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I make software, write, and take photos
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Edgar Allan Poe was right

2024-11-15 08:00:00

Dear reader,

Last week, I was walking home in the morning—one of those mornings when there’s no one on the street, the kind I love. It was one of those mornings when you can hear even the smallest sounds, which sadly get lost amid the noise of cities.

When I got home, I posted this tweet:

I don’t know if it was subconscious, but when I wrote this, I realized it bore a striking resemblance to the four conditions Edgar Allan Poe sets out for happiness, which, to sum up, are:

the love of a woman, life outdoors, the absence of all ambition, and the creation of a new beauty

I think life is enjoyed more when you have no expectations of it. When you look at it with curious eyes and simply observe what happens to you from the outside. For many years, I was too foolish to think this way, stubbornly trying to control everything and plan even the unplannable.

Over the years, you learn not only that the love of a woman (or a man) is important, but that life is much more beautiful with company. It’s true that it sometimes brings problems, but more problems arise from living an unwanted solitude. Being able to have someone to call, someone to hug, and someone for whom you do things you might not do if you were alone in this world makes it worth surrounding yourself well and being endlessly grateful for it every day.

In an overstimulated society where we all have to be “successful” people, and social media makes us believe that this cardboard version of success is within reach, it places excessive pressure on us. This pressure pushes us to do things for that Instagram post or because it will bring us some advantage. When we let go of this false ambition and genuinely pursue a simpler life, that’s when we begin to discover the bright colors that small moments bring with them, and above all, we start to be more present.

And it’s in that new present that we begin to create, to express ourselves, and to do things simply because we want to, because they bring us moments of enjoyment. This is where you can tell something is genuine, that the person behind it isn’t doing it solely to get rich or to inflate their ego. They’re doing it for something more.

With all this, we must apply what Edgar Allan Poe and many others discovered long ago. Life isn’t in this newsletter, it’s not on your screen, and it’s not in your room or your house. It’s out there. And nothing eases life’s hardships more than watching rivers flow, leaves fall from trees, and the sun rise and set.

You only have this life, so all I can say is: live it. That’s a reminder for both you and me. Let’s not be trapped by the chains we sometimes place on ourselves. Live responsibly, with the responsibility to make the most of this fortunate moment you’ve had to be here in this world.

Regret things, make mistakes, and don’t chase fleeting pleasures. Learn to love if you don’t know how, and love deeply those around you—one day they won’t be by your side.

Never forget to make time for them and for yourself. Enjoy the little moments and don’t strive for more.

Don’t overcomplicate life; it should be simple.

See you soon,

Alberto

This is the only ambition I have in life

Our Struggles Define Us

2024-11-08 08:00:00

I’ve always thought that the things we become obsessed with often stem from negative experiences. No one relentlessly seeks solutions to problems that don’t exist; that’s why no one becomes an expert in something they haven’t struggled with.

Those who seek calm are the ones who can’t find it. Those who want to improve their health are those who have lost it. People search for ways to sleep because, try as they might, they can’t manage to fall asleep and are all too familiar with the ceiling above their bed.

One reason I began writing was because I barely slept and thought too much. Writing became the perfect companion on those nights when sleep wouldn’t come. A way to capture the thoughts running through my head. And I believe it was through writing that I discovered it didn’t just help me—it made me fall in love with it.

Carlos Stro, a Spanish health educator, began to speak about how artificial light directly affects our health after losing a friend to cancer.

Viktor Frankl developed logotherapy after experiencing one of the most horrific realities—life in a Nazi concentration camp.

J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter when she was unemployed, a single mother, and dealing with a failed marriage. She used writing as an escape.

There are countless more stories like these.

That’s why the positive mantra of “find your passion” doesn’t resonate with me. We are shaped by our experiences, and because “no’s” often hurt more than “yes’s” bring joy, our negative experiences define us more than the positive ones.

No one became great without falling a thousand times. No one became strong without being knocked down over and over. No one came here with a promise of happiness; that’s an illusion of the fiercest capitalism.

