Pixels are the humble bricks with which one can build cathedrals
Hi, Javi Santana typing. Builder working at the intersection of tech and data, cofounder of Tinybird. Find me on twitter, linkedin or javi@mycompanyname
Learn to cook #
Jul 16, 2026Patrick, you should learn to cook. Don’t learn to cook because you want to eat food - learn to cook because if you learn to cook you will have an excuse for the rest of your life to bring people over to your house.
— patio11’s mom
Robert Rodriguez on experience in movies #
Apr 18, 2026The most important and useful thing you need to be a filmmaker is “experience in movies,” as opposed to “movie experience.” There’s a difference. They always tell you in film school and in Hollywood that in order to be a filmmaker you need to get “movie experience” so you can work your way up in the business. The reasoning being that by working on other films, even as a production assistant, you get to see firsthand how others make movies. Now, that’s exactly the kind of experience you don’t need. You don’t want to learn how other people make movies especially real Hollywood movies, because nine times out of ten their methods are wasteful and inefficient. You don’t need to learn that!
“Experience in movies,” on the other hand is where you yourself get a borrowed video camera or other recording device and record images then manipulate those images in some kind of editing atmosphere. Whether you use old ¾” video editing systems, VCR to VCR, or even computer editing. Whatever you can get your hands on. The idea is to experience creating your own images and/or stories no matter how crude they are and then manipulating them through editing.
— Robert Rodriguez, Rebel Without a Crew
Some people who joins Tinybird follow the same path, they want to join to learn how to do things. Most of the times makes more sense to go own your own and figure things out than being in an already designed position from where you don’t see most of the details that make a company successful (or not that successful)
Programador #
Jan 30, 2026Cuando vas al notario, además de sentirte ajeno a todo aquel ritual, te preguntan tu nombre, DNI, estado civil y, por razones que ChatGPT me ha aclarado, tu profesión. Siempre es un momento complicado y responder “programador” me cuesta. Y lo tengo que reconocer, es así porque creo que van... read more
Recortes 2025 #
Dec 08, 2025Como es tradición, además de asustarte con el título del email, por la razón que sea la gente -especialmente los empleados de mi empresa- piensa que voy a recortar algo (que efectivamente este año he recortado bastantes cosas), voy a hacer mi tradicional recopilación de cosas que me han gustado... read more
Miyamoto on team energy #
Nov 10, 2025Miyamoto talking about cinema scenes in videogames but end up describing the most powerful metric in a team: the energy
We have seen several examples of these cinema scenes, but we positioned these sequences as only one part of development. In Zelda, there are over 1 hour and 30 minutes of cinema scenes. But the staff involved in creating these scenes was only 3 individuals for most of the development process, and in the latter stages, only 6 or 7. The reason behind using such a simple process, as I am sure you have all experienced in the workshop, is that there is a total limit on team energy. There is a limit to the work a team can do, and there is a limit to my own energy. We opted not to use that limited time and energy on pre-rendered images for use in cinema scenes, but rather on tests on other inter-active elements and polishing up the game to create a product that players can enjoy and play comfortably.
Comentarios del director #
Aug 02, 2025Ryanair tiene dos cosas maravillosas: a pesar de humillar a la gente en forma de reglas aleatorias, todavía aplauden al aterrizar, y la menos impresionante, te permite viajar a aeropuertos -que de otra forma estarían muertos- por lo que te cuesta una cena sobre mantel (para los mileniales: los manteles... read more
Que viene el lobo #
Jun 04, 2025Cada semana se anuncian unas cientos de empresas que, dicen, van a cambiar el panorama de usando IA. En esa misma semana empresas levantan millonadas argumentando que lo hacen para jugar al juego de la IA. Y las empresas de toda la vida, los Google, los Microsoft y demás ballenas... read more
When the chef cooks at home #
May 21, 2025Chefs usually manage “large” kitchens. They have a few cooks and have to deal with a constant flow of dishes they need to dispatch on time. It’s not just cooking, it’s the whole process: from designing the recipe, getting the raw food, and cooking, to serving it on time, hiring,... read more
Como uso los LLM #
Mar 30, 2025Lo que pueden hacer los LLMs es básicamente un sueño hecho realidad para mí. Soy un “builder”, me gusta construir y me parece magia todo lo que está pasando, es como revivir la época cuando aprendí a programar. Peeero como siempre que llega algo nuevo, está lo que idealizamos y... read more
We need a new git #
Mar 26, 2025A few years ago continuous integration systems were not a thing. You were lucky if you worked for a company with automation, so imagine having something that runs for every commit. We were using CVS, subversion and other similar non-distributed version control systems. Those systems were like git, you didn’t... read more
Neglecting opportunities #
Mar 25, 2025Most of us have this natural tendency to overly obsess over the outcome—the promotion or the beach body or the big sale—and to neglect the joy of the journey, thereby undermining our ability to actually make it across the finish line. What this means is that we may have to pay extra close attention to whether we’re neglecting opportunities to make the current phase of our journey more rewarding.
