29 May 2026 #mondaylinks
Hey there.
Yesterday marked the 7-month anniversary of Street-Smart Coding, my first oficial book. Wow!
It taught me a lot about writing and marketing. “Do good work and people will come” isn’t 100% true. It should be “do good work and tell people about it.” That applies for a book, a SaaS, or a job promotion.
If you haven’t already, grab your copy of Street-Smart Coding here to build future-proof coding skills.
And as usual, here are 4 links I thought were worth sharing this week:
#1. Claude isn’t your software architect (8min). It fails at the #1 task of an architect: saying no. Use it for implementation instead.
#2. Deitel’s C/C++ was the first technical book I studied. In college, I devoured one about Vim and RegEx, learning by typing out examples. But these days, it seems nobody opens technical books anymore (5min)
#3. At the last Google I/O, they pushed AI snippets harder. The search engine feels dead. If you don’t want AI in your search results, here are 6 alternative search engines (7min)
#4. If you’ve ever had bad interview experiences, you’re not alone. Here’s someone’s worst job interview (4min). Quick tip: Keep your answers work-related.
Last week, I didn’t write much about coding. But in case you missed it, I wrote about 7 random but interesting ideas I found (2min) and my notes from Derek Sivers’ Useful But Not True (2min), totally recommended if you want a book that makes you think.
(Bzzz…Radio voice) This email was brought to you by… My Gumroad store where you can find free and premium books and courses to level up your coding skills and grow your software engineering career.
See you next time,
Cesar
28 May 2026 #misc
Inspired by Herman’s idea of resurfacing old posts, here are some of my old posts on note-taking:
#1. Back in 2020, I learned about the Zettelkasten method.
I was so intrigued that I read How to Take Smart Notes, probably the most popular book on the subject.
#2. Being a plain text lover, I started my own perverted digital version.
Instead of using separate “literature” and “main” notes, I kept them in the same file.
I realized I had notes of books I didn’t remember reading.
I was collecting notes without purpose. Just a hoarder.
Eventually, I stopped using the method.
#3. After learning about being an Idea Machine, I ditched my second brain and started to write 10 ideas after reading a book.
#4. More recently, as an experiment, I decided to start a physical Zettelkasten.
As a creative constraint, I considered writing a book only from my notes.
#5. Looking for a how-to book, I found How to Make Notes and Write.
A simpler approach: two types of notes—source and point—focused on writing as output.
27 May 2026 #misc
Daily blogging gives you a time capsule.
After 500 daily posts, I can start revisiting any date and see my thoughts:
#1. One year ago, I wrote my notes from James Altucher’s Skip the Line.
It debunks the idea of 10,000 hours for mastery.
My favorite learning strategy is the 10,000 experiments rule.
Instead of counting hours, run experiments:
Quick and cheap actions that teach you something.
With that idea in mind, I ran my February book experiment.
#2. Two years ago, I wrote about my experience applying to FAANG.
After a layoff, I desperately applied to a big tech company, despite rejecting the idea of joining Silicon Valley.
Overconfidence and poor preparation led to rejection.
It hurt then, but it became material for future writing.
If you’re curious, here’s what happened on my blog around Feb 2025 and Oct 2025.
26 May 2026 #misc
This writer made me say, “Wow! I want to do that too.”
I don’t know how I landed on Craig Mod’s site.
But I binge-read his site and his yearly membership roundups for 2 hours.
Craig walks around Japan, shoots mini-documentaries, and writes fine-print books.
He runs Special Projects, a membership program to support his projects.
Documenting my life in books
Craig has one horizon goal:
Produce book projects until he dies.
Without realizing it, I’ve set a similar goal.
After burnout and a sabbatical, I chose to share a decade of software engineering lessons in a trilogy.
Street-Smart Coding is the second installment and the first one I wrote.
That’d be my magnum opus before I retire from coding.
Burnout was an awful, but it changed my life.
From that experience, another book was born: 10 Surprisingly Simple Ideas That Changed My Life And Could Change Yours Too.
More like a book experiment.
After finishing, my sister showed me I had a whole 10 Surprisingly Simple Ideas series ahead: Being a husband, a dad…
Reading about Craig’s horizon goal made me formalize mine:
Document my life in books.
Being paid to be me
Monetizing our hobbies doesn’t kill them. It skyrockets them.
Craig’s Special Projects proves this.
His membership program isn’t about his members per se.
It’s a direct support to his projects with a behind-the-scenes peek.
Their supporters pay him to see more of his work.
It reminds me of the $1/month club.
He’s paid to be him.
In a leap of faith, after burnout and a layoff I deleted my CV.
I wouldn’t like to go back to a 9-5 and interviewing again.
Just thinking about it makes my stomach hurt.
But like Craig, I want to live by my creativity.
That’s now my horizon goal: to be paid for being me.
Unlike Craig, I don’t have a membership system yet. But if you’d like to see more of my work out there, you can check out my books. And if you want to support me in the spirit of a $1/month club, let me know.
25 May 2026 #wellness #experiments
Last Sunday, I began Analog Sundays, my experiment in staying away from screens.
To hold myself accountable, here’s what I did on screens:
I met the goal of keeping my online time under an hour.
Here’s what I did offline:
- Laundry. Well, the washing machine did it.
- Breathwork after lunch. Your stomach likes it when you’re relaxed.
- Dishes without podcasts. What used to feel like a productivity hack had turned into doomscrolling.
- Shopping without my phone. Slowing down and meditation seems to be working. I stayed calm in long lines.
- Play card games. Last Christmas, my coding agency sent me a card game book and a deck. I finally tried them last weekend. I enjoyed: War, Go Fish, and Old Maid. Simple games but surprisingly fun. Old Maid is my favorite so far. I’ve decided card games will be a permanent part of Analog Sundays.
Apart from card games, for your next Analog Sunday, one of my books could be the perfect offline companion.