Results for ""
The one where ChatGPT and I write a WordPress plugin.
The one about the silences, not the notes.
The one with an annotated map.
Reminder: these are not professional reviews. If you want those, with video and all the other bells and whistles, the web is full of them. The following are my biased opinions—some from trying a …
The one where we share more than one photo.
"Ride" is the fourth set of photos in my People of Vienna series, and it is now live in the projects section! I haven't been able to go out and make as many photos …
The one where we make an announcement.
You probably have heard of ChatGPT and Copilot. Maybe you read some doomsday articles telling us we humans are done and ready to be replaced by AI. Or maybe some of the opposing ones that …
Day 15/90 I have been silent over the last few days because I was trying to finish the new paolo.blog It's live now! You'll find a new homepage giving more space to Morfternight, my …
The one where we discover how the unthinkable happened.
Day 11/90 Reminder: these are not professional reviews. If you want those, with video and all the other bells and whistles, the web is full of them. The following are my biased opinions—some from …
Day 9/90 Intro & Links As I recently mentioned in Second Brain Surgery, writing notes remains at the core of any Personal Knowledge Management toolkit. It's the oldest principle in the personal productivity book: …
Day 7/90 Today I set up the second photo series: Work I'd love to hear what you think of it 🙂
Day 6/90 Reminder: these are not professional reviews. If you want those, with video and all the other bells and whistles, the web is full of them. The following are my biased opinions—some from …
The one with a controversial opinion on commuting.
The newly renovated Austrian Parlament building in Vienna supporting the #WeRemember campaign. I grew up thinking we'd never forget, but these days it seems that shouldn't be taken for granted.
Day 4/90 My friend Luca once told me that if I wanted to make real progress with my photography, I needed to stop taking photos randomly and instead work on series. It makes a …
Day 3/90 In 2018, I embarked on a long journey to learn how to organize time, tasks, and information. Over the past five years, I wrote about Personal Scalability, System Resilience, Time Management, and …
The one about meetups and sabbaticals.
The one from 36,000 ft (10,973m) above ground.
The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to …
The one where we ask existential questions.
The one where no one knows you are a dog.
Two years ago, I decided to only publish black and white photos for a while. It's still my preferred style, and I expect most of my photos will remain grayscale, but I decided to …
The one about weeks, decades, AI, and rockets.
The one that wraps up the year.
The one about Mozzarella Sticks and a Brooklyn Lager
The one with five invitations to try Arc.
The one that was co-written by a human and a computer.
Today I share a very early version of the workflow I set up in Tana to facilitate my weekly "Plus, Minus, Next" review as I take interstitial notes during the week. If the paragraph …
This is the logo I use for our company in Vienna, The Weelo Factory OG: I purchased the illustration online more than 10 years ago without thinking much, I just needed a logo. As …
The one where we talk a tiny bit about Twitter.
The one where we still manage to ignore the mess at Twitter.
The one that might reveal a mid-life philosophical crisis.
The one where we do not talk about Twitter.
The one that is postponed to next week.
The one about the upcoming AI and today's Machine Learning revolutions.
The one where I share Twitter threads instead of articles.
The one about birthdays, customers, and A.I.
The one where I 👋 at you, so you don't worry about me.
The one where we talk to and about AIs.
Photos taken at the Parc Animalier d'Auvergne, Ardes-sur-Couze, France
The one where we talk about disconnecting, warping the WFH revolution, and the customer journey.
The one where we talk about enjoying the journey and learning without forgetting.
The one that wasn't sent because of travel and now is late.
We discuss the possibility I may need to change my mind. It feels good.
We talk about Jane, Lily, Sam, and Martin, but also a product mindset lesson about transatlantic crossings.
We also discuss the weather, the best camera, and the JW Space Telescope.
We discuss doing things with moderation, team management tips, and science with Richard Feynman.
We also talk about all my websites, changing one's mind through data, and how much time we spend with ourselves.
Customers have needs.The Business has goals.Hardware & Software Infrastructure requires investment. The Product lives at the core of this Venn diagram. The Product Lead "expands the middle."
We talk about Internet (de)centralization, the surface of the Sun, and machine-generated code.
