2026-05-01 08:00:00
I’ve consumed several Acquired episodes, and one I found particularly interesting was about Nintendo, where they describe how lateral thinking shapes how to company thinks about their products: instead of always going after the new shiny thing that still has several unknowns and will need time to iterate on, know and perfect, use instead cheaper, already established technologies / materials and come up with new ways to use them1
Today LLMs, vibe / agentic coding, and other new technologies are all at rage. This means that a lot of humanity’s headspace is directed towards these new technologies, but there is still an immense unexplored space for the already established tools and technologies that were not fully exploited and combined. For example:
The most important thing at the end of the day is: are these solutions solving a real problem? Are they generating value? Their end user likely doesn’t really care how something was implemented behind the scenes, they just need something to solve their problems.
“Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology” is a defining product design philosophy popularized by Nintendo engineer Gunpei Yokoi. The philosophy posits that mature, well-understood, and inexpensive technology—”withered technology”—can be used in creative new ways (“lateral thinking”) to create innovative, successful products, rather than relying on expensive, cutting-edge hardware.↩
In the spirit of the article, the associated social media thumbnail was created using my favorite open source tool of all time: Blender. It still puzzles me how such a high quality tool is free and open source. I’m grateful for it. Without it, Survival Ball might not have even come to fruition.↩
2026-03-22 08:00:00
There is something interesting about our psyche, or at least mine. Simple and concise rules, when applied for a long time, are much harder to break1 than rules which make room for exceptions, or rules that are broad or ambiguous.
Let me give you an example: I never have desserts at my work office’s canteen. No exceptions. This makes my decision process straightforward: “Should I have a dessert? No. Move on. Nothing to see here”. I’ve been able to maintain this habit for 5 years. If I want a dessert, it will need to be elsewhere, like during a dinner night out.
If I would allow myself for a dessert only now and then, I am pretty confident it would derail my sugar consumption, since “every now and then” would be dictated by how much will power would be available on any given day, and there are days where I just have too much going on and will power is at short supply.
A single dessert at the canteen would break the streak, allowing for optionality to creep in, and deliver me to my limited will’s mercy.
I’ve been consistently accumulating several of these simple rules / habits throughout the past years, which allowed me to build strong foundations, move closer to the type of person I want to be, achieve what I want to achieve, and sustain a high output for a significant amount of time. Here is a list of the most impactful ones:
These simple rules were a boon for me to implement consistent habits, and the reasons why I think they kept working so well are:
They are all so ingrained in my life that if any of them slip, something starts to feel off and uncomfortable, just like any other deep habit or routine that gets halted.
Give them a try. There are rules and obsessions worth having.
Streaks are powerful, so it comes as no surprise that they are a textbook gamification strategy. Take Duolingo, which has a streak feature. Let’s say you use Duoling for seven days in a row, then you have a streak of length seven and if you don’t use it on the eighth day it goes down to zero, so it’s just a counter of how many days you’ve done it in a row. As of April 2025, there were 8 million people who were daily active users with a streak longer than 365 so we have 8 million daily active users that haven’t missed a day over the previous year.↩
2026-02-21 08:00:00
I once struck up a conversation with someone during one of my trips where I told them that there wasn’t a prescriptive way of organising work at the company I was working on at the time. We were not dogmatic in using kanban, scrum, lean or waterfall, we used whatever worked best for the problem at hand, many times resulting in a mix of these approaches, and even changing them mid-project.
Leads and people in the ground were trusted to take ownership and organize accordingly.
My interlocutor, with a disdained grin said “You do that? You don’t do Scrum?”. One could almost hear the “pff, ridiculous” undertone.
I still stand by it. You should not be dogmatic about it in scenarios where the problems keep changing and there is a constant need to adapt. At some point, all companies need to adapt to overcome competition, changing consumer behaviours, regulations, etc. The only thing that really changes between companies is how much time it takes for that change cycle to happen.
It is sensible to have a stable and institutionalised process across a company, when these cycles are long and harmony between people and departments is valued highly, but that same approach in a fast changing environment will the company’s death kneel, crumbling under its own comfortable rigidness.
