Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hey friend, welcome back!

This is it. The post we all been waiting for.

If you read the one from last weekend, you know we’ve been going through stages.

Starting from a list of skills/interests, to give it some structure, to now seeing how the items on there can come together to form something that’s greater than the sum of tits parts.

So without further ado…

Let’s get into it!

Main quest 🛡

I’ve been teasing the mix & match/combining of skills in previous posts and you’d be forgiven for thinking that taking similar skills works for making a unique skill stack.

If that were the case, then we would have much people doing great work and not worrying about career advancement even more so in this age.

So the important part to understand, the crux of the matter for skill stacking is this:

A mix of complementary skills just makes a better specialist. But a mix of multiplying skills helps you solve problems that a specialist cannot see.

Or if you want to see it in a different way…

Complementary skills helps you become much better an existing game, while multiplying skills helps you invent a new one altogether.

So that’s all well and good, but how do you apply it to your particular situation?

That’s where the list from previous posts, your “skill inventory” comes into place.

Here’s what you can do: Take out your list, your skill inventory, and start mixing and matching items from the 3 columns to get one candidate combination.

For illustration purposes, here’s how my skill inventory would look like

It’d be normal to take items from the columns that are related to each other, for example, building websites with web design and spotting details that people overlook.

But that… it’s a trap.

You want different skills and items that don’t have much to do with each other. Try making combinations that seem pretty distinct, excessive, or even slightly wrong.

Which is fine because you’re no looking for the “right answer”. There’s no “right” or “wrong” answer here. What might be a “useless” mix to you can be what someone else is excited about (and maybe already doing).

You are also not judging the resulting candidates. You are generating possibilities. Do not reject one because you don’t immediately see how it could became a valuable business or career.

Also, don’t think you’re tied to just taking one item from each column.

You can take two items from the 1st column and two from the 2nd.

Or one from the first and two from the 3rd.

Heck, you can take 2 from the 1st, 3 from the 2nd and another 2 from the 3rd.

It’s up to you. Go crazy if you want. Mix and match to your heart’s content.

You can start making those mixes with what you have listed but the idea is that you can also add items of what you’re interested in and want to learn.

For example, something that you once had the chance to look at but never got the time to dive a little deeper into it.

Write it down in the appropriate column ‘cause that’s part of what we’re going to see later on. Your skill inventory is also like you, not a static picture but an evolving project that gets better with time and practice.

With this you have more items to make combinations from.

The idea is that you have enough to choose from. If you came up with 4-5 in your first pass, try and come up with 2-3 more in the next one. You don’t want to restrict yourself to just a few combinations and then mistake them for the “only” valid options.

Even if those extras feel like a disjointed mess at first. We’re going to see how the actual gold is from what others would think is wrong but it is unique to you.

Selection Time

Now, once you have several candidates you can start evaluating them. There are 2 questions you can ask for each one:

• Is the work done something I enjoy and helps a good amount of people?

• How can this bring value to others in a way no regular specialist can?

This is not an exact science, it’s more like a lens in which you can filter the different skill combos you can come up with.

Other questions to give you and idea of how to filter are:

• Does it create a result that is hard to imitate?

• Can I use this to solve a real painful problem?

• Which missing skill would multiply the value created?

This is where the good ones start to appear.

Alright, so you have the three columns and a filtered list of combinations.

Now you might be thinking “which one deserves the most attention?”

For that let me give you 3 examples of people who have combinations that could have looked strange or unusual at first but helped create a career unique to them.

Skill Stacking “in the wild”

Like I said, there’s no “right” or “wrong” way to create a skill stack. We could even say there are different “archetypes” for it.

The first example is a fascinating one…

Temple Grandin

This is the “opposed mix”, that is, one that has unrelated and even opposed skills.

She describes herself as a “visual thinker”. Her work mixes animal behavior, engineering/design, autism education, writing, teaching/consulting.

And that ability to visualize situations became quite useful when designing systems that were created to reduce fear and stress in cattle.

Her personal experience with autism and knowledge of animal behavior combined with the visual way of thinking, allowed her to understand what animals might experience when moving through different places. This is what helped her create facilities that, according to her official site, handle approx half of the cattle in the US.

And I can tell you for personal experience over the past 2 years that the way you treat cattle in the day to day, can make things harder or easier.

That is, you treat cattle like a chore with no regards for the health and/or wellbeing of the animals… And you’ll get animals that will have low production, weird illness that suddenly appear, failed births, and difficulty moving them from place to place.

But treat them in a humane way like you would treat a regular pet, and the opposite holds true. (My father jokingly has said to others that it looks as if we don’t have 🐄 but rather 🐕)

Her skill stack could be represented as:

What she does: design systems, conduct research, observe behaviors, communicate complex ideas in different ways to understand.

What she knows: animal science, livestock handling, sensory experiences, facility design, writing, teaching.

What she notices: environmental details, visual triggers that cause other living beings to become anxious or distressed, alterations in mood and behavior that are invisible to most people.

Maggie Appleton

This is a great example of a skill stack because her work exists smack dabbed in the intersection of 3 areas that don’t talk much with each other.

Those areas are: illustration, web development, and cultural anthropology.

On her website, she places the work under web engineering, product design, and UI design, with cultural analysis, writing, and illustration as added layers.

(that would be a quite nice Venn diagram if you ask me.)

As an illustrator and designer, she can make technical material more understandable. As a trained anthropologist, she can examine software and tech tools as cultural practices rather than as neutral objects. As a developer she can also understand enough of the underlying tech to represent it well and work directly with tech teams.

She was the head illustrator of the developer platform egghead.io and who made Dan Abramov’s “Just JavaScript” email course as easy and digestible as it was. (Probably the only email course I’ve enjoyed so much, about difficult tech no less…)

Her skill stack could be represented as:

What she does: Illustrate, design user interfaces, write online, develop sites, explain complex tech topics in a simple manner.

What she knows: cultural anthropology, programming, product development, visual communication, proper usage of tech tools.

What she notices: metaphors, cultural assumptions, embodied interactions, and those places where technical developments become out of reach and difficult to understand for the regular person.

And now, here’s one of my (if not the) favorite examples…

Derek Sivers

He created CD Baby in 1997 after years as a musician and participating in the industry in other ways. Then he later focused more and more on writing and putting out his ideas and philosophy. He also became a well-versed web developer and started creating sites for his musician friends as a side hustle and then sold CD Baby in 2008.

CD Baby was not created as a regular music business. It had a developer perspective, an artist, and a music consumer one. Back in those days you would have to team up with others to develop a solution for a need, put it out there, and handle the biz side.

The nuance of Siver’s story is not so much about a single unusual talent or a combination of skills from where everything was built. It’s more about deep commitment followed by conscious reinvention.

He spent years pursuing a music career before building the company and helping other musicians. Then he spent another phase turning his experiences into books that came to become bestsellers. He also created a distinct way to communicate his philosophy through his unique website and interview/podcasts appearances.

(He made a “now” page on his website that details what his doing at the moment which ended up becoming a global movement. Thousands of people have created one as well, including yours truly.)

His skill stack could be represented as:

What he does: make music, create programs, write, perform, design systems, explain ideas, share philosophies backed by real experiences.

What he knows: needs of independent musicians, recording and distribution, company building, getting attention, effective decision-making, personal philosophy.

What he notices: unmet user needs, unnecessary complexity, mismatched incentives, and useful contrarian perspectives.

If you want, we can visualize the respective skill stack and the enabled result as follows:

Temple Grandin: visual thinking + animal science + design → more humane livestock-handling systems & a new way of explaining autism and animal behavior.

Maggie Appleton: anthropology + illustration + design + development → visual explanations & software products that connect tech systems with human meaning.

Derek Sivers: musician + programmer + entrepreneur + writer → a business designed around independent musicians, followed by a distinctive body of practical philosophy created from personal and related experiences.

(Here’s the obligatory disclaimer that these are only examples, not templates to copy from. Their stacks worked cause they are connected to their interests, skills, experiences, and problems they cared about.)

Now I’m sure you can come up with more examples like this from people you know about or even historical examples like Florence Nightingale or Leonardo Da Vinci.

This is just to give you another perspective of how skill stacks that look weird and like they wouldn’t work, can unlock the type of value that very few people can replicate.

The kind of value created and solutions generated that no regular specialist can see, only the specialized generalists can produce.

That’s what you can now achieve through your unique skill stack.

And the next step on the journey is to take that what you already have and power it up further.

That’s what we’ll see next time. So for now get your pen or pencil ready and start getting those combinations out, the more the merrier. 😉

To consider 🤔

There are several combinations you can make, some more useful than others.

The point is not how many valuable ones you can make but rather where do you wanna go and which combinations can help you get there faster?

As Shakespeare would say, that is the question.

There you have it.

You can now go from “I have all these different skills/interests and nothing’s clear” to “hey, there’s really interesting stuff I can explore from this”.

And It can get even better than that, you’ll see next time.

Now, when you read this I’m probably either with my father and an old alfalfa farmer or tinkering with the RAM of an old desktop computer.

Catch you next weekend!

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hello there friend! 👋

Good to talk with you again.

It’s been a while.

I’ve tried to comeback for the past 2 weeks but it’s like with anything, it’s harder to break the status quo than to keep doing what you already have.

But this time I’m changing it, restarting the momentum, and revving up the engines.

Let’s go!

Main quest 🛡

To recap what we’ve been going through…

• We’ve seen how not to get stuck when starting a new project or taking on a challenge.

• How to know when to keep pushing and when to pivot to something different.

• How to close the gap between the “knowing” and the “doing”.

• How to accelerate our progress by teaming up.

• How to face the 2 most common enemies of every creative & knowledge worker: Perfectionism & Impostor’s Syndrome.

And we also started going through a practical exercise where you took stock of the different talents/interests/skills you have even if they are quirky but useless.

Next step was taking that list and giving it some structure by creating 3 columns where to place every item in.

So the pieces are there, the raw material is avaliable for use.

What we now need is, not just use it, but get some whimsy and “creative mess” going.

It’s sort of like any other art form, music, painting, filmmaking, etc.

There’s an element of sampling, remixing, copying, or mashing things together.

We will be doing that the items on your 3 columns.

That’s the next step. That’s what will help you see your own skill stack coming together and taking shape.

And with it you can not only deploy it in your work, current or future projects, but also enhance it, expand it, boost it with the current technology that we now have available.

The idea is that you can recognize what’s unmistakably yours and take it to next level.

Develop the skills that will complement the work you already doing or create a new line of work where you’re playing to your strenghts instead of competing in a race to the bottom with others.

Far from the tyranny of the current workplace that has forced us to specialize in just one thing at the expense of our other talents and abilities.

So this is a checkpoint along the way. It’s a pit stop (to keep using the race metaphor from the start 😆)

Next time we talk we’ll continue doing the work. Mixing items, matching patterns, and creating something valuable from what you already have. Before we turbo boost it with other tools at our disposal.

To consider 🤔

Take the time this new week to come up with that list of skills/talents and then the 3 columns (or dust if off if you already got it👌)

And we will put it to good use with next weekend’s activity.

Leave a comment

That’s about it for this time.

A short and sweet edition to break the inertia and start moving forward once more.

Enjoy your Sunday and get some rest for the new week starting.

We’ll talk again next weekend. 😉

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hello friend!

Welcome to the 2nd weekend of the month.

This edition is shorter and more action-oriented than the past one.

If you already read that one, you’re off to a great start.

And if this is the first post you’re reading... It is still a good time to check out the previous one and get caught up.

So with that being said, let’s get it.

Main quest 🛡

Do you know that quote that says...

Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and largely underestimate what they can do in ten years.

Something similar happens here. Where most people underestimate what they have done and have accomplished before.

They think they need a profile like a famous author, top tier coach, or a resume that would make a LinkedIn expert audibly gasp.

But a skill stack is built on top of raw material not social media highlights.

I’ve seen this happen with other people and with myself too. There are accomplishments that when I remember about them they look “normal” to me.

But at the time they were either “impossibles” or stretch goals. I just forgot how much they really mattered then.

That’s one of the reasons why I suggested making a “hit list” or “brag doc” in the impostor’s syndrome post.

Now, if you do have one of those and also have your “dot audit” from the past week, you have proof not only of your accomplishments but also of the source materials required to achieve many more goals and milestones like those going further.

That list you made last week can look a little too rough or crude right now. So, it’s time to look at it differently.

And here are some glasses to do so 👓

Practical Tool

Take out the note taking app or notebook you used for the “dot audit” and this time, in a new page, you’re going to make 3 columns.

Here’s what goes in each one.

• Column 1: What you can do (hard skills, technical abilities)

• Column 2: What you know (domain knowledge, mental models, lived experiences)

• Column 3: What you notice (what catches your attention, patterns you see that others walk past by)

The third column is the one most people miss/don’t pay attention to. It’s also the one where the most interesting aptitudes hide.

I had a friend back in the days of Twitter that had on his bio “my brain picks up patterns most people miss”. He’s one of those very few people that leaned into his 3rd column, and his results showed up for it.

So now your exercise is to take that raw material from your previous list and use it to fill out the 3 columns.

This time again, we’re not filtering or self-censoring ourselves based on what we deem “useful”. We’re just moving items from a big list to different columns.

And to give you an example of how this would be useful to discover key combinations for your skill stack...

Let me show you an image I have of my “potential career options” (it’s one I found on my hard drive from like 3 years ago).

But first, for context, here’s a small list of my skills/interests:

• Web development

• UI design

• Accessibility (a11y) and web performance

• Online writing

• Education/mentoring

• Consulting

• Product creation

• Online marketing

• Etc. Etc. Etc. 😆

Now here’s the image:

That image is to give you a visual of how seemingly disjointed skills/interests can get mixed into useful combinations. It’s not meant to tell you that you should change your career to a particular one.