We discuss correlation, causality, humour, time crystals, and Mr. Beast.
Lisbon scooter riders, WordCamps past and futures, and Bitcoin maximalism.
Value of meetings 1-1 and small teams:low investmenthigh valueLarge Townhall style:high investmenthuge alignment valueAvoid everything in between
We talk about the value of meetings, mistakes Product Leads should avoid, and the Mother of all Demos.
We run pseudo-Scientific experiments, Voyager 1 is far, far away, and monochrome.blog exists.
MQ Libelle, Printing a book, Estimating the value of 𝛑, and 1-1 meetings.
Stockholm, Distributed vs Remote, Highrise newsletter, and the Boneyard Principle.
We talk about Richard Feynman, Tim Urban, card decks, very large numbers, and my personal addiction to bread.
Today, I will walk you through my task management setup based on Google Calendar and Roam Research.
We talk about 🚢 Ship 30 for 30, Twitter, time management, prioritization, and quiet iPhones.
We talk about redesigning newsletters, Museums in the Open Metaverse, the future, Twitter, and content moderation..
Covid, Focus, Balaji's Network State, and French Presidential election.
San Francisco, High and low efforts, Small Bets and Films to be buried with.
Exploding Suns, AI, Humans, and Traffic Lights, Changing World Order, and China
Ukraine is still under attack, Kasparov is right, Spring and Fall started, and I am late.
Ukraine is still at war, discovering Costa Rica, and the illusion of reality.
You may have noticed that all photos on this blog are B&W. I have my reasons.
The return of travel, a Personal CRM, BW photos, and Ukraine is still being attacked.
In the end, there were three: Clay, Mogul, and Dex.
I have tried to use Roam as my Personal Relationship Manager. Here's why I tested 10 PRMs.
Dex looks promising. If it did integrate with messaging apps, it would be perfect.
Try Hippo if you need an ultra-simple iOS app to remember everything about your friends.
Helping Ukraine, understanding Ukraine, and keeping in touch with friends.
If you value simplicity and focus, Mogul might be what you need to manage your network.
Nat is made by a small distributed team. It looks promising. I hope they'll make it.
I am sure Uphabit is useful to some people out there; I am just not one of them.
Airtable is a powerful tool, particularly in a multi-user setup. A tad complex for a PRM.
If you hate typing and your multiple address books are a mess, this is the answer.
Notion is a blank canvas. It can be used as a PRM but isn't one out of the box.
Clay focuses on the essential: remember who you met, take notes, meet them again.
Palindromes, date formats, sparkles, focus, and Atomic Reviews.
Monica is the first Personal CRM or PRM app I found when I started my investigation.
These are the 5 criteria I will use to review and evaluate 10 Personal Relations Managers.
I need an app to manage personal relationships; I found 20, I am testing 10.
Am RingBim #4WalkWaitPlayWalkRideWalkWorkWalkWorkRain Better late than never, as they say. I selected these 12 photos as the "best of 2021". It's a very arbitrary selection. I also limited it to horizontal shots because I …
Prioritizing is giving up the less impactful things. Focusing is giving up everything but one thing.
Everything is in Roam! It's time to leverage bidirectional links to recognize new patterns.
We are reaching the core of my second brain. First, let's gather everything in Roam.
Pandas, time management principles, and second brains.
The fourth layer of my second brain is about task management and time blocking.
Layer number three is about collecting, revisiting, and reusing.
The next layer of my second brain is about triaging even more ruthlessly before reading.
The first layer of my second brain is about triaging incoming information with Feedly.
A simple framework to help you establish habits, which in turn are the key to success.
A personal experience recently reminded me that when a tool answers a real need for a user, price elasticity goes through the roof.
Birds, Crypto Bonnie & Crypto Clyde, Pyramids and Minting Parties.
I write every day to clarify my thoughts, and not push away everyone around me.
Building the right thing is hard enough. Once you do, it is crucial to price it right.
From 2014 to 2020 I published yearly. In 2021 I posted 12 essays. This is the 30th of 2022.
Today I published this as I am playing with the format, but in the near future, I'll most likely develop all points in that thread as essays here. Over the past 10 years, I …
Our brain is good at comparing but bad at measuring. That's why the 2x2 matrix works.
