2025-10-27 01:00:00
Ego is one of those words that’s difficult to parse. I find language to be an imperfect tool in the quest to describe the inner workings of the mind, because in there, things tend to be fuzzy, while words are often sharp, pointing to distinct concepts that are seldom found in someone’s brain.
«I don’t have an ego», some claim. How that is even possible remains a mystery. I suspect it all comes down to how one defines the word ego, and what concepts are associated to it. Personally, I find the whole concept of trying to “give up” one’s ego to be quite futile. Take this definition as a starting point:
In philosophy, the self, or the ego, is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes.
If we use this definition of ego, I don’t see how you can ever get to giving it up. Unless by giving it up one means killing themselves, which personally I don’t find to be a compelling answer to this question. Because to give up something, someone has to be there to be the subject of the giving up. But if nobody’s there anymore, nothing is given up, because there’s nothing that can be given up. Do I make any sense?
Ego gives us many other words: from egoism, to egotism, to egocentrism. Those are all words that carry a bad reputation; nobody likes to be called an egoist. As social creatures, as part of the larger group of billions of human beings currently living on this earth, we find these constant inward-looking traits to be undesirable.
That said, though, I find the idea of always living experiences in the service of others, in an attempt to suppress one’s ego, to be an unhealthy way to go about spending the time we have available on this planet. Attempting to completely annihilate the things that make you you, in order to better fit with the rest of society, is not worth it.
It’s not healthy to spend time on this planet thinking you’re the absolute best at everything and nobody can teach you anything ever. That’s obvious. But the opposite is also not healthy: living your life thinking you’re worth nothing, that you know nothing, that everyone knows more and is worth than you and that they should be the ones to talk, to teach, to do, to earn.
If there’s one lesson I try to carry with me, it's that extremes are bad. And the goal should be to keep the pendulum swings to a minimum, and spend as much time as possible at the centre, where things are balanced. And you might think I’m saying this to you, but I’m actually talking to myself. Because the ego is still there, the inner dialogue continues, and the personal struggles will persist.
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2025-10-24 19:00:00
This week on the People and Blogs series we have an interview with Romina Malta, whose blog can be found at romi.link.
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I’m Romina Malta, a graphic artist and designer from Buenos Aires. Design found me out of necessity: I started with small commissions and learned everything by doing. What began as a practical skill became a way of thinking and a way to connect the things I enjoy: image, sound, and structure.
Over time, I developed a practice with a very specific and recognizable imprint, working across music, art, and technology. I take on creative direction and design projects for artists, record labels, and cultural spaces, often focusing on visual identity, books, and printed matter.
I also run door.link, a personal platform where I publish mixtapes. It grew naturally from my habit of spending time digging for music… searching, buying, and finding sounds that stay with me. The site became a way to archive that process and to share what I discover.
Outside of my profession, I like traveling, writing, and spending long stretches of time alone at home. That’s usually when I can think clearly and start new ideas.
The journal began as a way to write freely, to give shape to thoughts that didn’t belong to my design work or to social media. I wanted a slower space where things could stay in progress, where I could think through writing.
I learned to read and write unusually early, with a strange speed, in a family that was almost illiterate, which still makes it more striking to me. I didn’t like going to school, but I loved going to the library. I used to borrow poetry books, the Bible, short novels, anything I could find. Every reading was a reason to write, because reading meant getting to know the world through words. That was me then, always somewhere between reading and writing.
Over the years that habit never left. A long time ago I wrote on Blogger, then on Tumblr, and later through my previous websites. Each version reflected a different moment in my life, different interests, tones, and ways of sharing. The format kept changing, but the reason stayed the same: I’ve always needed to write things down, to keep a trace of what’s happening inside and around me.
For me, every design process involves a writing process. Designing leads me to write, and writing often leads me back to design. The journal became the space where those two practices overlap, where I can translate visual ideas into words and words into form.
Sometimes the texts carry emotion; other times they lean toward a kind of necessary dramatism. I like words, alone, together, read backwards. I like letters too; I think of them as visual units. The world inside my mind is a constant conversation, and the journal is where a part of that dialogue finds form.
