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April 28, 2025

Time Off, Time Well Used

Getting back from a holiday: reflections on time, career, and the importance of disconnecting.

Hello, regular readers, and welcome to the new ones!

This is Luis, with the latest issue of my newsletter. I write this newsletter to share my passion for photography, cities, and technology, along with interesting links I find over the week(s). This newsletter will be (as long as possible) free, but if you like to support it feel free to become a paid subscriber (pay what you want), or buy one of my photos.

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It’s been almost two weeks since the last issue. I went on a family holiday and took a few extra days to came back to writing.

Traditionally, this would have been a recap of the last weeks. However, I’m going to keep the details of the holidays for another issue. Why, you ask? Because I spent one week in the Andalusia Region in Spain, and it was a delight. Experiencing the many traditions around Holy Week and discovering incredible architecture — like the Alhambra — were definite highlights. Not to mention the joy of spending time with family, enjoying good food, and sipping good wine. There’s certainly enough material to create a few photo essays from the trip. Keep an eye out for them.

two people sitting on a bench
Street scene in Madrid. Madrid, Spain. 2025

The offline time also gave me space to think about my career — what I want to do, what I want to build, and how do I want to go about it. As I move forward professionally, I keep circling back to certain themes, in particular sustainability and how can I contribute to make the world a better place. I also value how I do it. I know I value flexibility and a life-work balance that puts life first. At the end of the day, we trade with one of the most precious, non-renewable resources: time. Better to spend it wisely.

All of this to say that it was a great week — full of laughter, discovery of new places, and family time.

I hope that if you had the chance to take some days off in the last weeks (whether for Eastern, spring break, or any other occasion), you also had a great time. It’s important to disconnect and recharge.

Thanks for reading!

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About this newsletter

I'm Luis Natera, a software developer, network scientist, and data/cities/tech nerd. I have an interdisciplinary trajectory (architecture -> sociocultural studies -> network science -> software development), you can read more about me and my career here.

This is a weekly newsletter about photography, cities, and software.

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Read more:

  • Rediscovering film

    After some years, I took one of my oldest cameras for a ride. Rediscovering shooting on film.

  • Debugging the Week // Week In Review 2025-04-07

    Less coding at work, more coding for fun — plus a dose of fresh air, photography, and reflections on meaningful tech.

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