Now that you know that, the next step is to start building that inventory of skills/aptitudes/talents/things that make you an awesome person (which you already are, but now you can see one of the reasons why 😉)

To consider 🤔

What are those things you’ve done that look “normal” to you know but were quite the feat back when you made them happen? How those experiences could be useful to others that are in a similar path?

Leave a comment

That’s it for this week!

Thanks for reading this short(er than usual) post.

Get some rest and recharge cause tomorrow we’re starting the 2nd half of the month.

Catch you next weekend 👍

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Greetings friend.

Welcome to a new month. 6th month of the year. They call it June.

Since it’s a new month, we’re starting a new series.

The previous posts were to equip and get you prepared when you’re out in the field practicing and getting results.

This time we’ll see how to start taking directed action to get those results.

So, let’ssssss get it started… in hereeeeee.

Main quest 🛡

Now that we’ve addressed the main pitfalls we can encounter along the way, it’s time to shift focus to the action.

As we’ve talked several times before, getting pretty damn good at one particular skill won’t cut it anymore. You gotta pool together your natural abilities and talents with what you’ve learned along the way and create a combination that’s particular to you.

It’s what I’ve named “Skill Stacking” and what’s been giving people results whether they’re aware of it or not.

(And if you want to review that concept, here’s the OG post about it 😉 )

Now, you might have already a solid understanding of what you’re good at, have many different interests that you’ve pursued, or have just done work in an area without thinking much what you can do outside of it.

It is important to know that whether you realize or not, there are several skills and abilities you have used in the past even if you weren’t consciously practicing them.

Those skills and abilities form the base from where you do better work or prepare yourself for something greater.

And when opportunities come, they can either find you well positioned to take ‘em or they can slip by without you noticing.

The difference is you taking action to get those opportunities (or even influencing the environment to make them happen) instead of waiting for them to come by.

A great way to do that is having a particular skill stack. It’s like equipping yourself with the right tools and the practice before going out on a mission.

An example of that is the story I shared last year, where I became the lead engineer + technical partner of a company working on an AI avatar.

I didn’t search for the role in the traditional way.

The role wasn’t advertised in any job board (heck, I wasn’t even looking for a job. I was busy working in a few projects).

The opportunity came and I was the only right fit for the task not because I was the “best” technical candidate. It was because I had a particular combination of technical knowledge, startup experience, product sense, and marketing chops developed over the past several years.

That’s an opportunity that a “classical” specialist couldn’t have taken.

And while that can look like a once-in-a-lifetime chance that just a few “very lucky” ones can get… there’s a way to get opportunities like those. A “method behind the madness” if you will.

Mining the story

When serendipity happens, we have no involvement on that current moment. What we can do, however, is to prepare the field for those times to happen more often.

And one of the ways to do so is through curiosity.

I already talked before about the combinations that can emerge by exploring your interests and taking time to follow your curiosity even if it doesn’t make sense at the moment.

And if you remember from that post, I referenced Steve Job’s quote of “connecting the dots”.

In hindsight, it makes sense how the dots connected so I could get the role. But it only happens when looking back (which doesn’t help when we’re trying something new, or getting into a different area).

You can read that post again if you want the details to start pattern matching.

The important part here is that this applies to all of us. Most haven’t paid enough attention to it.

Now with the whole talk of AI going to “replace all workers” and the “end of work”, some people think they need to do crazy or radically different activities to get a shot in the new economy.

WHat’s more important, and I’d say more useful, is to think:

What have you already done well? What have you built or created that’s been useful to others?

Your stack might already be there, just unrecognized. You haven’t paid attention to the connecting threads between the roles you’ve had, the activities you’ve done, how you’ve helped others but dismissed it because it came easy to you so you would think “it’s not that valuable”.

That’s the real gold right there.

The “Dot Audit”

Here’s a practical exercise for you to try.

It’s the first step of a practice I use with the folks I’ve personally worked with.

You are going to pull up your favorite note-taking app, a notebook or a whiteboard (if you like being more ol’ school).

And you’re going to list every skill, interest, talent, or domain you’ve spent meaningful time in. Ask a couple of friends of family members to help you out with what you might not remember or deem not useful.

Put it all in there without judgement or filtering. Even if it’s an “useless talent”. Go ahead and list it out, don’t censor yourself. We’re going to give it some order in the next time we talk.

So take your time today, tomorrow, this coming week, and get it together.

Next weekend you’ll see how that blob of random things will start taking shape. 😉

Experiments 🧪

This week’s experiment was related to what I’ve told you before of having a “properp setup”.

Even though I wasn’t consciously “experimenting” I can look back and see that the days I was able to get a lot done… was because I had clear goals, had the space in mind and time, etc.

And then there were other days where I had meetings that took most of the morning and then the afternoon went by in a flash.

But I can say that this previous week didn’t go by in a blur like others before. I was able to get some time to tackle down priorities and making progress even with the usual misc tasks that creep up.

To consider 🤔

Take some time and do the “dot audit” for your particular story. Put it somewhere safe cause we’re going to be using it for next weekend’s quest. 😎

Leave a comment

That’s it for this week.

Hope you enjoyed and found it useful.

Take care and enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

I’m gonna go take care of some animals. 🐄

Talk soon.

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

What’s up friend, hope you’re doing fantastic.

Following up from last week…

This time we’ll talk about another sneaky gremlin that deceives and slows down our progress.

So now the mission is to get equipped so we are better prepared for the next time we have to face it out there in the field (when making stuff happen).

Alright?

Main quest 🛡

You know those times where you’ve worked on a creative project and you just dove into, almost as if the result was already there but was waiting for you to materialize it.

It didn’t take you long going from start to finish to getting a result to be proud of.

On the flipside…

There are others times when you second guess your decisions, try out different approaches, no one really does feel “right”, and even after doing all the work…

The result is not up to the expectations.

So you either put it out thinking it’s not complete enough or keep tweaking things here and there never really shipping anything and having no results to show for all that work you’ve put in.

Most of us have this tendency to going to the extreme of making something as best as it possibly can before releasing into the world.

I’m all up for creating high quality work that can make a mark.

The problem is when fall for the perfectionism trap.

And then we delay the completion cause it can “be so much better”.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fallen into that trap cause I already lost count. How many projects, ideas, and deliverables didn’t saw the light of day cause I thought they were not ready.

I waited too long to get something out there until they either became irrelevant or someone already beat me to it.

My excuse was that I didn’t want to put somethin mediocre out there or do something that looked amateurish. And while some of that was true, it was mostly fear in disguise.

Fear of getting feedback from others.

Fear of being criticized or judged.

Fear of breaking the status quo.

Fear of being not “good enough”.

Among many others…

The ironic part is that in many of those areas where I was doing something “new”, something that no one around ever did, I was moving from beginner to intermediate stage.

I wasn’t “that good” yet. I didn’t have any objective benchmark against which to evaluate my work. So even though I wanted to put out “high quality” results, I couldn’t possibly know what high quality actually meant.

I wasn’t good enough to know what what “good enough” was and thus never finished most of the projects I started.

That is something I’ve seen over and over throughout the years helping other people.

Is similar to doing physical training by yourself vs going to a gym and working with a personal trainer.

Even when you’re super self-aware, objective, and judge your own performance…

When it comes the time to actually put in the work, you’re going to slow down when it gets uncomfortable, you’re going to avoid doing what gives you the most results, and you’ll go easy on yourself.

The perfectionism antidote

A good way to defeat this perfectionist gremlin is to use the Pareto Principle.

Meaning, don’t try to get something “as best as it can possibly be”. Get it to 80% completion. Then ship it, get feedback, and iterate.

So the whole process would look like this:

Arguably the most important part of this process is the first step.

But it’s a luck that we already know how to start a project in a proper way.

So now what’s left is to do the uncomfortable part of shipping something before you feel it’s “ready”.

This was important in previous years. But I’d argue that from the past year or so and moving forward it’s not just going to be important but rather “vital”.

We now have AI at our disposal.

Don’t overthink the work. Get a headstart. Get something good enough to ship. Get honest feeedback. Get a better version. And just keep on going.

The more you practice that process, the better you’ll get at it.

The better you get at it, the less time it will take you running it.

The less time it takes you running it, the more output you’ll have.

And like I’ve seen several folks saying over the past few years…

You get to the real quality, by putting out quantity.

So don’t get stuck with perfectionist lies.

Make something, get it out there, and then make it better.

And of course… You don’t have to do all of this alone.

That’s why you’re here in the HQ. Reach out when you need feedback, a honest opinion, or are stuck in the “analysis paralysis” trap.

Experiments 🧪

This week I had a brief experiment.

You know how people talk about time management, being productive, and nowadays being able to do more because of AI.

Well, I found out that most of that output and results doesn’t come from what we would traditionally think is “being productive”. That is, being at our desk, focused on a task at hand, and getting it done before moving to the next one.

A good part of getting those desired results is not on being heads down charging through the to-do list like a rhino in an African jungle.

A good part of it is having a proper setup. (And no, I’m not talking about your desktop setup.)

The difference between getting 3-4 important tasks done in 2 hours between 1-2 important ones and several other misc. tasks is having that proper setup before even starting the work day.

And what I mean by “proper setup” is having…

• Clear goals.

• Well-defined & actionable tasks.

• A way to measure quality of the work.

• Having the right tools for the job to be done.

• Access to the work even if you’re away from the pc.

• A good communication process/tool for collaborators.

That among other things.

Having the proper setup makes the execution much easier.

Then, when what needed to be done gets done, we can make a pause, take a break, or turn off the head from work and get some needed rest that we’ll need to keep performing well when we need to once again.

This week, try being more intentional about your setup before getting down to work and let me know if checking that “proper setup done” box makes the work process much easier or at least smoother than before.

To consider 🤔

That project you’ve been delaying cause it’s “not ready”, probably have already been for weeks. What’s the smallest, viable version you can ship to start getting feedback?

These days putting out imperfect works gets more positive outcomes than criticism. You have to be mindful where you’re sharing it though.

Thanks for reading! Hope you’ve found it useful for the next time you start delaying a project.

And if you’re afraid of shipping cause you believe you aren’t “good enough”, last week’s post will help you sort that out too.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and take care.

We’ll talk soon.

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hey my friend.

Hello again.

This time I have a particular take on a subject that’s pretty common and affect us in different ways.

Especially if we are getting results in areas where it’s not normal to make progress “that fast”.

So sit tight and let’s dive into it…

Main quest 🛡

If you’ve read the past few (5?) posts, you’ve seen that we’ve been leveling up (and if you haven’t cause you’ve been away… Hey, welcome! You’re still in time for the action.)

We’ve tackled some myths, like the work-life “balance”. Learned how to foolprof the starting process, how to keep going even when I might seem pointless, how to close the gap between the “knowing” and the doing”, plus how to supercharge those results by teaming up with others.

But unfortunately, even with all of that, it won’t be all “sunshine and rainbows” ☀️🌈

There’s a particular foe will face sooner or later.

It’s a very well known syndrome.

(Well, no. Not that syndrome. Although that’s pretty well known too, right?)

I’m talking here about the Impostor’s Syndrome.

Yeah, the one that’s quite common especially for us high-achievers.

There are several ways to address it, deal with, it overcome it, whatever.

And there’s a lot of content already written around the subject, particularly in the workplace.

For me it started waaaay back, even pre 2015.

After I got my first role as a frontend web dev, around 2018, I decided I was going to own it. I was going to be that person who does cool things even while not being “qualified”. And they will have to try and put real effort in catching me as a “fraud”.

That is all well and good.

What many people don’t talk about enough tho, it’s how many times that syndrome shows up when you’re tackling a new project, taking on a bigger deal of responsibility, or even starting in a related area.

And with the increase of fractional roles and portfolio careers, we will face it 2 or 3 times as much as before.

So it’s not just “dealing with it in your new role until you get more experience”.

It’s more like “how you deal with it when you are using your skills in different scenarios, with different people, different goals/perspectives”.

And also “how do you keep leveling up your skills and reinvent yourself when the work landscape keeps changing every month”.

That’s a whole new adventure we’re now in.

The syndrome will normally bring other friends along for the ride.

We’ve talked about them before when they show up in the learning jourmey.

And yet, even we’re aware of them, how to deal with them, and keep doing the work…. we often forget all of it on the important times and can fall for it again.

That sneaky little voice in the back of our head will whisper again…

“You’re still not ready.“

“Leave this to the actually qualified people.“

“Who will pay attention to what you can say or do?”

“Who do you think you are to be trying to pull this of?“

There’s a myriad of other similar statements.

Often times we think someone else that’s more capable/knowledgeable than us, will see what we’re doing and will point out how we’re “frauds” and how we’re “faking it”.

That might happen because of corporate politics, a toxic workplace, or jealous people.

But…

More capable or knowledgeable people than you will never do that.

You’ve ever seen that quote that says “envy only comes from people behind not people ahead of you” (I’m paraphrasing but you get the point).

People online in the creator space or in knowledge work areas are more supportive than anyone else.

You’d be hard pressed to actually find someone who will try to call you out for how “fraud” you are.

Most people are either:

• Too focused on themselves dealing with their own stuff.

• Too distracted with cheap sources of entertainment.

• Know even less about the subject than you to matter.

• They are faking it themselves for real in the worst ways.

Plus, if we’re talking about “fakes” and “frauds”, we can just open the main page of Instagram or TikTok.

So the point is not who’s fake and who’s “real”.

The point is that the voice in your head saying that you’re not ready or that big, bold accomplishment is not for people like you is straight up lying.

And even when you have a whole set of past accomplishments, having done what others would consider “impossible”, you still will hear that voice (and probable believe it) when you take on a new project.

