03 Jul 2025 #misc
#1. If you feel lost in life, start by working on your health.
Last year, for the first time, I had no idea what to do with my life.
I had just recovered from a stomach sickness. I was on my way out from a burnout season. And a layoff caught me off guard. No side income, no next offer waiting for me. No plan B.
I felt more lost than when I graduated high school. At that time, I believed in the “go to college, find a job, work hard” path in front of me. But this time? I realized that the default path was a lie.
By accident or luck, I found the idea of working on my health when I felt lost. And it worked. Slowly, it gave me clarity and momentum.
Truth is, to change our lives we don’t need “passion” or a big master plan. We just need to start working on our health.
#2. Do something for your body, mind, and spirit every day.
After deciding to work on my health, I ditched my to-do list and focused on one single goal: working on my body, mind, and spirit every day.
I found that idea in one of James Altucher’s books. Probably Choose Yourself.
For me, it meant a workout session, writing 200 words, and a moment of silence every single day.
For you, it could be going running, meditating, or painting. Whatever. But do something for your body, mind, and spirit every day.
We’re truly healthy when the three of them are healthy. Work on each one every day. That’s the easiest recipe for a happy life.
#3. Save 50% of your income
Credit goes to an ex-coworker from my first coding job.
One day, out of the blue, he came close to my desk and shared this unsolicited advice. For free.
He told me:
“Cesar, imagine you only make half of your salary. Save and invest the other half. Sooner rather than later, you will buy your own house.”
That’s the best piece of advice I’ve ever received. Since then, I started to save. Sometimes 50%. Other times, less.
#4. Learn a second (or third) language
I learned English to make my CV attractive and land high-paying jobs.
But learning English meant more than high-paying jobs. It opened a whole new world: friendships, traveling, books… And you’re reading this because one day my mom’s best friend told her to sign me up for English classes.
For me, it was English. For you, maybe Arabic for work in the Middle East or Spanish to join a rising startup in LatAm. A new life is waiting for you behind a new language.
#5. If you don’t read, you won’t learn anything.
I don’t remember much of my philosophy class in high school.
But I won’t forget our teacher’s mantra. He repeated it all the time:
“If you don’t read, you won’t learn anything.”
Many years later, I stumbled upon him at a mall and told him I still remembered his quote. He told me the second part:
“If you don’t read, you won’t have anything to talk about.”
I had to wait more than 10 years to learn the full line.
Read one page or 10 or 15, but read something every day.
#6. Start a blog
Apart from learning English, writing is one of the most helpful skills for my professional career.
I made my first $100 online by sharing my words in a corner of the Internet.
Start a blog or write tweets. Just write. It will teach you to think clearly and it can make you some money in the meantime.
#7. The minute you learn something, teach it.
I found this idea in Show Your Work by Austen Kleon.
You don’t need a lecture hall or scientific papers to teach. Simply share it with anyone over the phone. Or write it anywhere online. That’s what has powered my online presence since I wrote my first blog post back in 2018. Sharing what I learn has not only helped others, it has changed my own life.
02 Jul 2025 #misc
Writing isn’t hard. It’s doing it when nobody is reading.
I started reviving my LinkedIn account last year. At first, I only got one or two reactions from friends and ex-coworkers.
To keep myself showing up day after day, I started a “wins” folder. That’s an idea I got from “Steal Like an Artist.” Every time something good happens, like an encouraging comment or extra likes, I’d screenshot it for motivation.
This last week, I added another screenshot to it. It was a comment on my reposted Medium post about writing a book for our future grandkids:
“I never thought of writing as a gift for future generations, but now I want to document everything. This really shifted something in me!”
That comment made my day. I managed to change a stranger’s view on something with my words. And that was more rewarding than any of the other comments I had received recently.
Collect and celebrate your small victories, too. They make your day and keep you going.
01 Jul 2025 #misc
It’s clear when you’re taking a relationship seriously.
You spend time with your loved one and stop looking for somebody else.
But what about a creative project? What does taking writing, painting, or coding seriously mean?
I started writing in 2018, but I didn’t treat it seriously until 2024.
For me, taking my writing seriously meant:
- Showing up consistently
- Studying other writers’ work
- Putting my writing in front of others
- Challenging myself out of my comfort zone
- Writing about other subjects apart from coding
- Hanging around other writers online
- Buying my first writing course
- Listening to feedback
With those actions, writing stopped being something I did only in my spare time and when inspiration struck to become part of my everyday rhythm. They help me build the confidence to call myself a “writer.”
Taking a creative project seriously means committing it by showing up and working on improving your skills.
Tom Critchlow, with his post Taking Blogging Seriously, got me thinking about all this.
30 Jun 2025 #misc
Search YouTube for journaling or note-taking, and you’ll almost certainly land on Field Notes.
Field Notes makes pocket-sized notebooks. Yes, the old-style pen-and-paper kind of notebooks.
I have to confess that I don’t use them (yet?). For my 10 bad idea lists, I use a cheap, ring-bound notepad that fits in my pocket. Still, their story resonated a lot with me.
While reading how the two creators started Field Notes, I found out they had a simple framework for starting creative projects:
- It should make money
- It should be something you’re proud of
- It should teach you something
For them, Field Notes checked the three boxes. And those three rules work for a design studio and for any creative project: a side hustle, newsletter, or book. OK, we can negotiate the first one a little.
If you’re starting a creative project, use your fingerprints and don’t forget about this law.
29 Jun 2025 #misc
You know that saying, “Don’t give advice unless asked?”
Well, some people ignored it and gave it anyway. Here are the best pieces of advice I’ve received:
From high school:
“Read, because if you don’t read, you won’t learn anything.”
That was from my philosophy teacher in high school. He said it all the time. I don’t remember much from his class, but for some reason that line has stayed with me.
If I still remember that years later, he did his job.
From my first job:
“Imagine you make half of your salary, save the other half.”
A senior co-worker at my first coding job gave me that totally unexpectedly. That lesson stuck with me so much, I couldn’t resist adding it to my an email course I created years later.
From my last full-time job:
“Diversify your career.”
That was from one of my not-mentors. I reached out to him when I wasn’t sure about where to take my software engineering career. We had many 1-on-1s. That’s what I remember the most. It was good advice. I didn’t follow it. I burned out.