iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

That's it. 5 rules from launching a product as a software engineer. Do you have more? I'd love to hear your experiences 😉

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5. Early ideas are fragile, like a small plant 🌱 Big players seem obvious: they had time and money. You don't yet, and that's fine. What you have is vision, expertise, and grit. Ignore almost everyone except your customers and positive people in your space.

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4. Be helpful. Your product exists to help, and that's not only the software. Sometimes you lend an extra hand with a confusing flow, or help with something outside your product entirely that makes their day easier.

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3. Don't look at competitors too much. "Don't compare your chapter one with their chapter twenty." Focus on your first customers, plan how to win the next ones, and make your product top-notch. The rest is mostly noise.

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2. Your first customers are the key to your success. You had a vision, but your first customers reveal how much you were missing: features, workflows you never anticipated. Listen. They'll tell you everything you need to know in the first weeks.

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1. Do what hurts first. Talk to your (potential) customers, work on marketing, research what's out there. It's scary, I know. But as a software engineer, building the software is the easiest part.

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Jose M. @josemg.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

5 rules I've learned after successfully launching a product as a software engineer 🚀 A thread 🧵👇

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Mission accomplished 😄

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Jose M. @josemg.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

"One thing is clear: if you currently use AI, take regular breaks—and give your own mind the chance to do the work. Otherwise, you may face severe cognitive harm and dependence." publichealthpolicyjournal.com/mit-study-fi...

publichealthpolicyjournal.com

MIT Study Finds Artificial Intelligence Use Reprograms the Brain, Leading to Cognitive Decline - Science, Public Health Policy and the Law

By Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

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Jose M. @josemg.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

"Coding was never the real barrier to building a successful side business. The real challenge was—and still is—everything else required to get paying customers: sales calls, cold emails, blog posts echoing in the void, facing rejection..." josem.co/side-project...

Some years ago, building a side project meant finding time wherever you could. Late nights, weekends, or early mornings to squeeze some work in before your real job starts.

Side Projects and AI

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Jose M. @josemg.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Now that the iPhone 17 is around the corner, I thought you should read this: josem.co/skip-the-nex... 😉

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Full article: josem.co/the-schedule....

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Remember: We can plan for the future, but we can only act in the present. Each choice today either moves you toward your goals or away from them. What's one micro-habit you could adjust this week?

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Your action plan: 1. Pick ONE habit working against your goals 2. Fix it (aim ridiculously small) 3, Once it's automatic, find the next one 4. Repeat The path is infinite. So is your potential for improvement. ♾️

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🌳 Think of habits like tree roots. Everyone admires the beautiful leaves and strong trunk, but it's those hidden roots that sustain everything above ground. Small habits = hidden roots 😉

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Real example: I started going to bed 30 minutes earlier. Result? I could wake up before my kids, hit the gym, and start each day with clarity and energy. One tiny change. Massive ripple effects. 🌊

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🔄 Here's the secret: Everything is interconnected. Better sleep → more energy for gym → improved mood → better relationships → increased focus → better sleep It's a positive feedback loop. But the reverse is also true - bad habits compound too.

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The areas that actually matter: 💤 Sleep (7-9 hours, cool room) 🎯 Eliminate distractions (less scrolling) 🥗 Intentional nutrition 💪 Regular strength training 🧠 Know your cognitive biases 🤝 Positive relationships

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Better question: What am I doing RIGHT NOW that moves me toward (or away from) my goals? And each morning, the game restarts. 🌅

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We love to dream big: - "I want to make more money" - "I'll learn a new language" - "I need more energy" But these grand plans lack the daily micro-steps that actually get us there. The problem? We're blind to our own patterns.

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Jose M. @josemg.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

"We take care of the schedule, and the schedule takes care of us." This one sentence completely changed how I think about achieving goals. Here's why: 👇

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"Once it’s well integrated into our lives, any new technology can be seen as an exchange. We lose something and get something else in return..." New article in my blog: josem.co/what-are-we-...

What Are We Losing With AI?

Once it’s well integrated into our lives, any new technology can be seen as an exchange. We lose something and get something else in return. When we started using our calculator app, we lost the…

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Jose M. @josemg.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Starting with to-dos, I've been a huge fan of Things for Mac. In particular, I've been using Areas and Projects to organize my day to day tasks. You can learn more here: culturedcode.com/things/suppo...

culturedcode.com

Things Support

Here’s how to get Things for each of your devices.

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Jose M. @josemg.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

I've been meaning to create a /uses page at josem.co, but I'd love to start small and start sharing some apps or hardware I use in case it can help someone out there.

Jose M Gilgado's personal site

Jose M.

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But the list is infinite, and it's true that these are small improvements, but they compound over the days, weeks and months if you keep working on them.

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- Improving my email filters for work, so I spend less time in my inbox.

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- Investing in tools that helps me reduce my workload (creating PRs automatically with Cursor, for example).

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- Creating aliases for very common terminal commands.

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Jose M. @josemg.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

For a few months, I've been experimenting with automatizing something new each week. It's a small improvement of efficiency, but also a feeling that I'm "sharpening" my saw, and that the next week I'm a bit more ready for what comes. Some things I've been doing:

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"What if, after so many breakthroughs, we’re left with less patience, fewer personal connections, less appreciation for what we have, and more craving for what we don’t?" josem.co/the-rebellio...