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#57 Relazioni sane? Il segreto è chiarire subito i malintesi
Category Archives: Reflections
#56 Pagine di una Moleskine 1: Vivi e lascia vivere
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Berlino, 1° febbraio 2020
Di tanto in tanto ripenso al tormento che ho vissuto durante la mia relazione precedente. Non ho saputo creare un equilibrio, né tantomeno marcare dei sani confini. Mi sono lasciato sopraffare da una persona nervosa, sospettosa, incapace di comunicare in modo costruttivo e triste. Lei si portava dietro una dolorosa ferita mai del tutto guarita, provocata da qualcuno venuto prima di me.
La memoria di quel tormentato periodo riaffiora ancora e, con essa, le emozioni legate a quel momento della mia vita.
Alcune emozioni affaticano lo spirito e ci trascinano in una dimensione oscura e mostruosa. Sono sintomi di mali che hanno radici profonde nel tempo, nel cuore e nella mente.
Ho — o meglio, ho sempre avuto — la strana tendenza a credere che le persone che incontro abbiano un grande potere su di me, soprattutto quando possiedono un’energia negativa. Forse è così per tutti. Il male è come una malattia estremamente contagiosa: è bene vaccinarsi e, se la si contrae, è fondamentale curarsi prima che ci debiliti o, peggio, che ci uccida.
Forse ci vorrà del tempo prima che guarisca del tutto, ma è positivo notare che ho la consapevolezza di non essere nessun altro se non me stesso.
Non ripeterò l’errore commesso da altri nei miei confronti: la donna che amo sarà libera di vivere come vuole, e così sarò io. All’insegna del rispetto reciproco, della tolleranza, dell’accettazione e della libertà.
#55 Liberte sua mente escrevendo histórias inspiradas na sua vida
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Às vezes acontece de eu ficar bloqueado em certos pensamentos, e lentamente eles se tornam obsessões. Isso sempre aconteceu, agora que reflito sobre o assunto, mas antes acontecia inconscientemente. Hoje em dia, não demoro a tomar conhecimento do que está acontecendo dentro da minha cabeça.
Embora assim seja, quando pensamentos e emoções se misturam de forma indissolúvel, é mais difícil pensar lucidamente e manter o controle das próprias reações.
Hoje em dia, somos muito bem informados sobre várias técnicas de relaxamento, como exercícios de respiração, meditação, etc. Mas tem uma técnica sobre a qual não leio muito e que poderia tornar todos nós calmos e únicos escritores: escrever histórias baseadas nos pensamentos que nos atormentam.
Sim, claro, escritores usam com muita frequência acontecimentos pessoais como inspiração para as próprias histórias, mas quem não é escritor não sabe disso. Tudo que acontece conosco é material criativo para futuros livros.
Escrever sobre nossos pensamentos, sobre nossas histórias, relações, etc., relaxa e nos ajuda a canalizar nossa vida de forma construtiva, suponho, ou pelo menos é assim para mim. Por isso, eu aconselharia: em vez de escrever seu próprio diário dos acontecimentos, escreva histórias inspiradas na própria vida. Obviamente, respeitando a privacidade das pessoas envolvidas na vida real, usando animais como personagens, outras épocas, nomes fictícios, etc.
É muito divertido e ajuda a processar o que mantém sua mente ocupada de forma desagradável.
Um exemplo concreto: se você tiver um problema com colegas de trabalho que te mantêm acordado e ansioso, escreva uma história. Seus colegas podem se tornar alienígenas com os quais você não consegue se comunicar, e daí você inventa um desafio, personagens, história, seguindo as bases da narrativa de forma simples.
Se você nunca tentou, tente e conte como foi sua experiência.
#54 Using AI as a career coach to discover your professional future
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I want to keep this post brief and share the key insights without wasting anyone’s time with a story that isn’t necessary. I’ll just say that the tip I’m sharing is a prompt I created by feeding perplexity.ai some questions related to my CV, future career steps, closing learning gaps based on market trends, and my current skills.
At the moment, I have a stable position where I work mainly in German and French. I love languages, and especially German has been quite a barrier to get past for a long time, so it’s pretty dope that I get paid to keep speaking German and improving my skill daily! Also, after spending almost the whole of 2024 unemployed, I can only be grateful for my current professional situation.
Of course, I have ambitious plans for my future. As someone with insatiable curiosity who is always learning, I’m constantly considering my next steps. That’s why I asked Perplexity to analyze my CV and give me some tips on career advancement, learning new skills, and planning a shift in my professional life. I also believe this prompt could be useful to those aiming at getting back to work after a period of unemployment.
