How to write more? The bottleneck is psychological. There's a natural censor in your brain that blurts out objections and reprimands as you start to write. To remedy this, practice enough mindfulness so that you can catch the censor every time it blurts something. Eventually your head becomes
In the grand taxonomy of human endeavor, three species have emerged from the primordial soup of late-stage digital capitalism: the sloptimist, the sloperator, and their shared philosophy, slopportunism. These are not merely portmanteaus born of linguistic laziness—though that would be appropriately on-brand—but rather, they represent a complete epistemological
What am I getting from the internet? The answer to this used to be self-evident back when I accessed it from a dial-up connection in 2009. There was the real world context that I inhabited, and the internet was a portal where I would access information from distant worlds. Today,
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance was on my reading wishlist for a while. From the title, I assumed the book would be something like a tasteful self-help book, a quirky blend of kōanic mysticism applied to motorcycle maintenance, with a nudge and a wink for the reader, who
to amuse myself and steer large language models
I turn 25 today. On this occasion, I will talk about 25 things that have served me well.
tldraw is canvas software that runs on your browser (like MS Paint, excalidraw etc). This project caught my attention when I saw demos of fun AI experiments with the canvas interface*. Even the plain canvas software without the experimental AI frills is delightful to use—it's become the
I also started using twttr again in 2024 after a couple of years out. I never used it because I considered twitter problematic. Somehow I figured out the algorithm this time around. My feed is fairly good. The one weird trick is to aggressively mute anyone on my feed who
I used to be cynical about things. It wasn't unusual for me tell people that everything is crap. It still rings true to me—the difference is that these days I've found a way to unify this with an optimistic outlook. Optimism is the ultimate form
I love NYC because it is just the right amount of unpleasant. It is a city that will keep you on your toes by throwing curveballs at you—thus, forcing you to pay attention to how fractally interesting it is. It is also a city that will floor you with
I got off after a fifteen-something hour long flight from a different side of the globe. Then I convinced an immigration officer that yes I'm a Tourist in your country and even though I may come as a suspiciously single-unit youthful foreigner I intend not to overstay my
I was walking across a really long passageway to change trains at the Times Sq-42 St subway, one of the busiest subway stations in the world. Among the usual informational boards, I see a peculiar message. OVERSLEPT, I walk more, and there's another board. SO TIRED, It keeps
After having spent over a decade in Marathahalli, I decided I wanted to live in Bangalore [1]. So I found myself a 3BHK flat in central Bangalore [2] a couple of months ago. Of my two flatmates, one of them got a new job that required them to move cities.
Advice I would have given myself 10 years ago. A lot of people don't attend to "the internal lever" enough when dealing with life. This lever exists in you and not out in the world. It's easier to alter your inner world than it
A friend recently pointed out that I have a discernable vocal fry. I had to look it up—a short description immediately made me understand that I had it. Vocal fry is the lowest register (tone) of your voice characterized by its deep, creaky, breathy sound. It's the
“No one can define or measure justice, democracy, security, freedom, truth, or love. No one can define or measure any value. But if no one speaks up for them, if systems aren’t designed to produce them, if we don’t speak about them and point toward their presence or
The best kind of advice I have received in my life is so obvious that it feels stupid to say it out loud. Advice like this is often ridiculed online for being simplistic (and thus useless). I used to share this sentiment. But I don't anymore. Turns out,
In memoriam of the year that won't exist anymore. <!--more--> Quality of life improvements (feel free to steal) * Writing more—enabled by this low-friction-to-post platform (writefreely). * Coffee brewing as a hobby for fun and mindfulness. You may substitute this with anything culinary. * Picking up Masala Lab
It was value education period (shortened to V. Ed.), sixth grade. The format deviated from the usual years where a teacher would be assigned to make us open our V. Ed. books to imbibe ourselves with holistic values to become good citizens. V. Ed. was weird as it was. I
Programming language discourse is silly. It gives the impression that the language you use is the one important parameter with all the leverage when most people are working with hundreds or thousands of parameters. The art of software design is a quest to make robust analogies that transcend computation substrates
A Pattern Language is a beautiful tome on architecture and urban design that I found in my company's physical library. It had a pale yellow minimalist cover, a small form, and some blotchy typography accompanied by evocative photographs and lively doodles explaining the essence of its ideas. I
These days I derive little joy from my possessions of necessity. Knowledge workers, over the last couple of decades, have traded the engagement of our senses for an upgrade in flexibility. I shall elaborate. Let's take a phone. Here's a rough chronology. Notice the gradual loss
There's a pattern of things I predictably like—which I shall now call "just the right amount of unpleasant". Some examples to follow. Food and Beverage * Fermented, funky stuff—kimchi, kombucha, certain cheeses and curd have just the right amount of "spoilt" sourness to
Is art paintings, sculpture, architecture, theatre, dance, film, poetry, literature, craft and criticism? It's hard to describe it in concretions. Sometimes concretions aren't enough. Let me try something more abstract—to me, good art is powerful compression. The human condition is vast and complex, the only