“The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.” — William Gibson
Distributed life, curing back pain, Vienna in 12 photos, and 5 great business books.
I am not a doctor, and this is not medical advice. Just a book recommendation.
I am not a doctor, and this is not medical advice. Just me sharing my experience.
Are two occurrences enough to call it a tradition? On Sunday, I share something personal.
As we reached week 4 of 🚢 Ship 30 for 30, we started talking about Twitter threads. Years ago, I didn't understand Twitter. Then I hated Twitter. I deleted my account. By meeting people …
These 5 books deserve all the pages they are made of.
From "Time is Money" to "Better late than never," it must be "International Adage Day."
Masks, more atomic essays, a million-mile journey, and WordPress 5.9
Sometimes, improbable bridges across experiences accelerate your progress unexpectedly.
I wrote about this before, but it's time for a refresher with everyone working from home.
Writing leads to encounters. Encounters lead to new directions.
It's not about how much time you have. We all have the same. It's about how you manage it.
Dickie & Cole are sharing way more than that, but hey, I only have 300 words...
An aviation metaphor to argue against an optimistic approach in development.
Years ago, I admired developers who didn't fear refusing deadlines. Now I know it's wrong.
more atomic essays, a web3 beef, a web3 debate, and a web3 conversation.
A minimal concession so that your roadmap can thrive even in hostile environments.
I'll stick to Zoom for 1-1 meetings until I can have them in a more exotic spot.
I also save a ton of time shopping, as I can renew my closet with a single Amazon order.
You will also save energy and money, but I only have 300 words, so we'll stick with time.
Feynman was a Physicist, but his principles translate well for Product Leads.
A metaphor illustrates the three phases of creation: divergence, convergence, and focus.
The Product Lead is a Jazz band conductor, not an orchestra conductor.
Twitter, Zoom fatigue, win-win relationships, and one atomic essay per day.
The Product Lead role is a balancing act between UX, business goals, and technical debt.
Let's stop lying to ourselves about the time we can't find. It was never really lost.
Writing more often is like iterating on a product faster: it accelerates progress.
You've been lied to since you started your professional career by being told that to be successful, you must be able to juggle many tasks at the same time. Please allow me to debunk …
Here's how artificially limiting scope, time, or space can improve productivity.
Life is an asymptote. Nothing ever reaches perfection, but it can always get better.
Here's proof that consistency and frequency of publication matter.
Consistency, Atomic Essays, and Matt Mullenweg Saving the Web.
A rare public display for a Masonic lodge.
“You know,” said Arthur, “it’s at times like this, when I’m trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space, that I really wish …
If you want to do something, start immediately, don’t delay to next year’s beginning. Anything you can postpone to a later start probably isn’t that important.
Birds, pandemic travel, time machines, and Lagrange points.
Holidays, Billie Eilish, Airplanes, Trigonometry, and Tom Hanks.
When you feel that everything is going terribly, as well as when you feel invincible, remember that this too shall pass.
Dithering, WordPress, Nightjets to Paris, and Parker touching the Sun.
v2 - 2021-12-08 Unless you have been living under a rock in recent months, you’ve probably heard of NFTs. I certainly have, and I am trying to document my discovery of web3 technology, philosophy, …
Prime numbers, gas stations, Simon Sinek, and hyperfast planets.
v2 – 2021-12-01 I have been thinking about how we measure value creation in the context of managing and leading teams for over two decades now, and I want to explain why Autonomy is …
Quiet, Flywheel effects, Jim Collins, Version Control, and Leadership.
Unless you have been living under a rock in recent months, you probably have heard of NFTs. organise my thoughts. Maybe this can be helpful to others following through the same journey, just a …
Hello Friend! If you are receiving this, it means that you subscribed to receive updates from my blog, paolo.blog (or maybe you even did that on paolobelcastro.com, which is the same blog, but the …
Morfternight, the newsletter that's waiting in your inbox!
I started reading about web3, and shapes began appearing from the fog. Today I don’t have much to write except this, as a teaser of posts to come, where I’ll try to bring you …
Morfternight, the newsletter that's waiting in your inbox!
