Chandrasekar | Front-end developer

Going live

2019-02-10T00:00:00Z

I just made my website live thanks to Kylie's post. This is just a freaking text file with paragraph tags now. I hope to get this looking proper soon. When I have an update, I am just going to put a dash and add it below this.

Analysis Paralysis

2019-02-11T00:00:00Z

It's been nearly two years since I got this domain with the intention of setting up a personal website/blog. I have since then been thinking of different ways to set it up. This is just a long winding post that describes what I have tried so far. I am writing this mostly so that I have some content to work with, instead of just Lorem Ipsum.

I knew I pretty much wanted to build a website that followed IndieWeb principles. I found the movement intriguing. Being able to write on my own domain and syndicate this content to third party silos like Twitter and Medium was the main draw. I loved what Jeremy Keith was doing at adactio.com

This lead to a period where I started considering the options I had to build this out. I am a developer. So, on some level, I wanted this to be a place where I experiment with new technology. I figured I wanted to use React, but making it a single page app seemed to be a bad fit, and overkill for a blog. I started considering various static site generators (Jekyll, Hugo, Gatsby et al) but figured I did not want a build step or make a commit everytime I wanted to update my blog. I wanted a posting interface that I could use when I was on the move.

It was around this time Next.js launched. It seemed perfect for the job. It offered an easy way to build server rendered react pages. The pages loaded fast. And it did not even require Javascript to render itself on the browser. I was excited, and created a basic list view of blog posts.

But I still needed a writing interface, and I did not fancy having to open my text editor whenever I wanted to post something. So I started learning Node.js and built a rudimentary posting interface, where the entries would be stored inside MongoDB. I was new to server programming and got stuck at a point. Between other work, this lead to a gap of a few months, and when I came back to the project, the rudimentary blog I had built was throwing errors. The Next.js router API had changed, and they had also deprecated the CSS-in-JS solution they had launched with. I eventually fixed it. But I figured it was too early to adopt the framework (it was still in beta). And I felt I was not prepared to handle any issues that may come up later on, because I did not entirely understand how it worked.

Then I went the opposite direction, and started seeing if I could use a battle tested CMS. My first obvious choice was Wordpress. It had a neat IndieWeb plugin pack that set up IndieAuth, Micropub endpoints, and Post kinds. It worked. I was able to authenticate using IndieAuth and post to Twitter from my domain. I briefly used brid.gy for Webmentions and quill.p3k.io to post content and quite liked the setup. But the website was still only a tech demo at this point, and I had to build the actual theme before I could call it my home and invited people over. But working with PHP templates made me feel like I was spending time on something tangential to what I wanted to be learning. The page load speed was also not as fast as I wanted it to be. I was also concerned about keeping wordpress updated and breaking these plugins. I felt it was a good option, but I wanted to know if I could do better.

My next option was to use Wordpress as a headless CMS and combine it with Next.js (which I was ready to try again). I had a DigitalOcean box set up at this point. I had to figure out how to run both WP REST API and Next.js on the same box. I then stumbled upon the headless WP+React starter kit which looked like exactly what I wanted. I got it working eventually, but it seemed slow (could be because I was running it on a $5 box!). But my bigger concern was the fact that it was opaque, with a lot of moving parts, that could break at any point. I figured I'd just leave it at this point and build something from scratch myself -_-

In the board games community, there is a common term 'Analysis Paralysis' (or just 'AP') to describe when a player is stuck with too many options on their turn. It occurs when there are many interlocking possibilities in the game, and analysing each one of them takes up time. Turns take forever because the player is unable to arrive at a decision. This is exactly how I felt at this point, and it was mostly my doing.

Anyway, I saw Kylie's post last night and got this page up in a fit of excitement. I created a repo on Github, used their built-in editor to add some text, and pointed it to my domain using Github sites. And that's all it took to get something up.

Now, I hope to build on top of this, and not overthink again!

Getting started

2019-02-12T00:00:00Z

I want to record my process of building this site. However, writing a blog post for every update can get boring very fast. I instead want to only record the thought process and major decisions as blog posts here, while putting up routine technical updates on a separate changelog page (again copying from Kylie :D)

I wrote the first post thinking no one would read it, and did not care about how it looked. But it was a mistake, and I pity Kylie for having to read long lines of unformatted text. First order of things is to treat this as a proper HTML page and add some inline styles. I would then be able to add hyperlinks and images without being bothered just because I called it a 'text file with some paragraph tags'.

