Pedro A. Brêtas Subscribe

Essays on design, technology, and the human cost of both.

All essays in English

A person seen from behind, seated at a desk in front of a screen that is filled by one enormous eye looking back at them. The whole scene is drawn in fine wavy contour lines, a blue figure against a pale cream ground.

September 2026

Your first draft now has a log
A person sitting at night in front of a glowing screen, while an abstract human form seems to emerge in pixels and bluish mist.

UX Collective

The interface that responds
A man and a robotic mannequin surrounded by mist. The mannequin reaches out to touch the man’s face in a gesture of comfort.

Bootcamp

Compassion is not a feature
A hunched human figure enveloped in dense gray fog, gazing down at its own reflection at the bottom of the abyss.

UX Collective

The world’s cheapest compliment
A translucent mask held in hands with a blurred figure in the background, suggesting the separation between performance and identity.

UX Collective

Are we performing ourselves into exhaustion?
A conceptual image representing the challenge of giving shape to that which is fluid: a blurred human silhouette viewed through a translucent surface, with a tiny figure atop the head. The composition suggests the investigator and the subject as part of the same system, highlighting the limitations of measurement when applied to the human experience.

Bootcamp

The risks of doing what’s necessary
The threshold between what we measure and who we are. (All conceptual images in this article were generated by the author using AI.)

Bootcamp

I built a wellness AI. Then I realized metrics lie about what matters.
Silhouette of a woman holding a mirror with a soft, blurred reflection, symbolizing Amia AI’s focus on self-reflection and consciousness design.

Bootcamp

Why I’m building an AI to slow down in a world obsessed with performance
Illustration of a musician teaching his son about string tension, representing the balance between effort and ease

ILLUMINATION

The music between effort and ease

Bootcamp

When bad form kills great content

Bootcamp

The Entrepreneur’s Paradox: Freedom and Its Chains
A designer sits at a wooden desk, gazing contemplatively at his reflection in an ornate golden mirror. The scene is painted in warm, atmospheric lighting reminiscent of classical oil paintings, with the mirror acting as a metaphor for self-reflection and creative introspection.

ILLUMINATION

On vanity: a designer’s confession
Francisco Goya’s etching ‘The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters’ (c. 1797–1799) showing a sleeping figure at a desk surrounded by owls and bats in a dark, sketchy style

Bootcamp

Designing While Uncomfortable
Portrait of Pedro A. Brêtas, half of the face dissolving into motion blur.

Vistage Brasil

Why creativity needs resistance
A laptop on a wooden table showing a product page of the Sextante online bookstore.

Reino Studio

Sextante e-commerce