Coffee With Tanya #35
Talking about: The quiet tech revolution, the beautiful lie of resolutions, glitch art's imperfections, cozy mysteries for anxious times, coffee breaks around the world, and January in history.
Hello coffee lovers! ☕
January is here, and wow, what a thunderstorm of a start it’s been for me!
I took on two new clients and even dove into video editing, something I’ve recently started exploring. Along the way, I discovered so many new things I never thought I’d be doing in my life. But for those who know me well, it’s not surprising at all. It’s simply my nature, to seize every opportunity that comes my way.
New year, new things, new people, new opportunities… and, as always, fueled by a great cup of coffee.
This month, I’ve been thinking a lot about beginnings, both the ones we plan and the ones that unfold in the background. And speaking of quiet, let’s talk about technology that’s learning to whisper instead of shout.
Here's what's brewing on this month's menu:
- Tech - Technology that disappears: The quiet tech revolution 🔇
- Life - The beautiful lie of New Year's resolutions 🎯
- Art - When digital art breaks on purpose 🎨
- Culture - Cozy mysteries: Murder without the trauma 📚
- Rituals - Coffee breaks around the world ☕
- Word Bites - Sisu 📖
- January in History 🌍
"Live in the present, but keep an eye on what is next." // Gianni Versace
Technology That Disappears: The Quiet Tech Revolution 🔇
A few years ago, I was leading product at a tech company where Slack ruled our lives.
Notifications. Every stakeholder. Every channel. All day long. 🤯
I started by muting notifications during certain hours. Then I went further, when traveling, I’d uninstall the app entirely. Not as rebellion, but survival. I needed space to think, to breathe, to be present somewhere other than a thread.
Years later, I heard people say they were “pulling a Tanya” on vacation, uninstalling Slack completely. A small habit quietly spread through the team.
Looking back, that choice was pointing to something bigger.
Not long ago, every tech company was competing for attention, alerts, red dots, constant look at me energy.
Now, 2026 is bringing something different: Quiet Tech, technology that fades into the background and lets you live.
What is Quiet Tech?
Technology designed to be calm and contextual. Instead of demanding attention, it anticipates needs and responds quietly.
Think of a helpful assistant who refills your coffee, versus someone tapping your shoulder every five minutes.
What this looks like
- Smart homes that adjust light and temperature automatically
- Workspaces that adapt to the people in the room
- Wearables that monitor quietly and speak up only when it matters
Why this matters
We’re not just busy, we’re overstimulated and collectively exhausted. Years of screen noise have created a real hunger for technology that helps without demanding.
After years of optimizing user journeys, I see this as a core challenge ahead:
How do you build technology that knows when to step back? 🧠
Maybe the future isn’t more technology, but better technology that understands silence.
Beyond Resolutions: The Beautiful Lie We Tell Ourselves 🎯
This year, I did something different. I took a short break in December and slowed down. I looked back at the year, what I went through, what I achieved, what I learned, how I grew, and all the messy in-between moments.
And then I noticed something.
Every end-of-year ritual looks more or less the same. Maybe yours does too.
We pause in December. We reflect. We promise ourselves that this year will be different. We set goals, write resolutions, imagine a better version of ourselves.
Then January arrives.
And how are those New Year’s resolutions holding up?
Yeah. I thought so.
Here’s the thing, we know this will happen. Studies show that by the end of January, nearly 80% of resolutions are abandoned.
So why do we keep doing it?
The Fresh Start Effect
Behavioral scientists call it the "Fresh Start Effect". New Year's Day creates a psychological reset button. A chance to leave "past you" behind and meet "future you."
What I've realized is that resolutions aren't really about the goals themselves. They're about identity. We're not saying "I want to go to the gym." We're saying "I want to be the kind of person who goes to the gym."
Why we fail (and why that's okay)
The problem? We're trying to write a novel when we should be writing a sentence. We want to transform our entire lives overnight.
Instead, the changes that stick are the ones so small they feel almost silly:
- Not "exercise every day" but "do one push-up after brushing my teeth"
- Not "read more books" but "read one page before bed"
My own reality check
Last year, I promised myself two newsletters a month and a perfectly planned content calendar.
Reality? This one showed up monthly. The other appeared only when something truly pulled me in.
But I did show up, imperfectly, inconsistently, yet consistently enough.
And every newsletter taught me something.
Maybe the point isn’t keeping our resolutions.
Maybe it’s the hope...the quiet belief that change is possible.
When Digital Art Breaks on Purpose: Glitch Aesthetics 🎨
You know that moment when your computer freezes and the screen glitches into chaotic pixels?
Most of us panic 🤯
Some artists look at it and think: Wait… that’s beautiful.
Welcome to glitch art, where technological failure becomes art.
What is glitch art?
Glitch artists intentionally corrupt files or manipulate systems to create unexpected visual errors. Think of it as the digital cousin of wabi-sabi: beauty in imperfection. Except instead of cracked pottery, it’s broken JPEGs and malfunctioning screens.
Why do I love it?
We live in an age of digital perfection. Every photo gets filtered, every pixel in its perfect place. Like we all live in some fairytale.
Glitch art asks a different question:
What if the mistake is more interesting than the intention?
Artists like Rosa Menkman, Sabato Visconti, and Kim Asendorf explore these failures, turning compression errors and broken algorithms into something strangely organic and human.
What I love about glitch art is that it mirrors real life.
Plans break. Systems fail. Resolutions glitch.
And maybe that’s okay.
My thoughts
In tech, I’m always reminded that some of the best features come from bugs, the “mistake” revealing a need we didn’t know existed.
Maybe we need more art that celebrates things falling apart.