There’s no plan behind it. It grows slowly, almost unnoticed, changing with whatever I’m living or thinking about. Some months I write often, other times I don’t open it for weeks. But it’s always there, a reminder that part of my work happens quietly, and that sometimes the most meaningful things appear when nothing seems to be happening.
Writing usually begins with something small, a sentence I hear, a word that stays, or an image I can’t stop thinking about. I write when something insists on being written. There is no plan or schedule; it happens when I have enough silence to listen.
I don’t do research, but I read constantly. Reading moves the language inside me. It changes how I think, how I describe, how I look at things. Sometimes reading becomes a direct path to writing, as if one text opened the door to another.
I love writing on the computer. The rhythm of typing helps me find the right tempo for my thoughts. I like watching the words appear on the screen, one after another, almost mechanically. It makes me feel that something is taking shape outside of me.
When I travel, I often write at night in hotels. The neutral space, the different air, the sound of another city outside the window, all create a certain kind of attention that I can’t find at home. The distance, in some way, sharpens how I think.
Sometimes I stop in the middle of a sentence and return to it days later. Other times I finish in one sitting and never touch it again. It depends on how it feels. Writing is less about the result and more about the moment when the thought becomes clear.
You know, writing and design are part of the same process. Both are ways of organizing what’s invisible, of trying to give form to something I can barely define. Designing teaches me how to see, and writing teaches me how to listen.
Yes, space definitely influences how I work. I notice it every time I travel. Writing in hotels, for example, changes how I think. There’s something about being in a neutral room, surrounded by objects that aren’t mine, that makes me more observant. I pay attention differently.
At home I’m more methodical. I like having a desk, a comfortable chair, and a bit of quiet. I usually work at night or very early in the morning, when everything feels suspended. I don’t need much: my laptop, a notebook, paper, pencils around. Light is important to me. I prefer dim light, sometimes just a lamp, enough to see but not enough to distract. Music helps too, especially repetitive sounds that make time stretch.
I think physical space shapes how attention flows. Sometimes I need stillness, sometimes I need movement. A familiar room can hold me steady, while an unfamiliar one can open something unexpected. Both are necessary.
The site is built on Cargo, which I’ve been using for a few years. I like how direct it feels… It allows me to design by instinct, adjusting elements visually instead of through code. For the first time, I’m writing directly on a page, one text over another, almost like layering words in a notebook. It’s a quiet process.
Eventually I might return to using a service that helps readers follow and archive new posts more easily, but for now I enjoy this way.
I don’t think I would change much. The formats have changed, the platforms too, but the impulse behind it is the same. Writing online has always been a way to think in public.
Maybe I’d make it even simpler. I like when a website feels close to a personal notebook… imperfect, direct, and a bit confusing at times. The older I get, the more I value that kind of simplicity.
If anything, I’d try to document more consistently. Over the years I’ve lost entire archives of texts and images because of platform changes or broken links. Now I pay more attention to preserving what I make, both online and offline.
Other than that, I’d still keep it small and independent.
It costs very little. Just the domain, hosting, and the time it takes to keep it alive. I don’t see it as a cost but as part of the work, like having a studio, or paper, or ink. It’s where things begin before they become something else.
I’ve never tried to monetise the blog. It doesn’t feel like the right space for that. romi.link/journal exists outside of that logic; it’s not meant to sell or promote anything. It’s more like an open notebook, a record of thought.
That said, I understand why people monetise their blogs. Writing takes time and energy, and it’s fair to want to sustain it. I’ve supported other writers through subscriptions or by buying their publications, and I think that’s the best way to do it, directly, without the noise of algorithms or ads.
I’ve been reading Fair Companies for a while now. Not necessarily because I agree with everything, of course, but because it’s refreshing to find other points of view. I like when a site feels personal, when you can sense that someone is genuinely curious.
Probably Nicolas Boullosa
Hm… No mucho. Lately I’ve been thinking about how fragile the internet feels. Everything moves too quickly, and yet most of what we publish disappears almost instantly. Keeping a personal site today feels like keeping a diary in public: it’s small, quiet, and mostly unseen, but it resists the speed of everything else. I find comfort in that slowness.
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2025-10-22 15:05:00
Yesterday, OpenAI announced Atlas, its AI browser. To the surprise of literally nobody, it’s Chromium with AI slapped on top. Perplexity also has a browser: it’s called Comet, and it also is Chromium with AI slapped on top. Then we have DIA, which is, you guessed it, Chromium with AI slapped on top. I think Opera also has one of those Chromium browsers with AI slapped on top.
