28 Sep 2026 #writing
Gabriel García Márquez shocked me in the prologue of Strange Pilgrims.
I’m binge-reading some of his most popular books.
Love in Times of Cholera was the last one.
I’m not ready yet for One Hundred Years of Solitude.
But in the meantime, I picked up Strange Pilgrims, a collection of short stories that take place outside his hometown.
Here’s an excerpt of the prologue:
“When I started Chronicles of a Deaht Foretold, in 1979, I confirmed the fact that in the pauses between books I tended to lose the habit of writing, and it was becoming more and more difficult for me to begin again. That is why, between October 1980 and March 1984, I set myself the task of writing a weekly opinion column for newspapers in various countries, as a kind of discipline for keeping my arm in shape.”
In the Spanish edition, the last line reads more like “for keeping my arm warm.”
Maybe a reference to baseball or other sports.
Wow! A Nobel-winning writer lost his touches if he stopped writing.
He practiced with opinion columns: something shorter, less complex than a full-length novel.
Every post is a repetition, a push-up, a practice session,
Even if it’s just a few sentences that nobody seems to be reading.
Better a small session than a broken habit.
If an athlete goes to the gym, does drills, or runs every day.
If a Nobel-winning writer gets out of shape in the time between books.
Every day you don’t write “colds your arms.”
Write every single day.
Writing daily helped me recover from burnout. That’s one of the simple ideas that have changed my life.
27 Sep 2026 #wellness
Wear the fancy dress.
Get your hair done.
Go out, even alone.
Don’t wait for an especial occasion.
Because maybe there won’t be one.
Make every day an especial occasion.
26 Sep 2026 #experiments
I challenged myself to write 30 notes and 4 posts in Substack, but it cost me my sanity.
I chose Substack after being shadow-banned from Medium and, I have to admit it, I wanted some attention and book sales. But…
In past weeks, I’ve gone throught an episode of stress and anxiety. My head has been rushing with ruminating thoughts and time traveling, and trying to hit a quota of likes and comments to get subscribers and followers only added more oxygen and fuel to the fire. I was so anxious I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep. I needed to work hard to get back to my steady lifestyle.
I quit engaging at all, and scheduled all my notes and posts instead.
Some random numbers
In spite of my lack of engagement in the last two weeks, here are some random numbers from my experiment:
- 8 followers and 7 subscribers.
- 45 notes and 4 posts written.
- 6 likes on my top-2 performing notes.
- 5 views, 1 like, and 1 comment on my top performing post.
One. Comment. On. A. Post. OMG! That already felt like going viral.
Here’s my #1 note:
One small daily choice that saved me from burnout:
Do something for my body, mind, and spirit every day.
True health means the three in balance.
Work on each one every day. No excuses!
That’s a simple recipe for a happy life.
And here’s my #1 post:
10 Reasons Why I Write 10 Bad Ideas
Yes, I tweaked a post I already shared here on my blog. Don’t call the Internet police, please.
Some lessons
Subscriber and follower count meant almost nothing, but here are the most important bits from my experiment:
#1. No matter the application, doomscrolling is always doomscrolling… and everything shown in a screen is most likely designed to steal your attention.
#2. You don’t have to grow or make money. Don’t listen to gurus selling you growth tactics. It’s OK to grow at your own pace… or to quit.
#3. Good ideas stand on their own, without hacks.
#4. If it drains you, cut it out. Your sanity is more important than a Monopoly money next to your name on a platform.
#5. Time in front of a screen is time away from yourself and from real interaction.
I’m keeping my Substack account to distribute my long-form posts to a wider audience, but strong, mindful participation rules: Only for 1 hour a week to schedule my content. Nothing more.
If you’re curious, here’s how my first, second, third, and fourth weeks went.
Subscribe to my newsletter and join me on my mission to create a life free from burnout.
25 Sep 2026 #mondaylinks
Hey there.
Here are 4 links I thought were worth sharing this week:
#1. Bugs and incidents happen when there’s a flaw in the software development process. To make sure they don’t occur again, don’t share the details (5min).
#2. “Not all hobbies have to be productive,” a friend told me last week. We were talking about how AI has changed expectations at the workplace. F*ck it, and do it anyway (5min): the old way, the hard way, the slow way.
#3. I don’t use AI for my writing. It’s too personal to offload to an LLM. And I also don’t want to read something you didn’t write (10min).
#4. Life and happiness don’t have to be complicated. Maybe it’s just enjoying every sandwich (3min).
And in case you missed it, I wrote on my blog about the weapon to fight AI brain rot (2min) and non-fiction books I’ve read so far (2min).
(Bzzz…Radio voice) This email was brought to you by… Street-Smart Coding Manifesto. A case against syntax obsession. Because real impact comes from skills outside your IDE.
Keep coding smart.
See you next Friday,
Cesar
24 Sep 2026 #selfgrowth #books
Teachers use AI to assign homework.
Students use AI to do it.
Then teachers use AI to check if students used AI.
That’s the concern a ex-coworker shared on a WhatsApp group.
He was worried his children becoming so lazy to think by themselves.
But the weapon to fight brain root is well known since Ancient Times.
Books.
The best invention of man.
Read widely.
It trains your focus.
It frees your imagination.
It teaches you critical thinking.
It regulates your nervous system.
In Greece, free men learned to read, talk, and think.
That’s worked thousands of years ago.
And that’s how to thrive in AI times too.
When everybody is asking a black box to think for them, reading is resistance.
You can resist by picking one of my my books. Short and actionable books on coding and self-growth.