Anyway, enough introduction! I wrote much more than intended. Here are some of the most effective prompts for supporting career development when someone provides their CV, along with examples for planning next steps, recommending relevant courses, suggesting career transitions, and outlining practical steps.
1. Assessment & Goal Clarification
“Using my CV and current role as context, identify the responsibilities, skills, and behaviors where I consistently perform at a high level. Then highlight tasks, environments, or role expectations that appear misaligned with my strengths, energy, or long-term career goals, and explain why.”
2. Gap Analysis & Skill Mapping
“Based on my professional experience and the roles or industries I’m targeting (e.g., XYZ), map my existing technical and soft skills against common job requirements. Clearly identify skill gaps, emerging competencies, or experience areas I currently lack, and prioritize them by importance and market demand.”
3. Targeted Course & Certification Recommendations
“Taking into account my background, transferable skills, and target roles, recommend specific skills, certifications, or learning paths that would most improve my chances of securing interviews. For each recommendation, explain why it matters and whether it’s best suited for short-term impact or long-term career growth.”
4. Career Shift & Adjacent Role Discovery
“Review my past roles, cross-functional projects, and side responsibilities to identify patterns that suggest potential career pivots or adjacent roles (such as project management, training, content strategy, localization, or translation management). For each possible direction, explain which past experiences support the transition.”
5. Actionable Career Planning (90-Day Plan)
“Create a realistic 90-day career action plan tailored to my goals. The plan should include:
• Specific résumé or LinkedIn improvements
• Weekly or monthly networking objectives (with examples of who to contact and why)
• Recommended courses or skill-building activities
• Clear milestones to track progress and adjust strategy”
6. Industry & Role Exploration
“Based on current job market trends, identify roles closely aligned with my experience that show strong growth or resilience. For each role, outline typical entry requirements, key skills, salary range (if relevant), and realistic steps I would need to take to transition into it.”
7. Reflection, Motivation & Career Fit
“Analyze what appears to motivate me most professionally—such as problem-solving, helping others, creative work, autonomy, or working with technology—based on my career history and preferences. Then suggest career directions or role types that align strongly with these motivators and explain why they would be a good fit.”
Best Practices for Using These Prompts
- Balance objective analysis with personal intent
- Focus on actionable, short-term outcomes
- Define measurable success criteria
- Revisit and iterate regularly
- Use prompts as decision support, not absolutes
These prompts create a structure that helps you assess your present position, recognize growth areas, and build a plan that includes upskilling and networking, ultimately increasing the likelihood of successful career transitions.
I would suggest printing your results and going with the flow, seeing how it works for you, and eventually make adjustments to align with your goals and current circumstances.
Last update 30.01.2026
#44 What’s next? Ten years pregnant with a novel
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More than ten years ago, I wrote a book. A novel. A draft of a novel. Actually, I’d say half of it is ready to publish, the other half is still a work in progress. I keep repeating to myself that sooner or later I’ll get it done, but until now, I haven’t managed it.
Achieving that, though, would finally set me free—and I’d be able to write my second novel, or at least start brainstorming about it.
Until now, it has felt like being pregnant for ten years—wanting a second child but unable to have one until you give birth to the first. I’m not sure if this is the best analogy, considering I’m not a woman, but it seemed funny when I first wrote it down.
Last year, while I was unemployed, I dedicated some time to polishing my manuscript and sent it to an editor—a friend of a friend—who had kindly offered to read the first part of my draft. I knew it wasn’t ready. I knew I still had to work on it, probably over and over again. Not that I haven’t already, but self-editing can be a rabbit hole where one easily gets lost in lateral overthinking.
I was afraid of sharing it with anybody at that stage—especially an editor. Besides, the experience of unemployment had left a scar on my ego. I was already so full of self-doubt that exposing myself in such an intimate way was the last thing I wanted.
Yet, I did it—I shared the first part of the book with the editor. And guess what? I was right. The manuscript wasn’t ready—according to him, too. He suggested I set it aside, let it rest, and write short stories, articles, anything but touch that manuscript. He also asked me—perhaps testing my resolve—if I was sure I even wanted to keep writing. “Why would you want that?” he asked.
It was a real setback, but it didn’t demotivate me. Not because I have a will of steel or anything like that. There are just some things I can’t live without. In other words, if I had to answer his question—“Why do I want to write?”—it’s not that I want to. It’s that I can’t do otherwise. I need it.
But as I said, at the time it felt like a setback, also because I focused mostly on the negative part of his feedback.