I think a lot about this lately. Some things in the journey of a startup are stressful and hard (layoffs, people leaving, not performing at the level other expect). It’s a cliché, I know, but that doesn’t mean it’s less true.
Lewis Kallow in this every.to article
Iceberg and S3Tables #
Feb 28, 2025Iceberg is the latest trend in the data space, and for good reason (it allows different products to share data in a standard way) Everyone is thinking, “I’ll store all my data in Iceberg to avoid vendor lock-in.”. But I’m not so sure that’s actually true. In theory, Iceberg hasn’t... read more
España y startups #
Feb 25, 2025El otro día teníamos esta conversación en twitter (para algunas cosas sigo pensando en pesetas, imaginate cambiar el nombre a twitter) donde Jaime Novoa la clava: Es muy difícil hacer una lista mejor que esa, así que no la voy a tocar pero lo que sí voy a hacer es... read more
Terminado y cerrado #
Feb 23, 2025Me gustan los coches, si por mi fuese tendría un parking con una casa pegada. No estoy ahí -aun- pero tengo la suerte de tener algún que otro coche de fin de semana. Uno de ellos, un Lotus Elise, es un coche peculiar, es un coche diseñado a mediados de... read more
Building a simple SQL Agent from Scratch #
Jan 27, 2025More people are talking about AI Agents than actual agents exist. And likely the ratio of builders to people talking about building is 1:10000 and still here I am talking about agents, so looks like I’m contributing with more shit. I hope not but you know, I’m just a guy... read more
Building a simple SQL Agent from Scratch #
Jan 25, 2025There are more people talking about AI Agents than actual agents. And likely the ratio of builders to people talking about building is 1:10000 and still here I am talking about agents, so looks like I’m contributing with more shit. I hope not but you know, I’m just a guy... read more
You don't learn, then start #
Jan 23, 2025“You don’t learn, then start. You start, then learn” - Sahil Lavingia, founder of Gumroad
I’m amazed by how many people don’t use this way of learning.
I love SQL #
Jan 16, 2025I used to dislike SQL. I learned to deal with databases using ORMs and when I needed to open psql to understand what was going on I felt like I was losing my time dealing with SQL. Why would someone want to deal with SQL when having a simple API... read more
Owning your own internet space #
Jan 04, 2025I’ve always been a firm believer in owning your own internet space, and I continued to do that by blogging
Websites seem to be less and less important as everybody is just looking at 10 second videos all the time. I love having my space, with my name on it, where I talk about what I like, with my own design and shape.
Trust yourself #
Dec 21, 2024We were (and still are not) a company that operates that way. I knew it then, but I lacked the confidence to trust myself. Worse, I listened to people who didn’t know what they’re talking about
David Cramer, founder of sentry, talking about hiring.
I’ve seen and done this several times, even knowing I needed to do something different I ended up doing the “right” (average) thing, I followed the fucking recipe.
it’s always better to trust your gut, even it’s not the best solution because you will be pushing and working hard for it. Most of times that’s the right thing
Sin mirar atrás #
Dec 21, 2024Sabéis ese tipo de pique entre personas, no diría sano pero no del todo dañino, que te permite llevarte bien aunque ambos sabéis que nada te alegraría más que ganarle al otro. Es un poco secreto para nadie, igual que cuando hay tensión sexual no resuelta, pero mal. Esto pasa... read more
SQL is good #
Dec 20, 2024I used to dislike SQL. I learned to deal with databases using ORMs and when I needed to open psql to understand what was going on I felt like I was losing my time having to deal with SQL. Why would someone want to deal with SQL when having a... read more
LLMs to transform data #
Dec 18, 2024I transform data every day and I usually do 2 kinds of transformations, changing the data format so I can use it in a tool (CSV to parquet) or the shape of it, like running an aggregation so I can understand it. I’m using LLMs more and more for this... read more
LLMs to transform data #
Dec 18, 2024I transform data every day and I usually do 2 kinds of transformations, changing the data format so I can use it in a tool (CSV to parquet) or the shape, like running an aggregation so I can understand it. I’m using LLMs more and more for this because it... read more
The data engineer #
Dec 16, 2024I’ve been running a data engineering department for 4 years in my company, and to be honest, I never looked at the actual role of the people I was hiring for that team. They passed a “simple” technical test and that’s it. BTW, any LLM nowadays is capable of solving... read more
WERK96 911 dash #
Dec 11, 2024
I just fell in love with this dashboard. I’m a huge fan of car dashboards, specially old ones, before all the digital and touch screens era.