Our only mission in life is simply to live it. To learn to survive the winters, the blows, and the falls. That’s what we became experts in, and that’s why we’re still here. We learned to come together and to work as a team. We discovered that companionship was better for our survival, and we created love. We found that our strengths, combined with those of others, made us invincible, and we held onto that truth.

Because happiness is too fragile to cling to. And perhaps too simple. Because experiencing the full range of emotions, no matter how difficult, is wonderful. Because it’s a miracle we’re alive. So let’s live—let’s enjoy those fleeting moments of happiness and face, with fear but without surrender, the experiences we encounter along the way, some bitter and some sweet.

Maybe in doing so, we’ll find ataraxia—and, with it, the answers to those questions that haunt us.


Today’s recommendations

  • How I Read. Reading is a practice—a way to improve attention and exercise discipline. It’s a gym for the mind. I’ve often spoken here about how vital reading is for our mental well-being, and I think this article presents some compelling arguments to that effect.
  • Analog Office. If you’re into paper and analog organization, this blog is pure gold.
  • archive.today. Sometimes I come across content behind a paywall, and I don’t want to pay for another subscription just to read a single article. After trying several tools, this one is definitely the one that has convinced me the most.

Cantimplora Studio

I’ve been wanting to shift the direction of Cantimplora Studio, my small services website, for a while now. Over the years as a freelancer, some people have asked me how to get clients. I wish I had an answer, but I don’t. The only thing that’s worked for me is word of mouth.

What I can tell you is something that, for someone like me, hasn’t worked: having a website. That’s why I’ve gone back to the roots of what this place was always meant to be:

Cantimplora Studio is a small, one-person studio focused on building thoughtful software and curating captivating content from the Weird Wide Web.

I really enjoy working alone, but at some point in my life, I’d like to have a team of people who are better than me, with whom I can create much more ambitious things.

That’s why this move makes sense. I want to make Cantimplora the epicenter of that—like the town square of my small city.

This change was inspired by Good Enough. If you don’t know them yet, you should definitely check them out.

With thousands of websites curated by bots, pages flooded with ads that require you to be quick with your mouse just to read, and apps that constantly vie for your attention, I believe we need more websites like this.

Websites made by people who create software because they genuinely enjoy what they’re doing. And by people who curate content because they love what they’re curating. From humans, for humans.

As I wrote before, technology should be a facilitator of our lives. And our life is out there. Our life is our family, our friends, and the experiences we perceive.

That’s a bit of what I want with this—to ensure that everything I create serves as a facilitator, not a distraction.

That’s all for now. I’ll share more news soon in this newsletter.

People More Interesting Than Me: Alex Fox

2024-11-01 08:00:00

Today, I’m excited to introduce a new section to my little newsletter: People More Interesting Than Me.

About a year ago, I discovered mood.camera on Reddit while I was in Greece. A camera app that emulates film camera filters sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a try. I really liked it—the results were impressive, and the app felt almost like using the phone’s native camera.

Some time after that, I received a message from Alex on WhatsApp, asking if he could use some of the photos I’d taken for his website, and that’s how we started talking. I’d been wanting to do written interviews with people I found interesting for a while, so I asked him.

And here we are, a few months later. My first guest, Alex Fox.


First things first: can you introduce yourself?

Hi! My name’s Alex Fox, I’m a developer from London and the creator of mood.camera.

How did you discover your love for photography and decide to spend more time on it?

I’ve been a keen photographer since I was a teenager, but my passion really came alive when I bought my first decent smartphone, a Samsung Galaxy S3. The fact that I could have such a capable camera and photo editing device in my pocket was super exciting. There was also a lot of innovation in the space at that time. Every year, phone cameras were getting better and better. Apps were getting more advanced. I would happily spend hours capturing and tweaking photos, trying to squeeze the most I could out of the phone I had at the time. Even thought I had a decent DSLR, I always came back to my phone camera. You can’t deny the cliche of the “best camera is the one you have with you” but somehow the photos felt more special, like you were defying the norm.