Can the world function if only individual responsibility is left? Can we afford institutions that let people make all decisions? How badly do we need Schnitzels?
Morfternight, the newsletter that's waiting in your inbox!
May 12th, 2006 – November 3rd, 2021 Good bye, Old Friend
Morfternight, the newsletter that's waiting in your inbox!
v1 - 2021-10-27 I have been thinking about how we measure value creation in the context of managing and leading teams for over two decades now, and I want to explain why Autonomy is …
Morfternight, the newsletter that's waiting in your inbox!
A Personal Knowledge Management system (PKM), or “Second Brain”, has the purpose of offering an effective solution to store, organise, retrieve information and leverage it to increase one’s capacity to create new content. Let …
Morfternight, the newsletter that's waiting in your inbox!
The future of work is remote, or even better, distributed, an evolution that the Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically accelerated in the past 18 months. These two concepts are fundamentally different. In this essay, I …
Morfternight, the newsletter that's waiting in your inbox!
Hello friend! If you are reading this, it means you have at some point subscribed to my blog, either at paolo.blog or paolobelcastro.com (they are the same, actually). I am sending this short note …
"Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?” he heard his own voice saying, small and far away. And his father’s voice replied to him. “That is the only time a man can …
For more than ten years, I have been leading teams at Automattic, a company of close to 1,800 people across 90 countries. We are a fully distributed company, and every employee works from the …
Morfternight, the newsletter that's waiting in your inbox!
Sir Clive Sinclair left us at the age of 81. He changed my life, and yours too, here's how.
Morfternight, the newsletter that's waiting in your inbox!
Several years ago, as the teams I was leading were spanning 17 time zones, I started using "Good Morfternight" as a greeting to cover all times of the day, a bit like one says …
I am not very good at making small decisions. Over time, I built a system to avoid getting stuck in those situations. It works by transforming a series of recurring small decisions into a …
I want to share the system that dramatically increased my well-being and productivity over the past two years. I want to be candid too, and completely honest: time management has never been my forte, …
A man can only lead when others accept him as their leader, and he has only as much authority as his subjects give to him.The Well of Ascension – Brandon Sanderson
School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored. Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about after work. Why learn anything …
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of …
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of …
“I’m not going to ride on a magic carpet!” he hissed. “I’m afraid of grounds!” “You mean heights,” said Conina. “And stop being silly.” “I know what I mean! It’s the grounds that kill …
A healthy product company is, confusingly, one at odds with itself. It has a healthy part that is attempting to normalize and to create predictability, but it needs another part that is tasked with …
I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented danger, the solution was ignorance. To me, it always seemed that the solution had to be wisdom. You did not refuse to look …
What’s a philosopher? said Brutha. “Someone who’s bright enough to find a job with no heavy lifting,” said a voice in his head.Small Gods – Terry Pratchett
Being in charge isn’t about doing anything—it’s about making certain that other people do what they’re supposed to! Delegation, my friend. Without it, we would have to bake our own bread and dig our …
If you’re always on time, it implies that you never have anything better you should be doing.The Final Empire – Brandon Sanderson
Half the evil in this world occurs while decent people stand by and do nothing wrong. It’s not enough to refrain from evil, Trell. People have to attempt to do right, even if they …
... how you want. I am really enjoying playing with this image compare block to let everyone choose the version they prefer. Don't hesitate to let me know your preference in the comments. 🙂
Artist: RUIN I like this mural a lot, it's on the Donaukanal, by Rossauerbrücke. I have been posting only b&w photos lately, but here it seemed unfair to do so. In the end I …
Tomorrow owes you the sum of your yesterdays. No more than that.” Amber looked out to sea again. “And no less. Sometimes folk wish tomorrow did not pay them off so completely.Mad Ship – …
When you want to eat outdoor, but all you have is a sidewalk on a busy street, you have to get creative.
This little guy just found that McDonald's ketchup thingy on the left of the trashcan, and a lunch party started.
I THINK PERHAPS YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND. PEOPLE’S WHOLE LIVES DO PASS IN FRONT OF THEIR EYES BEFORE THEY DIE. THE PROCESS IS CALLED “LIVING.”The Last Continent — Terry Pratchett
Karl Turneber apparently patented, and made locks for shops more than 100 years ago. More about it (in German) here.
