Carlos Morales Jr. — Writing

29 Miles Was Easier Than No Finish Line

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT

On my birthday I run my age in miles. It’s the only goal I have that comes with its own finish line.

Every June I run my age in miles. This year that meant starting at 3:40 in the morning, twenty miles outside before the Tucson heat got serious, and the last 9.39 on a treadmill. It hurt, and it was still the easiest hard thing I did all year.

The piece is me trying to work out why. The run had a finish line that wasn’t going to move. Almost nothing else in my life does: a product has rungs, a career changes shape, and a business just keeps going. I didn’t find a way to bolt a finish line onto those. I found out the hard part isn’t effort.

Full piece: https://carlosbuilds.substack.com/p/29-miles-was-easier-than-no-finish

The Clave Is Silent on the One

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT

I built a salsa trainer because “just find the 1” is advice from people who can already hear it.

In a 2-3 clave, the pattern the band lines up to, none of the five strokes lands on the 1. That’s the beat every salsa teacher tells you to find. I built SalsaCoach around that problem.

This is the story of the first night it ran on a real phone, at 1:43 in the morning. Two of the three bugs I was sure it had didn’t exist; the emulator I’d been measuring with was broken. Two bugs I wasn’t looking for did exist, including a “saved” message that was really the failure branch.

Full piece: https://carlosbuilds.substack.com/p/the-clave-is-silent-on-the-one

Four Products Went Live. Nobody Bought Anything.

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Engineering evidence and market evidence are different kinds of truth. I only had one.

In September I finally shipped: four products on Etsy and Gumroad, a studio website, freelance storefronts. Total sales: zero.

The piece is about the word “done”, which had been doing too much work. One of my products had 401 passing tests and zero users, and I hadn’t noticed the contradiction. Tests tell you whether a thing works. Only a stranger can tell you whether anyone wants it, and you can’t produce that evidence alone.

Full piece: https://carlosbuilds.substack.com/p/four-products-went-live-nobody-bought

Start here

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT

I build a lot of things. I decided to start keeping receipts.

The door. Who I am, what I build at night, and why I decided to write it down in public: about a year of building mostly alone, nine projects, and a first month of shipping where the numbers came back zero.

It also says what you won’t get from me: my employer, investment advice, or a list of ten lessons.

Full piece: https://carlosbuilds.substack.com/p/start-here