Micros

It seems as if there is always a trade-off between predictability with types when writing code and the speed at which this code can be written. I’m writing about programming languages, as developer tools. Think about Rust, OCaml, even typed-Python. One is easier to implement and one is more robust to bugs. You don’t want to launch a software 100% free of bugs after it has become obsolete. At the same time, you also don’t want to launch a software so premature that it is as reliable as the flip of a coin. ...

I watched Netflix’s new series called Scoop and finished it all within a couple of days. It was so engaging. It breaks my heart to watch it. I know that this kind of thing happens. Politics. Journalism. Ambitions. Scapegoats. I’m really thinking about ethics. To think of what humans are capable of, it leaves me pessimistic about us as a society. I don’t know if there’s ever a solution to this. Politics and power games exist in every society large enough to be called a society. One person, motivated by their own ambition or survival, would not look twice at the consequences of their actions. Doesn’t matter whether it’s a capitalist economy or some other kind, there will always be this power game and there will always be losers. ...

This is uncommon, but while building my personal life management app, I thought of building a todo list app on blockchain, where each todo is a block that cannot be deleted. You have to do it. I don’t know how it helps. I guess it doesn’t. Not at all, really. But then I thought of it and it was one of those “aha, that actually isn’t half bad” moments that was actually very very bad. ...

Threads of things/works/todos. I started with learning about Coq through the Logical Foundations book and I have done about 4-5 chapters from it. After that I got busy and it is still at that point. I also started learning Rust and I haven’t moved ahead much in the past few days on the Rust OS book. I felt like there would be more but these are the only two that I have started and not kept going with. I was tempted to start a few more things but did not because I had this in mind. I should learn how to keep removing things out of that todo bucket. ...

This week was extremely tiring. I have been finishing up on whatever has been on my plate at work. Besides that, I had taken up a consulting gig for a friend and that turned out to be much more work than I had first imagined. I had a lightning talk this Friday at JSConf, and I had to complete my Google Summer of Code work as well. This was the first week of GSoC and my mentors seemed to be quite happy with the work that I had done. I didn’t find as much time to work more on it as I had promised on the weekend but I’m sure that I can cover up on it. This week was extraordinarily tiring, but I have done most of my work for the consulting gig, my mentors were happy about the work that I had put in at GSoC, and I did do most of the work that was on my plate at Pipal Academy. I wish I never have a week like this again. It was extremely tiring and full of context switching between different things. I should be more cautious before taking up some work and actually enquire further about it. It was my fault for overcommitting, but I’m happy that I’m coming out on top and that I am in fact completing my work on time with a high standard of quality. ...

It is decided that I will be leaving Pipal Academy, after a year of working there. I should’ve made another post for it, and I will do it, but right now there is too much on my plate. I have a conference talk coming up tomorrow and I’ll be preparing for it from 3pm onwards today. I didn’t work on Capstone yesterday because I met with my parents and then had to work on the TML project. I have a GSOC catch-up coming up tomorrow, the first one after the start of the coding period and I haven’t done anything about it yet. It’s not that I’m not working, but I’m not able to give enough focus to all of them. ...

I got interested in the idea of fasting after a conversation and wanted to try it out. I decided to do a 24-hour fast after the lunch I had yesterday. That’s a good enough start and won’t overwhelm me.

I was worried that my last post was too long. It’s actually not. Still small enough. How’s this for a micro post, past myself?

This is turning into a journal. But that’s okay I’ve been in Bangalore since a few days. It feels different. I’m for sure not as productive as I used to be when I was home. Definitely not at multiple things, but I’m liking this. This is like a good vacation to me. I still work at nights and I am productive enough for it. Interesting things have been happening to me. ...

I tried rubberducking today to fix a bug. It has felt a bit weird to me before although I have done the same thing in some other form, like while pair programming and code review. This was the first time that I remember consciously practicing rubber ducking. And it worked very well. I didn’t even complete one paragraph and I figured out what was wrong. This was the whole thing that I wrote: ...