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Autodidact: “self-taught,” from Greek autodidaktikos “self-taught,” from autos “self” and didaktos “taught” I used to get tripped up with the term autodidactism because I thought it was self-learning without any guidance. In other words, going completely off instinct or trial and error. To me, that’s a terrible way to go about learning and life. I’ve come to learn that autodidacts are individuals who choose the…

I had a lot of fun writing last week’s letter on 32 life lessons from 32 years on Earth. It was super long, so I didn’t expect anyone to read through it all. I thought it would also be fun to write about the 10 albums that have influenced my music (and life) the most. I’m a big fan of albums….

This week I turned 32 (where does time go?). My 32nd year has been full of challenges, opportunities and blessings: And that was this year alone. It’s been a wild ride, and it’s only getting better (yes, I am an optimist to my core). Reflecting is a useful exercise and one that I’d like to share with you. More…

Led Zeppelin IV was spinning on the record player. My sister and I, ages 2 and 4, were riding around the basement on our tricycle and bicycle, respectively. This is my earliest memory of music. Black Sabbath’s Paranoid and Deep Purple’s Machine Head were also on heavy rotation. We spent a lot of time playing as kids with great…

There I was with my classmates, recorder in hand. “Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do.. Again!” instructed our middle school music teacher. At the time, as a know-it-all little kid, I thought this was all pretty lame. “Okay, I got it. Can we move on now?” Of course, the public school system must…

I’ve been studying and producing music for a long time. Recently, as I was commuting to the post-production studio where I work, I put on some of my old music (circa 2012 stuff). As I drove the familiar highway and city streets on auto-pilot, my mind wandered (as it often does). I contemplated how music…

There was a lot of information to cover in engineering school. The lectures were dense and fast-paced. Courses named Thermo-Fluid (fluid mechanics + thermal dynamics), Statics, and Differential Equations filled my schedule. Admittedly, I was a terrible student who rarely attended class (I was a stubborn teenager who “knew how to read the textbook and take…

Quantity versus quality: a comparison as old as time. It’s my belief, through experience, that quality comes as a result of quantity. On the first day of class, the photography teacher divided his class into two groups: By the end of the year, the teacher noticed something strange. All the highest quality works were produced…

It was one year ago today. My wife and I were at the Miami International Airport, returning home from our honeymoon in Patagonia. Two and a half weeks of total presence, immense beauty, and broken Spanish (solo hablo inglés y francés) in celebration of our marriage. This trip, along with the wedding itself (and the…

“Learn it. Do it. Teach it.” That’s become a mantra of mine over the last few weeks, and it’s how I’m learning faster than ever in my adult life. Music production, video editing, graphic design, motion graphics and building a “personal brand” are all on my plate. And I’m excited about learning them all. In last week’s letter, we discussed project-based learning (the “do it”). In this week’s letter, we’ll discuss the Protégé…

“Well, that’s enough for today,” I said as I shut my laptop and got ready for bed. Another “successful” evening spent learning online, I thought to myself. I was fascinated (and still am) by how deeply I could study almost any topic for free on the internet. Whatever I was interested in, I could find information…

The man that knows something knows that he knows nothing at all” – Erykah Badu I remember being a kid, about 7 or 8 years old, without a worry in the world. It was the weekend, which meant it was time to walk to my neighbours’ house and have fun with their family computer in a new-to-me…