Second thing to do would be to actually pull this repo onto my local machine so that I don't have to edit this on Github everytime :D

Time to add some structure

2019-02-13T00:00:00Z

I have reached a point where writing new content is getting unwieldly. I have to keep adding markup and dates for all the content manually, and the page is getting too lengthy. Time to give the computer some work :)

A good static site generator should take care of a lot of this stuff. Now, I have been in this situation before, and I don't want to get stuck in this loop again.

I have decided to use Eleventy for the build and I am going to commit to it. I picked it for the following reasons:

It allows me to pick a templating language of my choice, including just plain HTML.
It does not enforce a strict directory structure.
It is written in Node, and I can use Javascript. I don't have to introduce another language into the mix.
It has flexible options for fetching data.
It has a proven record of being used to build a site with IndieWeb capabilities.

I read through Eleventy's documentation and everything seemed to make sense. I think reading Max Böck's post (linked above) totally convinced me about this choice. His site looks beautiful and if my page can look half as good, I will be happy.

So Eleventy it is.

I love Netlify

2019-02-20T00:00:00Z

This page was previously hosted using Github pages. After I added Eleventy, I figured I wanted to serve the page from a different folder, which will contain the static build of the site. This meant I had to either change the name of the build folder in eleventy or do a hack involving Git submodules.

Figured I will give Netlify a try, because everyone has been raving about it. I thought I was just noodling around with the settings but before I knew it, the site was running on Netlify with automatic builds and a HTTPS certificate. And all this for no cost (this bothers me a little). No wonder they are recommended by so many people. It is an example of making the user look Badass. Well done.

A long gap

2019-05-13T00:00:00Z

It's been a while since I paid attention to this page. I still intend to stick with it. First order of things will be to get a navigation menu and RSS feed up so that I can atleast start journaling. Trying to avoid overthinking this.

Week notes 1: WWDC

2019-06-07T00:00:00Z

Okay, I am thinking of making a habit of writing week notes whenever I can.

The week started with WWDC. I stayed up watching the entire Keynote. I found all the announcements pretty exciting.
The Mac Pro announcement caught my imagination quite a bit. It was totally not meant for me and targetted at video and audio professionals. But I think there is an aspirational quality to the hardware. Made me want to do something that would make use of the hardware. It would be perfect for creative coding like the work of Joshua Davis. But I figure it might not be such a great idea for someone with motion sickness.
On the other hand, I got pretty excited by the announcement of iPadOS. I love my iPad. I convinced myself to get it last year thinking it would somehow lead to better productivity. I resolved to use it only for note taking and reading and ended up not at all using the device that much at first. I later got to really love it as a consumption device. It is probably one of the favorite things I own.
I installed the developer beta of iPadOS with a friend's account and now I am just playing with all the new features. Using a mouse on the iPad was pretty cool.
I also ended up getting a Dual Shock controller from someone on OLX. Looking forward to using it to play games more often on the iPad.
I am going to cut this update short because I am nearly out of time and Beeminder will charge me $10 if I don't post this now.

Week notes 2: Cult fitness

2019-06-24T00:00:00Z

I skipped a week. But here are the week notes from last week.

I am writing this on Monday morning instead of Friday evening like I intended. The first thing I am noticing is how tough it is to recollect events from even the past week. It's not like I am old, but it seems like the brain really likes to put things in a drawer as soon as it can and forget about it.
Starting last month, I signed up for paid trial classes at Cult fitness and have been attending classes every weekday morning. The trial ended last week, and I had to decide if I wanted to continue. I like cult's format and their focus on showing up to class. For now, I have kind of decided I am not going ahead with the subscription inspite of maintaining a good attendance record. Cult did not have the option to pick monthly classes, and I did not trust myself with a long term plan. I have decided to take up classes at a local yoga centre instead. It is not a fancy place. They don't have a trial, so I'll be jumping in blind. But it is closer home and much cheaper. This seems like a bad decision on paper but I will know in a month's time :)
Last week was pretty hectic on the work front. We are getting close to release date and I got to squash some bugs on a daily basis. Inspite of this, I got to watch two films in IMAX. I watched Men in black: International. It was okay. Not as bad as the reviews made it out to be. The aliens looked cool. The second film was Toy Story 4 and I loved it. Some of Pixar's recent films have had a bloated middle portion. Toy 4 does not have this problem. The jokes work, and the emotions hit the right spot.
I failed my beeminder cooking streak again and lost $10. This is turning out to be very expensive for me and it is starting to hurt. I really need to start cooking and fix my relationship with food. I am trying not to turn to food when I am feeling down. I think the key is keeping my fridge stocked and having a bunch of handy recipes in mind.
Water shortage has hit Chennai in a bad way this summer. The lakes are all dry. Water supply is being rationed in my apartment. We've had a bit of rains over the last couple of days but it is far from enough. I hope we have a better monsoon this year and somehow get through this year.

