I’ve been thinking a lot about how we judge decisions at work and in life. We hire people hoping they’ll become key players in the future. We invest in financial assets expecting they’ll give us returns in retirement. We choose a partner hoping the relationship will last.
Your calendar is more strategic than tactical. It defines what’s important to you, what you prioritize and what you don’t. You can see it as a measure of how busy you are, which is partly true. But that’s not what really matters. Nobody pays you for being
There’s an implicit lie in everything I write. I present it as a way to share what I’ve learned, but the truth is—I’m learning it as I write it. These are ideas I’ve been thinking about, exploring, and slowly discovering over time. But I only
If you're a senior leader, if you have authority or influence, your actions and words carry weight. People pay attention to what you say — a lot more than you think. Sometimes because they respect you, sometimes just because they have to. Either way, your words land heavier. Your
Let’s talk about KISS. No, I’m not talking about the Kiss Cam everyone’s been posting about since the Coldplay concert last week. I’m talking about Keep It Simple, Seriously. (I never liked the original last word.) Lately, I’ve found myself saying things like: “don’t
Your coworkers are not your family. At least not in the way I think of family. To me, family is about unconditional love.At work, we have conditions — and we need them. They’re what make professional relationships sustainable and fair. Some of the best times in my career were
Frontline managers and senior engineers often ask how much visibility I need into their work. There’s a simple but powerful way to manage up: say you’re going to do the thing, say you’re doing the thing, and say you’ve done the thing. It’s a lightweight
This might sound controversial, but stay with me before you call me a terrible leader. This topic came up in one of my one-on-ones today, and I felt I needed to write about it. Sometimes, the long-term is too late. Sometimes, we just don’t have the luxury of time.
When a company survey shows that people don’t feel like they can innovate in their day-to-day work, the automatic response is: let’s run more hackathons. Hackathons are fun. Some good ideas come out of them. But they don’t build a culture of continuous innovation. In my experience,
There’s a scene in the Oscar-winning Argentine film The secret in their eyes that I like a lot: “A guy can change anything. His face, his house, his family, his girlfriend, his religion, his God. But there’s one thing he can’t change. He can’t change his
The hype around AI didn’t come overnight. It’s the result of decades of technological progress and converging trends. But in November 2022, OpenAI made it real for everyone. Most people in tech didn’t see it coming, even if they now want to tell a different story. Big
Today is a sad day. A day that moved slowly and felt heavier than usual. A day that made me feel deeply connected to my roots. Pope Francis, the most important Argentinian in history, has passed away. I remember seeing him when he was Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Cardinal of Buenos
Most people look and sound the same. I’ve been hiring recently, and I noticed something interesting: most people reach out to me in the same way—using similar words, asking for the same things. Their resumes look alike too. I remember that a few years ago, the problem was
Do it because you can’t not. Some decisions don’t require deep analysis. In 2013, I left my comfortable life in Argentina to join Groupon. In 2016, I stepped away from management to move to the U.S. as an individual contributor. In 2020, I went from leading a
Interviews feel a lot like democracy—far from perfect, but we don’t know anything better yet. The fact that people must prepare for the interview process rather than for the actual work they’ll perform is a clear indicator of its flaws. Most candidates spend months preparing for a
You have to get your hands dirty. It’s easy to lose touch. Athletes lose their sensitivity, their special touch, soon after stepping back. They don’t forget how to play, but they lose the fine-tuned precision that set them apart. Federer didn’t forget tennis when he retired, but
I took this week off work. My wife and I stayed local. New York never runs out of things to do. So we finally visited the 9/11 Museum, a place I’d parked on my to-do list for too long. I’ve seen every documentary about the attacks. I
It’s better to have an asshole as a boss than an idiot. At least you know where the asshole is coming from. But you have no clue what an idiot will do next. I laughed when a very good friend of mine told me that… but damn, he was
Growing up in Argentina, I learned early that survival depends on solving problems creatively. Economic instability, shifting rules, bureaucratic chaos—problems that other countries resolved decades ago—we solve daily with grit and ingenuity. When feeding your family or keeping a business alive hinges on your ability to act, you
What do you do when your dreams come true? In October 2014, I visited Palo Alto—the mecca of tech—for the first time. But I wasn’t there as a tourist. I was there for work, meeting some of my Groupon coworkers. I still remember walking back to my
What are your key performance indicators (KPIs)? These are the few things you must do well to succeed, not the 50 things you could do. The few that truly move the needle. You’ll always have more on your plate than time to get it all done. That’s not
Two weeks ago, I took on something new. A product and a team I barely knew anything about. It’s uncomfortable being in charge when you’re not an expert. So, the best thing I can do is accelerate my journey to understanding, learning the nuances, and becoming as close
I’m one of the one-third of the planet who are introverts. Big events drain my energy. Writing and reading recharge me. One-on-one meetings energize me. Networking is probably the closest thing to torture. After a day of back-to-back meetings, I feel like I’ve run a marathon. Meanwhile, my
When I led the API Platform organization at Groupon from Seattle, my teams were spread across four locations and three time zones: Seattle, Santa Clara, Chicago, and Bangalore. Same codebase, same programs, and a shared on-call rotation. This setup wasn’t accidental. There were clear business reasons behind it. Like