But more recently, despite advances in resolution and low light performance, I’ve felt less inspired to take photos with my iPhone. In the quest for ever sharper and “perfectly exposed” images, it feels like photos have lost their character. I also felt fatigued from my editing flow. Capturing photos in ProRAW was great in theory, but I felt overwhelmed with 100s of photos to edit. The once “fun” point-and-shoot phone camera is edging ever closer to the DSLR experience.

I tried a bunch of different apps to try and bring that character back into the iPhone camera but none of them quite hit the mark. That’s when I began to envision my ideal camera app and around this time last year, I started building a simple prototype, which would become mood.camera.

What kind of resources or research processes did you use to understand how to build Mood from a technical and business perspective?

I’ve been developing apps for a decade so the core design and technology came fairly naturally. The two biggest technical challenges were building the image pipeline and balancing the user experience.

My main goal was to create an app that captured photos with character, moving away from the over-sharpened, hyper-real look that iPhone photos often have. I looked to film for inspiration and spent a lot of time researching the subtitles of grain, colour and other photographic artefacts. I wasn’t looking to replicate film exactly, but I could see how these visual properties gave the photos physicality and feeling. Before touching the code I experimented with different techniques to create these filmic looks within Photoshop. Then, when I was happy with the look, I would recreate that image pipeline in the app. It was quite a long process, as after each iteration I would go out and take some photos to test the look. In the end, though, I am really happy with the results. Sure, it’s not a 100% replication of “real film”, but that was never the intention.

My second objective was to create a simple user experience that challenged the typical photographer’s mindset which leans heavily on editing and control. The ability to capture and edit photos, with greater and greater control, is on one hand incredible, but it’s overwhelming. It’s easy to get caught up in micro-decisions, tweaking every detail until the photo no longer feels spontaneous. I wanted to challenge that.

I made two controversial decisions. One, no live preview of your filter. Two, no editing - all the filmic effects and colour profiles are baked into the photo. You might think, yeh just like real film cameras, but it wasn’t just for the sake of nostalgia. I was more interested in the impact that it has on the psychology of taking a photo. For example, when I was testing other apps, I found that having a live preview meant I was more likely to either spend a minute flipping through filters, or at worst not even take the photo because it didn’t look quite right. I wanted to create an experience where you didn’t think too much, just compose the photo and snap. I also found that, for me, editing had the tendency to make it feel like my photos were never “finished”. With apps like VSCO offering 100s of filters, how am I meant to decide which one looks best?

I know it won’t be for everyone, and I’m not saying that editing photos is a bad thing at all, but there’s something liberating about accepting a photo, imperfections and all. Some of my favourite images have come from unexpected “happy accidents.” By limiting control, I’ve rediscovered the fun in iPhone photography, and that’s the experience I wanted to share with others.

I’m actually adding another small, feature in the next few weeks to curb a bad habit me and many other photographers have. I’m not sure if you’ll have heard the term, but it’s called “chimping”. Essentially it’s the compulsion to check what the photo looks like immediately after you take it. The new, optional, setting will disable the gallery button for 60 seconds after taking the photo. I’m looking forward to turning it on for myself, to break that habit.

A lot of people are willing to share their pictures taken with Mood on WhatsApp, Reddit, and Instagram, which is amazing because you’ve fostered interest in your product and built an active community. How did you create this community? Any advice you can share?

Yeh, I feel really lucky to have such an engaged community, they really help to give meaning to my work. One challenge is that people are very suspicious of anyone trying to market something in these communities, which I completely understand. For example, I originally posted on Reddit looking for beta testers, and it got such a big response that people were commenting things like, “The developers obviously paid people to post positive comments to this post”. With that in mind, I think it’s important to be as transparent as possible, and tell your story. If you want people to spend the time trying your product you need to give them a good reason to.

It’s also important to talk to your users. Spend the time replying to their questions and engaging with the content they post. If you’ve built a product that truly resonates with yourself, it should come naturally. I like nerding out on photography and technology so talking to like minded people about it is part of the fun!

Recommendations are great, so would you like to share some? They can be related to photography or anything you enjoy (videos, articles, books, movies/shows… whatever).