Week notes 3: Ramesh's wedding

2019-07-08T00:00:00Z

It is another Monday and here are the week notes from the past week

I am cheating and including something from this morning in last week's notes. I attended Ramesh's wedding today. I thought he would be one of the last people in the school gang to get married, so it was quite a surprise when he announced it to everyone last week. It was a simple wedding in a small hall. No reception or any other rubbish. I appreciated how the whole thing was conducted without any fuss. Both of them looked happy. I am happy for them.
Two weeks ago, I made the decision to sign up for local yoga classes instead of getting a subscription at Cult fitness. Turns out I am averse to going to classes where the teacher gives any sort of personal attention. I talked to this Yoga teacher on the phone and he instructed me to bring a notebook, a yoga mat, and to show up on time. I ended up not attending even a single class. I instead renewed my cult membership through the app, and I have been attending classes again since last week. I like the fact that I can simply open the app to book a class and just show up. It is impersonal but I somehow find this more comfortable.
I have been short on sleep. Had a few late nights last week. We went out for Anand's birthday dinner on Friday and I got back only at 2AM. Soundarya hosted a farewell party before she leaves to Canada this month, and I again got back only past 2AM on Saturday. I slept late on Sunday and had to wake up at 5AM to attend the wedding this morning. I need to catch up on sleep and get back to proper routine this week.
As an aside, I am noticing that a LOT of people from my extended circle are moving to Canada. Getting a Canadian PR seems to be easy if you have a master's degree and a decent IELTS score. I have both, and my well meaning friends have been pestering me to apply for a PR. I somehow don't like the idea. I need to first get a TC from my college before I apply for the transcripts to be sent to Canada. And who has time for that? :P
Last week I realised that my day gets derailed if something interferes with my morning routine. This could be a meeting, some support issue, or even some piece of news I want to read more about on Twitter. My goal this week is to aggressively defend my morning time. I've started coming to office only at 11AM in order to maintain some overlap with the rest of the team. This means I reach home late, and mornings are when I get to spend time for myself.
I read Seneca's essay 'On the shortness of life' and found a lot to think about. It is amazing how advice from 2000 years ago is still relevant today. I immediately placed an order for Marcus Aurelius' 'Meditations' and I am reading it right now. I am thinking I should write about it in detail once I am done.
These posts are turning out to resemble long winded journal entries. I feel emboldened by the fact that no one is reading this. My original intention was to also post interesting links and videos from the past week. Maybe I should start collecting and posting them from next week.

Week notes 4: Battlestar Galactica

2019-07-15T00:00:00Z

This one is going to be short, so here it goes

I managed to stick to a morning routine for most of last week. I got ample sleep and managed to not put on any weight, so that's good. I have been attending classes at Cult daily. As I posted last week, our water is being rationed and we get running water only till 9:30AM in the morning. This has proven to be a good thing because I am forced to finish my bath early and this gives me more quality time in the morning because I cannot sleep again after having my bath.
I have been trying guided meditations using the 'Waking up' app on my phone. I paid for a discounted subscription when they launched and I am getting to use it only now. I like it. I am not sure if it is having a positive impact on my day, but I think I have a better understanding of what the practise of meditation is all about.
I got to play board games after a long, long time. I also got to meet my gaming friends after a while. Had a good time. I got to play at this new board game cafe called The Board Room this time. It is pretty cool. Lot of natural light and a good menu. Chennai now has two proper board game cafes!
We played Battlestar Galactica. I have been wanting to play it for a long time. It turned out to be a little long for what it is. But I am happy that I now have a grasp of the rules and would like to try it again with a different group perhaps.
A couple from San Francisco who were at the cafe spotted us playing BSG and offered hints. They were pretty excited to see us play. The lady had a very cheerful face. They ended up helping us with the rules quite a bit. It was obvious that they had played the game a LOT and it looked like the game would benefit from having a regular group.
Spent most of Sunday indoors. Went to the beach. Figured I'll try eating some pasta because it had been a while. It was horrible. Then figured I'll eat a Kulfi because it had been a while. It was also horrible. Came back slightly bummed. It was a happening sunday for sports fans, with the Wimbledon Final, Cricket World Cup Final, and F1 happening at the same time. Federer lost to a tie breaker and England won the World Cup after a super over. And I slept through all of it!