So it’s always helpful to have a registry of those past accomplishments.

I’ve seen people refer to it by many names like a “smile file”, “brag doc”, or “hit log”.

The idea behind all of those is the same: document your accomplishments, what happened, how you pull off something that you didn’t thought you could but did.

So whenever you revisit it, you can remember the moments but also reexperience the emotions of that time.

That’s just one way to prepare and jazz yourself up before tackling a new challenge. But it’s one of the most practical and effective ways I found so far.

And what it’s coming over the following months and year… challenges is what we’ll have aplenty. So it’s about time we get our tools prepared and our skills sharp.

That’s one the reasons this HQ exists. To train and equip ourselves for the challenges and missions ahead. 🕵️

Experiments 🧪

Oddly enough, this week I haven’t done any particular experiment. Nor been involved in the one I told you about in the previous post.

This past week has been a blur for me. It’s like I remember being on Monday afternoon/evening, I blinked a couple of times and it was already Friday morning.

Not literally but that’s how I felt. 😐

To consider 🤔

How have you dealt with this syndrome before? Are there common themes from those times you’ve overcome it that you can think of? To keep them around for when the syndrome shows up again.

And if you can’t think up of any or need some help dealing with that foe, reply or comment below. Let’s get you unblocked.

Leave a comment

That’s it for this weekend, my friend.

Next time we’ll talk about a state in which we try to overcompensate for our perceived shortcomings which is pretty related with this syndrome.

But for now… Take care and enjoy the rest of your Sunday! 😎

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hello friend.

Welcome back to another edition on the 3rd day of the month, a new month. Which month is it?

(I couldn’t waste the chance to make that joke 😆)

Anyway…

This time I want to do something a bit different. Instead of bringing you a new topic or new perspective, I want to give you something to chew on to start taking the actions to close the gap between the “knowing” and the “doing”.

Main quest 🛡

You can go surprisingly far on your own.

When you become dedicated to your learning process, showing up consistently putting the hours, and learning from your mistakes. You’ll outpace most people.

But you’ll eventually hit a ceiling.

At some point, striving alone will give you diminishing returns. The feedback loop will become slower. You’ll keep missing your blind spots. The motivation to keep going will have to come from you, every, single day.

You can be a David Goggins type of person and make it all the way regardless the setbacks.

But for most of us wanting to keep moving forward, that alone won’t work.

Instead, we’ll have to realize one important truth.

Interestingly enough, the answer to move out of those plateaus we encounter is not better resources or better systems. It’s to stop trying to do everything on our own and look for those who’ve already been down the path we’re in at the moment.

Learning from your mistakes is a smart thing to do. Learning from others’ mistakes is plain genius.

We’ve already covered this topic before.

We talked about what needs to be in place for group learning to actually work. Things like shared goals, open communication, and accountability. We also talked about who to learn from: a peer, someone a few steps ahead, and a master of the craft.

And the posts from previous months have been about nailing down the starting process, pushing through those “slow phases” and hitting project completion by defining what we need while temporarily ignoring everything else.

The pieces are there.

Now we have to start putting them into motion.

And one of the best ways to do so?

Doing it together.

The synergy scan

Something simple and practical to do to get that process going is this:

Take 10-15 mins to loo at you current circle (like offline/online friends, colleagues, people in groups you’re part of) and see them not as a contact list, but as a map of potential collaborators.

Ask yourself:

• Who is working on something related to what I’m doing?

• Who has a skill I need right now?

• Who could benefit from something I already know?

• Who could I invite to a project and make faster progress?

Sometimes we get so focused on hitting our goals through what we aready know and have that we don’t take the time to consider if someone around us is working on something similar, has insights beneficial to us, or have complmentary skills that we could use to chart a path forward on an undiscovered area.

I’m not talking here about doing “networking” in the traditional sense. Going to an event and exchange business cards with people with mildly similar interests.

This is about taking a look at our existing circles and finding someone who can be tackling a project that we are also working on.

The most current example for this is AI.

Say you’re working on building your own customized workflows using AI. Instead of going out and figuring out how Claude Code or Cowork fit your use case, you can do a search on Substack for people who already tinkered around with the tools and wrote about their learnings.

Heck, you can even team up with someone who’s also non-technical but has experience with this systems to come up with something that works for both of you.

The opportunities are now even abundant than before.

This very platform we’re in already save us much of the trouble than we otherwise would have to go through. Looking through forums or subreddits, making a post that could end up going nowhere, having to message random people hoping they’re not some scammer, and so on.

The friction now is not the process or the tools, it’s taking the time, finding one person, and making the approach.

And here’s the good news about collaborative learning; you don’t need a great setup to start getting pro level results.

You just need one message that can start one conversation.

One message that says “Hey, I’ve been working on this thing. I think we could help each other. Wanna talk?”

(A good portion of great projects from the indie builder community started that way.)

You can take it as far as you want. But the expectation is not to do grand moves or achieve lofty goals from the start.

It’s more a curious exploration to see how skills can align, synergies can start, and great results can come from there.

That’s the move. Everything else comes after.

And hey, we’re already a bigger community of Supercharged Learners. We can do great things together 😉🏆

Experiments 🧪

Over the past 2 weeks I’ve had a particular experience. It hasn’t been an experiment that I consciously designed and started running, more like what I’ve seen in retrospect.

Monday and Tuesday are days to get stuff done and make progress on priorities for the week in all areas of my work.

Then, comes Wednesday.

And it has become the day where I go out to run errands with my father. Time flies by so fast that after what’s needed, we get back home around 4:30 - 5:30 pm. The rest of the day is spent organizing all the supplies and stuff we brought.

Thursday is resuming work and doing chores. While Friday is the last day of the week and everything arounds moves slower than usual.

So it looks as though I only have Monday and Tuesday to make real progress at work, and then just a few hours here and there on Thursday/Friday.

At the same time, trying to spend too much time (i.e. more than 3 hours) on an activity is unfeasible and not realistic.

The key is being able to do as much as possible in a short timeframe with only 2-3 timeframes like that in one particular day.

That’s apparently the experiment/challenge I’m in.

To consider 🤔

Take a moment this week to do the synergy scan. Find someone whose skills/goals align with yours. Send the message, make the connection.

And if you’re one of those brave enough to take that first step, reply or send me a message, I’ll personally help you out to get going.

Leave a comment

That’s about it for this first weekend.

I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far.

Take care and get set up for a great first week of this new month.

Catch you again next time.

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hello friend.

Welcome back.

This time I want to share with you an insidious situation that happens when following a bit too much the popular “knowledge is power” adage.

It complements well the previous topics we’ve already discussed.

So let’s get it!

Main quest 🛡

Tell me if this sounds familiar (or you’ve seen it before).

A person, let’s call it “Mark”, with 20 open tabs in a browser, 60+ bookmarked pages, 3 half-finished courses, a note-taking app with a bunch of highlights, and enough knowledge to give an impromptu talk… but it still little to no results in the real world.

(Yeah, I gave this person a name to don’t call me out that hard in a post…)

The problem is not that Mark is unmotivated or “lazy but ambitious” (as many of the YouTube gurus would led you to believe).

The problem is that he’s fallen victim of the different traps that await in the journey from “goal set” to “goal achieved”.

The gap between those points is not “laziness”, lack of discipline, or motivation. It’s not being aware of the traps that keep us in what others call “learning mode”, but in reality it’s just “information consumption mode”.

Let’s go through the most common traps and what you can do to counter them.

Trap 1: The Collector Trap

This is one of the most common (if not the most common) traps out there. It’s the one that Mark fell prey right away.

Saving resources from the internet, acquiring knowledge, and building a library “feels” productive. It triggers a dopamine hit that makes you feel you’re progressing. After all you’re getting “smarter” cause you now have access to information that you didn’t have before.

*News Flash*: Access to information is no longer a competitive advantage. It was at least 2 decades ago.

Collecting information also feels good cause it mimics the feeling of progress without the risk of failure or making rookie mistakes.

But you want to make actual progress on your goals, not become the next incarnation of The Collector.

The Counter: Before you even start collecting resources about an specific topic, do an “80/20 audit”. Identify the 20% of knowledge that can give you the 80% of results for your goals (and you can even narrow further by setting goals related to a learning project, but more on this later…)

Once you have what you believe will give you that knowledge… Stop collecting. Start applying.

Trap 2: The “Almost Ready” Trap

Now this one is pretty related with the previous trap, they go hand in hand.

Mark was hoarding online resources cause he wanted to be prepared before starting to take action. He kept collecting articles cause he “wasn’t ready yet”.

What’s ironic is that none of us can correctly determine what “ready” means so we keep looking for one more video, one more article, one more credential before start applying.

And I get where that feeling comes from, it’s us trying to prepare well enough so he can hit goals in the first try. It’s trying to get a foolproof plan that will guarantee us success when start taking action.

The sad truth is that will never happen. If we wait until being fully prepared or getting the perfect plan… We’ll start to grow roots under our feet.

The Counter: The one thing that has helped me the most and has also helped the folks I’ve worked with is to start “uncomfortably early”.

It’s like what people in the indie hacking space say: “if your product is all looking well polished from the start, you launched too late”.

You don’t start taking action when you feel ready. The bar for “ready” always keeps moving. The discomfort to start is the signal, not a warning. That initial friction is what gives you a head start and accelerates the real learning.

Trap 3: The Overwhelm Trap

This trap happens like a result of the other previous ones.

Mark has collected enough resources already and has a little too much knowledge already. And the problem now is that he’s stuck with all that resources he has. There’s no clear path to start. Everything looks important.

When overwhelm ensues, it’s easier to not do anything. Drop the learning altogether. Move to something else more familiar and comfortable.

When everything looks important, nothing is. Trying to cover a whole topic like “learning Spanish”, makes it dauntingly difficult to even start. You don’t know what are the most important parts to know or in what order.

The Counter: What I have repeated the most online and in person, use “project-based learning”. Pick a concrete project with specific goals. Then, you only learn what the project demands, everything else gets temporarily ignored.

The project becomes a filter that makes a huge space, something scoped well enough to get started taking action and getting some results right away.

In some cases you don’t want to learn what’s in the whole space of possibilities, you just want specific results. In other cases, you’ll be more interested on what you can achieve and will cover more ground of the topic.

What’s important is not if you cover a little or a lot from a topic. It’s if you get the needed results from that area to achieve your goals.

The identity shift

Now identifying the traps and remembering how to deal with them is one thing, but what solidifies this into actual results is not pure memorization, it’s a deeper move; an identity shift.

The shift is from being “someone learning about X” to “someone who does X”. This is related to what James Clear mentioned with “identity-based habits”.

For example, if you think about yourself as a “writer”, then you’ll start to do what a regular writer does, which is separating the time to sit down and write. Or you think about yourself as a “developer who ships”. Instead of being someone working through tutorials.

This is something I’ve seen online in several places for many years. People use labels to refer to themselves like “aspiring filmmaker” or “aspiring polymath”. These labels imply “I’m someone learning the craft” instead of “I’m someone doing the craft”.

There’s no specific point where one magically goes from “learner” to “doer”. No one gives us that title. We have to make that identity shift ourselves.

And that shift is what closes the gap consistently… not just for one project but as the default mode.

So now you know to start with a project with defined goals to not get overwhelmed. And you also know how to get started properly, so that there’s no more “analysis paralysis”.

Now we can start closing the gap much more often with reliability and consistency.

That is a big part of the HQ mission: that you, my friend reading this, level up your capabilities not by knowing much more than others, but by doing more and getting better results with what you already know.

You can always expand your knowledge, but that new one has to earn its space by the results it generates.

That way we will move from theory, to practice, to results. Much faster, together.

Experiments 🧪

This week I’ve been taking some of the lessons learned by building my multi-agent system and putting them into the project with my biz partner.

Interestingly enough, I had a distinct principle in mind that I built the system around. And the past few weeks with the projects and AI updates that have popped up, it’s been confirmation that other approaches are still lacking and my “contrarian idea” is a better approach.

I need some better documentation for the onboarding and I think I can also write a field report here so you not only get to use it but see behind the scenes how it evolved.

To consider 🤔

Which one (or more) of the 3 traps have kept you stuck before, which you keep hitting, and how are you dealing with them from now on?

Leave a comment

That’s all for this time.

I thought it was going to be a shorter post than usual. It turned out to be a meatier one as well.

I hope that now you can recognize the traps when they show up in your journey and deal with them like a movie protagonist dealing with the goons sent by the villain.

I’m out to spend some time with my nephews, touching grass and some animals along the way. 😂

Take care, enjoy your Sunday, and we’ll talk next time.

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hey friend! 👋

So good to talk with you again.

It is a new month!… of April.

This is not a special edition but it IS a special Sunday.

And it is special because we’re back from the dead.

Main quest 🛡

A person picking up the guitar after months of not playing, another putting on their running clothes again, another going back to their desk with unfinished drafts.

What does all these people have in common?

Besides returning to their activities, they are making imperfect progress.

See, we’ve been taught that missing days, losing streaks, or going silent is a sign of quitting.

That if we do those things we’re “inconsistent”, we are lazy, or we just “don’t have it”.

And then it’s contrasted with that other type of people who never miss a day, are laser-like focused, and achieve goals like it was a regular Tuesday.

Well, not everyone can be a David Goggins kind of person.

But for the rest of us who are restarting streaks, picking back up habits, or going back to activities we did before…

We didn’t quit, we just made a temporary pause without realizing it.

I’ve seen several people online talking about “starting again” with an activity, like learning a language, learning to code, going back to writing, or practicing a sport.

In reality, you only can start once.

Every moment after that is “restarting”, (and it doesn’t take much to go back where you left off.)

