Disclaimer: I wrote this text two years ago for a university class. My views on the subject have shifted and deepened since. While the text is not a representation of my current opinions, I'm sharing it for its critical and reflective character.

Since the dawn of modernity—after the revolutions and military conflicts—science and innovation have been produced by the Western world, chiefly by the United States and some countries in Europe. This hegemony, together with the growing influence of capitalism, has allowed these countries to commercialize their technology and reinvest the wealth generated to produce still more science and technology that helps them maintain their dominance; meanwhile, countries like Mexico remain far behind in the development of science and technology and are at a disadvantage compared with the great powers.

It's enough to compare the GDP per capita generated in Mexico with that of other developed countries to grasp the disparities in productivity and technological development: while in the United States GDP is $50,000, in Mexico it is only a little over $15,000[1]. Likewise, worker productivity reflects an unequal reality: in Germany or France p...

Introduction

The changes undergone by Mexico City's public parks are a reflection of the complex transformation the city has experienced over time. These changes have been driven by new forms of government and their conflicts, by advances in scientific and philosophical thought, and by social transformations. The city has grown from the roughly 400,000 inhabitants who lived here when the Spanish arrived to the nearly 21.9 million of us who today face the challenge of living in this, the most transparent region.

At first glance, public parks are the last example one thinks of when considering the changes in Mexico City. A quick look at its demographic transition or its economic activities might yield a more fruitful understanding of the wounds that left the scars on its urban fabric. After all, changes happen first in people's minds—people motivated to transform their surroundings—rather than in public spaces.

Nevertheless, places like the Vatican in Rome and the great pyramids of Giza show that, although some sites remain the same for many centuries, they are not exempt from the influence of historical transformations. In a similar way, Mexico City's public parks reflect signific...

Art has not been the same since man discovered that it need not be appreciated only by a small segment of people, but that he could reproduce it with technology and let every segment of the population experience it.

Technical reproduction through the printing press, lithography, and the internet has made art accessible. Before, you had to be able to travel to galleries or museums, or to buy original works, in order to have the chance to experience art. Now, a work of art can be reproduced and distributed to the general public in a wide variety of printed and digital forms.

The democratization of art has changed the way people interact with art—making it possible for anyone to engage with it regardless of their socioeconomic status—and it has changed the way artists create and distribute their work.

It is worth mentioning that, although in this essay I analyze art referring specifically to painting, there have also been phenomena of democratization in other fine arts that have transformed the way we interact with them: in music, radio and records replaced chamber music; in sculpture, the use of digital modeling technologies has made it possible to create sculptures without ...

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters” (Austen)

So begins Pride and Prejudice, one of the most popular romantic novels in history. From its very first lines it exposes us to how the society of its time perceived love and marriage. Reading it in 2024, I can't help but feel the distance of these words from the reality we live in today—as if the love Austen described looked less and less like our modern lives. Why? What has changed about love and about the way we see it?

Jane Austen wrote her book in an England of rigid class structures and little social mobility, where marrying was seen as a strategic move in search of financial stability and higher social status. Yet a woman's role was tied mainly to the domestic sphere, and her access to education or employment was restricted compared to a man's.

Austen's narrative transcen...

My current fitness goals are the following:

• Increasing strength
• Increasing Vo2 Max
• 0.5kg of Fat Loss per week with little to no muscle loss.

My current training split goes as follows:

Chest + Legs Day

• 3x Back Extension
  • 2 sets of 16x 13reps
  • 2 sets of 18x9reps
• 4x Bench Press (Barbell)
  • 1 set of 55kg x 8reps
  • 3 sets of 57.5kg x 6reps
• 3x Goblet Squat (Dumbbell)
  • 3 sets of 30kg x 10 reps
• 3x Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell)
  • 2 sets of 18kg x 8reps
  • 1 set of 20kg x 6reps
• 3x Leg Press (Plate Loaded)
  • 2 sets if 125kg x 7reps
  • 1set of 110kg for 8reps
• 3x Seated Calf Raise
  • 3 sets of 22kg x 15reps

Intervals

• 10 min warm up
• 20 min easy run in Zone 2
• 4 periods of 30secs at 90% max effort with 90 sec recovery jog
• 5 min cooldown

Back + Biceps Day

• 4x Pull Up
  • 3 sets of bodyweight to failure (aim for 9, 7, 6 reps)
  • 1 set of -44lb x 9 reps
• 3x Lat Pulldown (Cable)
  • 1 set of 90lbs x 8 reps
  ...