On the Netflix, I’ve been re-watching “Midnight Mass”, a fantastic horror series. Honestly, anything by Mike Flanagan is worth watching. And if you’re into cars, I highly recommend checking out “Revelations” by Hagerty on YouTube. It’s a brilliant series that takes you through the history of some iconic cars.

To switch off before bed, I’ve been reading some cyberpunk / Sci-Fi books, with “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson being one of my recent favourites. Highly recommend.


A few pictures I took with mood:


Today’s recommendations

  • Aren’t your lonely?. “My advice is keep whoever has the least interest in your social media. The ones who take your online persona the least seriously. They want the whole you, and they know an Instagram grid couldn’t possibly capture it. They like your ugly laugh, not the fake one you use for TikTok. They like those candid, silly pictures when you forgot to perform yourself for a moment, not the staged Instagram selfies that don’t even look like you.”
  • The Walking Rebellion. “I walk in order to stand still. Standing still in awe at new (and familiar) sights, be they birds, mountains, cultures, or traditions. I walk to be alone with my thoughts, to test out sentences that will one day be formed and crafted into essays. I walk to experience the places, people, creatures, and moments that will become the subjects of my written words. I walk to write, and I write to walk.”
  • Chris Arnade Walks the World. I’m someone who loves to walk, and my passion for photography is deeply connected to it. Walking and capturing moments are essential parts of my process, helping me become more aware of where I am and what I’m doing. It’s a meditative practice. I hope to find more blogs like this one, where people simply write about their walks.

I want people

2024-10-25 08:00:00

I want people in my life who challenge me, who make me uncomfortable.

I want people who are free, who think independently and make me question what is right and wrong.

I want people who are spontaneous, who love sincerely, with the courage to speak the truth to my face.

I want people who are ambitious, driven to build a life that reflects their idea of perfect happiness. People who choose the right path, even when it’s the hardest one.

I want people who feel fear but don’t let it hold them back. I want them to inspire me to face my own fears and be brave.

I want people who don’t seek external validation, who think for themselves, and see the world in their own way.

People who live without fear, with a passion to embrace the fullness of this incredible experience called life.


Today’s recommendations

  • The Sanctification of the Self. “The fragilization process continued with the arrival of content notes and trigger warnings. Children who never had to work through difficult feelings of failure become adults who believe that other people are supposed to protect them from ever encountering anything uncomfortable. This corrodes the idea of personal responsibility. When taken to its logical conclusion, the widespread demand for content and trigger warnings makes accountability, even from the legal system, seem incongruent with the lesson society has been teaching children for decades: someone else is responsible for your feelings.”
  • The Age of Abandonment. “For one, fear of abandonment explains much of Gen Z’s lack of resilience. We fear life because we feel alone. That’s the thing about attachment—you need to depend to be independent. You need a stable base to venture out. Something to rely on to take risks. Some stability to cope with chaos. Otherwise you can’t explore with confidence. If you fear abandonment, you won’t risk romance. Words will feel traumatic. You will stay stagnant, afraid to move.”
  • Breadcrumbs. “One aspect of life, somewhat neglected in the digital age, is the desire to see and be seen. We should not only desire that others find us, we need them to. We need jobs, relationships, friends, and all other kinds of connections. Though it sometimes feels that these connections are assigned at random, it is never true, they are always the product of someone’s efforts.”

Clouds everywhere + Gmail

Fall is my favorite time of year. After a brutally hot summer, the crispness in the morning air has brought me back to life. There’s something special about autumn sunrises and sunsets—they seem more beautiful than usual.

Lately, I’ve been a bit obsessed with clouds. Capturing photos of them. Appreciating their beauty. Here are some of my favorite shots:

After my recent obsession with clouds, let me share another of my particular quirks. With so many projects, I have multiple email accounts spread across different platforms, and I’ve always wanted to unify them somehow.

After extensive research, I settled on Fastmail as my solution. Overall, I like it—everything is centralized now—but I still miss the Gmail interface. To me, Gmail and Calendar are the best interfaces Google has, and probably the only ones Google these days.