Whenever you go back to something, you’re still making progress even if it’s not in the “ideal world” kind of going from start to finish.

Sometimes that progress feels slow, difficult, like you’re probably wasting time. Or the situations around make it pretty hard to keep going and be consistent.

So we stop making progress and think there’s something wrong with us for losing momentum or “dropping the ball”.

The reality, however, is that temporarily pausing something for whatever reason is not the same as quitting.

“Real quitting” is when we never go back to the activity. When the pull to return dissapears. When we stop caring and it’s no longer in our minds.

In that case, yes, we quit, we already moved on.

I’ve had that experience several times before as I’ve gone into many fields, tried lots of different activities, and found what really excites me and what’s a temporary curiosity.

As a matter of fact, I didn’t wrote anything here since the start of the previous month. And it’s not because I “ran out of ideas”. I’ve had lots on my plate to deal with.

I’ve been sort of like an octopus. Doing startup work, developing a personal project, dealing with family stuff and the daily chores when I didn’t have the help I had before.

Someone looking from the outside could say that I “quit”. I got busy, “life happened”, or maybe I found something else to do.

But like I said, the pull was still there, I never left. I just had 3 crazy weeks where my mind was just focused on prepping for a product launch and keeping the daily habits to not neglect health.

The Slog Reframe

Whenever making progress feels like a slog, like wading through thick mud, it’s not a sign that you’re doing something wrong, it’s a sign you’re more than halfway there.

That excitement of starting something new already went away. The real work is in keep going when it’s easier to stop and go do something different.

Restarting something is often more valuable because it can teach you what not to do this time. What different approach to take.

It often feels uncomfortable not because there’s something “wrong” with you.

It’s because you care. If there were not discomfort, it would meant you’re indifferent whether or not to restart. The pull is no longer there, you’re mind moved on.

But when you’re still thinking about the activity and even remember some moments hitting a goal or reaching a milestone, there’s still something around.

You can always go back to it.

You can restart, spend some time going back to where you left, and keep making progress.

In the end, no one gets bonus points for getting to the finish line in one go or by taking breaks along the way.

If it matters to you and helps you in some way, you can still go back to it. You haven’t quit yet, you were just taking some time to regroup for an even better comeback.

Experiments 🧪

This past 3 weeks or so, I’ve been experimenting with semi-autonomous workflows, learning from agentic systems and trying stuff out on my own.

In part, out of curiosity. But another part is out of real need and not finding anything that fits my particular way of working.

And since not only I want to keep doing the work I’ve done for the past months but also “restart” some projects I still think are good ideas… I need some extra hands.

The system that I’m building, I believe will be a real power-up for myself and I’m also excited for you to try it out (once is more non-technical user friendly)

To consider 🤔

If you could have a partner that can help you with one area of work (or more than one area), which area would it be?

I’m curious to know if it would be more for work or for life stuff?

Leave a comment

That’s it for this new week.

Happy Easter and happy Passover.

Hope you had a great time.

Catch you next week.

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hello friend, welcome back!

It’s now the beginning of March.

Time to get back into action cause we have work to do. Speaking of action, today I’m sharing with you a framework for getting started when tackling a big project or challenge.

Let’s get it.

Main quest 🛡

Let’s be real.

In an ideal world we wouldn’t wait for a “perfect plan”. We would get clear on where we anted to go, and start taking the steps to get there.

But in the real world, we find several different reasons as to why we can’t get started.

Either because we don’t even know what’s the goal we’re after, don’t know how to get started, think that we need more preparation, think it’s “not for us”, or anything else from the myriad of reasons that can come up.

As an over-thinker and over-planner, I can tell you that none of the extremes work. That is, waiting to have everything figured out to start taking action OR recklessly starting and seeing where the actions take you.

The sweet spot is somewhere between proper planning and directed execution.

And instead of making a whole diagnostic of the problem. Why we default to overplanning or no planning at all, why we often lack the confidence to start something, or why the fear of the unknown beat us in the search for a better place.

I’m going to give you my framework for overcoming barriers and start getting results.

1. Shrink the Bet

2. Borrow the Proof

3. Script the Start

Optional 4th step

Starting with…

Step 1: Shrink the Bet

Lower the stakes until starting feels trivial

Back when I was a full time web dev, I got involved in a volunteering initiative to help high-school seniors get their first role in tech.

Along with the other participants of the program, we would have a group of students and would give them lessons on different subjects.

In my case, I wouldn’t only give them the lessons. I would also bring in concepts to help shift their mental model. One of those was the concept of reframing.

In this context, the reframing was not thinking about the “get a tech role” as the goal.

That would feel like an impossible for someone in that stage.

The goal instead could be “attend the 4 sessions in the cycle“. Or even something smaller like separating the time to make it to one call.

This step you might have known from the theory of habit building.

Starting is often the hardest part. So making it so easy that I’d feel dumb not to start, it’s the best way to go.

Step 2: Borrow the Proof

Find evidence it’s possible for someone like you

One of the most common excuses I’ve heard or seen over the years (that I was also guilty of) is the notion of “that worked for X person, but it wouldn’t work for me“.

“It’s easy for them because they’re from a 1st world country, have rich parents, know important people, are 6ft+ tall, aren’t skinny, have good genes”

You name it, the list can go on and on.

The thing is these excuses exist cause we don’t have a proper frame of reference.

People from low/middle class that want to launch their own startup see it as a daunting goal, and wrongly think that is for people with better socioeconomic status, much smarter than them, or with better connections.

Then there’s someone who is a successful entrepreneur who beat the odds to get there. And the excuse shifts to a different area.

With the internet and social media, it’s not much easier to break down those excuses and show peple that they can achieve that particular goal, even if they:

• Aren’t rich or have rich parents.

• Don’t have a full college degree.

• Don’t have a rolodex of important people.

• Aren’t built like an athlete.

• Come from a poor background.

• Don’t speak a language or have thick accent.

And so on, and so forth.

With seemingly true hypothesis, you only need one counterexample to reveal for what they are: false narratives holding people back.

Step 3: Script the Start

Define only the next 2-3 actions

Here’s an interesting point.

There are people who only focus on the start. There are others who say the end is more important.

But it’s not an “either or” situation, it’s more a “both” one.

Let me explain.

Both sides are missing an important part. We already talked how most people approach learning in a wrong way.

What you want to do in this step is to pay attention both at the end goal AND the first steps to get there.

Only define what are the immediate 2-3 steps you need to get started. Everything else is noise and can be figured out later. What’s important is to get started and build momentum.

So you set your big, bold, audacious, goals but you don’t stop there, you also map out the initial steps.

You need both long-term vision and short-term execution.

Balancing those two is more an art form than a science.

But getting it right will save you so much time, effort, headaches, and confusion.

Step 4: Forcing Functions

If you want an extra “kick in the butt”

Now, there are some types of people that won’t need this step. They can take the previous steps and already be well in their way to cut through the noise and start making strides in the path to goal completion.

But for the rest of us, who might need a bit more help, or a little push, this step comes into place.

A forcing function makes the starting much harder than staying idle.

It can be any sort of device like:

• Accoutnability partner

• Public post on socials

• A bet with a friend

• Progress reporting to a group

• What Tim Ferriss calls an “anticharity”.

• And so on.

The point is that the discomfort you feel by any of the above options, will force you to move your ass into action.

It’s like if you’re too comfortable in your couch to go out and exercise. Then someone comes in and lights a fire on one of the sides.

Eventually, you’ll have no choice to stand up and move out.

How it works in practice

Now all of this might sound good. You can read it and nod along or be like “yeah, that makes sense”.

But let’s make it concrete.

Here’s an example of how someone can use this framework to go from “stuck” to making progress (adapted from the situation of my older brother’s friend).

In the current state:

• Has expertise from his day job in marketing creating and running campaigns.

• It’s bored of the job and wants to do pursue other options and activities.

• It’s in a comfortable position and doesn’t want to risk that by quitting just yet.

• Has been talking with his girlfriend about starting a coffee brand, a YouTube channel, some paid offerings.

• It’s frozen with aaction thinking "I don't have an audience," "Who would pay me?", "What if I fail publicly?"

• Has been “thinking about it” for a good 6 months and knows that he needs to get started with something.

Now, when applying this framework, it could look something like:

Step 1: Test if 3 people will pay $50 for a 1-hour consultation.

Step 2: Find 2 people on Twitter/LinkedIn who went from a day job in marketing to a diversified stream of income starting with zero audience.

Step 3: Planned (1) Record and post shorts for a week, (2) Search 10 people online who are in the same space/niche, (3) Find people from the common audiences and DM them with a question.

Step 4: Told his partner “ask me on Sunday if followed the plan”.

There are several different plans that can come up from this exercise.

With this particular one, here’s an outcome:

• Got ideas on how he can use his expertise in different ways with the proof of others building their side-hustles.

• Started conversations with 5 people sharing experiences.

• Got 1 paid client and now has a better idea of what people need and pay for.

• Started building confidence that he can make this work instead of waiting.

Once the ball starts rolling, it’s much easier to start testing out new ideas, see what works, what doesn’t, and course correct along the way to get to the goal faster.

And even though going from goal set to goal accomplished is easier said than done, making meaningful progress only comes from those key first steps.

There’s much more we can do after we’re already in motion.

But all of that would be a complete waste when we haven’t put the first steps in order.

Now…

I share with you this framework cause I don’t want the “getting started” part to be a blocker, even more so this year.

I want you to be able to accomplish your own personal “impossibles” (and maybe also some collective ones).

Take them out of the “wish to do“ list and put them into the “what I’ve done” list.

And if you recall that chinese proverb of the journey of a thousand miles… it starts with a single step. Then another one, and another one.

What stands in the way of most of us wanting to do something and actually making it happen, it’s not just knowledge or raw skill. It’s continous change of mindset and identity to fit the new persona that we’re becoming.

Shedding off what we were before for what we can be.

In this year of exponential change, let’s make things happen. Faster and better than most people think it’s possible. Let’s summit new heights by being great at the starting phase.

Everything else will follow from there.

Experiments 🧪

This week (and a portion of the past one) I’ve been experimenting with organizing data in my personal pc and creating better workflows so that I’m not tied to pc alone.

For context, I’ve had to go out and run errands for personal stuff and farm work. Just this previous week I could be out with my father every single day.

Getting back home in the afternoon and getting disoriented about online work.

So I was devising a way in which I can have all the projects I’m on, separated in folders, and replicated across environments.

Most importantly, I won’t be doing all the work myself. I would have different AI agents with their specific context and tools for each project. With that I can communicate with them through Telegram and check they’re doing the work well while I’m out on the go.

Thursday of the past week is when I made the most progress cause I decided to stay home instead of going out yet again to another trip.

I even ignored the startup work building this, justifying that is going to boost productivity all around (which is not a lie).

I’ll let you know how it keeps evolving if you’re curious (and want to try it out as 2 people already told me they wanted to know more 😆)

To consider 🤔

What would be your next 2-3 steps for that something in your mind that you’ve been avoiding?

But now with this framework you can move from “blocked” to “already going”.

Leave a comment

That’s about it for this edition.

Sunday Funday, enjoy your time to rest and recharge.

Catch you again next time.

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hello again friend.

It’s the first day of the week and of the month.

And this time, I’ve got something good that will rub some “gurus” the wrong way.

So…

Main quest 🛡

There’s is a lot of talk about “work-life” balance online as if it is the end all, be all.

Those who don’t follow it get labeled as “workaholics”, “hustle bros”, or worse.

The thing is that this notion sounds good in theory and can be good in practice.

But in reality, trying to keep everything perfectly balanced all the time is what keeps people stuck.

Go ahead and name 1 breakthrough someone famous in any field has achieved by having perfect balance in all areas.

(Spoiler alert: you can’t)

The main reason is that big breakthroughs don’t come from stability, comfort zones, or perfectly balanced lives.

They come from commitment, dedication that borders on obsession, and personal or collective sacrifices.

When everyone is seeking “work-life” balance, being imbalanced is what gets you standout results, not average ones.

Buuuuut…

Before you write me off as a “hustle culture” advocate/promoter.

There’s a crucial (and I don’t use that word often) distinction to understand.

Signal vs Strategy

You have heard about terms like…

“Being at the cause, not the effect”.

“Creating your situation instead of reacting to it”.

“Building the future not just waiting for it”.

This is on the same vein. And a good way to understand it is seeing it.

You can be imbalanced in a reactive way or a proactive one.

And the crux of the matter is to recognize the external signals to change your situation and course correct.

If you want a different way of looking at it, think about growing muscle by doing phisycal exercise. You need to temporarily damage the tissue so that it grows stronger the next time and can handle a heavier load.

Or think about debt.

Most people think debt is bad and should be avoided at all costs.

But a few people use it strategically to increase to increase their net worth.

The thing in itself is not bad (like stress), is how you deal with it that matters,

Now, that’s all well and good. Makes logical sense right?

But let me show you how it works in practice.

Story Time

In 2024, I participated in an online program for people all around the world who wanted to build an idea alongside others and get some guidance on the process.

I applied, got accepted, and got put in one of the 4 groups available (like Hogwarts Houses). The challenge was going from idea to launched product with users in 5 weeks total.

I’m pretty sure you are aware that is such a tight timeline to work with. Most people take 6 months or more to achieve that.

But there’s a magic about compressed timelines and doing what looks “impossible” at first glance.

The first few days was getting to know the program, how it worked, and all the housekeeping. The rest of the first week was settling down on an idea. And after that was build time.

That’s when the imbalance began.

The program was called “Nights & Weekends” (because if you’ve been paying attention, the vast majority of people were doing this on their spare time.)

For this challenge I went back to doing something I wasn’t fond of… (sitting in front of the pc right after waking up.)