These days we don’t need to make a lot of decisions about what data to show, it’s a programable screen, we can change it. And I’m not just talking about cars, it’s everything, there are companies building BI tools, making millions of dollars a year out of this. If you have a analog-like dashboard, you need to make good decisions about what to show, what’s important. You don’t have the the pixel freedom luxury, you have some lights, guages, numbers and buttons, that’s it. Sometimes I think about creating a hardware dashboard for my own company, what would I show? what’s the thing I can’t miss?
Take a look to the video showcasing all the car (a Porsche 991 996)
Recortes 2024 #
Dec 06, 2024El año pasado hice una recopilación, a la que por cierto vuelvo de vez en cuando, de cosas que me han dejado marcado de una u otra forma, así que este año voy a hacer lo mismo. Es curioso como cambia la percepción de algunas cosas con el tiempo. Para... read more
Learnings after 4 years working with +50 companies on data engineering projects #
Nov 30, 2024During the first 4 years of Tinybird (the company I founded) I’ve been helping our customers on the technical side (pre and post sales). I’ve probably talked to more than 100 companies and actively helped +50, ranging from those with just a few employees and Gigabytes of data to top... read more
We need to decide is which information is the most valuable and put our best equipment there #
Nov 26, 2024We are now at the start of the computer industry, an industry that will be the largest in the United States. The Model T’s of the computer industry are here, and people are beginning to use them. I am very much afraid we will make the same mistakes over again.
We will buy beautiful pieces of hardware and software and totally neglect the underlying force, the total flow of information through any organization, activity, or company.
We should now be looking at the information flow, and then selecting the equipment that will best implement that flow. To do this, the very first thing we need to decide is which information is the most valuable and put our best equipment there.
– Grace Hopper in this fantastic talk
Influence #
Nov 05, 2024there’s just too much influence out there from other sources there’s too much information available which is taking over that creativity and that inventiveness. It’s a frustration for me when i see some young designers you’ve got to invent something new, the stuff you’re seeing on the internet has already been done you’ve got to do something new
- Julian Thomson on Car Design Podcast
Fair Usage Based Billing #
Nov 01, 2024Every time I go to the $MY_CLOUD_PROVIDER console to understand how much I’m spending in some particular thing I end up giving up. That’s not a $MY_CLOUD_PROVIDER thing, almost all the service providers that bill you by usage provide interfaces that are hard to understand. I don’t blame them, it’s... read more
Data Engineer Skills #
Nov 01, 2024I recently published a data engineer job offer. To be honest, it’s not the most creative offer you are going to read, it starts with the typical description pretending your startup is different with a list of really nice angel investors, what we offer, what we look for, and an... read more
El prisas #
Oct 13, 2024No puedo asegurarlo pero tampoco tengo muchas dudas que la gente que trabaja en mi equipo piensa que soy gilipollas por “apretar” todo el rato con las fechas de entrega. Cada nueva cosa que arrancamos siempre digo lo mismo: “si podemos tener algo visible mañana mejor que pasado, pero lo... read more
Sobre raíles #
Oct 06, 2024Ayudo a hacer los deberes a mi hija de 6 años, esas cosas que la modernidad nos ha traído. Mis padres nunca me ayudaron y así creo que debería ser, no va a haber nadie para sacarles las castañas en 10 años. Es de las cosas más aburridas que alguien... read more
Instant Fun #
Sep 05, 2024Our product philosophy is “everything should be instant fun”
Teenage engineering
In And Out
Aug 25, 2024Jay Leno visiting a company that just restores old car dashboards
I like people who specialize in stuff like my favourite hamburguer place is in-and-out because all they sell are hamburguers, no burritos, no chicken sandwiches […]
Kind of feel the same but I have to ackonwlege it comes with a certain level of discomfort when you don’t have that small detail that makes your life easier. I guess is the price you pay for quality.
