What this blog is all about

This is a blog. Not a journal, not a publicity stunt, not an ad in disguise, not a leaflet for ideological propaganda, not an exercise of self-promotion. Just a blog.

By this, I mean that this is a place where, once in a while, I will come to write about whatever is on my mind. I will write about work, about play, about people, about ideas, about cool stuff or about stuff that makes me angry. I don't mean this blog to follow any particular theme. I don't know where it will take me. I'm starting this just as a way to put down some of the things that go through my mind and my life, instead of just letting them get lost in time.

But this is also not a replacement for Facebook. I don't intend to post that I've just checked in at the local groceries store. I intend to put some thought into whatever I end up posting here. I am not the most well-educated, the smartest, the most travelled, the most experienced, the most charming or the funniest person I know – for each of those characteristics I can think of a dozen people that are one-hundred-fold what I am. But I've lived a fair share, collected a few different personal and professional experiences, and at the age of 40 I feel, without any presumption of the ability to teach anyone about anything, that I have something to share about stuff that I learn (more on this later) – about Venture Capital, about technology, about music and other stuff that moves me. This blog is a way for me to do this.

It will start unstructured, and hopefully gain some sort of shape. It will be intermittent or erratic, and always casual, as I don't intend to make this an obligation – I will spend as much or as little time on it as I please, and as my work- and personal-life permits. As such, I have no expectation to attract any number of regular followers. However, I do hope to be thought-provoking to those few that, for whatever reason, choose to follow my posts, and I will welcome any comments. I hope you will find something in it for you.

A word about the title. Learning to Fly.

If I had to pick one theme, one common-thread to what I intend to do here, it's "Learning". For me, learning is a key driver in life. From learning what a hand looks like to learning how the Universe works (or at least trying to...), learning is what makes us rich, learning is what makes us human. We all spend our lives learning, and indeed some risk their lives to learn. And we've all experienced the joy of understanding what we've learnt, and of sharing that with others. That's what I hope to do. About flying. Flying is probably something we would all like to learn. We have learnt a lot about it and engineered ways to do it. This goes back to my paragliding days and the joy of actually taking off and flying for a few hours, free from all other concerns. Yet, we are clumsy at it, and unless evolution leads us to grow wings in a few million years, we will most likely never fully comprehend flying. That doesn't keep us from trying. "Learning to Fly" thus represents our continuous will to learn. Oh, and it's also the title of a song by one of the most important bands of all times, Pink Floyd – granted, not at their best, and those of you who know me will know that it's not the sort of tune that plays in repeat mode in my iPod, but still, a cool title and a nice song.

I'm the guy on the upper right. (Sagres, Portugal, 2004)