And it was the first time in years that I have woken up as early as 4:30 am.

I have also put lots of time during the Saturday/Sunday and would end up tired come Monday morning.

If you’re curious about what was the project, check out this post’s “main quest”.

What I neglected & sacrificed during that time was everything that wasn’t work.

Contact with friends & family? Almost zero.

Exercise? Gone.

Sleep? Lost couple of hours on the regular

I even skipped some meals here and there ‘cause I was “wired in”.

The only external interactions were with people online for purposes of validation and getting feedback.

And it wasn’t just me spending hours coding. I was doing everything necessary to take an idea from concept to fully working MVP.

This was my first mockup

But what started as a site to aggregate AI models and make them more accessible to others, evolved thanks to the feedback of others into a platform that gives access to the models and teaches how to use them through a friendly mascot.

In “normal” mode, the iteration wouldn’t have happened that fast.

And at the end, I got to the “demo day” (pretty tired but satisfied) to present among others that also graduated the program with their own validated products.

Five weeks at that pace taught me that the hardest part is not diving deep; It’s knowing when to come back up for air.

The pattern

That story is far from the first time I’ve done something similar. The temporarily going deep in one area at the expense of others. People online call it “monk mode”. Now it seems it’s referred as “locking in”.

The goal is pushing the envelope, leaning into your edges, and extending your comfort zone.

And even though it can lead you to breakthroughs, it is not always all “sunshine and rainbows”

There’s a time in 2022 where I spent a bit too much resources in social activities, partying, and indulging in entertainment. That’s all good in general.

The problem is that I overdid it and was running low on funds.

So the pendulum had to swing back to the other side.

I went full “monk mode” for the last 3-4 months of the year. Everything I did was during that time was:

• Eat

• Sleep

• Go to the gym.

• Use the bathroom.

• And lots of work.

I was trying to prove the point to people around me that I could generate income on my own and not default to the regular full time developer job.

After those 3-4 months of going deep, can you guess what happened?

I went viral on social media.

I launched a business that made 6 figures in revenue.

I made enough to move to a bigger place.

I bought a new car.

Alright, alright. None of that happened.

I only got paid for 2 articles and got access to a community with other creator entrepreneurs.

I know. Not spectacular results.

Just because you go “all in”, putting in lots of work and effort, it won’t make you the next success story.

That’s what the “hustle gurus” won’t tell you.

“Just worker harder, bro”.

“You have to stop being lazy and grind your way to wealth”.

Right…

The difference between Breakthrough and Burnout

Most people lack the self-awareness to know where they are and when to switch modes.

And it’s so easy to go to extremes (never commit = average or commit for too long = burnout)

I wasted years firguring this out.

I’m a recovered workaholic and only in the past 2 years I’ve gotten a better handle at recognizing the different seasons (coincidentally when I moved to the countryside).

What I find out is that the balance/imbalance relation works in different timeframes.

That is…

You can have balance within the days, the weeks, the months, and so on.

Having imbalanced days doesn’t mean you are going to have imbalance weeks or months, as long as your being strategic about it. Knowing the tradeoffs and what you’re giving away in order to achieve something.

But for the majority of people? External feedback is what accelerates progress and prevents wasted effort or burnout.

It’s pretty hard to see the situation clearly when you’re in it.

This is why coaches, mentors, or even accountability partners matter.

To help you see your own blindspots.

The turning point

Knowing this, you can take a moment and look around you.

Are you keeping balance in everything cause “it’s what I’m supposed to”?

Or are you in a situation of imbalance, that either you chose or was forced upon you.

Using imbalance as a tool means knowing what you’re trading off and having an end date or exit criteria.

Using imbalance as a signal means not knowing what you’re sacrificing (or knowing what it’s but not “why”) and also not having a end in sight.

Managing those two forces is like a coordinated dance. Move to one side or to the other depending what the music and the groove dictates.

If you’re imbalanced at the moment, try to go back to balance to recover and be in a better shape so you can go back to imbalance but this time on your own terms.

And you don’t have to do all the work alone. None of us get “brownie points” for making it to the top alone.

Reach out to a mentor, a family member, or a close friend.

And hey, also remember that I’m just a message away. 😉

Experiments 🧪

The previous night/next morning routine has gone progressively well this week. But there’s a question that stays on my mind… Is this the best routine I can have for the time being?

One of the reasons for that is a previous routine I thought of setting up for the new year that’s more familiar.

But I wanted to test out the one of waking up early (much early) and dive into flow for 2-3 hours to get as much done as possible and then do some sort of recovery at 9am.

So like I said, that works in general although there are few tidbits that would make it only suitable for a certain period of time (like when choosing to go all in project and neglect other areas for the time being).

I’ll start experimenting with the other morning routine this new week. And I’ll keep you posted about it.

To consider 🤔

Starting the month is a great moment to reflect about what state are you in, are you reacting to the environment or you chose the one you’re in?

What would you change to be temporarily imbalanced towards a particular area (work, fitness, relationships, etc) at least for the next 30 days?

Leave a comment

That’s all for me this time.

Thanks for reading. I hope it sparked a different way of thinking.

Take care and catch you next weekend.

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hey friend.

Last Sunday of the month.

This time, there’s something else I want to share with you like I mentioned in the previous post.

That and an experiment update.

So...

Main quest 🛡

As a former knowledge hoarder I know for a fact that having access to different strategies, insights, and “secrets” feels like success.

Like you found some sort of ancient scrolls that reveals the mysteries of the universe and you’re one of the lucky few that have discovered it.

But having such insights and implementing them are 2 different things.

Even though I know there are people who say that “knowing” leads to the “doing”. (Maybe for some people there’s no disconnect, but for folks like me is a different story)

When you’re too busy thinking what to do with this newfound knowledge and you actually don’t do anything cause you’re in “planning mode”.

It’s very useful to have some sort of push to just do the freaking thing.

Like when you’re about to jump to a pool but you can’t make yourself just do it.

In a similar way it’s what coming for the next months here in the HQ.

If you’ve been here for a while, you already have seen...

• How to start a project without dealing with endless options & mismanaged expectations.

• How consistency actually works in real life & not like some sort of “magic pill”.

• What’s more important to having sharp, top-notch skills.

• Why tackling the “impossible” is much simpler than it looks.

• How some lessons only make sense when you discover them

• Why learning at this level is more like a full-on contact sport

• How to go from overwhelmed to empowered in a new area.

• And much more.

That stuff is great, it can make a real difference.

But what’s even better is when the insights take on a new form through practice and lived experience.

There you get to discover the type of “secrets” that you can’t keep as a secret and want to share with those around you.

That’s the next level we’re going towards this year.

In college courses like chemistry or physics, classes have a theory part and also a lab part where you get to do stuff, not just read about.

And thanks to AI, now we are able practice in ways that before would been to complicated and expensive to make happen.

At the same time, not everyone wants to maximize their time to pursue their different curiosities/interests on a daily basis. Some already have a path forward or an idea where they want to go and they could use some boost to get there faster.

That’s why choice is an important component. Whether it is mindset, health, finances, relationships, and so on.

The new sections opening up are so that you can choose what matters most to you.

And alongside them you’ll get to use custom purpose-built tools to make the process better.

With that we’ll be able to close the gap from theory to practice to mastery. And it’s up to you how much or how little you want to engage with the content.

Put in the work, develop the skills, rise through the ranks, and go from recruit to trainee to fully-fledged acting agent.

Welcome to a new chapter in the journey.

The goodness is just starting. 😎

Experiments 🧪

I spent a good part of the week moving activities around, building habit “stacks”, and staying consistent with the times.

Instead of setting many alarms like you saw from that video I shared, I’m using timers. Adapted timers from what I’ve used in the previous years. That turned out to be more effective cause the time from one day to another can change, but the timeframe between 2 points (say a nap and dinner) stayed the same.

And since I’ve woken up 4 days in a row (compared to 2 from last week), I’m now shooting for an uninterrupted block of 3 hours in the morning till 8:30 am when I go to make breakfast.

It turns the changes do work out when you give them enough time to sink in. 😉

Power-ups ✨

Speaking of new routines, one thing that has helped me get started and going on the early mornings have been the mix below.

I don’t know what it is but the combo of jazzy, mellow tunes with Isochronic Tones is like smooth butter on a sourdough bread toast.

I can not only tackle big tasks but also start the day with a carefree, chill vibe.

That’s about it for this weekend. The last of the month.

First time I can remember that a January flew by. Normally it’s the complete opposite.

But hey, get some rest, plan for the week, and let’s get some great work done in these last days of the month.

Catch you later!

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hey my friend,

Welcome back... to another year.

This time, I have news to share and updates.

Updates galore on different fronts.

So let’s go ahead.

Main quest 🛡

I chose to start the year with alignment & intention instead of keeping a writing streak from the previous year or jump directly into a learning challenge, or something like that.

Taking some time off and slowing down a bit in a year that looks like all it’s going to do is speed up even more than the previous one.

In doing so, I noticed particular elements from my environment (how other creators are approaching their content, what I’ve talked with some online friends, what’s happening around me, etc...)

And so today... I want to let you know about the coming changes, news, updates, whatever you want to call them.

I decided to group them in 3 categories so it’s easier to distinguish what they are and what impact they have.

Here it goes!

About the HQ

After being a knowledge hoarder for several years and getting overwhelmed when about to take action, I developed a different approach of regarding theory and practice.

As you can tell from previous content, there's a great emphasis in practical insights on learning whether it is frameworks, case studies, personal stories, and how-to's.

But still, we're scratching the surface.

We can get a lot more practical and "hands-on" now that we have AI at our disposal (and we'll do it a lot more this year).

I've written about the concepts, the philosophy, and the background of this publication for almost 2 years already. And now, from that foundation I can build towards the original vision.

Meaning, the HQ is going to get more real and less conceptual.

One of the immediate changes is on the homepage which is getting a "facelift" with an improved structure.

That would be the version #3

Most importantly, you’ll get now more than just regular content.

You’ll be able to access new sections for enhanced training, start using tools & gadgets to help you in the missions ahead, and share intel gained from experience with fellow agents.

Buckle up ‘cause it’s about to get interesting around here... 😉

About my other work

The AI avatar project I built from last July got to a new level and had a change of direction targeting now the healthcare sector.

My partner got a contact with a guy that has a couple of clinics in the Texas region. Now the pilot not only requires the project working as it is but being able to integrate with the system of the doctor’s office.

This started a new chapter of building process automation on older software for which

I recruited another developer (which I found after attending an 11labs hackathon last November 😆)

The work done on that project helped me have some proof work to get in contact with others and access new opportunities.

Like being accepted into Mark Kashef’s “AI Expert Network”

I also completed Outskill’s AI Engineering Program.

This one was a wild ride and I got lot of insight not just about the development process itself but about how those solutions work in practice and how they can get implemented in the different scenarios.

Thanks to all of the above... I’m now talking with 2 people to streamline their biz processes first and strap some AI rocket boosters afterwards.

Funny enough, the work is not so much about implementing AI but rather about education on what not to use and when to use what’s out there.

About my personal life

In other news... (non-technical or online related)

The dairy cattle project I have going with my father finally it's now at a point where it's (almost) self sustainable & doesn't require us to be present. Every. Single. Day.

A guy that have worked with my father in the past came back and it's now taking charge of all the different tasks.

If you read any of the previous posts from the start of last year, you know how difficult it was to find someone and how volatile the role could be.

After the weird flu that I got on the last week of 2025 (that lasted way more than any regular one) I'm being more intentional with my health.

That is, doing stuff like:

• breaking up exercise throughout the day as opposed to doing it in one go.

• upping up my protein intake.

• increasing the creatine dose.

• and being more systematic with my sleep schedule.

I've also started increasingly spending more time developing relationships with other kinds of people to not be like 2023 me that only focused on work and seldom texted hi to his parents.

That last point is the most difficult one to tackle I believe but hey, little bits here and there have to add up to something, right?

Experiments 🧪

The last 2 weeks I’ve experimented with my daily routine.

Not just the morning one cause a morning can be highly influenced by the previous night.

So in the spirit of January being a month for “new beginnings”, I chose to take some time to rebuild a routine that includes elements of health, work, and connection.

You know, stuff that we may have done before and we stopped doing when “life happened”.

It’s worth noting that I wrote down what I wanted the routine to look like and gave myself a 1-week grace period for implementing it.

Most people when starting with a resolution, they expect near perfect adherence to it.

But as we know, that rarely happens. So I started instead easing my way into the routine.

The reality is that the first 3 days I did exactly what I did last month (no structure at all).

By the 5th day I finally incorporate the first habit.

And important realization is that if I want to have enough time in the morning for the “keystone habits” I need to go to sleep much earlier.

Last year, my periods of deep work were almost entirely during the night. It was very common that I went to bed past midnight.

My situation has now changed and so the routine needs to change as well.

Last Thursday was the first time I got something that more closely resembles the “ideal routine”. (It took much more than expected 😅)

My invitation for you is to experiment and build a simple routine that works for you not to make for great content on social media.

Power-ups ✨

Something that helped during that routine experimentation was the video below.

More specifically the concept of "temporal landmarks".

I've set 4 alarms on my phone and have been slightly adjusting them based on my actual performance.

I believe I will be pretty useful for you too.

Your turn

What’s new with you, what are some things you have planned for this coming months?

How did your first half of January went? 😆

Leave a comment

That’s all the news & updates I had to share.

Pretty exciting stuff, if you ask me.

Next week, there’s something else I have before we get into the actual good stuff for the rest of the year.

So for now, enjoy the rest of your Sunday and we’ll chat soon.

Take care.

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hey friend.

This is the last post of the year.

And I can’t help but feel nostalgic and reflective.

