June 2026
First monthly recap. Vietnam, launching Stampo, breaking a routine that had been holding, a hackathon with two senior devs, two books, a Thailand visa I didn't get, and the eve of 25.
It's been a few months now that I've been writing regularly. Usually it's summaries of my day or the last few days, then I dig into some subject I'm thinking about at the moment. I don't take it apart or really follow the thought all the way through, but it feels good to write it down.
Today, I feel like writing my first monthly recap.
If I had to sum up how I can look back on this month, it's that on the eve of turning 25, I'm more and more turning this page that starts a new chapter, and I feel just how much I'm learning, putting that knowledge into practice, starting to get real hands-on experience, and that something is taking shape.
Vietnam and launching Stampo
I went to Vietnam, to Da Nang, for 17 days.
I launched my first app there: STAMPO, and I ran into my first feedback, my first lessons, my first moments of self-questioning, my first reactions — whether from myself or from others.
I realized I'd probably launched the project too quickly and that I should have validated the product. I'd stayed stuck in this building mindset and hadn't looked further ahead: how to get first users to try it, how to convince them, how to sell it, how to present it to the world, and then the technical debt it would create.
I think that, in my ambition to iterate quickly across several projects at once, this one was too ambitious. Still, I don't plan on dropping it, because I think it has real potential.
Breaking the routine
I broke my routine, which had been running smoothly for several months now in Chiang Mai.
It did me good and it wrecked me at the same time. I took a break from working out because my body needed to recover, but after two weeks I felt my cortisol levels had gone up.
I stopped meditating and experienced that absence for the first time, and I realized just how much it changes me and does me good.
It was the first time since March that I hadn't thrown myself into a work tunnel like this one.
The hackathon
I did a hackathon that let me work with two senior devs; it gave me a new perspective and a new point of view on how to work. Out of it came a project I pushed all the way to the repo, the package, and a sponsorship request for an academic paper. I've never done that, so I'm discovering it, and it's pretty exciting.
The conversations with the people I met there were constructive and only reinforced, gave shape to, and brought to life what I'd read, heard, or thought (I'm talking here about entrepreneurship and the different topics it can cover).
The productivity problem
I realized I needed a more effective system, that the effort I was putting into the work wasn't so bad — of course, I still need to gain more experience — but that my productivity is shit. I clearly understood that the number one factor was the scattering and the cognitive debt I keep piling up. In trying to be productive by doing tons of things at once, I do it badly, I don't remember it, and I'm not moving in the right direction. So I cut back the Claude subscription that enslaves me, and I'm going to actually figure out how to use it as a tool, then focus on just two tasks a day that require real concentration and attention; the rest of the work could be done like before.
Two books
The two books I read this month back up these ideas: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant and The Psychology of Money.
Naval Ravikant's book was exactly what I needed at that moment. It tackles a definition of freedom, of happiness, of how to be at peace, which is the continuation of what I've been learning and trying to apply for six months now, but it brings that entrepreneurial point of view that I'm discovering and that I need to dig deeper into.
Laying out that list of levers reinforces my technical ambition and pushes me through my fear of producing content.
It'll be hard, I'm going to fail, and I need to fully own those failures and take full responsibility for them.
The visa I didn't get
Speaking of failure, I hit a disappointment: I didn't get my visa for Thailand. Up until then I'd been patient, but at that point the stress spiked; I had to put things in perspective fast, find solutions fast, and be grateful for what I have and what I am.
This isolation let me reconnect a little more with myself; it was the first time since I left France for good that I experienced the "it's not going as planned, but you have to deal with it and move forward."
Relationships, and the one with myself
If I'm evolving, so are my relationships. I understand that I've sometimes made too much effort and slipped into people-pleasing, when I should have put some distance in order to protect myself, but above all in order to be myself — because after all, that's part of morality too: I have to be honest with myself and with everyone, share who I am and own it, be love.
If there's one relationship that's changed too, it's the one with myself, or my spirituality, or God, or the whole thing — call it whatever you want. It does me good and lets me be clearer with myself and my unconscious.
I'm still absorbing, but I act more, so I experiment more, so I get feedback faster, so I adapt and improve faster, and I progress like a car tearing down the highway.
Discipline has its say in my new conception of freedom, in how I handle my desires (very important) and the results I'm able to deliver.
Honestly, I'm reading and interacting with amazing people who reinforce my sense that I'm on the healthiest, most peaceful path.
The eve of 25
On the eve of turning 25, I want to blow through all the walls I'd built inside myself, or the ones I'd timidly started trying to climb. I have a better understanding of myself, of what's good for me, of where I feel good, with whom, and a vague idea of what to do.
Every day, I remind myself how lucky I am for what I have and what I am.
I've understood — and I need to own it, in my own name — that the cause of my "unhappiness" is the desire to make money on my own and the shame of not managing to. If I fully own it, I'll be able to be a little more myself. I believe that being free is also being a little more yourself, even though we have to do things we don't want to, and that we are what we do.