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One last drink and that's it

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More than 30 years ago, I started my first formal job, and with it, a ritual that has stayed with me ever since: beginning the day with a cup of coffee. I usually drink coffee mainly on workdays, which is why I can consider it a symbol of my professional life. One cup turned into two, and coffee went from being extremely sweet with cream to plain and black. My taste for coffee has evolved, much like my professional journey, from being an individual contributor to leading several software development teams. Each day and every project has been marked by this ritual. Every cup of coffee has witnessed conversations, decisions, lessons, joys, sorrows, triumphs, and even failures. As the Oracle says in The Matrix : “Everything that has a beginning has an end.” Every finished cup of coffee, or a task, a project, or a work stage, is an invitation to start something new. What matters is treasuring what was learned along the way. In my most recent professional adventure, which began in April 201...
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Moore's Law

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Moore's Law was formulated empirically and states that the number of transistors in a microprocessor doubles every two years, while prices are halved during the same period. Origins The law was proposed by Gordon Moore in April 1965. Moore graduated from CalTech and, in 1968, co-founded Intel . In a microprocessor, transistors are the components that enable the mathematical operations needed for a computer to function. By the early 1970s, microprocessors contained 2,300 transistors. Observing advancements in technology, Moore initially estimated that the number of transistors would double every year, but 10 years later, he adjusted his prediction to every two years. Is Moore’s Law Accurate? Over time, Moore's Law has been monitored and has proven accurate. From the 2,000 transistors processors contained in the early 1970s, by 2017, they had reached 1 billion. Another implication of Moore's Law is that prices decrease by half within this two-year period. This means that ...
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Location: Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
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On Leadership and Giving Orders

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At some point in our lives, we've had to give an order to someone, whether to achieve a work objective, organize an informal meeting, or participate in a sport. While it may seem simple and routine, it's more complex than it appears. Taking a passage from the book I, Robot by Isaac Asimov , we encounter a situation on a distant planet where a needed material is found in a dangerous zone, even for robots, and a person gives an ambiguous order to a robot to go collect the material. Due to the composition of the 3 Laws of Robotics , the ambiguity of the command conflicts with laws # 2 and # 3, reaching a point where law # 3 (self-preservation) takes precedence, and the robot prioritizes its survival over completing the order. Upon reaching a safe area, law #2 (obedience) once again takes precedence, and the cycle begins. As presented in the book with robots, sometimes our leadership style and the way we give orders, combined with the context, can lead to ambiguities and, conseque...
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High-Performance Athletes in the Workplace

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I’ve had the privilege of leading teams across the board, from everyone in the same room to team members across cities and continents. This diversity has turned each project into a unique and rewarding experience. And over time, I’ve realized something: it’s the tough projects, the ones with big challenges, that teach us the most. They push us to adapt, find creative solutions, and avoid past mistakes. Feedback: Fuel for Growth Challenges within teams are actually growth opportunities, and feedback plays a huge role in that. Early in my career, I had monthly evaluations as required by my university during my internship. Sincerely, I never understood what the ratings were based on as they often seemed like subjective scores.  My first job used annual feedback, but really, these were more to assign payment raises than helping us improve in our roles. Around 2006, I heard about 360-degree evaluations as a system where you’re evaluated by your superiors, peers, and the people you lead...
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Location: Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
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How I Replaced Evernote with Google Drive (Part II): App Script Code

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In the first part of this article , I explored my decision to free up from Evernote to a custom solution using Google Drive. I set up a simple workflow with Google Sheets to organize tasks, categorize projects, and link other Google Docs and Sheets. Using conditional formatting and custom columns to visually manage priorities, due dates, and tags, worked well but still required manual effort. Here Google Apps Script came handy to automate tasks like creating files, adding links, and setting calendar events, creating a powerful solution only with Google Drive. In this update, I’ll include the overall explanation of the App Script code used to automate tasks for the workflow I used to finally replace Evernote with Google Drive. Parameters To configure the script without altering code directly, there is a 'Parameters' sheet where some configuration will be performed. Column “A” has the name of the parameter to be referenced in the parameters array (see Utilities section).  Column ...
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Location: Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
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Changing the World One Sheet at a Time
The use of technology to save the planet

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Technology not only transforms the way we work but can also drive solutions for real-world problems, even those that seem unchangeable as we are too used to them. In this article, I’ll share how a technology solution based on smartcards helped improve the operations of an agricultural support company by reducing paper usage and facilitating resources distribution in rural areas. Myself a Software Engineer Throughout my career, as a Software Engineer, I’ve had the opportunity to work in several industries, developing software solutions that not only optimize processes but also improve people’s lives, having also the opportunity to travel to other countries and meet other cultures. Today, we see software and technology everywhere, transforming the world around us, and I have been part of that change. One interesting project I worked on took place in a company that supported farmers in managing their crops. In this company, agronomists who supervised the harvests, filled out paper forms ...
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Location: Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
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How I Replaced Evernote with Google Drive: A Simple Workflow for Managing Notes

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For years, I relied on Evernote to keep my notes organized and manage my to-dos. But with recent limitations on the free plan and frustrating sync issues, I knew it was time for a change. After trying out several other apps, I landed on a surprising solution: Google Drive. Why I Needed an Evernote Alternative I used Evernote in a straightforward way—mostly plain text notes organized into projects. But I ran into two major issues: recurring sync errors and new restrictions on the free version, which meant I couldn’t create or sync new notes the way I used to. How I Used Evernote In Evernote, I organized my notes into notebooks (which I treated like projects) and included the following elements: Title : Often with a date in the format YYYYMMDD for sorting. Note content : My to-dos or details related to the project. I also used tags to organize notes based on: Priority (P1 to P5) Location (Home, Work) Timeframe (Today, This Week, This Month, No Date) Evaluating Evernote Alternatives Wh...
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Location: Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
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