Juan M. Lavista Ferres & William B. WeeksAI for Good
Concrete evidence that AI creates value when it is aimed at real problems.
Beyond Work
What has shaped the way I think.
Living abroad, playing music, reading widely and building sustainable habits complement analytical work and shape how I approach problems.
Travel
Perspective is learned somewhere else.
Studying and working in Muenster, Nice, St. Gallen, Lyon, Geneva meant repeatedly arriving somewhere without the usual context - a different language, a different pace, a different idea of how things ought to be done.
What stayed was the habit they enforce: reading a new environment quickly, holding assumptions loosely, and finding common ground with people who frame the same problem differently.
Lifestyle
Long-term performance is a consistency problem.
Strength and endurance training, together with a considered approach to nutrition, build the capacity that demanding periods require - keeping the baseline high enough to absorb pressure and keep performing under it.
The real value is in the routine: showing up when motivation is low, recovering deliberately, and protecting the things that compound slowly. Over time that builds a reserve of energy and decision-making quality that reveals itself when the pressure is on.
Music
Structure, then improvisation.
Classical piano taught patience and precision - the slow, unglamorous work of repetition until something becomes effortless. DJing taught the opposite discipline: reading a room in real time and adjusting without hesitation.
Together they are the closest analogue I have to professional work: rigorous preparation, then composure when the plan meets an audience.
Reading
Books that shifted how I think.
James ClearAtomic Habits
Reframed progress as a question of systems rather than motivation.
Ali AbdaalFeel-Good Productivity
Made the case that energy, not discipline alone, sustains output.
Eckhart TolleThe Power of Now
A counterweight to living permanently in the next deadline.
Martin SeligmanAuthentic Happiness
Grounded well-being in evidence rather than intuition.
Héctor García & Francesc MirallesIkigai
A simple frame for where purpose, skill and contribution overlap.
Dale CarnegieHow to Win Friends and Influence People
A timeless guide to the craft of working with people.
Michael GregerHow Not to Die
Argued convincingly that long-term capacity is built decades in advance.