Hello everyone!

I'm Ricardo, from Portugal, programmer of profession and passion, and a science, psychology and technology lover. I am eager for knowledge and to understand how things work. I am determined to help others and to give my contribution to making the world a better place.

Versão portuguesa

A bit of my story

From an early age, I felt drawn to try to understand how things work. I spent much of my free time reading books about the formation of the universe, the origin of life and our evolution as a species. My favorite subject in school was science, and on summer nights I spent in the countryside, during summer vacation, I often found myself looking at the stars and thinking about the vastness of the universe and how lucky I was to be born a conscious being, able to see the beauty that all around me (not exactly like, I was a kid at the time, but the idea was that).

As I grew older and reached adolescence, I was detoured to other directions. The concept of being cool and accepted by my group of friends dominated more and more my conscience. Who didn’t have Nike snickers or Fubu hats and belts was a loser! On the other hand, in school, I was encouraged to value grades above the actual learning. All this led me to forsake the curiosity and fascination from reality, that was innate to me, and made me value the opinion of society above all.

When I finished school I decided to pursue computer engineering, not because it was an area that interested me particularly but because the informatics was a growing market, which could ensure a job and income easily. During the college, and the beginning of my professional life, I really started to like programming. This was because it required me to understand deeply a problem, then design solutions to solve it. I didn’t know then but, somehow, programming fed that childlike curiosity, the urge to see how things work, that I neglected from my adolescence on.

When I finished the course and started working a day job and making money, the influence that the opinions of others had on me began to manifest itself in the form of consumerism. I bought expensive clothes, I didn’t need, brand sunglasses, without even looking at the price, I began to smoke and dine out almost every day.

All this to try to get the approval of others and feel good with my self-image.

Over the years I began to feel a growing emptiness and lack purpose. Usually, I coped with these feelings with distraction (watching tv series, going to out, etc.) but sometimes had moments of clarity where I asked myself the way I was going about life was the right one. After all, I was spending most of my resources and free time on things that should make me feel good, but it wasn’t working. To deal with these questions I turned to self-development and started to implement some healthier habits in my life: exercise, meditation, mindfulness and healthy food. Although these practices have substantially improved many aspects of my life, I continued to feel a lack of purpose. It was through friends, along with some online influences, that I’ve grown my interest in science, neuroscience, and psychology and that, with some research and reflection, I began to get some of the answers I sought.

My perspective

It was only when I started to have some basic understanding of the human mind and the evolution of life, which includes our own, that I began to have a more comprehensive view of reality. I began to feel more and more connected to humanity and to life itself. This reminded me of when I was a little kid gazing at the stars... But I am no longer a child, if before all I could do was to contemplate reality with a kind of helpless fascination, now I have more reasoning, more knowledge, and extremely powerful tools (like the internet) at my disposal. This made me realize that I am in a privileged position to help humanity moving forward and I'm not doing anything about it.

I decided to dedicate my time trying to create a positive impact on the world. Although this goal may seem vague, I think the best approach to achieve it is through the scientific method. In a nutshell, I try to have a clear view on reality and do what I think it’s right, based on the knowledge I have, measuring the results and learning from mistakes. I think the following scene from the final episode of Cosmos illustrates what I mean:

Why steemit?

Despite being a technology enthusiast, my presence on social networks was inexistent. I do not use facebook or instagram or tweeter. However, recently I began to explore cryptocurrency market and, as I studied the most popular coins, I discovered steem and, consequently, steemit. The concept seemed too good to be true! A platform that encourages sharing of opinions and that allows to find and invest in people with similar ideas to ours, creating a global network for exchange of relevant ideas and experiences, without the typical trolls and "cancers" of the internet, was exactly what I was looking for.

I will contribute to steemit community by sharing my experiences in trying to create a positive impact on humanity, such as the series I'm starting on quitting my day job to change the world. You can also count on my opinion in related topics on psychology, health, science, and technology.

To conclude the post, which is running long, I would like to say that I am very happy to be here and eager to exchange views and ideas with all of you! I hope that we can help and enrich each other, after all, that's why we're here.

Thanks for reading this far! Feel free to ask questions and give your feedback.

If you enjoyed what you’ve read, I would like you to check the work of my brother @shaden and my great friend @zebeto.

See you soon!
Ricardo