There are 9 posts saved with the tag "technology".
This post is part of a series about my invisible tools: the hardware and software I use so much that I don't have to think about using them.
During 2024 and 2025, I traveled a lot, and I decided to work only on my laptop, with no peripherals, whether I was at home or on the go. I wanted my setup to stay the same so there wasn't any warm-up time when switching.
This is the first post in a series about my invisible tools: the hardware and software I use so much that I don't have to think about using them.
I'm starting with one of the simplest: keyboard shortcuts.
Having your tools become second-nature has more effect on your productivity than getting the right tools. Once they reach that status I like to call them "invisible tools".
I've found the best way of having a tool become invisible is a combination of:
People posting AI slop to the internet is annoying, but not as much as people complaining non-stop about AI.
I get it, AI companies are shitty, and their reach is menacing. Anyone that knows how technology influence legislation and society can easily understand that. I'm worried about it too.
This past weekend I took a hiking trip to the mountains in the neighboring state of Chihuahua. Beautiful forest scenery, streams, rivers with actual flowing water, and no internet signal. Not a single bar.
When Andrés, my oldest son, was 9, we were watching a video about Logo, the programming language. He got especially excited with Turtle Graphics, where you have a "pen" on screen that you can draw with using commands to move it.
That night I started a project using p5.js and my limited programming skills to do just that, drawing with commands, replacing my missing knowledge with unnecessary overcomplication and spaghetti code. But hey! It worked!
Smartphones have made traveling immeasurably easier. And I don’t think that was entirely free.
A couple of weeks ago I read The Last Quiet Thing by Terry Godier, and it made me very conscious of what my devices were asking from me.
I keep talking about seeking calm to everyone who’ll listen, and still I hadn’t seen it like that: our devices demanding work from us.
Before photography was invented, people could only see that in front of their eyes. To experience the rest of the world, people had to physically travel, or, if they couldn’t afford it, to use other’s interpretation of remote places via narrative or painting.
That’s why the invention of photography was so huge for the human race. It removed a limit that most people didn’t even thought was there, and it opened the possibility of exploring the physical world beyond our reach.
Today we don’t believe anymore that everything important was already invented, but we have an attitude of cynicism to every new thing that comes along. In 2017 we even have cars that drive themselves, and we aren’t excited at all.
These are two (now) very basic inventions that occurred during my lifetime and changed me forever.