He had, in fact, shared valuable positive feedback. When I made an effort to develop a character with empathy and care—rather than rushing the story and piling up dialogue—he said he felt more connected to it. He also noted that he could sense when I was being honest and when I was hiding something. When I was free writing, he said he particularly liked my dark humor and sarcasm.
One always has to take feedback with a grain of salt, but this came from a professional in the industry who has analyzed hundreds of books, if not more, given his experience in the industry. Most of all, his opinion felt true to me; it resonated, and his tone was genuine.
Now, after following his advice for a while, I want to make the most of what I’ve learned and finally complete this first novel process.
To proceed, I realized I needed three things:
1) Accountability
2) A clear goal
3) A good method
And I think this blog gave me all three.
My goal, in fact, is to periodically review and publish a few paragraphs of my novel alongside what I’m already writing (spontaneous reflections, short stories, etc.). The people who enjoy reading my content will help keep me accountable. As for the method, I believe taking this slow-paced but consistent and rewarding approach—instead of trying to finish the whole thing all at once—will benefit my motivation and help me stay disciplined and loyal to my overall approach.
This whole plan or realisation is not an original idea of mine. In fact, I have to thank the WordPress community for sharing so much amazing content so openly and for inspiring me with their approaches and consistency.
If you’re interested in embarking on a similar path, I highly recommend checking out the blogs Faded Houses, Great – Almost Meaningful, and Edge of Humanity. Read their content and take note of how they structure their pages—it’s really well done!
So, to conclude, I’m going to follow this strategy: alternating between short stories, spontaneous reflections, and—primarily—my novel, which is written in Italian. I intend to keep it that way, as translating it into English, even though beneficial in terms of broadening my audience, would only add another layer of challenge, and my objective is to keep this process as lean, uncomplicated, and enjoyable as possible.
If you’re Italian, or have Italian friends interested in following a novel as it evolves toward publication, I warmly invite you to stay tuned and share this blog.
Your presence and feedback mean more than you know.
#43 The Ugly Stepsister and The Substance: mirros to our inner and outer worlds
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Two movies that, in my opinion, encapsulate one powerful aspect of our society in a masterful way: looks can get you far, but depending on them will destroy you—inside and out.
In a world increasingly bombarded by an overwhelming storm of video content—much of it led by anyone with a phone who steps into the debatable role of “influencer”—our independent will and decision-making capacity seem to be vanishing. This leaves a dangerous vacuum where ethically grounded, far-sighted, and morally sound role models are missing.
Obviously, these movies are much more than that. As with any work of cinema, each viewer interprets the story and characters differently.
Other themes stood out to me strongly: the comparison trap and the lack of contentment—even when one reaches personal goals. These were portrayed both implicitly and explicitly, reflecting the collective and individual psychosis we are experiencing today and the path toward oblivion we seem to be heading down.
Our capacity for monstrous actions is never pleasant to witness, nor something we enjoy indulging in for too long. Yet acknowledgment is always the first spoonful of medicine we must swallow to begin changing certain patterns, whether individually or collectively.
It’s true, though, that there’s a time for acknowledgment—and perhaps we’re not there yet. I see more and more people around me choosing to ignore these realities and retreat into their own personal La La La Lands. I say this in the least judgmental way possible. As beings deeply connected to what happens around us, unless we cultivate a degree of detachment, objectivity, and realism, examining our problematic self too closely can easily overwhelm us.
That’s why movies like The Substance and The Ugly Stepsister can be so powerful: they compel us to take a deep, unavoidable look at our collective insanity.
I realize I’m talking about these movies without really talking about them—but isn’t that often what happens after we leave the cinema? Whether we’re alone or in company, good films help us reflect on something deeper, and that reflection can linger for days, weeks, even months.
I usually sympathize with both the villains and the heroes in films—unless they’re mere propagandistic caricatures, created to implant prefabricated notions of good and evil.
One major takeaway for me comes from the character of Agnes, portrayed by Thea Sofie Loch Næss in The Ugly Stepsister.
Throughout the entire film, which spans several years, she resists her diabolically jealous stepsister Elvira’s (played by Lea Myren) attempts to undermine her beauty, intellect, maturity, and wisdom. Agnes knows who she is and stays true to her deepest values, no matter what.
And it doesn’t matter whether she ends up triumphant or not—what matters is that she remains connected to her identity, even as the world around her falls apart.
Elvira’s arc is equally powerful. It shows that no matter how far we’ve fallen, how deep we are in the hole, or what atrocities we’ve committed, there is always a way out. There is always a path to redemption—even when nobody believes we deserve it, and even when the consequences of our actions may follow us for the rest of our lives.
Again, it all starts from within: from putting our pieces back together and allowing ourselves to walk the path of self-forgiveness.
