🗓️ Monthly Digest | October 2023
Discover more from Alberto Gallego
🗓️ Monthly Digest | October 2023
New sections, Kalm Places & Sunbathe
My name is Alberto, and this is my personal newsletter. If it's your first time here or you don't remember how you got here, in it I share my journey in search of independence through software, photography, and writing.
Welcome to the first Monthly Digest. With Fred Again playing in the background and his fantastic Tiny Desk, I write you these lines.
New sections
Over all these months, I've been trying out different formats for this newsletter. I'm in an exploration phase, and I believe it's important to test different ways of telling things. After writing about 20 newsletters, I'm starting to see what you like and what you don't.
This week, I've been organizing and defining some of the sections that from now on you'll be able to find at the top of this, my newsletter. And for now, these are the ones that have emerged:
⚡️ Unwired Ideas: The “Disconnected ideas” section has a new name.
🗓️ Monthly Digest: Projects I'm working on and learnings from the month.
📸 Observations: As I said in Ode to photography, photography is my way of meditation (paired with walking). I will share some photos I find interesting from my trips around the world.
🦾 Enduring Ideas: I will talk about some topics in a deeper way.
As you might notice, each section has an emoji in front of it. This way, it will be easier to differentiate which one you've received, so that you can easily delete the ones you're not interested in (or not).
Kalm Places
For those who have never been to Mexico City, it is a very noisy city. A year ago, I was walking around it, looking for a place to sit with my computer for a while. At one point, I stumbled upon El Colegio Nacional, and once inside, there was complete silence. I was right in the city center, and suddenly, it became silent.
According to the WHO, almost more than 30% of the urban population is exposed to noise levels above the recommended limit. Do you remember the last time you were in complete silence? I can count those moments on one hand.
From there, an idea emerged: to create a directory of places to be in silence, especially focused on large cities. Being in silence is beneficial for both our physical and mental health. It's very important.
I'm sure that, just like El Colegio Nacional was a refuge for me that day, there are many others that can be a refuge for other people.
Yesterday I was featured in Alberto Álvarez's newsletter (in Spanish), and it made me particularly happy that someone I've been following for a long time shared my project. My intention with it is not to monetize it, but for it to serve as a calm space for anyone who might need it.
For now, only 30 places have been added. I want to add more locations and, above all, discover stories about why these places have been a place of calm for that person. I have many ideas for this project that I'll share with you in upcoming sections.
If you know of any such place, you can share it with me directly by replying to this newsletter, and I'll take care of adding it.
Sunbathe
A few months ago, Julia and I launched the first version of Sunbathe.
One of the first things we've learned is how important it is to communicate the information displayed on the screen clearly. The most recurring feedback has been: “I don't understand what the best time is to get vitamin D or how many minutes I need to be out.” That's why our current focus is on that: ensuring clarity.
Our goal with the app is clear: we want people to realize how important vitamin D is for their health and to have an ally to help keep that in check. Therefore, understanding it is the first step.
In addition to that, we feel the application is useful, but we know it still lacks some functionalities that would make it much more useful, such as being able to track how many minutes you've been under the sun and knowing how much vitamin D you've accumulated that day.
Therefore, in the coming months, these two aspects will be our primary focus.
If what you've read or seen has caught your interest, it would be great if you could share it with more people. I have a big ego and aim for this to reach as many people as possible. If I've asked too much, no worries. You can always hit the like button, leave a comment, or simply reach out to me at hello@albertogalca.com.
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