Overall, the world is moving faster and faster, specially with the ongoing revolution of AI that is slowly creeping through many branches of our society, and the increasing amount of people entering the labor market.
On one of the latest projects I was involved in, where requirements would change very rapidly, and product market fit was crucial to first understand, having bulky processes would have done more harm than good. What actually worked was:
To this day I cringe when thinking about that conversation.
There is not a silver bullet. Processes are like tools. You should use the right one for the right job, combining them when necessary. You wouldn’t use a jackhammer to drive a simple nail.
Don’t be a process zealot. Use it as a means to an objective.
2026-02-20 08:00:00
The average human body consumes energy at a rate of approximately 100 watts
GPT-4 took about 50 GWh of electricity to train.
It takes 3,170 times more energy to train a model than to raise a human to 18 years old.
GPT-4 is really good at specific tasks, but is nowhere near as generically inteligent or able to function efficiently and adaptively within the real world. GPT-4 can’t even drive a car.
This suggests that just scaling existing models will not be enough to reach real AGI. New fundamental breakthroughs are still required to get there.
2026-01-19 08:00:00
Launched vivotime.net, a website focused to help you make the most of your limited life, with ideas aligned with your goals.
During the past years I’ve been wrestling with the idea of building a website that could be:
Turns out that ticking all boxes proved to be incredibly hard, but somewhere around 2025 I noticed how hard it was to come up with good ideas of how to use my free time to the fullest. Turns out that even though there were tons of exciting things to do in the world, not all were aligned with my ideals.
On the other hand, time here on Earth is very limited, and in between busy lives and distractions, opportunities, time and energy pass in an instant. We’ve been given a beautiful gift, and we should honour it.
Hence the idea to build vivotime.net. It shows you, without any sugar coating, how much life time you are predicted to have left, and then according to your goals, it suggests a series of meaningful ideas that you can allocate and manage for the time you have left. That’s it.
Vivotime.net was implemented using Laravel, Livewire, picoCSS and a sqlite database. Stripe is used for processing payments. I’ve tried to make it as lean as possible. No need for an overpowered MySQL database, or using tailwind, react, vue, or any other (default) technology du jour that would not serve the site’s purposes.
Docker is used to containerize the website, including the nginx web server. Deploying the website is as easy as running a bash script, and setting up the dev environment is likewise a script execution away. Pure bliss.
There is something beautiful about keeping things contained to their essence, with nothing more, nothing less than what is required.
As a result of having only a few moving parts, maintaining the website has been a breeze.
I’ve liberally used Copilot, most of the time with Opus 4.5. There is no way I could have finished this website in such a short (hourly) time span, considering that I’ve worked on it sporadically during some free hours on weekends or after a busy work day.
There is something to be said about coding on these limited time slots, something that I would have found much more challenging before LLMs, given that I would have needed continuous large time blocks just to get all context, system designs and best practices loaded into my head. AI makes the warm up process much easier, and of course, it is a powerful code machine that can produce high quality code, if directed correctly.
Vivo Time was built to be simple and to do a limited set of things, but do them right.
First, you need to introduce your year of birth, and optionally your sex, health status, relationship status, if you have children or not, and your occupation. These are used to provide an increasingly accurate estimation of how much time you might have left, and to provide you with relevant objective suggestions (for example, if you already have children, the “Start a Family” objective will not be presented).
Moreover, if you do not want the above information to be saved and associated to your account, you can enable this privacy setting in your account settings:
Then you are presented with a list of objective suggestions, which you can allocate or hide from the list. Each allocated objective decreases the amount of useful time left.
Afterwards you can manage your objectives by changing their allocation or visibility status, and you can also search for more specific objectives you have in mind.
That’s it! Let me know your thoughts about it!
2026-01-18 08:00:00
Almost two years after visiting New York City, I’ve come back to NYC and its two neighbouring cities: Boston and Washington DC.
Again, I’ve asked several people about their perspective of these cities, which helped immensely when planning out my itinerary. Let’s pay it forward: here is my guide / personal perspective of Boston, Washington DC and (more) New York.
Boston and Washington DC are roughly 4 hours away by bus or train.