So for this time, I’ll break the format a little & we’ll do something different.

Let’s go at it.

Subscribe now

Main quest 🛡

Last year I did a “year in review” type of post and also one where I tried to look into the magical orb 🔮and see what 2025 would have in store for us.

But for (Dr) strange reasons, Substack messed up the post archive and that last post of the past year got conflated with the first post of the new year.

You can see below that the post exists & shows up in the archive.

Even the post’s slug is correct.

But when you click on it…

It redirects you to the first one of this year.

So it would have been suuuuper cool to look back and see how many of the things I said that could happen actually happened. And in which ones I missed the mark.

Sadly, that isn’t possible anymore.

We’ll have to recap the main highlights of the year.

And I will try once more to look into the future in a different way this time.

I started this year building some good momentum.

Instead of making a pause, taking time off, and working on stuff in the background…

I decided to do that whole prepping out in public.

Working through the new year routine, developing some ideas and goals I had for the year regarding this publication (and other projects).

Everything was going well until “life happened”.

My father and I were thrown a curveball and we had no other choice to adapt to the circumstances.

On mid January I became a full time farmer with my father (with no previous knowledge or context about it).

And after one whole month of doing all the necessary work. Every. Single. Day…

We found someone who could help us 3 days a week.

That gave us some extra time for some much needed rest. And so that I could look at other projects I had to put on pause.

Even though my schedule became pretty full, I managed to keep posting consistently. 4 posts per month from December of the past year going into the middle of this year.

Around June I had a pretty good handle on all the farm work, my sleep experiment worked well, and I had a good routine going.

And for whatever reason, many people thought that the month of June was the best one to run online events, hackathons, competitions, and the like.

My curiosity and interests might have gotten me in much more activities that I could handle in a normal scenario. But then I didn’t want to let some opportunities slip by.

I participated in bolt.new “World’s Largest Hackathon” for non-developers.

Not only I learned a lot about the “other side” of developing a project, but met lots of interesting folks (mostly non-technical ones), managed to organize & handle 4 people across different time zones, and finally deliver a product good enough for submission.

Through new connections from that event, I got to collaborate with others in paid projects, got involved in new communities, and then through a new acquaintance, got involved into a new gig (which I outsourced to a developer I met from the event).

A business partner of the guy who I delivered the work for that gig, got in contact with me cause he wanted a 2nd look and advice on a project he was working on.

That was July. That was the start of the craziest adventure I’ve had in yeeeeears.

If you’re curious about the details of that experience, this comeback post tells it all.

So all in all…

I feel like I had a pretty good, pretty standard year until June. And then a whole new one from July onwards.

It could look as if there were just 12 months. But from the results of it and from how it felt like, I’d say I got 18 months instead.

And I can’t help but to think that in the new year… that’s going to be more the norm than the exception.

Which is a great segue to my “predictions” for the new year.

What could 2026 bring?

There are several different ways we could take this. From a personal perspective, to a more “whole world” view, to others focused on specific categories like online work, personal development, and so on.

But I think the one common thread that you can definitely NOT miss when talking about the next year… Is the effect AI will have in general, not just for work alone.

And being at the forefront of tech I will be biased in everything I could say related to AI and its impact. Whether it is hyping it up or underplaying it.

Last year I said that this year 2025, was going to be the “year of agents” and also the year of the “specialized generalists”.

Even though that was true to some extent, it’s not confined to one particular year.

I see that trend extending for at least until 2027.

AI agents and agentic workflows are getting more into the mainstream. The average worker is going to be using them more in their day-to-day instead of it being a niche word in tech circles.

That also means “traditional roles” as we know them are soon going to become blurrier. Jobs as such will cease to exist and will turn into groups or collections of tasks.

Those tasks will either become completely automated by AI, will get enhanced by AI, or will require a good dose of hard-earned human experience that no single person can just prompt and get away with it.

Which, if you are reading between the lines, means that generalists (not just AI ones but as a whole) will become the new Bitcoin. 🪙

Generalists often shunned away by the “specialist only” marketplace now have a new playing field on which to develop their broad skills and interests.

And by specializing into certain groups and categories of interconnected skills and knowledge areas, they’ll increase their market value tenfold while becoming irreplaceable.

On the same token, the traditional 9-to-5 worker on a particular job will have to make the mindset shift that roles will become obsolete.

They can either choose to become independent and launch their own projects or side-hustles with new tools and aids than ever before.

Or they can choose to be part of something new that’s AI native and not just using AI to retrofit an old business model.

But of course, not everyone will make that choice and the curve of tech adoption tells us that in any new emerging technology there are “late adopters” and “laggards”.

The late adopters will have to choose or have the choice made for them.

And the laggards… more likely will have a fate similar to the dinosaurs.

That’s enough predictions for now, I believe.

Which, if you think about it, it’s not so much “predictions” as it is reading the writing on the wall.

To consider 🤔

How’s your year been so far?

Do you think you accomplished what you set out to do at start of the year, or did you also got curveballs thrown at you?

Leave a comment

That was quite a nice end of the year post, if I may say so myself.

We’ve come a long journey this year.

But we’re far from done. There are new heights we can and will reach in the new year.

I can only give you thanks for being part of this journey and for helping making it as great as it has been so far.

Catch you again in the next year!!

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hello again, friend.

This time we’re back with the continuation of the subject we started talking about in the previous post.

Along with a quick experiment update.

So…

Let’s go

Main quest 🛡

Picking up from where we left off on last week’s post, we’ll talk about the patience problem.

Most people want to do some work here and there for a while and start expecting results to keep them “motivated” on the journey.

When they inevitable find that there are no results coming and that every additional effort seems to not move the needle one bit, they get discouraged. They think they’re doing something wrong or the skill they’re developing doesn’t work.

That’s like having a razor sharp axe, throwing 2-3 hits to an old oak, and expect it to fall down already.

Granted, our “microwave culture” doesn’t make things easier.

Everything out there is retraining us to expect “instant” results.

People want the oil without squeezing the olives, they want the omelet without breaking the eggs, they want the compounding interest without investing the principal.

So to get to the point where you develop skills strong enough to produce work that gets other people to notice… that’s gonna take time and patience.

More specifically, it requires an strategic approach to skill building and deliberate practice that produces real results while others are chasing virality & online popularity.

It requires playing the long game in a world obsessed with instant gratification.

And it requires putting the work and effort for the compounding effect to kick in, even when we don’t see any results after several months in.

The Inflection Point

Now you could ask…

So when does the shift actually happen? When do the results start showing up and I go from hunting all the time to being hunted?

Well… It’s rarely dramatic. More often, it’s slooooowly and then suddenly.

Here’s the paradox: you need deep, focused skill-building away from the noise, but you also need people to know what you’re capable of. Most people get this balance completely wrong. The timing matters more than you think.

To give you a practical example.

Remember my previous story going from “random freelance dev” to having two important roles & being a critical part of a team?

It happened somewhere between June and July.

I wasn’t promoting myself all the time (well just enough to get gigs on Upwork), I was doing the best work I could while sharpening my skills & staying up to date with tech.

From there, one gig led to a referral. That referral led to getting asked for advice. That advice I gave led to trust. That trust led to an invitation to be part of the project.

And next thing you know, I was in for a wild ride…

Not because I pitched harder or networked better, but because I’d built a rare combination of skills where I wasn’t just a regular dev.

I could take into account the product/business perspective and merge it with the technical side articulating the tradeoffs for a particular situation.

You see, the previous engineer was short term and scarcity minded. He was there for the money. And when the funds started drying up he took most of his work for ransom.

That led to a cofounder suing him and the other left without his key piece to keep the project going forward.

I came in with no expectations. Just making an assessment of the current situation and a “if I were you, I’d do this, this, and that”.

After I got the chance to get into the code and put stuff together, the founder now had something that he could show and prove to others he didn’t wasted months and thousands of $$$ in development.

All of a sudden, I wasn’t “just another freelancer on a platform”. I was now a critical part of the team.

The shift wasn’t about hustling harder and out-pitching everyone. It was about having skills to deliver real work in a combination that made me unignorable.

(I would even go as far to say that the previous engineer is much more tech-savvy than me. But he didn’t won anything by just being the “best” at something, tech in this case)

That, my friend, is where results kick in. That’s the inflection point.

When your capabilities become more valuable than your pitches.

There’s no point on having great visibility when you don’t have the skills to back it up. And it’s equally wasteful when you have rock-solid skills to solve problems but no one knows about them and you can’t reach the people that need you.

Playing the Long Game

So the uncomfortable truth here is…

Building a particular skillset people will “hunt you down” for requires a kind of patience and focus that most people don’t want to exercise.

But for those who do pay the price, their reward is freedom.

They are free from constant self-promotion. They are free from competing on price in online platforms where it’s a race to the bottom. They can now charge their own fees.

That doesn’t mean these people can just cruise along and “sleep on the laurels”. But at that point, the flywheel is already spinning and there’s no need to put the same type of effort every single time.

When you build a rare and valuable skillset, you become differentiated in the market. You’re no longer a commodity.

Even better, you no longer can be “replaced” by an AI that’s excellent at one thing.

But until you get to that point…

You’ll need that patience and focus to put in the effort and do the work.

Patience is not passive waiting though. It is staying the course and getting the reps in without switching to other areas cause you’re not seeing the results.

To “make it” in something you’ll need to discipline to keep going even when it gets tough, when you don’t see results, or when you don’t know if you’re doing right.

There are some good news though.

It doesn’t have to be a grueling process that only an elusive few survive.

You can take stock of your current skills & knowledge.

Mix and match with your interests and what you want to develop.

Hunt for the intersections and now you have a direction to go.

Now, instead of going the old route of taking regular courses or getting overwhelmed with free online information.

Put Supercharged Learning to the test.

And see your skills going up while the time you put in goes down.

You’ll now be in a great place going forward. 😉

Experiments 🧪

This weekend marks the end of the learning experiment I’ve been running for the past 2 weeks.

Technically it ends tomorrow cause I started on the first day of the month.

See the below Note for context.

Which means that Monday’s end of day will be the deciding moment to see if I completed the challenge or overshot my expectations.

I think I’ll make a Note to talk about the results instead of having you wait till next weekend to know how it went. 😀

To consider 🤔

Knowing what skills to develop and in which combinations is now the most important.

Think of which stack can you work on and what are your next steps to make it happen.

Leave a comment

That’s all for this week and the middle of December.

When you read this I’ll either be in a hackathon putting in practice what I‘ve learned in the experiment or recovering sleep after the past 2 days I’ve been awake late night and early morning.

Take care and talk next week.

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hey friend! 👋

Welcome to a new month (the last one of this year that is).

This time there’s a concept I want to introduce (more like a whole topic but hey)

So let’s get started right away…

Main quest 🛡

Let me paint you 2 pictures.

The Hustler Path looks like this:

You’re constantly trying to be “out there”. Constantly pitching. Constantly convincing people of your value. You’re optimizing your LinkedIn profile, perfecting your elevator pitch, cold-emailing prospects, networking at events, staying visible, and “top-of-mind”.

Every new opportunity requires the same energy expenditure. Every client acquisition is a fresh battle. Every project starts from ground zero.

The effort is linear. You work twice as hard and you get roughly twice the results. But stop hustling, and the pipeline dries up.

It does get exhausting after a while. But at least, it feels productive because you’re doing something. And if you’re tracking some kind of metrics, you can justify the effort you’re putting in.

The Builder Path looks completely different:

You’re building rare and valuable skills through training & deliberate practice. You’re putting in the reps and doing work that matters. You’re creating capability that speaks for itself.

You’re not not focused on being visible, you’re focused on develop true skill. Here you’re not optimizing for attention; you’re optimizing for ability.

The effort is exponential. The first 50 hours might not produce anything that’s worth showing. The next 50 hours might give you a couple of hits.

But somewhere past the inflection point, the results have no choice but to appear. The same capability that took months to build, now generates results that for others look like you’re “naturally gifted”.

The key insight?

Rare capabilities create compounding results.

It relates to the quote from last week’s post:

When you’re good enough at something valuable enough, you stop competing. You become the obvious choice. The scarce resource people are actively hunting for.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: most people think they can just improve their skills, hone their craft, and the opportunities are going to do like the FBI throwing down their door and taking them out of their room…

Most work & career advice talks about the first path: “you gotta hustle, put yourself out there, send more pitches daily, do more networking online and in person, be always more visible.”

But they’re missing the other half of the picture.

The one when instead of always be hunting for opportunities, you build rare and valuable skills in particular combinations that makes it super difficult for others to produce results like the ones you have.

And instead of competing on visibility, you compete on capability. Making yourself indispensable for companies and clients.

One path is scattered and all over the place. The other is more focused and direct.

Why We Default to Hustle

The “hustler path” is seductive for three reasons:

It feels productive immediately. Visibility gives you instant feedback. You post something, you get likes. You send pitches, you get responses.

Deep work building skills? You could work for months with zero external validation. And our brains are getting retrained for immediate feedback. The “hustle” gives us that little spurts of dopamine when getting that validation. Deep work gives us frustration at the beginning

It’s what we see successful people doing. Look at any successful person’s social media. You’ll see lots of posts, engagement, visibility, and thought leadership.

What you don’t see is the years of practice and putting in the reps that happened before they had anything worth talking about. You’re seeing someone in their level 50 while you or your peers are in level 2 - 3.

It’s survivorship bias at scale. The ones who are visible, already “made it”. But we don’t know anything about those who were present for a moment and then faded away.

It’s the advice that’s easier to give. “Build your network.” “Put yourself out there.” “Create content.” “Show up consistently.”

The advice isn’t wrong, the sequencing is.

It also makes for content that does well with algorithms. It’s the type of beginner level content that appeals to the masses and gets more clicks, views, likes, and whatnot.

