Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.

— H. L. Mencken

I'm James, a designer and programmer living in Valencia, Spain.

In this website I share some of my thoughts, in case someone else finds them useful.

Everything here is my personal opinion.

Why write this

• Serendipity
• Collecting thoughts
• Sharing ideas
• Making friends and acquaintances
• Opportunities

I like

• Pasta
• Cheese
• Coffee
• Piano
• Tennis
• Video games

Recurrent Thoughts

• We have every reason to be optimistic. The world is a wonderful place, and getting better.
• Internet is awesome. And we are only beginning to see its effects on the world.
• The world has a lot of busywork that accomplishes nothing.

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

— Blaise Pascal, Pensées

• Most things are the way they are because of the way they used to be (path dependency). There is often not a good reason for things to stay the way they are.
• The education system is terrible. We can do better.
• People think science is rigorous, but scientific publishing is actually unreliable, biased, and unfair.
• A lot of areas are full of BS. Avoid them like the plague. For example: business theory, management consulting, business coaching, life coaching, psychoanalysis, self-help (not to be confused with self-improvement), crypto.

Fights to pick: mine and others

They say you have to pick your fights. Life is short, so you don't have time to fix everything.

These are the fights I have picked:

• Traditional education system
• Bullshit jobs (work, productivity, and effectiveness)
• Bureaucracy
• Business BS
• Scientific publishing

Here are some fights I would pick if I have more time and energy:

• War
• Poverty
• Plastics
• Big Corp's nasty stuff (big pharma, big tech, tax preparation services)
• Cars (vs. public transport)
• Consumerism (fast fashion, cheap construction)
• Animal suffering
• Fossil fuels
• Racism
• Misoginy
• Charlatans, windbags
• Job interviews
• Global warming (duh)