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  • 1 min read

2025 01 30

So the chinese new year holidays are over.

I finally learned git. I know it is a basic skill. And I have been using it for over 10 years. But I never really bothered to learn it in depth. I was happy with just the basic add, commit, push, pull commands. But I finally learned how to use branches and merge them and all that stuff. I finally documented everything I learned about Git here

Even though it would seem I have not made any progress on the side quest of making a flutter app for improving mental math skills, I have learned quite a bit about flutter and github pages and making an app that is for both mobile and web using the same codebase.

I haven't had any success with github actions to auto deploy my flutter app to github pages. I tried many ways, but everything leads to errors and the AI chat bots like openai and gemini are not able to help me. I guess I will have to learn it myself. There is no shortcut to github actions. And I have created a new page for github actions here similar to the git page. Hopefully, the digital garden will grow and not die.

My investments in Indian stock market is tanking. Brother says it has to do with the budget. Anyway they were long term investments and so I am not worried.

I finally got myself a "Now" page. I hope to keep it updated at a frequency of once a month.

  • 3 min read

2025 01 26

Chinese New Years long holidays with no travel plans means a lot of alone time. And alone time is great for picking up a lot of backlog side quests. Some of the things I want to get done during this time:

  1. Get back to flutter coding and get done with a simple math game to distract myself every time I want a 5 minute break.

  2. Learn Github Actions - I know it is very powerful, but I have never bothered learning it and maybe it makes sense to like allocate an entire day to learn everything I can about github actions and how to use it efficiently for different project ideas.

  3. Build myself a python library to abstract a lot of data structure/pandas/visualization code into simple functions. These should be related to FP&A related stuff that I regularly use.

Apart from these, the long holidays is also a good time to reset body clock. I want to fit in an hour of workout in the morning (some cardio and some body weight workouts). And pick some hobby up, like maybe learn one simple song using the guitar. And probably get good at keeping this digital garden alive. Back in 2004, I used to blog everyday. But these days, I have lost that ability to find something everyday to write about.

I thought about learning LISP also during the holidays. Been hearing about how "Lisp is difficult, but if you keep at it, you will hit an AHA moment, which will change the way you think about programming and make you a better programmer". I tried to dig a bit deeper and turns out the "aha moment" in Lisp comes from its philosophy rather than its utility. Python makes you a productive programmer quickly, while Lisp rewires how you think about programming itself. It's the difference between learning a tool and internalizing a new way to conceptualize problems. But that doesn't mean you can't learn to conceptualize problems differently just using Python. And I looked at a few examples and figured my way of thinking about programs is already quite aligned with Lisp. I always think transformations, compositions, and symbolic computation. And this is not just for programming. Even when I am solving any problem, I am lazy enough to think of transformation that will make the problem easier to solve (converting an algebra problem to a geometry problem etc.)

Now on why I plan to learn flutter? I tried my best to avoid having to learn Dart/Flutter. I first dabbled with flutter when I couldn't find a decent enough app that will allow me to learn a language with just audio books (like the Pimsluer/Michele Thomas audio files). There was no decent audio file playing app that would support learning language, which required the following features:

  1. Ability to go back 10 seconds (a lot of time you miss something and you just want to go 10 seconds, but you have to fidget around the slider, which takes you 30 second or 1 minute back)

  2. Ability to store the progress thro' a lesson so that when you come back you start from there.

  3. Ability to mark the lessons which are done.

  4. Ability to run the app in background (yes music players allow it, but then they don't have the ability to skip 10 seconds or rewind 10 seconds)

Anyway, so I built that app. It was good. I used to it to learn Korean. But then I didn't really enjoy working with flutter/dart. I am spoiled by python. But I am not able to find a decent enough python framework that can support both android mobile app and web app development. I tried to do pure html/js/css for making apps, but hated that equally. So figured I will go back to flutter.

  • 1 min read

2025 01 01

Plans for this year

  • 1 min read

2024 12 01

Started Advent of Code 2024. The first problem was not too bad. This time using just python and not experimenting with other languages. I think for the rest of the month this will keep me busy. I also plan to visit my mom over the winter holidays. It isn't exactly holidays, but I things will be slow at work and I should be able to work from home. Also I think I am far more productive in hotter climates than in Korea. Sub-zero temperatures make me ultra lazy. When the sun goes down at 5pm and it is super dark, it seems like the day is over.

Working out at home is also a pain during winter. I prefer running outside, but that is not possible these days. So I look forward to running when I visit my mom.

  • 2 min read

2024 11 24

Manufacturing in India is pretty hard. The access to a makerspace is pretty limited. Recently the Telengana government announced a makerspace in the state. I am not sure how good it is, but it is a good start. Having access to a prototyping lab is a game changer.

While setting up Tenx Farm we had to make a lot of things from scratch. We would get the raw materials like sheet plywood, aluminium, galvanised steel, etc. and then we would cut them, drill them, weld them etc. It was a fun learning experience. But making things for the farm had the luxury of being able to make mistakes and a high tolerance for errors in design. We would often do what in India is called "jugaad" to make things work.

