilo See Value in Ignia Is Incredibly Meaningful
An entrepreneur who once pushed back against the university system finds in Ignia exactly what he wished existed back then. That's what building the future of education looks like.
My Favorite Book of All Time: '5 Types of Wealth' by Sahil Bloom
I just finished '5 Types of Wealth' by Sahil Bloom and I think it's my favorite book of all time. A mini-review of why I recommend it unconditionally — and how it changed concrete habits in my life in just over a month.
One Month Controlling My YouTube Shorts Addiction: From 2 Hours to 35 Minutes
In one month I cut my YouTube shorts and video consumption from 2 hours a day down to 35 minutes, using the ScreenZen app. Do you have other techniques or apps that work?
Fear-Based Leadership vs. Empathy-Based Leadership: Which Works Better?
I will never understand the leadership style that yells, insults, and humiliates. There are two ways to handle team mistakes: the fear approach and the empathy approach. Which do you prefer?
Something Cataclysmic Is Happening: I Coded with Claude 4.6 and I'm Never Writing Code by Hand Again
This week I coded with Anthropic's new Claude 4.6 model and I honestly don't think I'll ever need to write code by hand again. I'm one-shotting things at equal or better quality than what would've taken me weeks.
A Chance Encounter That Reminded Me It's Possible to Have It All
A random run-in with Álvaro Bohórquez — father of twins, 25-year marriage, brilliant tech career — reminded me that being an entrepreneur, a good dad, and a good partner at the same time is actually possible.
How Landa Club Convinced Me to Become Fractional CTO While Raising Twins
I didn't buy Landa Club's consulting pitch — but I did buy into their community. I ended up becoming Fractional CTO for two projects while also building a startup, being a present dad to twins, and training for a half-marathon.
I've Never Had Time to Just Think — So I'm Doing a Solo Retreat
I've never allowed myself real downtime. From video games to work to family, something always fills the space. A book made me realize it — and I decided to do a one-day solo retreat with no devices.
1,000 Registrations for Ignia Community In-Person Events
A thousand people have signed up for Ignia community events — all in-person. Maybe it's a vanity metric, but it still warms the heart. Next stop: 10K.
The 10,000-Piece Puzzle That Gets Disassembled: Process Over Results
Someone who builds 10,000-piece puzzles then immediately takes them apart sounds crazy — until you realize the point was never the finished puzzle, but the journey. Are we focused enough on the process?
Marymount and Campestre Merge: Adapt or Die in K12 Education
The merger of Bogotá's Colegio Marymount and Gimnasio Campestre is a clear signal of deep cultural change: fewer children, declining religious schools, and the urgent need to reinvent. A lesson for all of K12 education.
The Vibe-Coding Problem: No Coherence Between Projects
Vibe-coding has a major coherence problem: each project ends up with its own stack, styles, and patterns, making it a nightmare to merge them. How are you handling this?
The Tension Between Entrepreneurship and Parenting — And How I Made Peace With It
When my kids were born, my productivity crashed and I felt crushing guilt. Through coaching, I realized having kids didn't reduce my productivity — it multiplied it.
Talking About Money: The Taboo That Needs to Be Broken
Money is the number one reason partnerships fall apart — business or personal. The foundation: transparency and early conversations. Do you have a framework for money talks with your partner or co-founder?