29 Jun 2026 #coding
“How many tables did you use?”
“One or two…I don’t know.”
A coder said that while demoing a feature to a client.
C’mon! You wouldn’t forget that detail unless you had memory issues.
While screensharing, I noticed he had Codex open—another coding agent.
It wasn’t a memory issue after all.
Someone has been prompting, right?
I remembered that quick exchange when reading Yegor Bugayenko’s Couriers, Not Coders.
He wrote,
Working code is now the minimum. We expect discipline, speed of delivery, clear and detailed communication, and readiness to re-work. Above all, we expect you to understand our rules and obey them.
I loves his take.
When code is almost free, the edge isn’t in lines of code.
The genie in the bottle can grant coding wishes to anyone, with enough tokens, credits, or whatever.
AI isn’t taking our jobs yet.
And even if it does, there’s still work to do.
But our job descriptions are already different.
The real edge has never been writing syntax.
It’s thinking like a product owner.
It’s knowing what to build.
Now it’s doing what AI can’t.
We can’t just be coders, but couriers—or street-smart coders, as I prefer to call it.
If you’re curious about going beyond syntax, check out Street-Smart Coding Manifesto. Because real impact comes from skills outside your IDE.
28 Jun 2026 #writing
In 2025, his book sales dropped by 46%.
That’s what Tim Ferriss discovered when he looked at his spreadsheets.
The smoking gun: ChatGPT’s release around 2022, when his sales started to decrease.
And that’s the landscape for a best-selling author.
Now imagine being a mere mortal without Tim’s reach.
Here are some of the changes Tim is making—and how I’m stealing them:
Rely on personal stories
“For my books, at least, the secret sauce is in the sequencing—the logical ordering of things—plus the deeply personal stories that actually catalyze people to change long-standing habits.”
LLMs can spit out facts, but they’ll never create personal stories.
As Maria Popova said, “AI can’t suffer.”
It can’t have human experience.
Love, hate, pride, resentment…
That’s how we can fight back.
With my books, the best reward has been reading comments like “it feels like a conversation” or “refreshing, given how much AI slop has populated the internet.”
Those are the reviews that make my day.
As a guideline, if AI can write it, rewrite it.
Stick to written words
“I’d rather write books for 10,000 people who are genuinely changed by them than crank out short-form videos for 10 million people who forget about them within days or minutes.”
The other day, a fiction author I followed on LinkedIn shared her new strategy:
Going to TikTok or BookTok.
Just like Tim, I’d rather write books for a few than dance on TikTok.
Maybe I’ll start a YouTube channel to go over my posts.
But writing is my way to go, even if only one person reads.
The best place is the one you can sustain over time.
Build a tribe
“Find your 1,000 True Fans. If you started off doing this well but have meandered, it’s time to revisit. Get very clear on who those 1,000 people are.”
1,000 fans? That sounds distant.
And followers aren’t true fans.
To build my tribe, I’m writing for one person: my past self.
I’m writing the books I wish I had.
I’m leaving breadcrumbs as I document my life.
For anyone just like me years ago.
27 Jun 2026 #writing
Art is stealing.
Stealing means blending your sources into something new: an artistic smoothie.
Not that I consider my writing “art,” but here are 7 writers I’ve stolen from:
#1. James Altucher.
He’s the writer who has inspired me the most.
I read almost all his books and hand-copied his posts to practice.
Some of the ideas that have changed my life came from his bankrupt stories.
I’ve stolen his storytelling-heavy style and the obsession with opening lines of books.
#2. Seth Godin.
Before getting seriously into writing, Seth was the first blogger I followed and studied.
I’ve borrowed his concept of a “post”:
A headline and a couple of sentences are enough to publish.
After finding his blog, I didn’t feel the need to write SEO-optimized guides anymore.
When I’m tempted to quit blogging, I remember Seth sharing about his 10,000th post.
#3. Derek Sivers.
From Derek, I’ve stolen his succinct writing and his practice of giving each sentence its own line.
After reading some of his books, I adopted concise, self-contained chapters.
That was the inspiration for Street-Smart Coding Manifesto.
#4. Austen Kleon.
Austen was the writer who taught me to steal.
He wrote Steal Like An Artist:
So I’m stealing from another thief.
No shame in admitting it.
After reading two of his books, I stole his book structure.
Each book is 10 ideas, one idea per chapter, with doodles and drawings.
Its back cover lists those 10 ideas.
That was where I stole the concept for 10 Surprisingly Simple Ideas That Changed My Life—without the doodles.
#5. Tim Denning.
My first writing class was with Tim.
Tim taught me to write daily and to start every piece with a strong 1-line opener.
Hope you noticed it at the start.
#6. Mark Thompson.
Mark is a veteran marketer I found on Medium.
Instead of email sequences for “nurturing,” he teaches a simple system to make money with words.
I stole it along with some of his CTAs, almost to the tee.
#7. Craig Mod.
I don’t know how I found Craig’s blog. Maybe through someone’s blogroll?
I spent an entire afternoon reading his community roundups.
When I was done, I said, “I want to do that too.”
Craig inspired my horizon goal: documenting my life into books.
And when I start my “behind the scenes” community, I’ll proudly steal from him.
26 Jun 2026 #mondaylinks
Hey there.
Quick update before the links:
The first draft of Street-Smart Coding Manifesto is done, at 4,880 words.
I already did a first pass of editing, looking for typos. (No matter how often I reread a draft, I always fear typos.) Next pass is to remove duplication and simplify ideas.
As usual, here are 4 links I thought were worth sharing this week:
#1. A manager reveals what truly sets high performers from average performers (3min). Spoiler alert: Not their code.
#2. Generative AI is having its Herbalife moment (11min). Vibe coding startups are charging “their victims” upfront, without any guarantees.
#3. Be careful with what you put into ChatGPT. Remember it’s not a confessional, but a database. Your conversations are stored even after asking to delete them (6min).
#4. I’m far from 50, but I like sneaking into lessons from later stages of life. Here are 5 lessons from being 50 (5min). Lesson 4 is my favorite.
And in case you missed it, here are two popular posts I reshared last quarter: two ways to think of AI without outsourcing your mind (2min) and 12 hard truths about coding I learned the hard way (4min).
(Bzzz…Radio voice) This email was brought to you by… Street-Smart Coding Manifesto. Preorder your digital copy today—starting at just $1—and become a coder who stands out beyond syntax. If you’d like to support the work, contribute $5 or more and I’ll thank you in the Acknowledgments.
See you next time,
Cesar
25 Jun 2026 #writing
The less time spent tweaking a post, the more it seems to resonate.
Yesterday, I hit the 600 daily post milestone.
The most popular posts were often the ones I spent less time editing.
Some were only to avoid breaking the chain.
The ones I poured my soul into resonated less.
Same observation after 300+ LinkedIn posts.
I’m calling it: the inverse effort effect.
Too much tweaking dilutes the real message and hides your true voice.
Maybe that’s why rants go viral and invite replies.
They feel raw and authentic.
From the inverse effort effect, not every post is a winner.
But unread posts still count: as practice, as a data point, as one time capsule entry.
Definitely not time wasted.
I’ll stop here before I fall prey to this effect.