Alberto J. Berroterán

The older you get, the more you realize luck is just exposure. If you sit in the same chair, same routine, talking to same people… nothing new happens. You have to touch the world to win. • Talk to strangers • try a new coffee spot • post on social • Start a side hustle The world rewards motion. You don’t find opportunity sitting still. You bump into it.

George Orwell, how to think clearly

1/Hoy a las 5:01pm en Washington se decidió algo que va a definir cómo se hacen las guerras por las próximas décadas. Y casi nadie lo está leyendo bien.

Insólito el grado en que los gobiernos chavistas han endeudado al Estado venezolano. Va quedando claro que la deuda es bastante mayor de lo que se estimaba, que ya era altísima... impagable... Supera los 170 mil millones de dólares... En la historia regional, no ha habido un manejo económico más catastrófico que el del chavismo... Recibieron el auge de ingresos más grande de la historia y dejaron al país de rodillas, destruido, y quebrado...

If your child becomes a reader, about 80% of the educational job is already done. That's our honest assessment, based on many of us working in education for over three decades. Everything else is secondary. Most parents think science education is important. Yes, it is. But if you can't read the biology textbook, you're not going to learn biology. Reading is the meta-skill that enables all other skills. History requires reading. Science requires reading. Even math increasingly requires reading as it becomes more sophisticated. The child who reads voraciously will figure out everything else. The child who doesn't will struggle with everything.

We think we will regret taking risks, but we are far more likely to regret playing it safe. Failure fades. Missed opportunities do not.

Honestly the best advice for anything

“Go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.” — Kurt Vonnegut

El cuerpo es solo una interfaz temporal entre el pensamiento y el vacío.

25 simple rules for living an excellent life in a shallow, distracted, and chaotic world: 1. The best way to stay sane is to find the people and activities you love and give them your all. 2. Challenge yourself and do hard things. It makes you feel alive, and what we are all seeking is aliveness. 3. Move your body regularly. Eat your vegetables. (And when you forget, simply begin again.) 4. Be consistent. Some days will be better than others. Show up. Give what you’ve got to give. Rinse and repeat. 5. Remember that true success is not a big house or fancy car. It is knowing your values and living in alignment in with them. 6. Surround yourself with the right people. (This may be most important of all.) 7. Do what you can to respond not react: You can’t always control what happens to you but you can control what you do about it. This is where your power lies. 8. Everyone faces anxiety, fear, and doubt. Try not to let it shrink your life. Courage means taking these emotions along for the ride and doing it anyways. 9. Confidence comes from evidence. If you want to be confident about something, put in the reps and give yourself the evidence. 10. Just. Get. Started. You’re never fully ready. Nobody is. Lower the bar to ready enough, step in the arena, and learn (and grow) as you go. 11. Do not worry about being the best. Focus on being the best at getting better. The results will take care of themselves. 12. Better is about more than just objective results and points on the scoreboard; it also means becoming stronger, kinder, and wiser. 13. Focus less on being happy all the time and more on living a meaningful and textured life. The irony is, you’ll be happier as a result. 14. Set aside time for full attention on work that is important. Remove distractions. Periods of deep-focus work are a simple yet truly profound part of a good life. 15. Start where you are. Not where you want to be. Not where you think you should be. Not where other people think you should be. But where you are. 16. Play the long game. There is no such thing as an overnight breakthrough. The bigger the goal, the smaller the steps. 17. Sleep when you are tired. 18. Motivation is overrated. You don’t need to feel good to get going, you need to get going to give yourself a chance at feeling good. 19. People love to chess thump about how disciplined they are, but true discipline doesn't need a parade: it is simply showing up and doing what you need to do. 20. Doing the hard thing today often makes tomorrow just a bit easier. 21. You don't have to have an opionion on everything. 22. Don’t stress if you aren’t “balanced.” It’s impossible to do all the things. Part of being a mature adult is making tradeoffs. It’s okay to have different seasons of life for emphasizing different things. 23. What other people think of you does not matter nearly as much as what you think of yourself. 24. Don't be too cool to care. Caring is one of the coolest things there is. 25. The pursuit of greatness isn’t only about where you end up. It’s also about the person you become along the way.

La percepción de pureza del sur ante lo caribeño es, además de tremenda gafedad, un ejemplo palpable del racismo estructural que atraviesa a Latinoamérica.

Lo mismo que le han hecho a Juan Pablo Guanipa se lo pueden hacer a cualquier gerente petrolero, empresario extranjero o persona que intente hacer vida pública en Venezuela. No hay garantías ni estado de derecho ni debido proceso. Por eso seguimos luchando.

A los que repentinamente les importa el petróleo venezolano: En 2020, en plena pandemia, pasamos 3 meses sin una gota de gasolina en Venezuela porque el chavismo había destruido la industria petrolera por corrupción (Fuente: cotejo.info/2020/04/precio…). Gran parte del país ha sufrido escasez de combustible durante más de una década dw.com/es/resurge-la-…. Luego se develó la trama PDVSA-Cripto con un desfalco de más de 16.000 millones de dólares (transparenciave.org/trama-pdvsa-cr…) De 8 ministros de petróleo desde 2013, 5 han terminado presos o en el exilio por corrupción vozdeamerica.com/a/chavismo-min… Si a alguien le han robado el petróleo venezolanos, es a los venezolanos. Entérense de eso y pregúntense si su indignación ante una incautación es real o teatral.

David Gilmour - Pink Floyd

En un mundo cada vez más ajeno y hostil ¿Qué otra cosa podemos hacer salvo leer libros, escuchar discos y ver películas?

Guitar Player Magazine will end its print version after the latest issue, a move that signals the end of the guitar era as well. ow.ly/h2Wk50TMZrb #musicians #recording

En alguna parte leí, que hay amigos que son el amor de tu vida, pero en amigos. Esos instantes que compartimos en el camino con alguien, también merecen un duelo. Para eso, Amistad de José Emilio Pacheco

"Nuestros refugios frente al mundo: libros, el mar, y la soledad." Virginia Woolf

🚨🇻🇪 Compartimos el esfuerzo de documentación conjunto, por parte de diferentes ONG venezolanas, que debido a la intensa situación de #represión dentro del país se divulga bajo el nombre genérico «Derechos Humanos de Venezuela en Movimiento». Incluye patrones de violaciones a #DerechosHumanos ocurridos antes, durante y después de la jornada electoral del 28 de julio de 2024, con datos de más de 25 iniciativas asociativas del país; un reporte especial de un estado del interior del país, #Yaracuy, para visibilizar la situación de vulneración de derechos fundamentales fuera de la región capital, que usualmente es la que recibe mayor atención y recomendaciones dirigidas a la comunidad internacional. Descargalo completo aquí: cadal.org/comunicados/?i… ❗Ayudanos a difundir la situación en Venezuela.