Tour De France 2025

No crescendo to a climax finish this year. Instead, Tour de France 2025 provided non-stop fireworks all three weeks long. Every day I tuned in live for the final 30-40 miles and watched at night Belgian’s Vive le Velo TV show for the daily summary and race analysis.

Here are my highlights:

1. Obviously 2025 is the (re-)crowning of King Tadej who dominates every type of race. Jonas and his yellow Bumblebees tried. In the words of Fitte Peeters: “He was just too strong”. Tadej came with a strong team, including superman Tim Wellens.
2. Team Alpecin-Deceuninck defines joy and team spirit, even though they lost their lead Jasper Philipsen in a crash. This team works hard for each other and had success doing it.
3. The joy of the Time Trial victory and the tragedy of Remco dropping out. I was rooting for Remco to take spot 2. (Let’s be honest, spot 1 was never in question.)
4. The never ending attacks of Quinn Simmons. Pure rock ’n roll!
   
5. The vlogs of Victor Campenaerts and Matteo Jorgenson. Matteo served us knowledge tidbits daily on the vlog of Victor in the bus of Visma-Lease-a-bike. Victor was very strong this tour!
6. The battles on the Mt. Ventoux, both for stage win and for the GC, was pure magic. The best day to watch … until …
7. Wout’s attack on Mont Marte in Paris. All of Belgium and beyond shouted it out when Wout dropped Tadej on the cobblestones. It was magic: Paris, troves of spectators along the route, and a battle mano-a-mano. Wout, pure sang!

August 7, 2025

Robots can dance now. But don’t be fooled—they’re still just really expensive puppets.

Brad Porter dives into the illusion of progress in robotics in this Medium piece, unpacking the hype vs. the reality of what our metal friends can actually do.

The gist? Most robots aren’t making decisions. They’re either being driven remotely (teleoperation), copying human movements they memorized (imitation learning), or following scripts with a camera yelling “YOU’RE OFF TRACK!”

What looks like autonomy is often just very clever choreography. Think Broadway, not brains.

But here’s the kicker—and Porter’s big bet: the future isn’t more of these stochastic puppets. It’s robots that learn to play like humans. Not just around us, but with us. Collaborative, adaptive, and genuinely interactive. Think less “button-pressing marionette” and more “teammate with torque sensors.”

AI might be coming for our jobs, but for now, your local barista bot is just playing back yesterday’s latte dance—until it learns to riff off your espresso mood in real time.

August 5, 2025 reading

How To Lose Time and Money (And What Not To Do)

Ever dream of selling your startup, swimming through a Scrooge‑McDuck pool of cash and then… promptly blowing it all on champagne and speedboats? Me neither. Turns out that’s not even how fortunes disappear. In his 2010 essay “How to Lose Time and Money”, YC co‑founder Paul Graham admits that he only started studying how to stay rich after he became rich, and what he learned is almost insultingly simple: most wealth evaporates not through extravagant shopping sprees but through bad investments. You’re not buying a yacht, you’re “diversifying”—only, your portfolio ends up looking like a Las Vegas blackjack table.

Here’s where the essay feels like it was ghost‑written by your time‑tracking app. Graham notes that the same sneaky traps exist for your hours. The biggest way to waste a day isn’t binge‑watching The Bear; it’s performing “fake work” that feels productive—answering endless emails, fiddling with spreadsheets and attending meetings about meetings. These tasks mimic real effort so well that your internal guilt alarms stay snoozed. You’d feel gross spending a day watching TV, but you might end a day of inbox‑triaging with nothing tangible accomplished.

The fix? Develop new alarms. Question whether that “investment opportunity” or that seventh Zoom call is really adding value, or just pretending to. Recognise that true productivity often looks less like busyness and more like going deep on a problem, building something, or even reading something that sparks an idea. Just as you’d research before buying into a risky stock, vet your to‑do list to avoid tasks that only look virtuous.

So next time you’re tempted by a shiny SaaS investment or an afternoon of Slack pings, remember: the real villain isn’t decadence—it’s disguised diligence. In the words of PG, the “most dangerous way to lose time is not to spend it having fun, but to spend it doing fake work”. Your wallet and your calendar will thank you.

July 27, 2025 reading

Close Call

My neighbor’s house burned. An explosion in the garage caused a fire, that quickly became an inferno. Luckily nobody sustained serious injuries. Yet, their house is inhabitable.

My house and garage are only a few meters separated from my neighbor’s garage. My house didn’t catch fire, thanks to other neighbors joining me in spraying my roof and to the San Jose Fire Department who arrived in no time. (Although in the middle of it all, it felt like an eternity.) The fence did burn down eventually, and likely holding back the fire for just enough time. We did get some heat-related damages to the side of the house and the gutter.

It was a very traumatic experience.

I do want to jot down a few important things to remember. As if rehearsed, a number of things went very well:

1. Call 911 immediately. At the end, my house was about to catch fire any time. There weren’t minutes to spare.
2. Evacuate the house immediately. My daughter left the house right away.
3. Move the car from the drive way. This was important, both to ensure the car wouldn’t catch fire, and make space for the fire department later.
4. Spray the house with water.