Writing about designing this site

2019-07-18T00:00:00Z

I figure I might as well as start writing about my plans for this site. I am clearly not making any progress with the design or even getting this close to where I want it to be. I hope writing about it will help me get out of this rut.

Week notes 5: Prince of Egypt

2019-07-21T00:00:00Z

I hurt my back during workout. Nothing serious. Good thing that it happened closer to the weekend. I am recovering and must stick to Yoga classes next week.
I spent the weekend watching a few films I have been meaning to catch up with. I watched 'Missing Link' from Laika Studios. They make gorgeous stop motion animated films. It was a good adventure film and well made, but I felt some parts of it were cliched. It did not stick with me after watching.
I then watched 'Prince of Egypt'. It is a legit classic. Looks beautiful and the story is told with a lot of love and reverance. It does not shy away from showing the darker parts of the story. I think this might go down as one of my all time favorites. I am happy I finally got to watch it.
I finished Saturday by watching 'State and Main'. I loved 'The Verdict' and wanted to find other films that were written by David Mamet. This was a low key romantic comedy with a great cast and I enjoyed it a lot. It has a calm vibe and great music. Rebecca Pidgeon was super cute. I am surprised she was not big in the 90s.
I wanted to make more progress on this site but things haven't moved. Hoping to write about it and get things going this weekend.
I have been listening to "Good Omens" on Libby as an Audiobook. It is narrated by Martin Jarvis and he does a very good job. I have a copy of the physical book as well. I started reading the book and tried listening to the same portions in the Audiobook. I did not find any of the humour missing in the audiobook. If anything, the dramatization made it more fun. This is such a great book.
I have been spending a lot of time on Twitter and I think it is having a negative impact on my head. My goal next week will be to stay away from Twitter during week days.

Week notes 6: Netlify CMS

2019-07-31T16:34:11Z

I am pretty chuffed right now. I finally connected this site to Netlify CMS. This means I don’t have to open a text editor on my desktop and push to Github every time I need to post something. I am writing this on my iPad and I am pretty happy with this setup. It took me around 30 minutes to set it up. Should have done this sooner. Without further ado, here are the notes from last week:

Last week was pretty interesting. Entering the week, I had a pretty solid morning routine and I was quite happy with how I was doing. I had quit the diet, but I was feeling pretty much in control. That is, until my parents went on a holiday. They left home on Wednesday, leaving me alone at home, and my routine went for a toss. I woke up late, skipped meals, did not attend a single workout class, ordered junk on swiggy and neglected basic housekeeping. Despite limiting my movement to only the bed and dining table, the house somehow became a mess. When my parents told me about their plan to leave, I told myself I would use this as an opportunity to redecorate the house, clean everything, and cook 3 meals for myself daily. Turns out I am just a lazy bum (surprise, surprise).
But the interesting part about the whole episode is the fact that I felt zero guilt or remorse about being sloppy. I was fine with it. I think I would have usually gone on a spiral of blaming myself and in turn ’punished’ myself by being more sloppy. But good sense prevailed. On the Sunday before my parents returned, I went out and treated myself to a good meal. The weather was spectacular. I felt good and slept off early. It took me all of 2 hours to clean up all the mess before my parents returned. They did not notice anything particularly messy. All good.
More about the meal - I went to Broken Bridge cafe at MRC nagar. It’s a pretty good place. It is adjacent to Radio room so they serve alcohol also. I went alone, so I did not drink anything. They have something called ’Thayir sadham fritters’ which is basically hardened curd rice with narthanga, battered, fried, and served with a dip. It was pretty good. I could imagine it going well with drinks. Main course was a very good pasta. And the finishing note was ’Filter coffee Tiramisu’. Which is basically Tiramisu served in a brass davara-tumbler set. It is probably the best Tiramisu I’ve had till date. I liked the place a lot, and made a mental note to return with friends. Oh, and the waiter shared my name and treated me well despite me going alone.
Apart from this, I got to meet a friend from college, try new breakfast cereal, and try another new dessert place. I don’t want to sound tedious by talking about the details. It was overall a good week in life. Hoping I return to routine this week.

