Hello, friend!

Hello friend. Hello friend? That's lame. Maybe I should give you a name. But that's a slippery slope, you're only in my head, we have to remember that. Shit, this actually happened, I'm talking to an imaginary person….

— Elliot Alderson (Mr. Robot).¹

As my first article on this space, I'd like to briefly share why I am starting it. Hopefully, a few years from now, this entry might prove useful. I can use it to confirm whether I'm still on the path that I set out on, if I accomplished any of my initial goals, or to serve as a baseline to compare the practice of writing as it hopefully improves².

But more importantly, I want to explain what you should expect of this new web space. What sort of content you will read. In recent years, I’ve been very interested in two aspects of writing. Writing long-form articles (e.g., essays) and shortish articles.

Why I like essays

The very idea of an essay is very dear to me, but still very nascent. Although I’ve read many essays, I haven’t written many. I believe there is something about writing essays that can “sharpen one’s mind”. When you are writing an essay, you’re not writing about something in a shallow way, e.g., like in a blog post like this³.

First, to write an essay, one needs to have something of substance to say; they need to think about possible edge cases in their thinking; know the boundaries of their understanding and knowledge; be interested in acquiring more knowledge to fill those gaps; and be able to articulate whatever is in their mind clearly so that anyone⁴ can understand. This part is harder to do than it appears.

But ultimately, one needs to deliver something of value. Something that’s worth someone’s time. In my opinion, after reading an essay, the reader needs to finish it and leave with something⁵ they can take with them. What that something is, that’s not so clear to me. I can feel what it is, but I can’t yet put into words what that might be⁶.

The process of writing essays

Writing essays is a good opportunity to collect information about a field, a topic, or an idea. To digest and explore those topics further; second-guess assumptions; and to confirm biases.

Too often I’ve found myself thinking I understood something and while actually meditating about it (or better still, while writing about it), cracks in my mental model started to surface. Oftentimes we infer things incorrectly. Or we come to conclusions too quickly without hard data to back those conclusions up. Later, you get the data, and realize your assumptions were not so solid.

Having abductive reasoning⁷ is important too. Sometimes there is no prior data to be had, or a solution to a problem is not obvious. And a gut feeling might be the only thing we have available, or an educated guess. For example, when August Dupin resolved the crime (I won’t give spoilers) in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” story from Edgar Allan Poe.

That kind of reasoning expressed by Dupin has value too, but it’s not as solid, in my opinion. We can’t base a lot of our decisions on gut feelings or educated guesses. And not everyone has the mind of an August Dupin or Sherlock Holmes.

That also means we need to keep an open mind about certain topics and ideas. And be less strict in our stances and opinions. For me, the process of writing essays can and does help with all of that.

Light writing

I’m also interested in lighter forms of writing too. Besides essays, I plan on writing about simpler topics: book and software reviews; share my notes from talks or conferences I attend. Or even quotes from articles I read and when I obviously disagree or have a different perspective/take on something.

As a notetaker, I’m always taking notes on what I see and find interesting. Even if my goal is to criticize or make observations on what is wrong with something and how it could be better. In a truer sense, however, I consider myself a curious person. I’m always reading some book or other. Some of those books don’t even have any “useful” benefits to my professional life (not that it always needs to).

Take, for example, the “Manual do Agricultor Brasileiro”⁸ by Carlos Augusto Taunay, a book from the 18th century I read a while ago. Am I a farmer? No. Do I plan to be a farmer? If AI truly replaces my profession, maybe I’d consider it. Why would someone spend money and time to read this in this day and age? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Having said all that, Taunay’s book is more interesting than it seems. It is a handbook for farmers in Brazil in the 18th century, but the entire shape of the book is strikingly similar to a modern software-development handbook. Like a handbook for learning Zig or Rust, or some other handbook you can find at Amazon or online.

It talks about how farmers were considered “kings”, due to their importance.

A big farmer is its very small kingdom.

It goes on to explain the process of finding the location to set up a farm, and the best types of cultivation per region. The economics of the business: slaves, tools, seeds, etc. Manners of punishment to keep the status quo. Networking tips: how to have a better relationship with the monarchy. How the slaves should be treated to maximize profit. It lists the origin of seeds and vegetables, which locations they came from and where they can “work” well. It even includes their scientific Latin names.

It’s a very short handbook, around ~300 pages, but full of details about farming in Brazil in the 18th century. But why was I reading it? What do I gain by acquiring this information? Dunno. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Here is another, more recent example. I have on my reading list for this month (June/2026) the IPv6 book. I’m mostly curious to understand how IPv6 works, why it’s better than IPv4. And why its adoption has been so slow. But is it a book that will have an actual, practical impact on my work? Why am I going to read this? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I dunno. I work in tech, so maybe it might be useful.

But truly, I read stuff like that because I find it interesting. They intrigue me. Knowing things fulfills me.

The importance of thoughts and ideas

Another reason I’ve thought about creating this space is about the importance of ideas. Having thoughts and experiences worth sharing and most importantly, the importance of the individual, and their intellect.

Recently while corresponding with a former co-worker and mentor, it came to my mind why I desired to write at all. And the most honest answer I could come up with was: it started to grow in me a deep desire to have my thoughts and ideas “out there”. I need to see if my perspective will, or can, resonate with the broader public.

I genuinely feel I have something of substance to share. Even though I can’t quite articulate that something beautifully yet. This space will help me to accomplish this goal.

I’ve also lived most of my life with a “student’s mindset”. A mind keenly aware of its limits and gladly open to learning new things. Only in recent years did I start to realize that in that process, I acquired considerable information and knowledge. And that combination helped to cultivate a somewhat different perspective and a different point of view from those around me.

What should you expect?

I don’t have any publishing schedule. I have an Articles section where my initial idea is to share about topics of the day. Less deeply researched topics. Things that don’t require reviewing essays or reading books.

I’m sure I’ll take weeks or months to write an essay. I’ve had one in process since last year. The time it takes is not a problem to me. The act of thinking about a topic and writing about it is the goal.

But for articles, I don’t think they deserve that much scrutiny. That doesn’t mean they will not have value. But my mind equates essays with solid information or a solid opinion, at least as much solidity as one can achieve. Essays demand, and require, work. They need to be deeply thought-through. They need an abductive inference. They need less shallowness.

For a quick preview of what you might see published, see below some articles/essays I’m in the process of writing right now (they are in no particular order):

• The effects of transitioning social classes
• Observations on doing business in Brazil
• Meditations on reading printed books
• Common complaints from Brazilian women about the dating market
• The falseness of social behavior
• …

Coda⁹

More important than anything, this space needs an audience. That means, you. The goal is not to become famous or anything. And if I do, there is no better way of getting famous due to one’s own ideas.

I’m always interested in feedback. If you notice a mistake, let me know. If you have a material you think I might find interesting, share it with me.

For my kind: developers

If you are a software developer or programmer and that interests you, know that I’m using Tempest for this site, a new-ish PHP framework.

Initially I considered Mantle, the framework Alley¹⁰ built. But decided on Tempest for reasons I plan to share in a future article. Suffice to say Tempest provided almost ¹¹everything I needed for this site. And I also liked the creator’s vision.

I also plan to share more about the design, and photo on the homepage designed by my good friend Ulisses Fonseca.

=)