04 May 2026 #misc
To warm up my idea muscles and celebrate May 4th, here’s why Star Wars is the best saga:
#1. A proven story. A constant fight between good and evil, light and darkness, bright side and dark side. We see that in almost all religions.
#2. Full of action, alien species, locations, futuristic weapons. You’d never imagine how diverse life is in a galaxy far, far away.
3. A story for all family members. It’s a war saga, but no matter the battles, treason, and plots, there’s no blood or sex on screen.
#4. Well-known cast. I only imagine our moms and aunts’ generation going crazy seeing Harrison Ford on the screen in the original trilogy. Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor, Liam Neesson…
#5. Legendary quotes that became part of the pop culture. “May the Force be with you,” “Do or do not. There’s no try.” Even I’ve adopted one Star Wars line as a mantra…and couldn’t help but include some references in my books.
#6. Reflection of human nature. With the right or wrong motivations, we could become what we fight. The fear of losing a loved one turned Anakin into a cruel being. I mean, executing Order 66 without hesitation?!
#7. The best and cruelest of all villains. Even if you haven’t seen the movies, you know about Darth Vader.
His mysterious suit, his breathing sound, his tone of voice, his motivations, his ruthless methods make him terrifying. “Be careful not to choke on your own aspirations…“ right after choking someone? The best villain.
By the way, here’s what I’d write if I were Darth Vader brand strategist.
#8. The most iconic plot twist in the history of cinema. “No…I am your father.” Toy Story made a parody and The Simpsons made fun of that scene.
#9. More than a trilogy. It’s such a great story that has given birth to prequels, sequels, spin-offs, videogames, animated movies, comics. If you’re a fan, you’ll never get bored of Star Wars.
#10. Grogu and Mando. Whoever came up with the idea of a cute, baby Yoda is a genius. I bet they should already have a good raise or stock package. Mandalorian has brought new fans to the saga. “This is the way!”
04 May 2026 #misc
When facing a decision or hard choice:
If it doesn’t make say “Hell yes,” say no.
Credits to Derek Sivers.
In past weeks, a journalist found my rules for AI coding.
He invited for an interview to write a story about it.
A story featuring me in a tech news site? “Hell yes.”
After the interview, I had to send a photo of my ID, a professional headshot, and about a dozen of casual photos…plus some follow up via email.
Photo of my ID? Casual photos?
Were they training an AI or something?
It wasn’t a “hell yes” anymore.
A “hell yes” could consume more time than expected.
Or it couldn’t be a real “hell yes” after all.
Choose what to focus on and say no.
Remember: a “hell yes” can always become a no.
02 May 2026 #misc
Recently, I’ve started to list interesting ideas I found over the week—to practice my 10-idea list habit. Here are 7 from the last week.
#1. The Matthew effect.
Inspired by a verse from the gospel of Matthew, recognition goes to already-recognized people.
Visit social media and you’ll see it.
#2. The one sentencing to death wields the sword.
Or something like that.
This comes from Game of Thrones.
Decision makers should stay close to their decisions.
#3. Don’t treat reading as background noise.
Know whether you’re reading for pleasure and insight.
When reading for insight, make it active.
Otherwise, you won’t remember anything.
#4. Solve the problem with what’s in your room.
Or in your head or in your notes.
#5. Three interesting questions from Tim Ferriss’s Tools of Titans:
- What if you only solve a problem by removing something?
- What if you only had two hours to create?
- What’s the least crowded place to go?
#6. When writing anything emotional, write by hand.
For everything else, type.
#7. Start writing by the end.
What’s the one thing you want readers to take away?
Writing a 10-idea list changed my life. Try it! It could change yours too.
01 May 2026 #mondaylinks
Hey there.
Here are 4 links I thought were worth sharing this week:
#1. GitHub made it to the headlines with outages and Copilot pricing. Mitchell Hashimoto, creator of Vagrant and Ghostty, is already leaving GitHub (4min). He’s not the only one. But believe it or not, there was still open source before GitHub (13min).
#2. I never used it, but a guy is trying to revive Friendster (3min), the first social media network.
#3. The defense industry already faced cheaper alternatives, efficiencies and consolidation, and a broken talent pipeline. Now it’s time for the tech industry (15min).
#4. Want some time off from social media? What about using the internet like it’s 1999 (11min)? Not with a desperately slow connection, but without feeds.
In case you missed it, last week I wrote about a newspaper-style feed for blog aggregators (2min) and Bubbles (2min) did it. Also, I documented 7 interesting ideas I found recently (2min).
(Bzzz…Radio voice) This email was brought to you by… Street-Smart Coding, 30 lessons to help you code like a pro. From Googling to clear communication, it shares the lessons to help you stand out in the age of AI.
See you next Friday with more links.
Cesar
30 Apr 2026 #coding #career
80% of the time, coding is a performance. The other 20% is doing real coding.
Performance means Scrum ceremonies, meetings, and JIRA:
- A meeting to present tickets for the next two weeks
- A meeting to answer questions from the previous meeting
- A meeting to watch someone enter a number in a text box. Read: poker planning and story points
- Meetings to watch someone move a ticket between JIRA lanes. Read: daily meetings
- A meeting about all the other meetings. Read: retrospective
And when things go sideways, the performance intensifies with more frequent meetings. Sometimes a team member’s only job is running ceremonies and writing reports.
That kills the fun of coding and can make you hate it.
This happens everywhere. Sylwia Laskowska asked in a dev.to post if that’s something that only happens at her place. Nope! Even in the best families, as we say in our hometown.
Showing progress matters more than real work. Coding is often just a side quest. A hard truth nobody tells us about.
To succeed as a coder, you need to master the ceremonies as much as the code. That’s why Street-Smart Coding covers communication and collaboration. Because coding is more than typing symbols.