An invitation: learn how to use this site

This site has a few features built with you in mind — and they go unnoticed unless somebody points them out.

None of them asks for a sign-up, a payment or any patience. There are seven, each takes less than a minute, and under every explanation there is a video showing exactly where to click.

1. Follow new writing #

The simplest way not to miss anything is to get the essays by email. It is quick and there is no catch.

On a computer, the Newsletter button sits at the top right of any page. On a phone, tap Menu and then Newsletter.

A dialog opens. Enter your email and confirm. You will then get a message asking you to confirm the subscription — one click on the link, and new pieces start arriving in your inbox.

Delivery runs through Substack, which handles sending and unsubscribing. Simple, quick and no spam — and you can leave whenever you like, with one click at the foot of any email.

2. A text you can take anywhere #

Instead of fighting with printing a web page — which always comes out with the menu, the footer and the wrong margins — every text already comes with a file made for reading.

It is a properly designed PDF: considered typography, figures in place, notes where they belong. It is good for:

• Reading offline — on a flight, on the underground, on a trip, phone in airplane mode.
• Reading without distraction — on your computer, your phone or a Kindle, with no open tabs competing for your attention.
• Keeping and forwarding — the file is yours, it fits in a message, and it does not depend on the site staying up.

You will find the Download as PDF button right at the start of the text, on the line with the date and the reading time, and again in the middle and at the end of the article — near where the urge to keep it usually shows up.

3. Share it with your network #

Every text has a quick way to share. Click Share, pick the network or the app, and the link goes with you.

On WhatsApp, for instance: click Share, choose Send on WhatsApp, pick the conversation or the group, and send. The link arrives with the text’s card — title and visual identity — rather than as a bare address nobody opens.

LinkedIn, X, email and copy link are there too. If you want to follow the discussion around the writing, LinkedIn is where I comment on what I publish.

4. Need to reach me? It is simple #

Got a question, a disagreement, an invitation or a problem you want to talk through? Use the Contact page.

Five fields: name, email, organisation (optional), subject and message. The more context you give — who you are, what the problem is, and the timeline you are working with — the better I can answer. Click Send message and I will get back to you personally, usually within two working days.

5. Want to cite a text? I have formatted it for you #

If you are going to use something from here in an academic paper, a technical report or a presentation, you do not have to build the reference by hand.

At the end of every article there is a How to cite block, with the reference ready — author, title, publication, date and address, all in the right place. Select it, copy it, and paste it into your material.

6. Read by day or by night: change the site’s colours #

Reading a long text on a bright screen in a dark room is tiring — and so is the opposite, a dark screen in full sunlight. So the site has three colour modes, and the choice is yours.

At the top of any page, on the right, between the language switcher and the Newsletter button, there is a small icon. Click it and the three options appear:

• Automatic — the site follows your device. If your phone or computer is set to go dark at night, the site goes dark with it, on its own. This is how it comes.
• Light — light paper and dark text, always, whatever the device says.
• Dark — dark background and light text, always.

The option in force is marked with a check, so you can tell which state you are in without having to test it. The choice applies to every page and still holds when you come back later — it is kept in your browser, and only there.

If you pick Automatic, your system setting decides. If you pick Light or Dark, your decision beats the device — in both directions, and until you change your mind.

7. Follow me on social (and academic) networks #

The writing lives here, but the conversation around it happens elsewhere — and the academic record in a third set of addresses. All of them are in the footer of any page, under Profiles:

• LinkedIn — where I comment on what I publish and where most of the discussion happens.
• X, formerly Twitter — shorter remarks, in the heat of the moment.
• GitHub — where I host my open codes and packages.
• ORCID — the identifier that ties my academic output together unambiguously, useful for citing or cataloguing.
• Lattes CV — the full record in Brazil’s CNPq standard: education, supervision, publications and projects.

If you arrived through one text and want to follow the rest, LinkedIn and the newsletter — the first feature on this list — are the two most direct routes. To check credentials or cite a piece of work, use Lattes and ORCID.

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That is it. Seven features, none of them hidden behind a sign-up or a payment — all of them built so the text is actually useful after you finish reading.

If any of them does not work as expected, or if something is missing, tell me . The site gets better through the people who use it.