I code sites for a living (allegedly), and I honestly cannot overstate how uninterested I am in all these new browsers. Because these are not new browsers: these are Chromium frames with AI slapped on top.
The thing I found more interesting about the whole OpenAI announcement was Sam Altman tweeting: «10 am livestream today to launch a new product I'm quite excited about!». This is coming from someone who’s allegedly running a company that’s building a tool that should usher in a new era where computers will replace most of human work, where we’ll all have a super intelligence always available in our pockets, ready to dispense infinite wisdom.
And yet he’s quite excited about a fucking Chromium installation with AI slapped on top of it. I guess building an actual browser, from scratch, is still a task so monumentally difficult that even a company that is aiming for super-intelligence can’t tackle it.
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2025-10-21 19:40:00
Found on Kev’s blog and originally started by Dave, here are my answers to this fun blog challenge:
Sometimes. I’d say maybe a few times a week? I’m terrible at being consistent, and that includes flossing regularly.
Coffee in the morning, tea (sometimes) later in the day, not enough water the rest of the time. Did I mention I’m terrible at being consistent? That includes drinking enough water.
Right now, I’d say flip flops, even though they are a terrible choice when you have to walk around the woods.
Probably Crema catalana. It’s the one dessert I’m resisting the temptation to buy what’s needed to make it myself at home because I know I’d end up eating it every day, three times a day.
I say hi to the dog that’s for sure sleeping somewhere near.
From a purely physical perspective, I’d say 22. If I have to consider all factors, I’d say 36. And I’m 36.
Do beanies and toques count as hats? Because if they do, then I own 7 hats. If they don’t, then I’m down to 3.
It’s from a walk with the dog the other day: clear sky and some tree branches and leaves illuminated by a lovely light. Most of my gallery looks like that.
I don’t watch TV, and the last time I watched a TV series, I think it was in the dark days of the COVID shutdown, which happened what, 32 years ago? I don’t even know what’s on TV these days.
The oldest memory I have of a job I wanted to do was car designer. I remember loving seeing yellow FIAT Coupé around. Funny because now I couldn’t care less about cars.
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2025-10-20 15:20:00
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2025-10-19 03:20:00
The other day Kevin sent me a preview link of an upcoming post for his Overkill site, and I jokingly replied to him that «Home servers are probably the second least appealing tech topic for me».
I then started thinking about what my least favourite tech topics are, and I thought it would make for a fun blog post, and so here we are, my five least favourite tech topics.
From infotainment screens to car OS, I’m bored to death by everything that has to do with screens in a car. Some car-related tech is cool, don’t get me wrong, but it usually has nothing to do with screens.
Headphones, earbuds, hi-fi systems, you name it. The only thing I find amusing about that entire world is how bizarre some of the products are. I dive into this topic maybe once every 5 years when I have to change headphones, and that’s about it.
I own a watch that’s just barely smart enough to be considered a smartwatch. I use it to track my hikes and to have offline maps. That’s the extent to which I’m interested in the world of wearables. Everything else I find boring as hell. Don’t care about smart glasses, don’t care about AI pins, don’t care about smart rings, don’t care about internet-connected intelligent butt-plugs. I already have a hard time dealing with a smartphone; that’s more than enough.
I not only have very little interest in home servers, but I also don’t have a use for them, which is probably why I find the whole topic so unappealing. Every time I read something about this topic, my only thought is that it seems like a lot of work and a lot of unnecessary headaches. And it also seems to become a second job, which is definitely something I don’t need in my life.
The reason this is at the top of the list is because not only do I find smart appliances to be terribly boring, but also because it’s probably the only tech “innovation” I’m actively fighting against. I want my home dumb. I don’t want to charge my doorbell, I don’t want to flash a firmware on my lightbulbs, I don’t want to set up a home server to deploy some open source software to make sure my new light switch shows up on my phone. That sounds like a nightmare to me.
There you have it, my least favourite tech topics. Wait, no AI? Yes, no AI. AI tech is kinda cool, it’s the whole circus around it that I find insufferable. How about you, though? Do you have a least favourite tech topic?
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