Principles Of Data Engineering
Jun 01, 2024La última bala
May 14, 202416 milisegundos
Mar 23, 2024Mis libros favoritos
Mar 02, 2024Recortes del 2023
Dec 27, 2023Mis principios de ingeniería de datos
Dec 25, 2023Cómo preparo una charla
Dec 03, 2023La respuesta al concurso del Lego de la TGR23
Nov 25, 2023Joinable Api
Nov 01, 2023Still Not Comfortable
Aug 19, 2023TG: How quickly after you finished this car did you realize that you were going to be comfortable restoring cars for other people?
RD: I’m still not comfortable restoring cars for other people [laughs] so the idea of this being an enterprise that was part of some kind of grand plan back then is ridiculous. The enormous responsibility in transforming these cars for customers is something that still keeps us honest every day.
El brazo biónico
Apr 16, 2023¿Por qué?
Feb 26, 2023A la segunda todo sale bien: la espada de Damocles
Dec 28, 2022A la segunda siempre sale bien: el soporte técnico
Dec 22, 2022A la segunda siempre sale bien: 100% remoto
Dec 11, 2022A la segunda todo sale bien: La recetita
Dec 08, 2022Puede chatGPT trabajar en Tinybird?
Dec 04, 2022A la segunda todo sale bien: el end-to-end developer
Dec 02, 2022El Exito
Nov 06, 2022El exito
Reír mucho y a menudo; ganarse el respeto de las personas inteligentes y el aprecio de los niños; merecer el elogio de los críticos sinceros y mostrarse tolerante con las traiciones de los falsos amigos; saber apreciar la belleza y hallar lo mejor en el prójimo; dejar un mondo algo mejor, bien sea por medio de un hijo sano, de un rincón de jardín o d euna conditión socual redimida; saber que al menos una vida ha alentado más libremente gracias a la nuestra: eso es haber triunfado
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
40 Things I Learned About Data
Nov 01, 2022Customer Success
Sep 10, 2022Engineering
Aug 25, 2022Two quotes from this video where they guy tries to understand why Porsche entusiast love them so much:
Engineering is the process of balancing requirements
They are engineered systems not just engineered parts assembled into a system
The Air They Breathe
Jul 14, 2022a lot of companies race because is good fit the brand, porsche races because is the air they breathe
New Vs Improved
Apr 18, 2022And that was FW14 in a nutshell. As I say, very much an evolution of the Leyton House car in many respects but using the experience and resources of a team that, under Patrick’s guidance, was much more developed and structured than we had achieved at Leyton House. It was also the first example of a philosophy I’ve since tried to continue with throughout my career: if you can come up with a decent concept then develop it year after year until either the regulations change or you realise that it was the wrong route. That, for me, is the most fruitful way to work.
Conversely, you do see cars where there seems to be no continuity. The shape is different from the year before, and different again the year after. The team is confused and doesn’t properly understand the car. A good example of that was the 2011 McLaren, which was a decent car. Then they changed it completely for 2012. It went okay but nothing spectacular. But instead of trying to work out how to develop it, they changed it again the following year, and got completely lost.
To me it looked as though, with the 2012 car, they had simply tried to be different but not necessarily for good engineering reasons. Then, for 2013, they just tried to copy various features from along the pit lane: the front end of a Red Bull mated to the middle of a Renault to the back of a Ferrari- a camel. Needless to say, it ran badly. The problem was that they kept changing it without every fully understanding what they actually had. Darwin was not wrong. Evolution is often the key once the spark of a good direction has been set.
- From the book “How to build a car”
Building Cathedrals
Feb 24, 2022Three stone cutters were asked about their jobs.
First said he was paid to cut stones…
Second one replied that he used special techniques in a exceptional way […]
The third stone cutters just smiled and said: “I build cathedrals”
- From the book Maverick
Creativity Inc Quotes
Feb 09, 2022Part I: Getting Started
THERE IS NOTHING quite like ignorance combined with a driving need to succeed to force rapid learning.
— Chapter 3: A Defining Goal > Page 43
One morning in June, an overtired artist drove to work with his infant child strapped into the backseat, intending to deliver the baby to day care on the way. Some time later, after he’d been at work for a few hours, his wife (also a Pixar employee) happened to ask him how drop- off had gone— which is when he realized that he’d left their child in the car in the broiling Pixar parking lot. They rushed out to find the baby unconscious and poured cold water over him immediately. Thankfully, the child was okay, but the trauma of this moment— the what- could- have- been— was imprinted deeply on my brain. Asking this much of our people, even when they wanted to give it, was not acceptable. I had expected the road to be rough, but I had to admit that we were coming apart. By the time the film was complete, a full third of the staff would have some kind of repetitive stress injury.
