About

Most people collect things without thinking about why. I collect ideas and tools, as my grandfather collected stamps.

I'm Nicolai Opopol. This is where I write about things I notice and keep track of resources I find useful. I used to publish on Medium, but there's something better about having your own space. No algorithms deciding who sees what.

I spend a lot of time building products at ViarLive, but this blog isn't about that. It's about the thoughts that come up between meetings, the patterns you start seeing when you've been solving problems for a while, the tools that actually save you time versus the ones that just look impressive.

Writing clarifies thinking. When you have to explain something simply, you discover what you actually understand. Most of what I thought I knew turned out to be assumptions.

The resources section is partly selfish—I got tired of losing track of good tools. But curation is meditative work. Going through your bookmarks, testing things again, asking "do I actually use this?" It's like cleaning your house. You realize how much stuff you don't need.

If something here saves you time or makes you think differently, that's enough.