Hi, I’m Diego Dotta

Sprinting, stumbling, and learning as I go.
Riding horses, not unicorns. (っ-,-)つ𐂃

  • Right, then left

    The e-Título app checked my face and my GPS to excuse me from voting in Brazil's runoff, but it couldn't let me vote. More than 30 million Brazilians didn't vote either, in a race decided by 4 million. So, I looked into how Estonia votes online and naively built a prototype for voting on the plan instead of the person.

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Projects

A living trail of the last things I’m building, breaking, or pretending to finish.

  • Now: October 2026

    • Life
      • Two days in SF with Toulouse, a cat who looks like a lynx, and then we flew to Kentucky to stay with friends and take care of Mapple, a very sweet dog. A park in Lexington smelled like roasted peanuts, and we only found out why on the way out (a JIF building).
      • The writers’ meetup in Louisville was the best part of the month. I wasn’t confident about sharing anything, then I shared Peep Watch, and the feedback was so good that I rewrote it the next day.
      • Brazil’s election took over everything here. On election Sunday we went on short road trips to stop thinking about it (it didn’t work), and that night Lula won, which blew my mind. The next day I dropped my plans and wrote Right, then left.
      • We’re kind of tired of traveling around. Last month I was talking about Chicago, and now we’re also looking at Florianópolis, where the idea is to rent a place for a month and see how it feels. Next up is a road trip to Atlanta, because a $400 Delta flight somehow turned into $1,000 (Daaangg, Delta).
    • Work
      • We hit the a major revenue mark on my birthday (in Apr it was really bad). What changed things was letting go of my favorite ideas and testing what people actually want.
      • A Bird Rise video went viral (200k views) before I even promoted it. Five other videos from the same day, mostly the same edit, got about 1.5k each, so good luck learning anything from that.
      • Removing the worst countries from our ad campaigns made them much worse, so they’re back to worldwide.
      • The photo app is now called Eagle Eye and went to Apple this month, and Memo Rise is turning into I’mma (as in “I’m going to…”), an alarm that’s also a voice memo and a habit tracker.
    • Relaxing
      • In the last week of the month I marked 10 books as read, and 5 of them were Derek Sivers, which is only fair since he’s the reason this page exists. How to Live left me wondering if it’s a genius book or just super dumb (maybe both), and in Fart Proudly the fart story is honestly the best. Now I’m on Plurality, plus seven picture books I added the same day we spent a morning at the Lexington library.
    • Exercise
      • Two rides with a friend’s bike group in Kentucky. A pace line with two rows rotating the lead is not really my kind of ride 😛
    Diego in a blue rain jacket and round glasses hugging Mapple, a big black and white dog, on a couch with a kitchen behind them
    Mapple
    Two cats on a wicker cat tree by a window, a big fluffy brown tabby in the lowest basket and an orange and white cat in the top one
    Toulouse and Zephyr
    Selfie of Diego in a helmet, sunglasses and an orange jersey on a paved road, with a friend behind him on a yellow road bike holding up a water bottle and a peace sign
    The bike group
    Diego lying flat on his back over a curved wooden bench on a dirt trail, looking at the sky, with a paper bag and a blue water bottle at his feet
    Election Sunday, not thinking about it
    Cemetery monument with a bronze Jesus leaning over a granite block and holding the ropes of a swing, with a bronze little girl sitting on it, under autumn trees
    Cave Hill Cemetery, our kind of road trip
    People walking across a rust colored steel truss bridge at sunset, with a woman on a bench painting at an easel on the right
    Big Four Bridge, Louisville

Open Goals

2026

  • ✅Profitable App V22 new apps profitable already, yep, yep.
  • ❌Exercise every dayMissed many days already, and I'm not making this a priority.
  • ✅Live in different places
  • ❌Write once a weekFailed to keep up with this, but I want to get back to it
  • ⏳Read 50 Books

Why am I writing here?

Every time I start writing about something, I end up doing some pretty unexpected research or connecting the dots to an insight. Those things usually turn into rabbit holes, which I totally love falling into.

I wish I had written more when I was younger, especially as a teenager (since I hated reading and writing). Still, I always have so much fun reading the rare pieces I wrote in my twenties.

It also helps me lock in some memories. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and sometimes provides closure as well, which I think is really important these days. I hope it can also help someone else on their journey.

Plus, it helps me practice my English, makes me feel grateful, and helps me remember the people who were somehow part of it.