I remember Pieter Levels made a post on formerly Twitter about this that made its rounds for a while. The sentiment was like “instead of focusing on networking, build cool stuff, ship work you’re proud of, and have something worth talking about. You’ll eventually meet people doing something like you.“

The astute of you reading this will already have picked up on the fact that this 2 “paths” I’m describing are not as much different paths you can take as they are 2 different “stages” in the same journey.

We all have to start somewhere eventually when it comes to work.

The smart & successful people figured out when they had to hustle and when they had to switch to build mode.

Now here’s what changes the game: career capital.

Cal Newport nailed it with this insight: rare and valuable skills create career capital, and career capital creates options, leverage, and freedom.

It’s a different kind of capital like the financial one.

You can spend your time in two ways:

1. Trading time for money directly: Freelancing, hourly work, one-off projects. Linear returns. Stop working, stop earning.

2. Investing time to build assets that generate returns: Building rare & valuable skills, a body of work, and reputation of high-quality Exponential returns.

Most people get stuck in option one because they never build enough career capital or they don’t know when to move to option two.

This kind of capital isn’t about being being really, really good at something (that’s vague and everyone can do it).

It’s more about being so good they can’t ignore you (see what I did there?).

The best part? career capital compounds.

The better you become, the greater quality of work you produce.

The greater quality of your work, the more proof you have of true skill and competence.

The more proof of competence, the less you’re going to be polluting the space like other “fake gurus”.

The more your work speaks for itself.

The more opportunities you can attract.

The more experience those opportunities will give.

Not to mention it will increase your visibility giving way to many more opportunities.

It’s a flywheel. But you have to be patient enough to get it spinning round & round.

Building career capital isn’t just about pairing a couple of skills together.

It is about which combinations can create multiplier effects. Some skills add to your value. Others multiply it.

The math behind this is quite fascinating. Linear vs exponential effort creates pretty crazy results over time. And if you want to geek out a little on it (and want a throwback), take a look here 😉

Now, the main issue is getting the flywheel to spin by itself without putting the effort to make it move every single time.

That’s where most people have a patience problem.

But you know, this post has gone on being way longer than I anticipated.

So for now, revisit those 2 “stages” I mentioned and think where you’re at in your work/career.

And we’ll get back to it in next week’s post.

Experiments 🧪

As I mentioned in last’s week experiment, I started a learning challenge related to AI.

I went in more detail in this Note:

Here I’ll tell you about how’s it going.

I started with this playlist about “How to build Chatgpt: step by step”. It’s a 5-part series where the folks go into lots of detail.

I’ve also went deeper into the theory and background concepts of stuff like Transformers, Open Source models architecture, RAG, and such.

Looking back into the week it doesn’t feel like it was “groundbreaking”.

But often times drilling into the fundamentals doesn’t look important until you’re attempting big challenges and find out there are knowledge gaps all over the place.

This new week, the “real stuff” happens. I’m equally excited and nervous for it.

To consider 🤔

So related to the topic of the main quest, the question for you to ponder and reflect on is “Are you optimizing for visibility today or irreplaceability tomorrow?”.

Leave a comment

That’s it for this week.

Enjoy your Sunday.

I have some offline work to do and prepping for the pretty busy new week ahead…

Catch you next weekend.

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hey friend!

It’s the end of the month (as we know it 🎵)

This time there’s something I want to tell you about related to a quote that’s been living rent free in my head for the past few days

So let’s not waste any time and…

Main quest 🛡

“Money is common, skills aren’t. When you have rare skills, people will hunt you down for it.”

I heard this quote in a Mark Tilbury video a few days back. And it has been doing its rounds on my head.

Most people would agree with the concept, nod their head and move on. But there’s something even more relevant in this particular time we’re living.

Money is still moving around like always but it’s now getting more concentrated, less distributed. Skills, real valuable skills are now becoming rarer.

People are realizing that some particular skills are quickly becoming worthless while others are being in high demand.

Some are holding on 1 or 2 main skills hoping they can keep delivering good results in their field. Others are trying too many things hoping to find the next “big thing” that will make them a ton of money.

You can tell that neither approach works.

What’s now increasingly more valuable is not a skill in a particular area (and related subskills). It is having a specific combination of skills in seemingly different but interconnected areas.

This is a trend that is now accelerated due to AI. We can call it “The Obsolescence Paradox”.

AI makes individual skills commoditized while at the same time enables anyone to get good at anything in a way that was impossible before.

This means that strategic skill stacking is more valuable than ever.

Think about it.

AI can write code. It can design interfaces. It can draft marketing copy. It can create stunning visuals. It can create whole presentations and reports, you name it, but it can’t see the connection between a technical decision and a business outcome.

It can’t spot where scope surgery will create 10x results. It can’t read a room and know which solution will work best even if it goes against conventional wisdom.

That’s what specialized generalists do.

Remember the 90-day crazy journey from a couple weeks back?

I didn’t become the Lead Engineer and technical partner by being the “best coder” out there (I’d be the first to say I’m not among the best).

I got into that position(s) by being an engineer who also understands the marketing/product side, can translate technical requirements to plain English, envision different pathways and explain their tradeoffs.

That was stacking skills on top of other skills (sort of like a Jenga tower).

The combination is what unlocked the value and made me irreplaceable.

The secret sauce

Here’s what most people are missing about AI use: it is not about what you can or cannot do. It’s in the judgement and discernment about what to do and what not.

If we can now do work across different domains (development, multimedia, marketing, etc.) we can now tackle projects & challenges that before were unthinkable.

And working together with others who understand that as well, amplifies results exponentially.

AI with proper prompts can handle tasks pretty well. The humans behind are the ones who makes the decisions of what tasks to tackle and when.

This is the space where specialized generalists thrive. Not being exceptionally good at one skill at the expense of all others. Or knowing enough about a lot of different areas.

Instead, it is about having skill depth in complementary areas.

Technical + business. Analytical + creative. Strategy + implementation.

It’s about seeing patterns and connections other people miss.

It’s about bridging the gaps between disciplines that normally don’t talk to each other.

It’s applying the context and lessons learned from one particular domain to solve problems in a different one.

That’s real leverage.

And when people are either doubling down on one particular area until they reach retirement. Or panicking cause they don’t know what field of work they should move to instead…

Specialized generalists are exploring their interests, building skill combinations, and creating new categories of work. All enhanced by the use of AI.

That last part I mentioned is important.

Doing all of this without AI help is pretty tough. We only have so much time in the day.

But stacking skills, compressing time, and getting months of work in weeks is now possible thanks to proper AI use.

AI by itself can only work in predefined areas. It has been trained on what already exists and can’t see the adjacent possibilities between areas.

But you can.

And with Supercharged Learning you can find novel approaches, synthesize across seemingly disconnected fields and create something unique or authentically you.

That… is something AI won’t be able to replicate.

Experiments 🧪

This week I’ve haven’t done any particular experiments cause I’ve been getting some personal and “offline” stuff handled. All in preparation for next week.

What happens next week you may ask?

I’m starting a new experiment / learning project / challenge.

It is related to AI, the time compression method I’ve mentioned in previous posts, and my work on the avatar project.

More info about it coming soon.

Power-ups ✨

If you’ve had troubles knowing where you time is spent online, here’s a great solution.

I talked about it in a previous post but this time is different because they have a Black Friday special.

Not only it’s Rize 2.0 beyond personal time tracking, it now supports and teams and multi client projects.

You can get a full 40% off the annual plan. Saving between $62 and $96 in total.

Imagine starting 2026 doing manual time tracking or other apps where you have to remember to start/stop them (and don’t have detailed stats).

There’s only 1 more day left to grab the deal. Don’t miss out on it😉

To consider 🤔

The question to think about it’s not what skills are you building, but who you’re becoming.

Are you becoming a translator? a connector? an orchestrator?

The kind of person that can zoom out and see the bigger picture but also be able to zoom in and execute.

Leave a comment

That’s about it for this week (and the rest of the month).

I gotta go and keep preparing for the new week.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

(This post comes one day later than the regular because I thought I lost the draft I was working on. But thank God I found a version that was almost finished, just with the formatting messed up. Unfortunately, yesterday’s afternoon there was a heavy rain that caused a power outage for like 4 hours… aside the technical hiccups, hope you enjoy.)

Last week I promised to break down how I took a project that had been going for around 7-8 months and rebuilt it in less than 100 days. Achieving that particular “impossible” was thanks to 2 key elements that I want to share with you this time.

But here’s the thing… this isn’t just about completing work projects in a shorter timeline. It’s about changing your perspective of what’s now possible and how you can approach a challenge that feels out of reach.

So… without further ado…

Main quest 🛡

As you know from the previous post, the project I’ve been working on the past months wasn’t a technical challenge with all the details specified from the start.

It wasn’t either a new project with lots of ambiguity that required a substantial amount of research to establish good foundations.

It was more like a decoy, it looked straightforward at first but became more complex the more I dove in. That’s a more realistic scenario than having a well scoped project with a set timeline and a budget (which would be the ideal).

And in cases like these… a good dose of ingenuity helps (cause trust me if I knew what I was getting myself into, I’d have declined from the start).

To tackle a complex challenge like that, I used what we can now affectionately call it ”The Time Compression Method”. A structured approach to shorten a timeline and take a stab at doing the ”impossible”.

Here’s how it works:

Phase 0: Destination Mapping

This is the part that most people miss and one of the reasons their results are lackluster. This involves doing the ”pre work” of getting everything ready before starting to chip away at the problem.

It’s like that famous quote:

Skipping this part results in:

• Having a fuzzy end goal.

• Getting overwhelmed with too much info.

• Not knowing how to move forward when hitting a roadblock.

• Finding that ”life happens” and you have to stop.

Among other scenarios...

The end result of this phase is to have a clearly defined goal that you want to hit (even if it can change along the way).

This not only applies to projects you want to take but also skills you want to learn. Most people do it the wrong way. But if you spend some quality time in this phase, you’ll see the time savings materialize later down the road.

In the case of the avatar project was having a photorealistic avatar that could talk and do lip syncing well. Everything else was an implementation detail that didn’t matter for the time being.

Phase 1: Surgical Selection

When you want to compress the time line to the goal (or get maximum results in minimum time), you have to be strategic about your inputs. That is… what knowledge you need to have, where are you getting it from, what’s the quality of your sources, and so on.

This builds on the previous phase. Now that you know where you want to go and have some idea of how that looks like, you now want to look for what’s going to help you get there.

This is where you gather the resources you’ll need for the journey:

• Books, articles, posts to read.

• Courses to take.

• Groups, communities to be in.

• etc...

That in on itself it’s pretty standard advice. But here’s the kicker; you want to be surgical about it.

It’s not ”what book do I need to read?”. It’s more like ”what specific chapter do I need to read now?”, ”what particular lesson from this course I have to watch?”, or even ”which person from this group can I talk with?”.

The speed at which you make progress is related to the quality of your resources. This is one of the foundations of Supercharged Learning. And when you have quality resources and pick the best parts based on your situation, you are now compounding the speed gains.

In the case of the avatar project...

• I was diving into the docs of Neon (the database provider I chose) when I was rebuilding the database.

• Comparing the different OpenAI models that could support not just text inputs but also audio inputs.

• Looking into different providers to understand the tradeoffs like cost vs speed for the text-to-speech functionality.

• Watching n8n crash courses and adapting workflow templates I found online to have something working I could prototype with.

• Paying a month on a Skool community to access their RetellAI certification course (and getting up to speed on the necessary features ).

• Trying out different open-source projects for the video avatar (and finding that most don’t support real time conversation).

Phase 2: Leveraged Execution

This is the part where ”the rubber meets the road”. Here, you take what you now know and start taking the actions to get to the goal.

As of 2025, this phase just got a huge upgrade thanks to the different AI tools out there that allows you to do in a few mins what before would take entire hours or even a day of work at a time.

In my case..

I used Perplexity to do pretty thorough research and get the necessary context in different areas I was a total newb in.

I used Claude to help me build with libraries I’ve never used before. (And it even helped me debug some issues on the SDK of the avatar provider. I got them to change their docs based on feedback I sent... true story 🍸)

I used the n8n MCP to help me kickstart or adapt entire workflows without me having to place and connect nodes manually.

My now business partner used ChatGPT to generate entire system prompts for the voice agent and iterate until nailing it down.

And of course, there were lots of good ol’ trial and error when you’re dealing with new technologies trying to make them play nicely with each other.

The important bit here is not the tools themselves, it’s using them to:

• Amplify your skills,

• Enhance your thought process with different perspectives,

• Help remind you of parts you already know but have forgotten or overlooked in the moment.

(You know, sometimes we get too fixated in one outcome that we lose perspective. ”Missing the forest for the trees” and all that jazz.)

This phase only produces the incredible results others would have a hard time to believe if you did the work in the previous phase.

Every phase builds on top of the previous one.

And here’s how it would look like as a nice visual.

Putting it all together

Now you might be thinking my story is cool but it’s too specific. Surely it just applies to some situations but not in general, right?

But the reason why I brought that whole story in the first place is to show that even in such a particular situation, the principles apply.

It isn’t a framework that sounds good in theory and works just for best case scenarios.

Like I said before, it’s a scenario that resembles the messy reality we can be in cause there were no certain truths at the start. The only known parts were the constraints.

It was more a matter of staying flexible and adaptable to keep making progress even if the initial assumptions were wrong or what we thought correct no longer applied.

You can use this particular method as well for projects you want to take or challenges you have to face.

Whether you’re:

- Learning a new skill to change careers.

- Building a side project while working full-time.

- Trying to launch a startup without much resources.

The time compression method applies: map the destination, select surgically, execute with leverage.