I’ve made NYC my homebase, and opted to take the bus (FlixBus) between cities and they were very reliable and arrived always before the stated time. These cities are connected by non-stop highways which make the course more reliable and smooth.
Trains (Amtrak) are generally faster, but be aware that delays due to freight train interference are a known issue, and ticket prices are higher, when compared to bus.
Boston was the epicenter of some of the most impactful American historical events, and the home of several historical figures, such as Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and John Hancock, to name a few.
The Freedom Trail (map) exposes you to this rich history, and connects 16 locations significant to the history of the United States via a 2.5-mile-long (4.0 km) path throughout Boston, which you can walk at your own leisure, and can be completed in single day.
The path is quite popular in the city, but if you are struggling to find it, look for the denser lines of tourists walking in the city. Likely they will be following the red brick lane that you just need to follow.
Ever wondered why a donkey is used to represent the Democratic party, and an elephant the Republican party?
It is thought the Republican elephant was first used like this by an Illinois newspaper during Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 election campaign - perhaps as a symbol of strength, although it is still debated.
It was then made popular after a man called Thomas Nast - who was a Republican - drew it in a cartoon in a magazine in 1874.
As for the origins of the Democratic donkey, they hark back to the presidential campaign of 1828, a re-match between Andrew Jackson and the incumbent John Quincy Adams. Opponents of Jackson labeled him a “jackass” for his populist beliefs and campaign slogan “let the people rule”. More entertained than provoked by the moniker, Jackson decided to incorporate the strong willed animal into his campaign posters and went on to defeat Adams, becoming America’s first Democratic President
Again, Thomas Nast later used the cartoon animal to represent the Democrats and it became a popular symbol for the party by the end of the 19th century.
For many years I’ve been yearning to visit MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to better understand the energy and environment from where multiple outstanding breakthroughs and alumni came from.
The campus was built with “serendipity” as a principle, to encourage productive accidents which occur when people exchange ideas with no specific agenda but end up inspiring each other.
Most of the campus is open to the public, allowing for a very enjoyable exploration of its spaces.
This is one of the most distinguishable features of the entire campus, which is also a prized location for “hacks”, such as the placement of fire truck upon its top.
You can catch a glimpse of the internal part of the dome by going all the way up to the Barker Library reading room, which has a convenient elevator that you can take right from the main hall.
The Kendall Station “T” subway station right next to MIT has a wonderful interactive sound sculpture which consists of three interactive instruments that are played using handles located on both the inbound and outbound subway platform walls.
You’ll immediately notice how daring and almost fantastic this building looks like. Academic celebrities such as Noam Chomsky, Ron Rivest, and World Wide Web Consortium founder Tim Berners-Lee have offices in the building, apart from multiple other facilities and departments.
To the west, you can find Stratton Student Center; the Briggs Field which serves as the home field for the MIT softball program, in addition to the recreation field beyond the outfield fence that is used by over 80 club and intramural programs; and Simmons Hall (aka honeycomb) which serves as a student hall.
One of the best ways to reach MIT via Harvard Bridge, where you can get appealing views of center Boston and MIT. The bridge is 364.4 smoots long. If you look at the ground, you’ll see how far you’ve progressed across the bridge, in this revolutionary measure.
You can reach Harvard University by simply doing a 30 minute walk from MIT. The proximity between these two powerhouses was something that struck me, and I didn’t realise until that point.
The main campus is open to the public, where you can check its magnificent buildings and surroundings.
I’ve lost count of the amount of dinosaur fossils and attractive rocks, crystals and gemstones. Make sure to allocate a few hours to appreciate a good part of the collection.
As I was making my way toward the Harvard Museum of Natural History, I stumbled upon an imponent building and wondered what it was. Once I entered through one of the open doors, I was in awe. I had entered the Memorial Hall, in which a concert at the Sanders Theatre was about to start. The inside of the building was stunning and reminded me of the Great Hall in Harry Potter.
Room H33 in Kirkland House at Harvard University was where Mark Zuckerberg developed “TheFacebook” (now Facebook) in 2004 before dropping out to focus on the burgeoning platform. For obvious reasons, you cannot visit the room itself, but it was still interesting to visit this location and understand its environment.