After all, aren’t we all just beautifully imperfect systems doing our best? 💟
You can also read more in a book on glitch called High-Tech Trash: Glitch, Noise, and Aesthetic Failure., by Professor Carolyn Kane.
Cozy Mysteries: Why We Want Murder Without the Trauma 📚
There’s something strange happening.
Some of us, more than we’d like to admit, are obsessed with murder.
But we want it… cozy? 🤔
What makes a mystery “cozy”?
- An amateur detective in a charming setting
- Violence happens off-page
- No graphic descriptions
- Justice is always served
- You finish feeling better than when you started
Think "Murder, She Wrote" meets "The Great British Bake Off."
The explosion
"Only Murders in the Building" became Hulu's most-watched comedy. Cozy gaming is booming. BookTok has made authors like Richard Osman massive hits. Entire businesses are built around gentle crime.
Why now?
Here’s my theory: we’re exhausted by darkness.
The past few years have given us more than enough real trauma. When I open my news feed, it’s overwhelming, sometimes worse than that.
So when it comes to entertainment, we want problems that:
- Can be solved in 300 pages
- End with justice and closure
- Don’t leave us lying awake at night
Psychology
Cozy mysteries let us enjoy the fun of solving a puzzle and a small sense of danger without real stress. Everything feels safe.
The knitting circle solves the crime. Justice arrives with tea and scones.
What I love
As someone who love analyzing patterns and solving problems, I appreciate how cozy mysteries scratch that puzzle-solving itch without the anxiety.
Plus, there's something nice about stories that treat problem-solving as a community activity.
The comfort
You know what we're really craving?
Order.
In cozy mysteries, the world makes sense. Bad people get caught. Problems have solutions.
Real life? Not so much. But for 300 pages, we get to live in a world where tea solves problems and murder doesn't mean trauma.
Ellora
Coffee Breaks Around the World: How Humans Pause ☕
You know what I love about coffee?
It's not just the caffeine. It's the pause.
That ritual moment where you step back and just... breathe.
Here's what's interesting: Every culture has figured out their own version of this pause.
Fika (Sweden) 🇸🇪
Swedes don't just "take coffee breaks" – they fika. It's practically a religion.
- A daily ritual (often twice a day!) of coffee and cinnamon buns
- You stop working. Completely. Phones down, emails ignored
- Taking breaks makes you more productive, not less
Café Culture (France) 🇫🇷
The French don't drink coffee on the go. That would be barbaric.
- Coffee is consumed seated, slowly
- The café is an extension of your living room
- A café crème in the morning, espresso after lunch
Coffee with Cardamom (Middle East) ☕️
In Arabic culture, coffee isn't rushed , it's an event.
- Strong coffee flavored with cardamom, served in tiny cups
- Host pours, guest drinks at least one cup, conversation matters more
- Coffee is hospitality, relationship, connection
Israeli Coffee Culture (My Home) 🇮🇱
We've created our own chaotic ritual:
- Strong, consumed rapidly while checking phones
- "Café hafuch" (upside-down coffee, basically a latte)
- We say we're too busy, but cafes are packed from 7 AM to midnight with people who apparently have nowhere to be 😂
My Own Coffee Ritual
I make my coffee the same way every morning: Americano, no milk, no sugar.
I just sit and exist for 10 minutes before diving into the day.
It's when I do my best thinking. Not forced, not structured, just letting my mind wander while everyone wakes up.
What We're Really Pausing For
Whether it's fika or tea time, what we're really doing is creating space.
Space to think, to connect, to remember we're human beings, not human doings.
Maybe the real productivity hack isn't another time management technique, but remembering that all work and no coffee makes us dull.
Here's to pauses. To rituals. To small rebellions of stopping when everyone expects you to keep going.
My latest obsession on the weekends!
Word Bites! 📚✨
Sisu (Finnish)
A quiet kind of strength.
Not loud motivation or hype, but the ability to keep going when things are hard and no one is watching.
Less “New Year, New Me.”
More “I’ll take one small step today.”
January in History 🌍
- January 1, 1863 - The Emancipation Proclamation ✊
President Abraham Lincoln declared all enslaved people in Confederate states to be free, fundamentally transforming the Civil War's purpose and paving the way for the 13th Amendment. - January 9, 2007 - Steve Jobs Unveils the iPhone 📱
Jobs introduced the first iPhone, declaring "Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone," launching a device that would transform how humanity communicates, works, and lives. - January 16, 1979 - Iranian Revolution Begins 🇮🇷
Iran’s Shah left the country, marking a turning point that led to the fall of the monarchy and reshaped Middle Eastern politics for decades. - January 12, 2010 - Haiti Earthquake 🌎
A devastating magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, killing over 200,000 people and triggering one of the largest humanitarian relief efforts in modern history. - January 27, 1945 - Liberation of Auschwitz 🕯️
Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, revealing the scale of the Holocaust and becoming a lasting symbol of remembrance and the fight against genocide.
Recommendations 🌟
What I'm reading / watching / listening to this month:
🎧 Listening - Easy Days (my Spotify playlist)
From the first sip of coffee to the last swim of the day.
Mellow tunes for slow mornings, golden sunsets, and moments that move gently, music for drifting, not rushing.
📺 Series - Jack Ryan & Bosch
Smart, steady storytelling. Less noise, more depth. The kind of shows that don’t shout for attention but keep you quietly hooked.
📖 Book - Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
A sharp reminder that growth often comes from getting out of your own way. Calm, disciplined, and grounding, perfect for the start of a year.
Wrap-Up
That's all for today. Stay tuned for the Februaryedition.
I'm also here:
- Velonova.io
- Ratings on IMDB
- Playlists Spotify
You made it all the way here.... thank you for sharing this coffee with me ☕❤️.
If there's a topic you'd like me to dive into next, just send it my way.
Ciao!
- Tanya
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