I didn’t think much. I just did them.

There are a number of things I will do more, or more frequently:

• Clean out the gutter, more often. Dry leaves can easily catch fire. Trim plants near the house sooner. They provide a gateway for fires.
• Update the house inventory spreadsheet regularly. I created one a few years ago and once a year add a few things. In case of a fire, this will be important.
• Double check smoke alarm, even before it beeps. The smoke alarms didn’t go off in my house (in part ’cause little to no smoke entered our place). Still I thought they would have been more sensitive and would have triggered.
• Ensure great working water hoses and nozzles.

July 24, 2025

Rediscovering iA Presenter: When the Mobile Version Changes Everything for Me

A few years ago, I experimented with new presentation tools and adopted iA Presenter. Since then, it’s been hit and miss. I’d start presentations as text using iA Presenter to organize my thoughts, but quickly switch to Google Slides or convert the text to talking points in a Google Doc—mainly because of their collaborative features.

A recent epiphany changed this approach entirely.

Two realizations transformed how I use the tool:

Testing and iteration became effortless. iA Presenter makes it incredibly easy to test-drive presentations and iterate in real-time, especially when in person. The focus is on the message, and not the design. The flow from idea to polished presentation feels natural, fast, and unforced.

The iPhone version unlocks unexpected value. Initially, I didn’t understand the use case. Are we supposed to huddle around an iPhone screen for presentations? I was missing the point entirely.

Last week, sitting on my couch with my iPhone, I started jotting down a few bullet points to discuss with the team. Within minutes, I’d transitioned to iA Presenter and created an entire presentation. The Unsplash integration made adding compelling visuals effortless. I test-drove the presentation by casting to my TV—all from my couch.

This shift from “presentation prep requires my laptop and desk” to “I can build presentations anywhere” fundamentally changed my relationship with the tool.

July 17, 2025

Drugs Hit Differently in the 60s

Last night, our friends hosted a Help-themed party. The host celebrated two-years helping at The Trevor project, a crisis line for LGBTQ+ youth. Her volunteer work is difficult and truly admirable.

There was also a Help-themed trivia quiz: Which movie was it: Help! Or The Help.

Finally, we watched the 1965 Beatles movie, Help! (86% at the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer)

WTF! It is a surreal wacky movie with odd transitions and some “interesting” British humor. I don’t know how well received the movie was in the 60s. The movie made me appreciate the Beatles a bit more, beyond this clean band, playing easy and poppy songs. It reminded me also a bit of strangeness of The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus concert film (1986).

Drugs hit differently in the 60s.

July 6, 2025

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

Fourth of July was yesterday. Local parades. Hot dogs and barbecue. Flags and lots of red, white, and blue. We spent time swimming in the Pacific Ocean in Santa Cruz and then watched fireworks at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, accompanied by the San Francisco Symphony. Sun, beach, flags, and fireworks. Americana.

What’s also Americana are the most famous words in motorsports:

God bless our troops; God bless America; And Gentlemen, start your engines

Across the pond, the French today had their own version of those famous words:

Trois, deux, un, c’est parti!

Three, two, one, and they’re off! This is how the Tour de France commences. No engines to start. Just clip in and start pedaling.

It will be a glorious July with plenty of interesting races and evening show commentaries. I am ready:

• Vive le Velo show (Dutch) of Karl Van niewkerke, the premier cycling evening show with amazing guests, interviews, and
• Sporza Koers podcast (Dutch) Christophe Vandegoor and guests. Week 1, the co-commentator is Sven Nijs.
• The Move podcast (English) with Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie, and this year Bradley Wiggins.
• Vlammen podcast (Dutch) with Marijn de Vries and Linde Merckpoel.

This is perfect to watch or listen to, also while I am training for my own endurance races.

Who am I rooting for? Tadej, Remco, Wout, Philipsen, and most of all, lots of gutsy riding by all teams.

See you in Paris!

July 5, 2025

New Lingo and Terms

• ideation
• customer delight
• customer experience
• KTM: Know The Market
• GTM: Go To Market

June 21, 2025

Essential Software Engineering Lingo

I regularly share about new terms I learned. The following is the essential software engineering lingo I learned over the years:

• Wrapper
• Orthogonal
• Semantic
• Containerization
• Refactor

June 21, 2025

The Four Stages of Butt Butter

On long distance cycling events, especially on multi-day events like ALC, butt butter is essential.

Butt butter or chamois cream is an anti-chafing cream. Applied to the butt and groin area. It creates a barrier and reduces rubbing. They are often formulated with ingredients like shea butter, coconut oil, and other emollients to soothe and moisturize the skin. There are several variants: a US and European style cream, for him and her.

During ALC, there are boxes and boxes of little packets of butt butter, often in a small plastic glove for easy application.

We all go through various butt butter modesty stages:

1. Apply in private, in a port-a potty.
2. Apply turned away, and far from folks, near a wall or corner.
3. Apply near my bicycle. There are people nearby.
4. Apply in conversation, fully keeping eye contact with the person you are talking to. Congratulations, only now are you worthy of the ALC medal.

The hardest part is returning to the normal world and recalibrating modesty levels.

June 21, 2025 ALC2025