Just yesterday, I stumbled upon something interesting. By using Cloudflare with Gmail, you can configure infinite subdomains in Gmail, all while managing them from your [email protected] account.

I’m going to give it a try and will let you know how it goes, but it feels like I’m one step closer to returning to my beloved Gmail interface.

Keep Your Word

2024-10-18 08:00:00

Humans commit through words.

For example, every person you love today entered your life through words. The friend who became close after a long conversation filled with shared understanding. Or the girl who became your girlfriend after you told her you liked her.

Likewise, everything you long for has become words. Those dreams you wrote down in your notebook as a child. The beautiful moments you recorded in your journal so they’d last forever. Or simply that recurring question you asked yourself: “What do I want to be when I grow up?”

Words are the most powerful way you have to commit, and keeping your word should be your goal.

Something so simple, yet so complicated: making sure that words and actions align. That you do what you say or say what you do. The order doesn’t change the result.

It’s sad to see people surprised when someone actually does what they said they’d do. Shouldn’t that be the norm? Unfortunately, it’s not. We live in a world clouded with lies.

And the biggest lies are the ones you tell yourself. How many times have you told yourself that you wanted to get in shape, write that blog, launch that project, or finish that book? I’m guilty of all of them. And probably, so are you.

So, if I had to give you one piece of advice, it would be this: keep your word. For yourself and for others. In both the smallest things and the biggest.

It’s okay to change direction, to make mistakes, or change your mind. But those things you’ve promised to yourself or to others—fulfill them. The satisfaction you feel from saying and doing what you promised is priceless.

Because there’s nothing sadder than letting others down, and nothing more painful than letting yourself down.


Today’s recommendations


Potpourri

Last week, I mentioned that I had been invited to participate in a photography exhibition in London. Well, I’ve decided not to go through with it. The decision is simple: I still have a lot of room to improve as a photographer, and I’d prefer to work on that before showcasing anything else.


On another note, last week Creare was featured on Product Hunt. It received a total of 18 solid upvotes—not much, but that’s okay. The goal with Creare is to slowly gather unique places, hoping that someone out there will appreciate it.

Friends Ana and Eduardo from Casado Gonzalez are among those who do. They sent a lovely email, which I won’t share for privacy reasons, saying they liked the project. That made me really happy. Since I know you’re both subscribed here, a warm greeting from this humble newsletter.


Even the box is beautiful

A little over a year ago, I was in South Korea and, by chance, bought a pen from the brand Monami—the Monami 153 Black, to be exact.

Now, the ink is running out, and surprise, surprise, they don’t sell replacements in Europe. So, I’ve urgently started the search for a European pen with similar qualities before mine dies for good.

I bought the Lamy Noto, which clearly disappointed me. Some pens that seem to fit what I’m looking for are the rOtring 600 or the Zebra Pen G-450. If you have any recommendations, I’d really appreciate it!

And if you’re into the world of pens, Reddit has the best channel for that.

Dead Simple Personal Productivity

2024-10-11 08:00:00

Today I’m going to introduce you to a new section of this newsletter. Over the years, I’ve been rewriting and learning from my experiences about certain topics that really interest me, like productivity, health, building products, relationships, among others.

I’ve always wanted to have a place where I could store this information in an organized way for others to consume, but most importantly, to help my future self remember the lessons I’ve gathered over time.

So here we are; welcome to the first Dead Simple [insert topic]. This time, the main topic is personal productivity.

Productivity is a topic you have probably searched for on Google. There are thousands of gurus trying to sell you the idea of the ultimate system when, in reality, it is simpler than that.

Don’t be fooled; productivity is not about complex systems or automating everything. Productivity is about knowing when to push and when to stop, understanding what to do and what not to do. Above all, it’s about thinking long-term and pursuing things that genuinely interest you.