Week notes 7: Deepavali

2019-10-28T08:35:54Z

I made a resolution to stay away from Sugar last week. It was a pretty brave thing to do considering it was the week of Deepavali and there was bound to be gratuitous sweets everywhere.

Needless to say, I caved in and ate everything. Anyway, with Deepavali out of the way I have resolved to stay away from Sugar going forward. I watched this documentary called The Truth about Sugar. It is 4 years old and it does not say anything I did not know already but I found the visual approach to sugar interesting. It is definitely worth a watch.

I have been into Audio and HiFi lately. I need to write a separate post about it. I got to attend a workshop conducted by Headphone Zone on Saturday. It was a listening workshop where we put on some expensive headphones and had an instructor point out the aspects that we ought to be listening for in a track. I loved the hands-on approach and I do think I have a better grasp of the sound technicalities to look for while listening - Direction, Separation, Dynamic range, Intimacy, Speed and Freequency Response. The Stax setup I was listening to costed 4.5 lakhs (!) and I got a chance to listen to it for a good 2 hours. That was pretty sweet. I feel like I now have a benchmark to compare against.

I also confirmed another thing that I long suspected. The audio quality of Apple Music is definitely better than Spotify Premium, Youtube, Saavn etc. I haven't tried Amazon music but I suspect that it will be similar to Apple music because it also uses AAC which is a superior format compared to OGG Vorbis, which is an open source format used by Spotify. Considering music streaming is the only thing Spotify does, I wish they paid attention to this.

Apart from this, I watched Kaithi. I thought the first half was tight and well done. It started becoming a little loose in the second half. Considering how less there is in the film, I found my interest sagging. But overall I found it to be a lean, well directed film.

I also started watching Tatami Galaxy. It is great fun. Masaaki Yuasa is the most interesting director in Anime at the moment for me. I should probably write a separate post about his work sometime.

Weeknotes 8: Kerala

2019-11-14T13:15:44Z

Last week turned out to be a week of traveling. The idea was to visit my friends in Kochi, where they were shooting their film. The trip was supposed to double up as a mini holiday. But it ended up being super hectic. Overall I got to meet my friends after a while, and that was the point. No regrets.

My original plan was to meet my friends in Kochi and then head to Trivandrum to meet another friend before taking the return train back. My dad gave me another work in Anagamaly, which meant I had to take a mini trip from Kochi, and this involved being on the road for 5 hours. Added to this, I had to travel RAC for most of the journey on both trains to and from Kerala. As always, the so called break ended up being more hectic than my regular work life. I have decided I am never risking my trip on a wait listed/RAC ticket. It has failed for me so many times and sharing a berth with another passenger is just so uncomfortable.

I spent a good half day in Varkala with my friend. I liked the place. I made a mental note to plan a weekend trip to the place. Looking at the sea from a cliff never gets old. It had some nice cafes, and all of them have a great view of the sea. Coffee Temple, Darjeeling Cafe and Cafe Italiano are the places I ended up liking.

Me and my friend played the tablet version of Jaipur while we were sitting in Darjeeling Cafe and it was a surprisingly fun and a well done implementation. Almost as good as playing the cardboard version.

Deactivating Twitter

2019-11-14T13:43:30Z

I finally did it. I kept opening and checking my Timeline out of habit. There was always something interesting to read and watch. But I felt it was gnawing away at my attention. I will wait and see how long I last before activating it again. I need to activate it before 30 days, or I'll lose my account permanently. Maybe it is not such a bad thing. I will decide when the time is near. I don't want to regret it later on. I feel deleting Whatsapp will have a bigger impact, but the last time I tried it, I felt disconnected from everybody.

Weeknotes 9: Knives Out

2019-11-30T12:18:26Z

I just got back after watching Knives Out. I would usually take to Twitter if I wanted to gush about some movie I watched. Now that I am not on Twitter, I am resorting to writing about it here.

I loved the film and I have been texting my friends to go watch it. It is an Agatha Christie-esque Whodunit set in a mansion. It is damn near perfectly written and directed. Daniel Craig does a great job as the archetypal detective. It is one of my favorite films of the year along with Parasite.

Getting to what happened last week, I was down with a stomach bug and had to take a day off. Getting sick once in a while is a good reminder of the things we take for granted. I realized I need to fix my lifestyle and be stronger.

Apart from that, it was a pretty regular week. We have had good rains. It hopefully means Chennai has enough water to get through next summer.

