Hi! I'm Luis—online, I go by @refinedattempt.
Thanks for stopping by this friday. I built this site to share ideas and meet curious people. Sometimes for fun, for profit—or both.
I was born in Hispanoamérica forty years ago, raised in a low-middle-class, single-mother household. Raised Catholic, I became an atheist early on; I jokingly call myself a "very Catholic atheist." Growing up in challenging conditions made learning and personal growth feel non-negotiable.
Fleetwood Mac is one of my favorite bands (Rush close second). In a random interview, Lindsey Buckingham called himself 'a refined primitive.' That stuck. I decided I'm a refined attempt at a refined primitive.
I share life with my beautiful, impossibly funny partner, Adriana. We've been together five years and are the humans of two lovely and crazy cats. Kids are in the plan, just not yet. My brother is my best friend, which I count as a privilege.
By a twist of luck, I taught myself to code around age eight—with an old QBasic book, an English–Spanish dictionary, and an MS-DOS machine. Hooked ever since. Before that, as a kid, I wanted to be a fighter pilot (impossible in my birth country) or a civil engineer.
In my teens, PC Magazine led me to BeOS (RIP) and Linux (Red Hat, then Mandrake). I've been a POSIX person ever since—these days mostly macOS (Darwin), Arch, and the occasional FreeBSD (an addiction I can't quite kick).
That early start let me test ideas young. I launched a "company" from my bedroom at seventeen—not a big success, but it set my direction: build things. Since then I've been a coder/hacker, CTO, founder, investor—mostly, a builder. No unicorn yet, but I'm not done trying.
I am currently running a boutique software development studio on a hiatus, and also a partner in a growing investment fund.
Sometimes I get approached to consult as fractional CTO or as digital biz advisor; occasionally do so, which I find very entertaining. If interested, please ping me.
Politically, I'm skeptical of party systems and the state in general; if I have to pick, I lean minarchist libertarian. I'm wary of pure majoritarianism and interested in ideas like epistocracy.
Culturally, I consider myself Hispanoamerican. I value the Hispanic legacy—culturally and historically—and I generally push back on the Black Legend narrative.
I am deep into martial arts—both traditional Japanese budō (nineteen years studying and teaching; black belt) and modern disciplines, mainly no-gi grappling / submission wrestling (seven years, currently working toward my second black belt; occasional MMA), which I also like to teach.
I’ve loved airplanes since I was a kid and am the kind of person who’ll stop in the street to identify anything flying overhead. I’ve been on and off working toward my private pilot’s license (Cessna 172). Top of the bucket list: a Cirrus Vision Jet.
I've wandered far, but El Valle de los Caídos is my true pilgrimage site, where I fell in love with Uriel's statue and love to sit and contemplate it.
I'm not big on labels, but here are some tags that fit:
If you made it this far, we should connect. I welcome thoughtful conversation—even (especially) with opposing views. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you find something here worth your time.