My first (and last?) forty years
2026-09-29 · human-written, AI-reviewed
Tomorrow I turn forty.
Having reached this point in my life, after loving code enough to lose eyesight, relationships, and sanity over it… I find myself taking stock. Not so much technically as humanly.
Eight hours
Eight hours behind a monitor, to spend fewer than six on your own life.
Eight hours, when perhaps two would be enough these days to be “1000x,” as DHH puts it, starting with some basic knowledge.
An act of will
Freedom is a mental process, not just a word. Everyone lives within their own dimension of freedom. But deep down, I think few people actually experience it. Most of us recognise its outline through what’s missing.
An act of will is the only thing that accompanies real change. Change brings sacrifice, effort, discipline, and sometimes even asks you to become one with your own detachment.
There is no conclusion, no real sense to all this. But there is surely some meaning for whoever stops to read.
The Italian reality
Touching grass, retiring early… things that don’t really concern us Italians. Here, at best, you become a CTO and still earn less than some Italian minister’s bag carrier.
Something positive, perhaps
But there is something positive, I think, since the negative is clear enough.
We just have to find it.
Valete.