MY FAVORITE DAY
Jul 2025
Friends had told me their wedding was the best day of their lives. I used to think that was a little sad, reducing everything to one day, and then it’s over. Besides, I never really wanted a wedding. Our life already looked like that of a married couple. The only reason I came around to the idea was because I felt our love deserved a celebration. And it did.
It turns out that love, when witnessed and shared, it expands and grows in ways it never could if it were only held between two people. For a long time, it felt like it was me and Pia against the world. But that day, we realized just how much strength and love we’d received along the way from our friends and families. Having all those people in one room was priceless.
One year later, I can still feel the energy and love of that day. I’m deeply grateful to every single person who celebrated with us.
Duolingo Renamed UX to "Product Experience"
Apr 2025
I've been saying it for years and I hope more companies and designers embrace it. It’s why I asked for the title Experience Designer instead of UX Designer or Product Designer at a previous job. I knew I'd be taking on a much broader scope that included brand, strategy and an end-to-end care for the experience.
It’s also why my headline on LinkedIn says Product and Brand Experience. UX/UI seems very technical and surface-level, too focused on interface design. I've never liked the term. What I, and many other designers, bring to products is so much more: it's emotion, behavioral design, branding, as well as the messy tradeoffs that come with prioritization and real business goals.
Designing interfaces is just one piece. The real impact comes from designing the entire experience.
BACHE
Jan 2022
Today life feels empty without you. Our home, the mornings and evenings. You filled every detail of our everyday life with your energy. You gave me a reason to smile the moment I woke up. A reason to go outside, to laugh, play and be silly everyday. A reason to appreciate every moment, because I couldn’t even look at you and not bend down to hug and kiss you and tell you how cute and handsome you are. But most importantly you came into our life to make this a home and to make us a family.
I’ve never been more present than the years I spent with Bache. He taught us to enjoy the most commonplace things. He was the only dog I’ve met that would be just as excited to go out as to come back home. He really loved it here. He taught us to turn our routines into rituals. Mindless actions transformed into meaningful activities that required our presence of mind. We had to take him out to pee at least 4 times a day because of his condition so we learned to enjoy it in our unique way. My favorite was hiding in the apartment for when Pia and him came back from the last one of the day. As I heard them come near the door I would sprint to a hiding spot as Bache came bursting through the door looking for me. Most of the time he ran to the wrong room or flew past me and I’d have to make some noises to ensure he found me. Of course he would trot pompously to the kitchen for water after his great success. (1/6)
MOMENTS OF PLAY
Apr 2022
Esther Perel said the difference between being alive and not dying is play. Those who don’t die, live tethered to the ground, afraid, untrusting. The world is dangerous and pleasure is not an option. Those who come alive are able to take risks, to leap into the world and do things. They are able to be playful.
That’s what I love about jumping so much. It’s not about being the fastest, I’m actually losing time in the air. It’s inefficient, senseless. That’s the appeal. It’s about creativity: what rock or root can I spot that can serve as a take off? It’s about exploration: how high can I go? It’s about risk: Can I make the landing? It’s about trust: Can I trust what I know and commit? It’s pure enjoyment and play.
Today I’m feeling grateful for these little moments of play because it means I am alive.
LOOK WHERE YOU WANT TO GO
Mar 2022
If you stare at the tree you’ll crash into the tree, if you stare at that big rock you’ll smash right into the big rock. Only by looking through the corner towards the exit will you roll smoothly round the corner. It’s the first and most important thing you’ll ever learn about mountain biking.
But it’s not all about looking ahead, at the same time you have to be one with the bike and the terrain below you. You have to adapt and adjust your body position in real-time, all the time. It’s about presence, knowing when to attack and when to relax, when to celebrate and when to focus. It’s called flow, when we can move from one thing to the next quickly and smoothly without much effort.
I wonder how this idea applies to life. How we might balance flowing in the present as well as visualizing where we want to go.
When I think about my own life, I think about the cultures that influence these states of mind. On one hand my Mexican heritage teaches me all about flow: enjoyment, celebration and adaptability. On the other hand, American culture as I experienced it in my childhood and now through everyday work teaches me all about focus: achievement, possibility and never settling. I wouldn’t pick one over the other, it’s all about balance because both are needed to truly enjoy the ride.
FEELING CALM
Oct 2021
For the first time in my life I feel calm. Life feels smooth and expansive. I’ve always been the kind of person who is striving, wanting more, ready for the next thing. Restless. Discontent. Paddling hard, catching waves, eyeing the next one. Perpetually desirous of more.
Yet lately I find myself feeling content. Not stagnant, just not in a rush. Not satisfied, just full. Alive. Myself. And it’s enough. It is more than enough. It almost feels too good to be true which is a scary thought. Eventually I’ll be hungry again and have to paddle or catch a wave back to shore.
For now though, I’ll be out here, loving it all. Floating, feet in the water, sun in my face, savoring the moment and not worrying about catching the next big wave.
Amazing photography by @joshbyers.
EMBRACING THE UNKNOWN
May 2021
Most of the time we are blind to the possibilities that await us. Our logic looks for patterns throughout our life experience, from role models to statistics about what is possible, probable or doable. Yet life proves us wrong in that anything and everything is possible at any moment in time, that most things happen in unexpected ways and at unexpected moments.
You Pia, are the most unexpected and most amazing gift that life brought my way. Nothing would be the same without you and for that I thank my past self for having the courage to embrace the unknown and for being open to new possibilities.
WHY I STOPPED HEARING/READING/WATCHING the news
Oct 2014
I am convinced that reading the news is worse than not reading anything at all. There is no proof that it makes us wiser, better decision makers, better informed, better citizens; nothing — if anything, entirely the opposite.
If you are anything like me, you’ve already stopped consuming news without even making a conscious decision about it. Maybe you felt the optimism being sucked out of you with every news bit and just stayed away or maybe without even noticing it, you found something better to do with your time and started replacing it. Or maybe you’ve never been a news person.
Whatever the reason — I bet you don’t miss it at all and you’ve probably realized you don’t really need it.
“The fortunate among us have recognized the hazards of living with an overabundance of food and have started to shift our diets. But most of us do not yet understand that news is to the mind what sugar is to the body.”
-Rolf Dobelli