— Chapter 4: Establishing Pixar’s Identity > Page 71
The takeaway here is worth repeating: Getting the team right is the necessary precursor to getting the ideas right. It is easy to say you want talented people, and you do, but the way those people interact with one another is the real key. Even the smartest people can form an ineffective team if they are mismatched.
— Chapter 4: Establishing Pixar’s Identity > Page 72
There is an important principle here that may seem obvious, yet— in my experience— is not obvious at all. Getting the right people and the right chemistry is more important than getting the right idea.
— Chapter 4: Establishing Pixar’s Identity > Page 72
Ideas come from people. Therefore, people are more important than ideas.
— Chapter 4: Establishing Pixar’s Identity > Page 73
time, John coined a new phrase: “Quality is the best business plan.”
— Chapter 4: Establishing Pixar’s Identity > Page 79
Part II: Protecting the New
simple: Experiments are fact- finding missions that, over time, inch scientists toward greater understanding.
— Chapter 6: Fear and Failure > Page 110
Creating art or developing new products in a for- profit context is complicated and expensive.
— Chapter 6: Fear and Failure > Page 111
When it comes to creative endeavors, the concept of zero failures is worse than useless. It is counterproductive.
— Chapter 6: Fear and Failure > Page 112
read moreFears About Yourself
Jan 17, 2022fears about yourself prevent you from doing your best work, fears about your reception by others prevent you from doing your own work
Art & Fear book
Lotus
Dec 31, 2021Speaking about designing Lotus Elise:
Lotus never used to take cars back in transporting, always drove them. And quite rightly, you can learn so much about the car just driving it. It was always said you have got to pretend you are a customer… we were really trying to develop a car
Alma
Dec 31, 2021Important Topic
Dec 26, 2021If you get people together for a meeting about how important a topic is you know that you’ve failed
- Richard Cook at Velocity 2013 talk
Solo necesitas saber esto para escalar rápido tu equipo técnico.
Dec 12, 2021Odio El Ingles
Dec 05, 2021Whats Like To Be Good
Sep 26, 2021Contraintuitivo
Jul 03, 2021El Software Libre Y Las Empresas
Feb 08, 2021Echar A Los Leones
Jan 23, 2021Organización de Servicios profesionales
Jan 16, 202118 Months To Build The Greatest Xyz
Jan 08, 2021If you knew you had 18 months to build the world’s greatest XYZ, and you could hire a world-class team of scientists and engineers to build it, what kind of facility would you set up?
From this essay speaking about what’s the best place to innovate. Another questions come to my mind: who would you hire? what questions would you ask? how would be your plan?
Best Advice On How To Do Art
Jan 06, 2021The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.
Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
Datomic
Dec 31, 2020I find really interesting when people don’t do things in the standard way. A few weeks ago someone asked to the founder of RoamResearch (I product is getting some attention) what their tech stack was. He answered “Clojure, Datomic” which is not the tyipical web stack.
Anyway, I didn’t hear about Datomit before so after taking a look to their website I got interested (as always) in “how it works”.
I found this talk which is really interesting, specially because you realize that every single database should work like that but likely hardware 30 years ago was not perfomant enough to do that.
Miyamoto
Dec 28, 2020The interesting thing about interactive media is that it allows the players to engage with a problem, conjure a solution, try out that solution, and then experience the results. Then they can go back to the thinking stage and start to plan out their next move. This process of trial and error builds the interactive world in their minds. This is the true canvas on which we design—not the screen. That’s something I always keep in mind when designing games.
Picaso
Dec 26, 2020When art critics get together they talk about form and structure and meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine.
- Picasso
Mathematics Is An Art
Dec 25, 2020Mathematics is an art, and art should be taught by working artists, or if not, at least by people who appreciate the art form and can recognize it when they see it. It is not necessary that you learn music from a professional composer, but would you want yourself or your child to be taught by someone who doesn’t even play an instrument, and has never listened to a piece of music in their lives? Would you accept as an art teacher someone who has never picked up a pencil or stepped foot in a museum?
By Paul Lockhart read in Bret Victor thoughts on teaching
The Fremen
Dec 24, 2020If you want to know how to work with new or limited resources, find a population that’s used to not having many alternatives. Find someone who has already optimized for the reality you’re about to enter and learn from them.