The thing, to ride a bike in the rain, is to trust one's instinct...
It was a quite impressive cloud formation, but even more impressive, the swallow flying close to its edge.
She was there, and then she was not. Drag the slider with your mouse or finger to experience it yourself...
Another attempt at trying to understand what works best with some images, between color or black & white. What do you think?
Now, if you imagine a very, very large orange...
I found this scene had a bit of Tian an Men vibe...
The working title was "Bloke waiting for the tube", but I am in a metaphysical mood tonight.
There are simpler ways to protect a terrace from the rain, but this one certainly looks good...
Life seems to get back to normal, but is that an illusion?
Let's put it this way: anyone buying bottled water in Vienna is a victim of advertising and needs immediate help. Tap water is actually better than almost any water you can buy bottled, at …
I thought the construction work in the Zollergasse was related to the new U-Bahn line 5, but actually this very nice lady explained to me that the subway station doesn't go that far, here …
Never forget to protect your ham from vampires. Garlic will do the trick...
The clock tower of the now-closed 7th district post office. The building looks like it's been abandoned for a few years.
That particular street corner, with the tram rails making an S is my spot these days.
This is one I published a couple of years ago, in colors, and for a while I wanted to try it in B&W. Now it's done.
I wish these masks protected also from bad news...
I bet now you wonder whether the man with a box was still there...
I'd write a comment about this rabbit, but it's almost midnight...
A gift from Venezuela to the city of Vienna. It's written on a bronze plaque. Not sure if Vienna appreciated, it doesn't say...
Kaiserschmarrn, or the epitome of dessert for dinner.
For many people, being out in the city's streets means being on a break, off work. The city though, needs a lot of work, and for many others the opposite is true: the streets …
Not the most beautiful building in Vienna, I think we'll agree, excepted when it's all lit up for the holidays.
I've never enjoyed drinking a coffee walking. Mostly, I have no shame to admit, because I suck at placing those plastic lids properly, which easily gets messy. I am getting better at it...
I am missing dinner surrounded by friends, and strangers.
Yes, another tram... These amazing machines are disappearing one by one, and within five years they'll all be decommissioned. Now the modern ones are safer, accessible, faster, and better by almost any standard. But …
When a Type B1 crosses path with a Type E2+C5, one reflects their surrounding like a mirror, the other shines.
Cities are the perfect example of continuous iteration. Never finished, ever changing, in a constant quest for product/market fit.
With all the WiFi, 4G, 5G and all the other Gs, it's easy to forget that a lot of the infrastructure that allows us to like cat photos is built on heavy metal and …
One wheel, two wheels, four wheels, no wheels... What if we let everyone choose their way, without judging?
Much more practical than having to plug them into a power outlet for a few hours, innit?
What a week it was! Going from warm spring sun and blue sky to snowstorm within the hour. How does one expect a little dog can figure out the right shoes?
Crossing the Wien in the Stadtpark, one of my favorite spots in the city.
Some of us draw with a pencil in a tiny notepad, others use a big brush to paint on walls.
Probably checking the clouds as it started snowing again...
A rare encounter in 2021. This was some serious RV material when I was a kid.
I was walking along that wall, not thinking much of it or caring about what's behind it. Suddenly, there was this door. Now I can't stop wondering.
I know it's not the first one, but Ravens, Hoodies, Pigeons, Blackbirds, Swallows, and many others are part of the local population...
Catering to real emergencies... I'd put a siren on this one!
Isn't what we all want, to grow free towards more light and fresh air, like this tree?
At times you notice how the city is made of many layers, each one probably making sense when it was put there, but looking quite strange together.
I almost never pay attention to all those odd but banal boxes that are everywhere around the city. I wonder what's inside. Do you think you can turn traffic lights red or green at …
I am not a tree expert, but I think it's an olive tree.Behind it, the French Embassy.I am not an embassy expert either, but the building has a flag...
What does one say? A swarm of scooters? A school of scooters? A herd? A flock?
Remember when we used to start calls with: – Guess where I am calling you from?
I find something comforting in trams. Trains too. Something so heavy and fast, guided by two steel rails making it so predictable.