When I shared about my unmet expectations and my career plans, my sister told me,
“You will have a perfect life. But it won’t be perfect all the time.”
A gentle reminder to find contentment where I am at now.
Yes, she’s younger but way wiser.
It was a joke, but it made me update the sales page of my books.
Yesterday I found this sarcastic LinkedIn post, listing the laws for a new world order.
One of them was to ban the word “Discover” from any piece of copy. It made me list my 10 words or phrases to ban too—as a creative constraint:
Which one would you ban too?
No WiFi. No Bluetooth. No speedometer. No heart sensors. No notifications.
It only has an alarm, a countdown timer, and a stopwatch. But it beats any smartwatch. It’s water resistant and only needs a charge every 10 years. And like crock roaches, I bet I’ll survive a nuclear catastrophe. I bought a Casio AE1600H.
Because sometimes you don’t need faster or brighter, but reliable. Sometimes you don’t need more beeps and noise, but to walk alone with your thoughts. And because corporations already know a lot about us to hand them our vitals via a a smart watch.
Walking is how I take care of my body, mind, and spirit. That’s one habit included in burnout in 10 Surprisingly Simple Ideas That Changed My Life
For my latest experiment, I’m writing 30 notes and 4 posts on Substack.
Here’s how my 2nd week looked like in some numbers:
A well-known creator liked almost all my notes, after I replied to one of hers. I guess that bumped it up a bit.
If you’re curious, here are my first impressions after one week.
The most important bit of my experiment so far, being a multi-passionate, I found my next mission:
Create a healthy and purposeful lifestyle free from burnout, CVs, and interviews.
That goal covers exercising, nutrition, writing, money creation, and digital minimalist. And that’s what I’m interested in these days.
For the next week, I’m sticking to sharing 1 notes, leaving 5 comments, and liking 10 notes. Or whatever happens before 15 minutes. That’s how I use social media consciously as a writer.
Subscribe to my newsletter and join me on my mission to create a life free from burnout.
Hey there.
Here are 4 links I thought were worth sharing this week:
#1. I’m not a chess player, but chess and coding shared a lot. AI-assisted programming is the opposite of blindfold chess (5min).
#2. Are you anti-AI or pro-AI? Here’s a tech shop that refuses to use AI for anything (8min). This line stayed with me: “Only people are intelligent, creative, capable of actual thought. We can’t let this unique gift go to waste.”
#3. Do you format your commit messages with hyphens at column 72? Or do you also choose your words wisely? (2min).
#4. Experiments keep you alive. If you’re looking for your next experiment, what about taking a selfie a day? (7min).
And in case you missed it, I wrote on my blog about how AI has turned us into couriers, not coders (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