The Bull & Finch Pub was the model for Cheers, a wildly popular American television sitcom. When the show was being conceptualized, Tom Kershaw, the pub’s owner, agreed to allow the show’s production team to shoot exterior and interior photos, charging $1. Kershaw has since gone on to make millions of dollars, licensing the pub’s image and selling a variety of Cheers memorabilia.
One of the Liberty Trail paths will take you to the Navy Yard, where there is more to discover other than the USS Constitution and its museum. It offers a beautiful view of Boston, is the home of the Massachusetts Korean War Veterans Memorial and familiar animal statues like the ones you can see outside the World Trade Center.
The italian corner in Boston, not only houses a wealth of quality restaurants and pastry shops, but also the angelic St. Leonard’s Church, one of the oldest churches built by Italian immigrants in the United States.
The memorial is composed of six glass towers towering well over 50-feet on a black granite path in a grassy area. The towers symbolize the six major concentration camps, steam often rises from openings beneath the towers representing the smoke from crematoriums.
This luxury home furnishings store is housed in the previous historic museum of natural history, and is striking to observe at night. I just happened to stumble upon it while I was walking around and it was already closed by that time, but this would be one of my go to places to visit if I come back to Boston.
There are two things one must try in Boston:
While in Cambridge, be sure to also go to Joe’s Pizza. Same delicious slices as you would have in New York, with less hassle.
If I had to summarise Boston to a single word, it would be “community”.
While going through Walter Isaacson’s Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, it became apparent to me how fundamental was for Franklin to be involved in Boston’s community, not only for what he received, but also for what he gifted. His birthplace was on the same street of the Old South Meeting House, so no way could have escaped.
Notice also how many meeting houses, state houses, halls, religious congregations and halls exist in the Freedom Trail alone. This, paired with the many past confrontations with Great Britain, seemed to create a tight group of people that strived and leaned on each other.
With this, comes the service to the community and its legacy, which is nicely rendered in this phrase from Kevin Hagan White, previous mayor of Boston:
We can erect thousands of building thousands of buildings and put down miles of concrete, but unless the next generation can say that Boston is better place to live, we will have achieved nothing
I’ve covered the majority of my favorite NYC places in this post, but here is always something more to explore.
I recommend starting on the upper floor and then work your way down. It dawned on me closer to the museum’s closing time that the top floors had much well known art pieces than I imagined, so I ended up rushing through many of them. The upside was that I spent more time absorbing other less known pieces, which I found inspirational and fresh.
The piece that most struck me was “Being Human”, not so much for its content, but for its form. The piece is set up in a room which has a large semi transparent panel where a movie is being projected. As I was sitting on one side of the room to see the movie, at key parts of the movie the entire back room lights up, revealing the sculptures and paintings. That was unexpectedly surprising as I sat there not only to watch the movie, but to rest from the 100km+ I’ve accumulated up until that point1.
The main thing I found inspiring about that piece was how it was filmed. It wasn’t an “in your face” headshot, it wasn’t a typical documentary interview, but instead the main protagonist was talking about fundamental ideas as he walked, shaved, talked with his family over the phone, while travelling in a bus, or just dancing. That was so refreshing, especially when I mostly consume (and produce) YouTube content, where the format is a very “like, subscribe, thumbs up” kind of thing. This inspired me to look at the small videos I produce in a different way, and ever since I’ve been experimenting with some new shots and ways to convey my message. In the end, it is a labor of love, and I think there is value in adding beauty to the world.
I took some time to go through this exhibition, where I’ve mostly enjoyed the explorations around the negative space and the abstract mimicking of natural structures. This temporary exhibit will be available until February 7th, so you are still on time to check it out.
Instead of getting into an expensive, overcrowded tour of the Statue of Liberty, walk a few meters east from that ferry at Battery Park, and get a $5 ferryboat trip to Governors Island instead. The trip is beautiful, the island can be walked easily and has some interesting houses, and you’ll actually get a good view of the Statue of Liberty from there.