  • Every year, try to implement a maximum of 1-2 changes in your life. Trying to do too many new things at once is a recipe for failure. Always think in the long term. Things that are worthwhile take time.
  • Have no long-term goals. Focus entirely on the process of working. Decide as you act. Once you have an idea, try to make it as simple as possible. Cut out 99% of the noise around it.
  • Don’t overcomplicate your organization. Productivity gurus need your money to keep creating irrelevant content. Focus on execution. If you cannot remember the task you need to work on, it’s probably because it’s not that important.
  • Many people spend too much time thinking about how to optimize their systems to perfection and not nearly enough time asking if they’re working on the right problems.
  • Don’t keep a schedule. Work on whatever is most important or interesting at any given time.
  • You don’t have time for everything. Not having time for something is another way of saying it’s not important. And that’s OK. Limited time means limited possibilities. That’s the way it is.
  • Say no to most things; say yes to the things your gut says yes to. Only agree to new commitments when both your head and your heart say yes.
  • Self-improvement should be a by-product, not the focus. You improve because you do the work, not because you focus on improving.
  • Picking the right thing to work on is the most important element of productivity and is often overlooked.
  • Sleep and exercise are key to your productivity. You cannot produce well enough if your body is not well-rested and energized.
  • If you’re unproductive, it’s not because your system is down or your software needs replacing. It’s because you’re tired, bored, or unhappy. You cannot do things you love all the time, but try to spend most of your time doing things that you enjoy or find very interesting.
  • Thinking happens outside your laptop. If you are creative, spending time in front of your computer is not the way to generate new ideas. Make sure you leave enough time in your schedule to think about what you are working on. The best ways to do this are to read books, hang out with interesting people, and spend time in nature.
  • Never walk into a room without knowing why you are there. “I need to write a newsletter” isn’t knowing why you are there; “I know exactly what to write” is. Problems are rarely solved and executed in the same room.
  • Working more hours makes you less productive. The countries that work the most hours are the least productive. Enjoying life more and working fewer hours makes you better at your job. This has been proven, even if your boss doesn’t like it.
  • Limit your options. If you try to pursue 100 paths, you will run out of strength and will not be able to finish any of them.
  • Life is about making decisions where we have no control over what is going to happen. Maybe we go down one road and end up in paradise, or maybe we end up in a wasteland. But we can’t stop trying.

This is all I have been able to summarize on this topic for the moment. The peculiarity of this section is that at some point this content you are reading will have its own section on my website, which I will expand as I learn new things about the subject.


Today's recommendations

  • Four Thousand Weeks. Speaking about productivity this week, I can’t recommend anything else but this book. I think its approach to managing time is very insightful, and it also emphasizes that our time is limited. It’s not about getting more things done; it’s about doing less and enjoying it.
  • What I have lived for. Speaking of enjoying life, this is a must read. The prologue to the biography of Bertrand Russell begins: “Three passions, simple but overpowering, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and an unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.”.
  • This quote from Nikos Kazantzakis:

    This is true happiness: to have no ambition and to work like a horse, as if you had every ambition. To live far from people, not needing them and yet loving them. To have the stars above you, the land to your left and the sea to your right, and to suddenly realize that in your heart life has performed its last miracle: it has become a fairy tale.


Photography calls me, again

This is the gallery, let's see if you can find my picture.

For those of you who don’t know, one of my hobbies is photography. A few months ago, one of my photos was selected to be exhibited in a small gallery in Athens. If you are curious, this is the photo.

I have always loved photography and I think it was something very natural for me. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t taking pictures, and I can’t remember not using my camera or cell phone almost everywhere I went. I even wrote an article about it.

But it was always very casual, and I never took it seriously to improve in that area, although it is obvious that I have improved over the years. There is nothing better than taking a lot of bad photos to make better photos.

This week I received an email from the same gallery telling me that I’ve been selected to exhibit my photos in another gallery next year, but this time in London. And this time not 1 photo, but 11 photos (1 printed + 10 digital). I was surprised because it’s not something I’m used to.

So, after almost a lifetime of taking pictures, I think it’s time to get serious about it. I don’t intend to make a living out of it, but it would be interesting to see how far I could go.

As always, I’m going to follow my curiosity and see where it takes me.

P.S: I’m not the biggest Instagram fan you’ll find, but I’ve created a photography section on my website where you can see some of the photos I’m taking.

If you like any of them, tell me, I’d love to hear.