Lists

I like to write lists as a way to express my ideas on many subjects without the pressure of extensive writing.

This list of lists is an endless work in progress, so come back to check frequently.

Books

Music

Life

  • The best thing one can do to be less shy is to... start waving and smiling.
    • I've started waving at people from my car. I don't even know them.

Goals

  • I've always wanted to ring the NYSE opening bell.

Productivity

  • You do you.
    • I'm a strong believer in "you do you" for personal productivity.
      • There is no recipe, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
        • If waking up early works for you, fine.
        • If staying up late is your jam, whatever rocks your boat.
        • If going on unorganized, unstructured work sprints gets you shipping, that's great.
        • If building structured plans and accounting for every minute gets you productive, that's great too.
      • It's all about you and screw whatever others think.
    • Don't listen to how I work: Find whatever works for you.
  • Due to my ADHD, my "focus" is very unstructured.
    • I have extremely high-output, laser-focused weeks.
      • These weeks, I obsess hard over whatever I'm building.
      • I literally can't stop thinking for a moment about what I'm doing.
    • I have low-output, unfocused weeks.
      • These weeks, I can't point my brain anywhere.
  • Finding Product Market Fit
    • An excellent talk from YC Startup School
  • Raising Your Round
    • A great guide by Sahil Lavingia on how to raise.
  • Elements of Enduring Companies
  • The Bootstrapping Talk
  • Patrick Collison's Advice
  • A Startup's Marketing Manifesto
  • On Finding Product Market Fit at Segment
    • "There's a lot of methodologies for this that the methodology that we use at Segment is one called MEDDIC, M-E-D-D-I-C. It's literally just a list of sales qualification criteria. This is what sales reps do. If a sales rep comes back and they're like, "We're going to close this deal," the sales manager says, "Okay, well let's go through M, metrics, what are the metrics by which this company is going to judge whether or not the product works for them? And if the sales rep can't answer metrics, economic buyer, decision maker, decision process, the identified pain and doesn't have a champion, if they can't have all six of those things, there's no deal. When you're searching for product-market fit, you can just go through all of those things by asking the customer a ton of questions. Then you can grade whether or not"
  • René Girard — Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    • The part on the Scapegoat Mechanism is fascinating to me.

Stack

  • I like to keep my stack choices as boring as possible. It helps me ship faster.
    • I think the least boring part of my stack is the frontend, particularly because React helps me build better stuff.
  • Backend
    • Python
    • Django
    • Django REST Framework
    • Django Channels
  • Frontend
    • React
    • Next.js
    • MobX + React-Query
    • TailwindCSS

Trivia

  • I can play cuatro, a traditional Puerto Rican instrument, with great ease and skill.
  • I'm passionate about sociology, foreign policy, politics and philosophy.
    • I want to get a master's in sociology sometime later in life.
  • I have an interest in city planning, infrastructure and architecture.
  • I'm a big history nerd.
    • I'm particularly interested in non-Western societies.
    • I'm particularly interested in repressive regimes.
      • I don't know why. I don't align with their ideologies.
      • They're just so different and secretive.
  • I have quite the interest in aviation.
    • I know my way around the industry and its history.
    • I used to play MS Flight Simulator with my dad as a kid.
      • That experience kicked off my interest in the industry.
      • I really cherish those memories.
  • Roadtrips are my jam.
  • I made it to world quarterfinals as a solo founder to Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017.
    • That was really fun.
    • They taught me quite a bit: when I arrived to MSFT PR, I didn't even know how to pitch.
    • Big thanks to Yamille, Ernesto and the team for the mentorship. I will forever treasure those moments.
    • I traveled to Seattle and met so many amazing folks.
    • I was featured on El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico's largest newspaper.
  • This video capturing the moment Ricardo Rosselló quit as governor after a month long of arduous protests is probably favorite video ever.
  • I love these songs 🇵🇷

Quotes

  • "Your happiness is intertwined with your outlook on life."
  • "Think bigger."
  • FDR when asked about the possibility of hosting weekly fireside chats on radio
    • "The one thing I dread is that my talks should be so frequent as to lose their effectiveness. ... Every time I talk over the air it means four or five days of long, overtime work in the preparation of what I say. Actually, I cannot afford to take this time away from more vital things. I think we must avoid too much personal leadership—my good friend Winston Churchill has suffered a little from this."
  • Giorgio Moroder on Daft Punk's Giorgio by Moroder
    • When I was fifteen, sixteen, when I really started to play guitar. I definitely wanted to become a musician.
    • It was almost impossible because—it was—the dream was so big, that I didn't see any chance because... I was living in a little town; was studying.
    • And I said, "Wait a second, I know the synthesizer. Why don't I use the synthesizer, which is the sound of the future?"
    • Once you free your mind about a concept of harmony and of music being "correct", you can do whatever you want. So, nobody told me what to d... And there was no preconception of what to do.
  • Ego's Review · Ratatouille
    • "Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau's, who is, in this critic's opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteau's soon, hungry for more."
  • Amazing Grace moment
  • Ad astra per aspera

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