The real competitive edge isn’t having more time/money, being smarter, or having a better network.

It’s knowing how to close the gap between ”I don’t know how” and ”I just did it” in a much shorter time line than most people think it’s possible.

And in an AI-augmented world, that gap just got a lot shorter. That is, for those willing to explore new options, use new tools, and set uncomfortably short deadlines.

Now…

In a similar way as Tim Ferriss used to say many years ago (I dunno if he still says it).

“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?“

In this case, my question is more like

What would you attempt if you knew you could compress the timeline by 50-70%?

Maybe it’s a career pivot you think will take years.

Maybe it’s learning a skill you think ”requires formal education.”

Maybe it’s building something you’ve been putting off cause it looks too difficult.

The resources exist. The tools are available. The possibilities are here.

And I know that you being a supercharged learner, using AI well, are poised to excel in any field while others are scrambling for things to be “normal” again.

Experiments 🧪

This week I’ve been experimenting more with my writing workflow. Making improvements to my morning writer app, drafting out ideas, and having Claude give me feedback & critiques on those.

That process got way more enhanced on Thursday when demonstrated his entire second brain workflow for Substack as part of a weekly call inside Cozora.

I’ll keep experimenting adding bits and pieces from what I learned to make that workflow better and keep increasing the quality while decreasing the time taken.

(Side note: I highly recommend that you take a look and join. Every month, new creators are peeling back the curtain on AI, showing real workflows, and doing Q&A’s to help you use it effectively. If an AI ”power user” like me can still learn new things, imagine what you can accomplish. Especially if you’re non-technical and don’t have time to dive into LLM benchmarks or release articles.)

Power-ups ✨

Speaking of time compression... I went back to using VS Code as my main editor with Claude Code and Kilo Code plugged in (yeah I know, I’ve repeated ”Code” 3 times in that short sentence. Won’t do it again😆)

Before I was using Kiro (from the AWS folks) and I liked it a lot. But it started showing different issues and the project’s GitHub page looks like a ghost town.

I used Kilo before and Claude Co… on the terminal in previous months, the difference this time, it’s that they are now integrated inside the editor, which means less window hoping and context switching.

Who would’ve thought that after many years I’d find myself back using the “ol’ trusty”.

To consider 🤔

Now that you know how the method works, I’m curious to see which phase sounds more difficult for ya.

Maybe you’ve been overlooking the 1st one or getting too bogged down with the details in the 2nd one. (Or even don’t know to properly execute the last one.)

Let me know which one is it, your answer can shape the next posts. 😉

Leave a comment

That’s it for this week (well, technically last week).

Hope you enjoyed it and found it useful.

I can keep expanding on that topic a lot more but I wanted to strike a balance between practicality and length (let me know if I did a good job 😆)

But of course, if you have particular questions, I’m all ears.

Talk to you this next Sunday.

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hello again, friend 👋

I have 1 main and 2 quick things for you this time.

So let’s get started already.

Main quest 🛡

Around July of this year I picked up what seemed a straightforward freelance gig: finish an AI avatar project that was 80% done.

October came and I’m now the Lead Engineer for that project along with being the technical partner for a sister company and having got the interest from a tech expo in Dubai at the end of this month.

Pretty crazy stuff if you ask me.

If you want more context on that craziness, check out last week’s post.

But here’s what I want to share with you today; how that was possible in the first place and why it matters for the work environment we’re now in.

Have you heard that quote before that says something along the lines of “there were will be 2 types of people, those using AI for work and those who don’t have one”.

The difference is not talent or working hard (hustling and grinding as the “gurus” would say).

What actually happened.

The project I got in was almost done but in reality was technically dead. The previous developer left an outdated version that even completed would be something useful for the start of this year. There was no functioning database and there was even a lawsuit going.

I had to whatever necessary to salvage what was left from it and make something functional.

And I didn’t had the luxury of time or lots of money.

Within those 90 days I knew I had to get up to speed with the new technologies in AI, pivot the technical direction for the project, and orchestrate different tools to work well together (among other non-technical, human challenges).

All of this would normally take several months to get done well. (Heck in the estimations of LLMs like Claude, Gemini, and so on, the timeline was between 6-8 months and several $$$ on top to what the previous founder had already spent).

This is where the concept of “skill stacking” became not only useful but mission critical.

(Stacking skills, remember?)

The compounding ensues

I wasn’t just doing web development, automations, or backend stuff. I was handling different skills and wielding different online tools to make something from what was a bunch of disjointed technologies.

“Success” in this project involved:

• Technical skills.

• (Supercharged) learning skills.

• Communication skills.

• Strategic thinking.

• Mindset stuff (grit, perseverance, motivation, etc)

This is the 1+1+1+1=8 effect I’ve talked about before. The value created is greater than the sum of its parts.

But here’s what made it work: I wasn’t trying to be world class at one thing. I was polling my resources and skill arsenal to solve a problem nobody else wanted to try with the seemingly impossible odds present.

Speaking of impossible…

Even just one year ago, building what we now built in 90 days, with no external funding would have been, hands down, considered impossible.

But remember what we talked before about “impossibles”?

There are personal impossibles and collective ones.

One of my personal impossibles was learning n8n automations, integrating that with Voice AI platforms (weighing pros & cons first) and a talking avatar.

All completely new technologies for me before this project. But then how do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time, you know.

Spending a good chunk of others in deep work to get the 80/20 of the technology and doing deliberate practice on those work sessions to have something to start building from.

Why this matters

At this point you might be thinking

“That’s cool Juan. Good for you. You’re so smart“

But hey, this post (and publication) is not about me and how special I am.

This is more about how YOU can also do these kinds of things and even better ones with the resources, the background, and connections you have.

We’re now entering this period where traditional specialists (you know those people who have been the most popular in the workplace for God know how long) are finding their main skill being either automated or commoditized.

Meanwhile, those can combine their multiple interests and skills while combining them with AI tools… are becoming more and more valuable than ever.

Yeah, those. The “specialized generalists”. Those who won’t get replaced by AI but rather will get amplified by it.

Being a supercharged learner before was already an advantage. Now pairing that with well-used AI and it’s like you strapped nitro boosters to your sports car.

If you can learn quickly, synthesize information, and extract insights from different domains, you just got a huge upgrade with AI.

If you’re doubling down in one particular area to get more years of experience hoping that helps you keep a job, you will see how AI will making traditional roles obsolete.

That’s not meant to be harsh, it’s just the observable reality of these past years.

Now, there are many theories and discussion of how things will evolve in the future. But rather than sitting down and looking at crystal balls 🔮we can further develop what will be the new competitive advantage: becoming skilled and adaptable fast enough to deliver results.

And the best part is that now is more accessible than before.

It’s going to be one of the best times (and one the worst times also) for 2 different groups of people.

The question now isn’t whether you have what it takes. The question is whether you’re willing to upgrade your learning, stack skills, and compress time to goal completion.

And if you want to get more practical and “hands on” with this, I have good news!

Next week, I’ll break down the process I used to compress the timeline from estimated 6 months to less than 100 days and most importantly, how you can use it to conquer your own “personal impossible”.

Experiments 🧪

Not only I’m back again at writing, there’s also something else that’s back I talked about before in this section.

You know what is it?...

Yeah, exactly.

The ol’ trusty creatine.

I’ll be restarting the process and I’ll let you know about the results.

Power-ups ✨

Now that I’m back in the writing groove (combined with my double role work), I’ve been finding myself in a particular situation.

That’s where 2 hours have passed and I know I got a couple of things done but don’t know where time was spent the most with.

And since there are one-time (or once in quite a while) tasks plus daily tasks, I have to do better time-boxing.

I started again using the timer.net site and also the timer app in my phone. But the thing is that sometimes I either forget starting the timer OR the timer going off interrupts me when I’m engaged on a work session.

And then... I remembered that earlier this year I found about Rize. It’s an AI-powered time tracker that solves both of those problems I mentioned.

I just open the app and let it do its thing. That’s time tracking on autopilot! If you have experienced those same problems (or other different ones), give it a try and see how it can help you stop worrying about having accurate time metrics. ⌛

To consider 🤔

What’s a challenge you’re facing where having a skill stack would give you an unfair advantage?

Maybe it’s a new venture that needs skills you don’t have yet. Or a career pivot that seems impossible with your current knowledge.

I’d love to hear what you’re working on (or avoiding cause it feels out of reach)

Leave a comment

That’s it for this week!

Thanks for reading. Appreciate your time.

I’ll catch you next weekend for that part 2 😉

Cheers,

Juan.

Welcome to Supercharged Learning HQ. The place where you can get practical insights to learn new subjects and acquire skills fast without outdated learning methods or the overwhelm of information overload

Hey friend, welcome back!

It’s been a while.

Starting the month to get some momentum for the rest of the year.

This time, I have 2 things to tell you.

So…

Let’s do it!

Main quest 🛡

I first want to address the 🐘 in the room.

“Juan, why haven’t you posted anything in a long while?“

I put a pause to new posts at the start of July.

It is not because I “ran out of ideas”, got demotivated, or changed interests.

See, this year I’ve had a pretty ad hoc process of writing.

I haven’t scheduled any posts in advance or built a content backlog of sorts.

I keep a notepad with ideas that I keep developing & mulling over until they become good enough to make it into a post (along with the other accompanying sections)

Sometimes the inspiration hits on a Monday and I have something done by Tuesday. Other times it hits on Wednesday. Sometimes it does it on a Saturday night.

This was a pretty natural and organic process. And funny enough, some of my best posts were not planned or super prepared beforehand. (They were ideas I woke up with on a Sunday morning and it took me an hour to get them fully ready to post).

This process, however, took a hit on July when I took on a freelance project that at first was pretty straightforward: finish an application that the previous developer left at 80% completion and refused to finish until he got paid in full.

It was a technical challenge for me, especially for the fact that I haven’t done any work in bleeding-edge tech in a few years.

But hey, I always enjoy a good challenge.

I’m a supercharged learner. I can upskill quite fast in any area (even one as quickly changing as AI).

So after doing a review of the current state of the project, knowing what was missing and what were the limitations of the biz owner in terms of resources…

I was like

I thought it would be a great case study to talk about here later on. It would only take a 1/2 or 2 months at most.

Boy…

What followed has been one of the craziest adventures I’ve had since I left my full time developer job and went the entrepreneurial route.

In 90 days I got done what normally would have taken half a year (or more).

It’s the biggest case of “time compression” I’ve experienced since I started making stuff online.

Now, I realize that describing the whole adventure well enough to do it justice would take far too long for me to write and for you to read.

So instead, here are some bullet points to give you and idea of what I was facing. (And if you’d like to know more about a particular point… just let me know 😉)

• The project was *almost* done but the previous developer left an important feature just barely implemented.

• The project with technologies of last December and January and it was overdue for an update.

• The goal was to get something finished for a MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

• A restlessness growing inside because I knew that the original direction would be outdated by the time we were done.

• There was a bad blood between the previous dev and one of the co-founders (that eventually sued the guy).

• In retaliation, the dev left an older version and kept the access of the database.

• My job became to scavenge the pieces left and put them together into something functional.

• I tried different approaches and was able to bring the project from the dead. (The project is about a conversational AI avatar. Think a Siri or Alexa but with a face).

• The co-founder that I’ve been working with the whole time use that version to buy us some time and get some resources for the development.

• I shared the actual state of the project and my vision for what I could become to the main stakeholders. The founder desperate to get something going agreed and gave me a week to come up with something he could try.

• Through orchestrating different AI tools, I got that demo version working, presented it to the team, and got approval to continue in that route.

• The co-founder had a sister company that he reactivated to start selling something and gather more funds.

• Seeing that I “saved the other project” (his words), he offered me to be the technical partner of this other company that does development and marketing.

• I, of course, accepted and together we did some restructuring.

• He told me if I could find other people like me for that team. It’s easier to win the lottery than to find someone like that but I took the challenge and put on my recruiter hat for the first time.

• I started learning about n8n automations and voice AI with which we created a new line of offerings to clients.

• I also integrated those features in the AI avatar project. It is now more than just an AI “assistant. It is sort of a “digital human”.

• Everything was now in place for the project, except for one detail, the talking avatar. This was like a month long endeavor. The result is that we now have a partnership with a Singaporean startup and the AI avatar now has video call.

• With that “almost done” prototype, my now cofounder showed it to some people and got invited to a tech event in Dubai where there’s going to be some sort of “Shark Tank” but with emirates instead. (That’s happening this November).

• I went from freelance dev to Lead Engineer in a project and technical partner for another company with a team I put together.

• And *all* of that happened (for the most part) in the previous 100 days.

So yeah… it’s been quite something.

As of now, November 2025, the MVP of the project is done (well about 96-98% cause software projects, especially in AI, never truly finish).

And I can also restart writing here but bigger and better than before. There are many more possibilities available than there were just 5-6 months ago.

Having said that, I think my next step is to work on a proper reintroduction so you can get to know this place again and all that we’ve done so far in the HQ.

For now, though. Take a peek at some of those changes in the next section. 👇

Experiments 🧪

I’ve been experimenting most of this week with my writing process, habits, tools, and the like.

I didn’t want to just restart doing the same as before. It has worked well, but we can always be better!

That’s why I’ve been learning from writers I admire, adjusting schedules, and getting some Claude assistance to come back sharper than ever.

It’s all work in progress but I’m confident they are changes for the better.

I even have now my own personalized writing app for early morning writing sessions. Built today and it only took 2 hours! 🤩

To consider 🤔

What’s something you been putting off for some time now.

Or…

What’s something you been working on recently?

I definitely want to know what you’ve been up to.

Leave a comment

That’s it for this time.

Thanks for reading.

Catch you next weekend!

Cheers,

Juan.