18 Jul 2026 #writing
Eight years ago, I wrote my first blog post.
I didn’t know what I was doing.
After googling “how to get better at coding,” I found start a blog.
That’s what I did.
By the way, that search inspired Street-Smart Coding, my first coding book.
I spent days choosing a Jekyll theme and a name.
I turned hours of googling into a post and hit publish.
OK, I vomited some words onto a page.
That first post is still unedited as a reminder.
That’s how I started blogging.
Here I am, 816 posts later.
624 written since Nov 1st, 2024.
That’s when I decided to write every day.
My blog helped me overcome burnout, gave me purpose when I felt lost, became my portfolio, earned me my first paycheck online, gave me confidence to write books…
It’s my cabinet of curiosities and my time capsule.
These days, my horizon goal is turning parts of my life into books.
My blog was the starting point and is my playground.
Writing is a habit that changed my life.
That’s why I keep doing it.
I do drink coffee, but I don’t like to ask for it. If you’d like to support this blog, grab one of my books. You can pay what you want via Gumroad. They’re also available in Kindle and paperback formats via Amazon.
17 Jul 2026 #mondaylinks
Hey there.
Quick update: Street-Smart Coding Manifesto is almost done. No more hunting for typos. If you preordered, I’m sending a preview next week.
And as usual, here are 4 links I thought were worth sharing this week:
#1. Google search (if that’s still a thing) and LLMs are great for quick facts. When was America discovered? But the real problem is offloading our thinking to AI (10min), even for simple tasks.
#2. LLMs often reply “You’re absolutely right.” For your next project or idea, get a punch in reality (5min).
#3. Want to read more books? Here’s how (9min). And no, you don’t need hacks.
#4. AI has made code so cheap that it’s turning software into marketing (9min).
And in case you missed it, I wrote on my blog about the drop of technical content (2min) and 7 random but interesting ideas I found recently (3min).
(Bzzz…Radio voice) This email was brought to you by… Street-Smart Coding Manifesto. My case against syntax obsession to stand out. Because real impact comes from skills outside your IDE.
Keep coding smarter,
Cesar
16 Jul 2026 #misc
Since 2024, I’ve kept ideapads to capture bad ideas.
Back then, by pure chance, I found the concept of becoming an idea machine.
That’s writing 10 bad ideas about anything. Every. Single. Day.
That habit has helped me write books and keep my creative juices flowing.
It’s been so helpful that I made it Idea #5 in my book, 10 Surprisingly Simple Ideas That Changed My Life And Could Change Yours Too.
That book itself started as a 10-idea list.
But before starting to write bad ideas, I faced the question of where to write them.
Those days, a friend came from France on her vacation.
She brought me a Mona Lisa notebook as a gift, likely from the Louvre.
It was simply too beautiful to fill it with my bad ideas.
Afraid of “damaging” it, I stapled recycled paper into an ideapad.
A notebook small enough to only write 10 lines, one per idea.
I went through the same experience Kwist shared in this post:
“In an attempt to change [keeping clean and tidy notebooks], I’ve started a dedicated “dirt notebook” now…I’m using an old, empty notebook that I found lying around the other day. The paper quality is pretty bad; every kind of fountain pen ink bleeds through so I’m forced to use cheap ballpoints and it doesn’t open flat, which makes it hard to take clean-looking notes in.”
Don’t let a beautiful notebook or perfect pens restrain your ideas.
The roughest paper ignites your best ideas.
15 Jul 2026 #misc
While catching up with ex-coworkers, the conversation inevitable turned to the future of coding.
By the end of the evening, “You’re absolutely right!” had become an inside joke.
That’s what ChatGPT seem to say when it’s wrong.
Each time someone asked a question, they got an “You’re absolutely right!”
AI answers aren’t 100% reliable.
Coding’s short feedback loops make AI mistakes evident.
Now imagine trusting every answer just because “AI said that.”
Medical recommendations, investment strategies, even dating advice…
That’s dangerous.
Adi shared a similar thought in Punch Yourself in the Face with Reality about entrepreneurship, startups, and AI:
“I know you want to use AI as an escape. It is so tempting. You get to sit in your bubble and imagine everything and see it come to life and your agent buddy will keep cheering you on while you get nothing done with your life. And I think that’s the biggest danger of AI. You convince yourself that you are doing something useful when you are not.”
LLMs are designed to appear helpful and confident.
They tap into our confirmation bias.
LLMs aren’t reliable and we aren’t absolutely right—all the time.
14 Jul 2026 #wellness
Binge-watching TV isn’t exactly productive. Books are better.
But recently, I’ve binged Brilliant Minds.
Think a less dramatic version of House M.D. with wilder patients.
Near the end of season 2, Dr. Wolf, the protagonist, said:
“We’re all just doing our best to hold ourselves together.”
A little reminder that:
Nobody is normal. We’re all figuring out life as we go. We’re all just holding ourselves together.
Want to change your life, but not sure how to start? Check out 10 Surprisingly Simple Ideas That Changed My Life.