But when it comes to manufacturing products for a B2C market, the tolerance for errors is much lower. And the cost of making a mistake is much higher. So we need to be much more careful with our design.

These days I think a lot about getting into the manufacturing space. I want my next startup to be making some physical product. I am kind of sure on the idea: a product that makes it easier to grow plants in the outdoor garden of a villa. The product should take care of the water and fertiliser needs of the plants. It should be able to sense the moisture of the soil and the moisture and temperature of the air and then decide how much water and fertiliser to give to the plant. It should also be able to alert the owner if it detects that the plant is not doing well.

I believe growing food will get more local and with the suburbs expanding like they are and the villa culture catching on in metros, there should be a market for such a product.

  • 1 min read

2024 10 09

Back in India to take care of many things. It is also going to be about an year since my dad passed away. There are many rituals that need to be taken care of. So it is going to be a busy month.

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2024 07 07

I have been terrible at keeping this blog alive. But then again, I don't want to add pressure on me to write something everyday. I already have a huge list of things to get done by end of 2024.

Recently, I have first hand experienced what happens when you over-hire people in an org. To justify their head count, people start making everything complex and a blackbox. People start using statements like "we have to check if it is good", "I don't think it is working" etc. Nothing irritates me more than when people use vague statements. I always ask them, to their annoyment "what do you mean by good?", "why do you think it is not working?".

Nothing drains me more than a big team.

  • 3 min read

2024 03 24

I started playing Chess when I was 6 years old. I didn't start on the board. I am not sure I would have persisted playing chess had I started playing over the board.

My first experience with chess was on a computer. Back in early 1990s, my dad got a DOS based computer. It had four games on it: Prince of Persia, Dave, Gorilla (a game for two players to throw banana over some sky scrappers that deeply got me interested in geometry) and then Chess.

Since there weren't many choices to play on the computer, but there was a deep desire to be on the computer, I ended up playing Chess a lot.

I never learned Chess formally and hated theory until high school. From 9th grade to 12th grade I almost played Chess regularly over the board with a bunch of intellectual friends discussing random math/science/philosophy topics. It was a regular affair. Everyday after school I would bike down 5km to go to my friend's place which was by the sea, play an hour or 2 of beach football, then go up his apartment's terrace and play chess and discuss math/physics etc.

The friend whose place we played at used to go for chess classes. The other friend was a nerd who strongly believes in training and learning. I was the lazy one. I neither took classes, nor did I bother putting in the hard work of research and studying openings. I resorted more to trash talking and making my opponents feel they missed something and cause them to make unforced errors in their meticulous play which I would then go on to exploit.

As my strategy/theory was weak, I preferred to exchange off all the pieces and bring it end game. And I was pretty strong in end games. So even without training, without practice my scores against my friends were pretty good.

In college I got into Go. I played Go a lot. first with friends. When finding people who could spare 2-3 hours to play a game got tough, I started playing against the computer. One can't trash talk to a computer. I had to really think strategy. This is when I got deeply interested in theory and later when I got back to Chess (during the chess.com and lichess.org boom), I focused a lot on theory. My openings were solid. My end games were top notch. But I started to platue. I would play likes 10-15 games a day and yet my chess never improved.

So I have finally stopped playing games and now I focus on just solving chess puzzles. When I get a few minutes free time I just play survival or 5 minute puzzle rush on Chess Cup. I know even chess.com and lichess.org has puzzles, but then I get distracted and play games or tournaments or some other things on them. Chess Cup keeps it simple.

Right now my highest puzzle run in 36. It is not bad. I usually come up in top 10-15 in daily rankings. I want to continue this for at least a few months, till I consistently hit 40+ scores in the puzzle rushes.

  • 1 min read

2023 12 25

Back in the 2010s, when ever I left Singapore I would feel like I am traveling and that I need to get back home. Even when I left to some place for a long time, like doing my MBA in China or Korea, I would always feel Singapore is home. And that I have to get back home. Even when I worked in Korea in 2017-2020, Singapore was always home. I would make regular trips to Singapore. stay there only for 15-20 days. But those days felt like I was home. And when I returned back to Korea from the trip, it would feel like I am on a trip and that I need to get back to Singapore.

Singapore in many sense was home no matter where I lived.

Today I am traveling out of Korea to visit mom and brother. But I don't feel like I am going home. For the first time it feels like I am going on a trip and that I need to get back to Korea. And that my house in Korea is my base.

And then it struck me. Home to me was dad. Where ever dad was I always felt that is home. Since my dad passed away, suddenly I feel homeless and my house in Korea is what remotely resembles a home.

  • 1 min read

2023 10 06

  • Get rid of things and simplify possession. Keep house super organised and clean, and get into a routine.
  • Complete Advent of Code 2022
  • Finish reading the Elon Musk book by Walter Isaacson
  • Work on an App or some software project
  • Work on a hardware or physical side project
  • Get done with chores
  • Learn Korean Language (Complete Pimsleur Korean A by end of October)
  • Bike as much as possible
  • Fill up second brain when ever bored
  • Get back to blogging regularly