The concert hall is dimly lit. I can barely make out my companion beside me; their silhouette warps in the darkness. Latecomers trip over my legs, hunting for their seats. Suddenly, a group of men in suits burst into the room, slamming the door, and take over the stage. They tune their instruments calmly, as if the audience were a bonus—as if they hadn't come for us, but for the music.

And then, they begin.

At first it's a soft murmur, barely perceptible. But in an instant, it erupts into a musical frenzy. Intense, fast, wild. They're playing Beethoven's 5th, and now, no one can stop them.

Da-da-da-DUM

The famous opening of the piece works as an epiphany. The auditory rendering of something that has lived in my mind for a long time, a feeling that every aspiring writer—or writer still aspiring (because they're not the same thing)—carries inside them. It's a fire in the gut, a pain that stiffens the joints and quickens the heart. Sometimes it vanishes, like the little silences in the piece; for me those are moments of doubt, when I wonder whether I really have anything to say. In others, it bursts out like the da-da-da-DUM that has become the face of classical music e...

This is not a super comprehensive list of what I do to be productive. In fact I'll try to update this list as I learn new things or remove ones that don't work that well.

When I was living in Toronto during 2023 I realized these were some of the most important things to be very productive in my day-to day work:

Continous bouts of work

I get anxious if a lot of days pass without making significant progress on my goals. If I spend too much time away from my tasks, without an intentional reason I start to feel improductive and distracted, which is something that makes me think I'm being disorganized and chaotic. To avoid that, I try to prioritize doing consistent bouts of work everyday.

A normal day of productivity for me is around 5-6 hours of intense deep work. A very good day tends to be in the 8-10 hours of work. Though that's rare to achieve and depends on the type of work I'm doing and on the rest of activities scheduled on my day.

Environment

Sunlight

Once I wake up I get some sunlight. It wakes me up and improves my mood. I like to go on walks, though that's a bit complicated if you live in Mexico City, so when I'm there I quickly walk around my b...

When was the last time you felt truly happy or content? And I mean not to just "smile" or 'have fun' but to truly feel it in my bones and core. It feels to me like it's a mental state I have not quite felt as such as I've done in the last few minutes. And I think it's not that I'm angry, but rather that i'm not entirely willing to accept some situations outside of my control and that causes a slight perspective change. It's barely perceptible but it's definitely there. It feels to me like tasting something you've never tasted: If you've never had it you can't really imagine how it feels or tastes. But once you do it, it's taste becomes apparent and it becomes part of your memory so you learn to associate it to other things, and if it tasted good you also want to repeat the experience. This feels like that. In some way, it feels like a very different form of happiness to any I normally experience and yet, it feels like it should feel?!

Sasha Chapin talks about having more positive days by doing meditation and just having more mindful states in life. For a while I've had the same hypothesis but haven't focused on testing it. Focusing on solving the problems like I'm doing now ...

I went to a concert with my girlfriend yesterday! It was a gipsy jazz concert, which was a refreshing and very interesting experience. We were gonna watch a ballet concert but tickets were sold out so we ended up on this other concert. Weird, novel music? Count me in! I had never listened to gipsy jazz before but I liked it. It was fun to experience a mix of international music with the traditional sounds of jazz. I wonder if Ted Gioia has any opinion on gipsy jazz at all 🤔.

The concert was fun as a date too! It reminded me of a podcast I was listening the other day about the importance of searching for novel experiences so that your life—and your love relationships too—are not compressed into one simple, common experience that you repeated for 60 years. I certainly fall into the trap, and all too human pleasure of the routine, but I'm now wondering if perhaps I should add more novelty when it comes to leisure. What other things can we do following this line of thinking?

This feels like a perfect time to note down some books that I've been wanting to read for a while. Learning more about the history of music and particularly jazz is something that I find very compelling. I...