29 Jul 2025 #misc
We all know doom-scrolling is the worst.
But recently, I found myself doing precisely that on Instagram. Not every day has to be productive, right?
Out of hundreds of posts, one made me stop scrolling.
It was the video of a girl cleaning a house while saying she wanted to keep cleaning houses for a living, even with two graduate degrees. It was probably a sketch promoting a book.
But she said a line that resonated deeply with me:
“I don’t want to pretend I care about things I don’t care about.”
Wow! That made my head explode. That was me a couple of years ago, stuck in a 9-5 with decent pay and flexible hours, pretending to care. Spoiler alert: I got sick and burned out. I didn’t burn out by doing too much, but from boredom and indifference. By doing things I didn’t care about.
And that line made the scrolling session worth it. Yes, even doom-scrolling can teach valuable lessons life lessons.
28 Jul 2025 #writing
I finished watching “Not Really on Purpose” (“Sin Querer Queriendo” in Spanish), a TV series based on the life of Roberto Gomez Bolaños.
If you’ve never heard of him, he was a Mexican writer, TV producer, scriptwriter, and comedian. Best known as “Chespirito,” a nickname after “Little Shakespeare” in Spanish.
Multiple generations from Latin America have watched or grown up watching his shows like El Chavo del Ocho or El Chapulin Colorado.
“Not Really on Purpose” gives a glimpse of Chespirito’s early life and the story behind some of his most famous characters.
I watched it as a writer, and I noticed these devices:
#1. The show starts with the second-to-last scene. Roberto is getting dressed to appear as “El Chavo” at a benefit event in Colombia. He’s tired of the conflicts in his life and career.
#2. The show builds towards one main event: El Chavo and his neighbors visit Acapulco. And a fun fact, that was the last time the original cast filmed together.
#3. To keep us engaged, the shows uses time jumps to show us Roberto’s early life, his romance and marriage, and the Acapulco episode’s production.
#4. We’re shown some scenes twice. Early on, we see some conflict. Roberto is flirting with another cast member while married with kids.
Later, when the story has developed a bit more, the same scenes are replayed with more context.
#5. The show finishes with some flashbacks of early episodes and footage of the real Roberto on TV screens in the streets.
It was funny to see how our favorite characters came to life and how Roberto found inspiration in his own kids. Chespirito didn’t just create TV shows, but a world of characters still alive in Latin America. One we’ll remember forever. Even it was not really on purpose.
For other TV show breakdowns, see Storytelling Secrets from One of My Favorite House M.D. Episodes and What I Learned From Watching Netflix’s Six Triple Eight.
27 Jul 2025 #misc
LinkedIn is a weird place.
The “I’m pleased to announce…“ posts, the “I have a new certificate…“ updates, and the B2B lessons learned from every situation. “I just proposed, here’s what it taught me about B2B sales.”
We do crazy things to impress future employers online.
Since last year, I’ve posted 300+ times to grow on LinkedIn. And here are a few of the weirdest things I’ve seen:
#1. A lead generation coach went full sales mode, pitching me a funnel course… when I didn’t have anything to sell. “Thanks, but… No thanks. Clicking Unfollow.”
#2. A DM offering to make me the “face” during interviews. I’d have to take interviews and land jobs. Then someone else would show up to work. Maybe I’d end up participating in the North Korean engineers scheme. “Block and report. Call the Internet police?”
#3. Random people liked one of my posts, then rushed to my DMs asking for a coffee chat. “Sorry, not the best time now… or in the near future.”
#4. Coaches offering me “free” help, just prepping the ground for a sales pitch. “Let’s cut to the chase. What are you selling?”
Sure, LinkedIn might be a weird place. But I’ve met interesting people, landed one speaking gig, and made my first Internet money. And that’s why, no matter how weird it gets, I keep showing up.
26 Jul 2025 #writing
Six years ago, I wrote my first blog post… and heard crickets.
Nobody was reading my blog. I wanted some traffic there. Some attention. I was playing the SEO game with keywords and answer posts. I prayed to the SEO gods to send readers to my blog.
Those days, I found out about dev.to, the new platform in town for coders.
A better way to get readers? Create an account and repost there. So on July 23rd, 2019, I did it. I didn’t know where it would take me.
Some vanity metrics, before I move on.
In six years, I’ve written 176 posts.
Some of them are dev.to “originals.” Others reposts. I wrote more posts, but I deleted the oldest in a moment of embarrassment. Yes, even I cringed at reading them. They were so bad.
My posts on dev.to have received +114K views and 1.6K reactions. And I have +25K followers. Mostly bots or inactive users I think.
But dev.to didn’t just send traffic.
Where was I? OK, what my dev.to account has done for me…
#1. It’s helped me connect with other members of the community. I’ve had virtual coffees with other “devtoers.”
#2. It’s given me confidence in my writing skills. I went from deleting some posts in embarrassment to being featured in the Top7 more than once. That’s a sign my writing has improved. A win for taking my writing more seriously since last year.
#3. It’s put my content in front of an audience. Last year, I burned out and got laid off. Writing was my therapy. So I started to share my career stories and lessons. Writing helped me process a rejection from a FAANG, for example. Seeing my posts resonating with a lot of people was so encouraging.
#4. It gave me a small moment of virality. Thanks to dev.to, I went viral for the first time ever. With this post: This Is Why We Don’t Test Private Methods.
In a single day, I got thousands of readers and dozens of downloads from my Gumroad account. Shameless plug. Someone reshared it or it got syndicated somewhere. Dunno. I felt like an Internet coding celebrity… just for a few hours.
#5. It’s given me a chance of giving back to the coding community. It’s helped me turn my stories into inspiration and some laughs for others. Like the best comment I’ve received: “Made my day go from brain-f*cked to f*cking good.” That made my day and reminded me why I keep showing when it feels nobody is reading.
25 Jul 2025 #mondaylinks
Hey, there.
I thought I wouldn’t find another 4 since last Wednesday email. Here are 4 links for you today: (I couldn’t avoid adding the last one, not about coding though)
#1. The whole point of AI is making coders faster. But here’s an study (4min) that shows AI makes some experienced developers slower.
#2. Sure, AI is the buzzword these days. But there are things that don’t change (4min). “AI amplifies what you already know.”
#3. Something we coders should learn from pilots? The value of checklists (3min).
#4. This one isn’t about coding, but… I found out there’s an official list of cocktails and a guy who drank them all (20min).
And in case you missed it, I wrote on my blog about how to stand out from AI content (2min) and the simple method I use to replace my second brain (2min).
(Bzzz…Radio voice) This email was brought to you by… Check my Gumroad store to access free and premium books and courses to level up your coding skills and grow your software engineering career.
See you next time,
Cesar
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