Remember to activate subtitles by pressing the button in front of you. I didn’t realize this on the first part, so needed my colleagues from another aisle to explain me what is was all about, for me to catch up
This is where you can get one of the best views, if not the best land level view of New York. Then get a ferry ride back to Manhattan for extra premium views (this part I did not do, since I was running out of time, but I was advised by a local that it’s a must).
I didn’t try any formal observation decks the last time I visited New York, so this time I had to do one. I’ve picked Summit Vanderbilt, which is a pretty good experience, not only because of impressive views of iconic NYC landmarks, but also due to the different indoor experiences and mesmerizing light effects it offers.
I got this hint from a colleague, and it is spot on. If you are looking for the best Tiramisu in NYC, look no more, just head to Piccola Cucina, where they serve you a freshly made Tiramisu that is assembled right in front of you, and it is delicious.
Right in front of MoMA sits the Nusr-Et Steakhouse, owned by exuberant Nusret Gökçe, the Salt Bae.
Fashion brand Louis Vuitton has concealed its under-renovation New York flagship store with a luggage facade, and it looks surreal. When I first glanced at it, it felt like it was placed there via augmented reality.
I visited on a curious time: the government was shut down, so all main museums were closed, and a “No Kings” rally was held on the same day I arrived, so some of the main attractions were fenced and there was a heightened police and secret agent presence. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, and if anything, would want to go back to visit all the incredible museums I missed.
As you exit Union Station, Washington DC’s main station, the first view that hits you is the Capitol, the seat of the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the federal government. While walking around DC’s main attractions along the National Mall, the Capitol is a permanent sight.
Make sure to not miss this emblematic memorial, which is not only incredibly beautiful inside, with the towering statue of Thomas Jefferson and his quotes, but also outside, as you walk towards it along the Tidal Basin.
The quote I most appreciated was:
I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.
This was one of my most long awaited memorials, and has been in imaginary for several decades, but apparently I was not the only one, because this was one of the most crowded attractions. Adding to that, to accommodate visitors during the upcoming elevator replacement, contractors built a very large temporary switchback ramp in front of the memorial’s plaza, so it felt like entering into a monument under construction. This is an attraction that I hope to come back to sometime later when this work is completed, to better savour it.
As it is expected, you can only have a limited view of the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States (currently, Donald Trump), but after seeing, hearing and reading about it countless times, it felt great to see it with my own eyes.
The National Mall is a landscaped park that sits right at the center of all main attractions in DC, a charming place to walk about. Along the way I’ve encountered several branches of folks on their way to join the “No Kings” manifestation.
This was the memorial that most struck me in terms of symbolism. It was smartly built.
Notice that on the side of Mr. King’s statue there is an inscription that reads “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope”. Then notice that behind the statue there is a rock formation from where the statue’s “stone” was clearly symbolically extracted from. Beautiful.
The large memorial for Franklin Delano Roosevelt has four outdoor “rooms”, representing his four terms, all of them sprinkled with many of his insightful quotes.
The most striking portion of this memorial were the bas-reliefs consisting of 24 separate panels. The 12 on the north depict the Atlantic front; the 12 on the south depict the Pacific front. All of them are neatly connected, telling a story that is worth diving into.
The most striking aspect of this military cemetery is how large, exquisit and well kept it is.
This is a monument in the middle of the Arlington Cemetery dedicated to unidentified U.S. service members from World War I, World War II, and the Korean War.
After the periodic change of guard that me and the small crowd were watching in total silence, the chatter in this small crowd started growing after the ceremony had ended. With this, the guard in duty shouts assertively to the crowd to respect this space and maintain silence. The crowd quieted down immediately. That moment reflected what the entire cemetery transpired: an immense respect and dignification of the ones that served that country and gave their lives during their service.
Again, another emblematic memorial, which is not as easy to reach as DC’s main attractions, but worth the visit.
In the northwest quadrant of DC sits Georgetown, a beautiful area that feels like a transplantation of a piece of Europe into DC. In fact, it predates D.C. itself.
Keeping up with the theme of visiting university campus, this one was also interesting to visit, with building buildings and hidden places like a nice terrace near a coffee shop, a good place to relax after a long walk.