Weeknotes 10: Kalady

2019-12-10T16:48:48Z

Last week was quite eventful. We went to to Kalady for my dad's 60th birthday ceremony. It is considered an auspicious occassion among Hindus in India. The couple gets to have a wedding ceremony again when the husband reaches 60 years. I know for a fact that I won't be celebrating my 60th birthday this way. But it was fun watching my parents get married again.

We had invited only limited people from our close circle. But even then, it was a tough job coordinating the accommodation for the guests, managing their pick up, drop and catering to everyone's needs. It gave me a small taste of what it would be like to manage a wedding and I am honestly not looking forward to this part.

It also happened to be my birthday week. I spent it in the company of my relatives for a change. A whole lot of people who I don't normally see wished me for my birthday this year.

I got to unwind at Trivandrum and just chill for sometime. I got to watch Frozen 2, Koode and Jiivi. I liked all of them to varying degrees. But none of them really stood out. I caught a cold and sore throat as a parting gift from Kerala. I am feeling tired and not really upto it. I hope this passes and I get to normal health soon. This is the second time in as many weeks I am falling sick. I will be watching my health closely to see if this is becoming a regular occurance.

Happy New Year!

2020-01-02T16:50:31Z

Yay we are in the 20s again. I am generally optimistic about even numbered years and '2020' is a nice, easy-to-remember number. It makes me want to take some big decisions this year. Let us see how this one pans out. Happy New Year!

Two series I am enjoying

2020-02-02T06:15:17Z

Nope, this is not about TV series.

The first series I am talking about is an email course by Dan Abramov called 'Just Javascript'. I receive a new module every other Thursday and I look forward to each one of them. Rather than teaching programming, what is does is fix the mental model by creating a 'Javascript Universe' so that it can be easily reasoned with. I think it is already giving me new ways to think about the language and I am sure I will carry this mental model with me while writing and debugging Javascript code. Oh, and I love the illustrations by Maggie Appleton. Highly recommended if you are an intermediate Javascript developer. Dan is sending out each module after writing it, so it is a work in progress. It is a bit like witnessing the making of a classic.

The second one is a series of blog posts by Frank Chimero, where he is writing about his process of redesigning his personal site. This is a topic of great interest for me because it is going to be a year now (!) since I started on the idea of designing this site in the open. It is fascinating to look at the care and consideration that goes into designing for content, as opposed to designing for user interfaces.

The common thread in both these series is, it allows a peek into the minds of people who are seasoned craftsmen in their own fields. It is a treat. I feel grateful to both of them for sharing this.

Thoughts on Shape Up

2020-03-07T09:14:49Z

Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters is an online free-to-read book by Ryan singer of Basecamp that talks about their process of building software. I think it is safe to call it a product management book. Though I don't use Basecamp, I am a fan of their philosophy of building products. I have read their previous books Rework and Getting Real. If there is one theme that cuts across all their work - it is the idea of doing away with what is not essential. It could be called a frugal approach to product building, where they aspire to do more with less by questioning what is necessary.

In typical Basecamp style, the ideas in the book are broken into small, digestible chunks. The ideas are rather simple, but there is a lot to be learnt from what is excluded.

Shape up is a book about reducing risk. And the biggest risk when you start a project is not shipping the project. Often times, working on long projects with no definite end can destroy a team's morale. In fact, this whole methodology came into existence because Basecamp went through something similar themselves. Anyone who has worked on software projects is aware of the mystical nature of software estimates. It is not rare to see projects taking twice or even thrice their estimated time. The blame is usually placed on the initial estimate, and there has been a lot written about the 'art' of estimation.

Shape up begins by throwing the practice of open ended estimation out of the window. It makes an argument to change time to a constant and work backwards from there. It proposes a methodology where all the building process happens on a six week cycle. If a project is too big to fit into six weeks, the scope is hammered to fit into six weeks. If a project overshoots six weeks, it is abandoned and shelved. This might seem harsh but it just drives home the point that nothing is more important than shipping. They arrived at Six weeks through trial and error, and this time period can be different for different companies.

This is also the point where most people will find Shape Up as a methodology, a tough sell to their teams. Having the discipline to stick to this schedule is tough. It requires a change in mindset. Unless it flows top down and everyone is convinced, it is tough to implement wholesale. This is especially true if you are used to working in a reactive way. Unless you are in a leadership position, capable of influencing the way your team is organized, it can seem like Shape up requires a lot of buy in from everyone involved. But it is not all or nothing.

