01 Aug 2025 #mondaylinks
Hey there.
Here are 4 links I thought were worth sharing this week:
#1. I had ~5 meetings to decide what to do on each sprint. And I wasn’t doing any rocket science, just boring enterprise software. Meetings are the #1 distraction and a necessary evil. Here’s how to create the ultimate meeting culture (8min).
#2. If you’re a new manager or you want to become one, here’s a down-to-earth guide for new managers (7min). I really liked the coach analogy.
#3. Here’s another way how AI is “killing” junior coders (4min) in the open source world.
#4. If you’ve ever wondered if you’re a good programmer, read this post/reflection. It helps with the impostor syndrome.
And in case you missed it, I wrote on my blog about the business lesson I learned buying a new mattress (2min) and 10 career actions you will never regret (2min).
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See you next time,
Cesar
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31 Jul 2025 #career
My corporate journey didn’t come with an instruction manual.
I landed my first job because that’s what everyone does and what I was supposed to do. I joined the corporate world without any goal, other than “gain experience.” Which I did it.
But I was fired from my first job, got bored from my second, and got laid off from my last one. No survival kit or instruction manual. Only trial and error.
If I could start all over again, here are 10 actions I will never regret doing:
- Change jobs often
- Learn new skills constantly
- Set a career goal or intention
- Practice hobbies outside work
- Build a strong online presence earlier
- Invest in coaching, mentoring, and education
- Learn a second or third language
- Build multiple income sources
- Grow a professional network
- Have an emergency fund
And more importantly, figure out my own career and plan life instead of accepting the default path. That’s a lesson that took me 10 years to learn.
30 Jul 2025 #misc
“Sorry, it’s too late. There’s nothing to do,” a salesgirl told me.
The mattress
Earlier that day, the mattress I had ordered was delivered. I was told I should get it assembled and ready to use. But the delivery man told me, “I was hired only to deliver this to you.”
I tried to contact the company by dialing the phone number on the invoice. It didn’t work. It was either wrong or constantly busy. I checked their website for a phone number. No luck!
Then I rushed back to the mall where I bought it. The salesgirl called her supervisor. I wasn’t the only one receiving a mattress in pieces that day.
“If you had called me right away, maybe I could have done something,” she told me. After telling me it was too late, she explained that my mattress was delivered from another city via another delivery company. “Hey, but it isn’t that hard for you to assemble the mattress. It has some instructions inside.” Arrggg!
The lesson
If you promise something on your sales pages, deliver that promise. And make sure everyone involved understands what they need to do to make it a reality.
Imagine KFC handing you raw chicken and telling you, “You can fry it on your own. It comes with a step-by-step. It’s not that difficult.” You would never visit that restaurant again. Just like I’ll never trust that mattress company again.
There’s no secret to business, just promise, then deliver.
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.