I’ve noticed several “Hoya Saxa” references. In case you are wondering, it is generally translated as “what rocks!”, and is the official cheer and “college yell” of Georgetown University and its athletics teams.
You might have noticed the header image of this article is again me on a flight of stairs. What’s up with that?
I thought it would be fun to keep up with the theme of emblematic staircases, last time being the “Joker steps” in the Bronx, so this time I’ve visited the stairs where Father Damien Karras fell down in 1973’s film The Exorcist.
Beautiful, relaxing space to relax and appreciate the view of the Potomac river.
The concert started with the orchestra playing the USA’s National anthem, Star-Spangled Banner. All rose to hear it, and the spectacle moved me. This was one of the last days I was spending in the USA, and after experiencing so much from this culture that highly fascinates me, this was a cathartic moment. I came to know right after this that some deeper political motives were behind this recent inclusion of the anthem pre-concert, but still I found it moving how much its citizens esteem their nation.
The concert itself was “An Evening of Beethoven”. It was the best classical music concert I’ve even seen, and I’m not saying this to sound highbrowed or anything. It was genuinely incredible.
There had been a sudden replacement of the original conductor, Christoph Eschenbach, due to illness, by the young Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, who was completely on fire, and propagated that energy towards into the orquestra and the audience. The sheer energy and emotion that the conductor transpired was incredible. Never experienced anything like that in such a context. If you are around the area and can catch the show, you should.
Remember the Watergate scandal, a political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon? Well, the complex where a group associated with Nixon’s 1972 re-election campaign were caught burglarizing and planting listening devices in the Democratic National Committee headquarters, is just a stone’s throw away from the Kennedy Center.
If I had to summarise Washington DC in a single word, it would be “legacy”.
Incredible achievements of the past won’t guarantee a prosperous future, and it is up for current and next generations to keep nurturing the gifts from ancestors, by continuing their work, remembering their deeds and honoring good ideals.
The “test of time” many times comes down to a generation’s choice to keep past stories and memories alive, or not. The meticulously preserved Arlignton cemetery, the zero tolerance for noise and chatter at the “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier”, the fact that a Freedom Trail actually exists, the tiny USA flags that “someone” tend to on Boston’s cemeteries, the free monuments and museums available for all, the highlighted “freedom is not free” message at the Korean War Veterans Memorial. All of these send a strong message that the past glories are dependent on their maintenance and elevation.
There was also space for gifts offered by other nation states, and the ones that stuck most to me were:
Along the way I’ve met and had interesting conversations with some very generous and interesting people, be it in the queue to Mike’s Pastry, at Joe’s Pizza, in the airplane, at Kennedy Center. They were incredibly friendly and I’m thankful that we crossed paths.
Someone got a lot of attention at Harvard’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology :)
It was near Halloween at the time of these travels, so I got to observe some of the fantastic work of local residents.
When I arrived in Boston, the first thing I needed to do was to cross a sidewalk. I pressed the button to request the cross, and heard the emblematic “Wait!”. I thought that was pretty amusing. I feel like this could make a great sample to insert in a trance music.
Fun fact, these are notoriously hackable, and last year the audio on these crosswalks were changed to mimic Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
The most common themes stuck to me were legacy and lore.
A great example of this is Washington DC. At its core, I see it as a condensation of the story and values of the USA. What it means to be an American. There is real power behind the culture and soft influence that the USA transmits externally and inland.2
Even if a nation sports an incredibly past, it will only survive if every new generation maintains that legacy and iterates upon it, as Kevin Hagan White alluded to. The tiny American flags placed in the historical Boston cemeteries, the exemplary maintenance of the Arlington cemetery, Boston’s freedom trail, Boston’s Bunk Hill that was erected with the money from the community, the free DC museums, the USA cultural exports, and so on and so forth. All of these keep the American story and lore alive.
Over the span of 9 days, I walked a total of 188km (20km + 42km + 4km + 11km + 9km + 5km + 38km + 36km + 23km), where parts of these I was transporting a 10kg backpack. It was quite a workout↩
Although there are signs that the USA might be starting to lose its cultural influence with the accumulation of serious problems, ideology clashes and hostility towards allied countries.↩