I chose to see Shape Up as a philosophy for building things and reducing anxiety in general. And it can be applied to your side projects as well. The book offers a lot of practical ways to 'Shape up' an idea to a stage where it can be picked up for execution. I liked the idea of bread boarding, fat marker sketches, and 'scope hammering' an idea to remove the uncertainties before picking it up for execution. I also liked the idea of doing away with a 'Backlog' and pitching a project in terms of the 'Apettite' for picking it up. Not having the burden of an bottomless pit of ideas can be quite liberating.

The book does not take a prescriptive tone and it is full of real examples where the methodologies in the book were put to use and saved time for the team. It is an organization talking about what worked for them in great depth, and that is always fascinating to read. I would recommend you give it a read if you are interested or involved in building digital products in any capacity.

About the book's author

Shape up is the work of Ryan Singer, who has been working on Basecamp's design and strategy since their early days. Ryan has been influential in my life because watching his Play by Play video early on in my career made a lot of things clear in my head. I had a bit of an identity crisis because I was fascinated by product design, but I was more into code than graphic design. Watching Ryan talk about his process made me realize that is okay for the lines to be not clearly defined.

I have been following Ryan's thinking on design through his Twitter handle, his blog, and the conference talks he has given. Shape up, in many ways, is the formalization of all the ideas he has been talking about over the years.

Lockdown

2020-04-13T15:49:26Z

I am writing this in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. Most of the world is in lockdown and slipping into a recession. This is day 20 of a nation wide lock down in India, and I haven't stepped out of my house in the past two weeks. So many workers have been rendered jobless. The world seems to be coming apart. I am writing this here to record my state of mind at this time - I feel strangely peaceful.

A lot of it is privilege. I am lucky to be able to do my job and still get paid for it. Most of all, I am lucky to have my family around me at this time. All four of us are cooped together in our house and we have our meals together daily. I am seeing my dad stay at home for the longest stretch of time in memory. My brother, who has been away studying, is also at home for the longest stretch since he started his course. The only thing that bothers me is the feeling that all this will be short lived. But there is no point worrying about the future. I feel grateful for what I have today.

Back at the beginning of the year, I had written about how optimistic I was about this year because 2020 was the beginning of a decade and all that. Well, we are not going to forget this year, that's for sure. I still feel all this will end good and this is a good opportunity for everyone to wipe the slate clean and begin again.

Here is to hope 🥂

Locked out of Twitter

2020-08-02T04:29:49Z

I lost access to my Twitter account. Some of it can be attributed to my foolishness. But a lot of it is because of how bad Twitter's systems are. From what I investigated, it looks like the email address on my account was removed ever since I deactivated and then reactivated my account earlier this year. This means I am now unable to reset my password using the usual method. I have been trying to reach them for the last month and Twitter support is virtually non-existent. I understand there is no way to provide personalized support at their scale. I am redirected to a URL saying 'No reset method available', which means someone actually saw this scenario and chose to handle it in a way that requires an email associated with your account to resolve it.

From what I see, it looks like they have recently had a high profile security breach involving their support team, which means they are not even going to look at my case anytime soon. This is the peril of using a free product. You are helpless because you have no leverage. All my tweets and interactions are now held hostage by Twitter. I am going to wait a few months before requesting the account be taken down because the person is deceased. I am not comfortable with having my account and tweets on their platform without me having access to it.

I have no appetite to create a new Twitter account right now. I neither post regularly nor do I have a following. I will focus on increasing the number of people I follow on my feed reader instead. And it's just one more case for me to start writing more regularly on this site. I might start cross posting to a new Twitter account sometime in the future. But all my writing will henceforth be first published here. I own this domain and can host it anywhere I want. And it will live for as long as I pay for the domain. In some ways, I am now liberated.

The Personal History of David Copperfield

2020-08-09T11:14:26Z

Watched The Personal History of David Copperfield today and quite liked it. I haven't read the original book by Charles Dickens. But I went and read the story online after watching the film. I could get a sense of how good an adaptation the film was. It passes my test for a good movie - it should linger with me after watching it. This can happen only if a film is true to itself.

It is directed by Armando Ianucci who is a master of the political satire (In the thick of it, The death of stalin, Veep). But this film is quite unlike anything he has done before. Satire, by its nature, is cynical. But this film has none of it. Dev patel is earnest, full of heart, and he is supported by an amazing cast including big names like Tilda Swilton, Hugh Laurie, Peter Capaldi and Ben Whishaw. Thinking about it now, I don't think I have disliked any film that has had Ben Whishaw in it.

