General

Years earlier I had a Korean friend I spoke to in English. She mumbled some Spanish and, of course, I didn’t know a word of Korean apart from ’thanks’ 감사합니다 (gamsahamnida) and 안녕하세요 (annyeonghaseyo), “hello”. In English- and Spanish-speaking countries, the day you are born and the day you add a year to your age coincide. English, however, emphasizes the first concept (birth-day), and Spanish the second (cumple-años, “turns years”). In Korea these are different concepts because, no matter the day they are born, everyone adds a year to their age on the 1st of January. ...

When policy topics overlap with the scientific domain, it is commonly repeated by politicians and journalists that the voice of scientists must be followed without further consideration. That implies that, at least in those instances, researchers are not like regular people, as their thoughts are shaped by the scientific method and the biases affecting laypeople don’t apply to them. Since they are experts in deep domains that cannot be effortlessly weighed, their advice must be followed. I think it’s important for a regular citizen to understand whether those assertions are self-evident or whether scientific opinions must still be questioned, as they are more and more impacting our daily lives. ...

Since I was a kid, I’ve had cold feet. It’s been very bothersome in winter, but luckily, in my hometown, the weather gets cold only in January and February. To be more specific, by cold I mean nothing like many other Western countries. I’m now checking with Gemini, and it’s about 17º/8º for maximum and minimum temperatures in January. My cold feet only become a problem if I remain seated for several hours. At first it’s uncomfortable, then it becomes very unsettling and, in the end, if I don’t take measures, I usually catch a cold. ...

I have just come back from a one-week holiday in Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands. This is not a travel blog so I won’t elaborate much on my trip; my goal for this entry is to shed light on the confusing names of the territories you can find in the islands. The Canary Islands administrative names First, let’s clarify the administrative division of the Spanish territory. At the top we find the state (Spain), followed by what we call autonomic communities like Andalusia, Catalonia or Galicia. The next divisions are the provinces, like Almería and Seville, being part of Andalusia, or Lerida or Barcelona, part of Catalonia. The smallest division is the council. For example, I live in Roquetas de Mar (council), belonging to the Almería province. ...

I left the position at the first job I held after a burnout crisis. This happened due to several factors, the most important being the very toxic culture at the company, but also, my own inability to contextualize the pressure and demands of the position. On the first day of May (the workers’ holiday) I had been ordered to report to the office after some misdemeanor I can’t remember. I don’t think it was strictly related to my performance but rather, to my general attitude in the company. I was very depressed that morning and considered this a child-like punishment and after I stepped at the office building that day, I decided I wouldn’t be working there anymore. Well, decided is a euphemism. I had no plans, hadn’t seriously thought of a strategy and had no idea what to do next. I just knew I could not stay there any longer. ...

Like many other developers, I keep a side gig in addition to my day job. I was first contacted by a colleague who asked whether I’d be willing to write a computer program for him and become partners. I’d do all the coding, bill him by the hour and also get a fee for each deployed system. He’d bring all the business logic, and the ability to get the money from the customer after you get the job done. It might be surprising for non-Spaniards, but this is not a given in my country. ...

If you visit Madrid and stay for longer than two nights, you should take the trip from the city to El Escorial to visit the Royal Site of San Lorenzo del Escorial. By car it’s less than an hour’s trip. Otherwise, take the commuter train from one of the two main stations Atocha or Chamartin and pick line C8a heading northwest. I think by bus the stop leaves you closer to the place, but I’m not so sure on that. ...

Since its first edition in 2018, I have been attending Cooltural Fest, a music festival that takes place yearly in my hometown of Almería. I use the months before the festival to learn about new bands. The organization keeps an official Spotify Playlist that I don’t find very interesting since they, rightfully, emphasize the bigger bands and their most popular songs. Every year I copy all entries to my own list, trim most of the headliners’ content, and keep adding entries from the smaller artists. ...

Last week while scrolling on Twitter I came across a post where its author asked ChatGPT what he could do to place himself above 95% of his professional peers. Surprisingly, one of the chatbot’s answers was to “start a personal blog”. My first reaction was something along the lines of “yeah, that moronic chatbot thinks that by writing essays for myself (who reads blogs nowadays?) I’m going to make a positive impact on my life”. The thing is that the idea lingered in my head and, the more days passed, the more sense it made. I ended up making the decision and following the advice of the robotic overlord, decided to start my own personal blog. This first post is a collection of the reasons that pushed me to start writing in 2026, the age of LLMs, social media and short-form video consumption. ...