There is a lot of intentional casting decisions that give it a feel of a modern theatrical play. Even though the film is cinematic in its presentation, one gets the feeling of having watched a play staged on globe theatre. The comic scenes and timing do have the Ianucci stamp on it, and it is an adaptation that brings the story to modern audiences.

2021 will be better

2021-01-04T09:03:02Z

No matter how the last year treated you, this year will be better. Happy New Year!

Endless March

2021-06-05T16:49:11Z

This year was supposed to be the year things got better. I don't want to sound all gloomy but I figured I should record my thoughts as I sit in the middle of the pandemic.

We had a second wave of the pandemic in India and this one turned out to be deadlier than the first one we had last year. As I write this, things have settled down somewhat. All the affected states imposed a lockdown which worked in bringing down the number of cases. But almost everyone I know has lost someone in their circle. I am just tired. I think that is the feeling I see everywhere around me. Everyone is just tired. Tired of monitoring the news, being on high alert, and being cooped up at home. But I'll take this any day over running between hospitals, losing a job or losing a loved one. Lot of people have not been as fortunate as I am.

I feel grateful to be in good health. For still having my closed ones safe. I hope we get through this. The echoes of this event and the disruptions it caused will be felt for a few years more. It looks like this virus is going to be amongst us for a while and we need to find different ways of living, coping and socializing. The only way we can beat it is by working together, taking care of each other and following simple precautions for the sake of others. I am sure humanity will recover from this and I hope we can use this momentum to beat the other challenges ahead of us.

On switching to Raycast

2021-06-19T04:49:49Z

I am a big fan of the command palette UI pattern. So much so that I am sure cmd+k in Slack, cmd+p in Sublime text, and cmd+space for Alfred are my three most used keyboard shortcuts on a daily basis. You can read more about this pattern in this nice blog post that describes it along with examples - Command Palette Interfaces

My first introduction to a command palette was with Quick Silver on Mac OSX Tiger. It was quickly replaced by Alfred. The pattern became popular enough for Apple to change Spotlight's UI with Yosemite.

I have been using Alfred for more than five years and would have counted myself a loyalist if anyone had asked me. Alfred offers a lot of functionality as part of its paid power pack which I never ended up using. My usage was limited to using it as an app launcher and to execute some basic commands like force quitting apps. I had also set up some shortcuts to open some frequently visited web apps. It was one of my most used apps and I had no problems with Alfred whatsoever.

I don't know how I came across Raycast. I remember looking at the website and thinking it looked cool. In particular, the calendar integration that allowed me to jump into a meeting without opening my calendar or mail caught my eye. But I was in no mood to switch from trusted Alfred where I had already spent some effort configuring shortcuts that I used daily.

Then everytime I had to join a meeting link or find a Google Doc, in the back of my mind, I knew there was a better way to do it. It kept surfacing in my mind a few times before I decided to give it a shot one afternoon. I installed Raycast and it took 15 minutes to move my old shortcuts from Alfred to Raycast manually. I changed my Alfred keybinding (cmd+space) to open Raycast. It has been a few weeks since then and I know I am not going back to Alfred. All it took was 15 minutes to switch from an app that was a daily habit for more than 5 years.

Why was the switch easy?
One big reason was because I did not have to change my daily habit of pressing cmd+space, typing an app's name, and pressing enter. Which is what I do whenever I want to launch an app. The second reason is because Raycast did a great job at surfacing all the things I could do with it and made it easy to connect my Calendar, Google Drive, and gave me a list of other features that I could enable and start using immediately. I was sold the minute I could search my Google drive without opening a browser and jump into an upcoming meeting without hunting for the meeting link.

The plot twist is, Raycast is potentially replacing a number of apps I use on a daily basis. Not just Alfred. It replaces the following utilities which I use:

A clipboard manager (Replaces Jumpcut)
A window manager (Replaces Rectangle)
A plain text calculator (Kind of replaces Numi/Soulver. For example, lets you type '23 is what % of 524' to get the answer)
A scratch pad for notes (Replaces Tyke)

I am sure they have more upcoming. I think what Raycast has done is look at the 'greatest hits' list of mac utilities and try to build it all within a single app. And it simply works. They also offer some deep integration with services like Github with nested commands and actions. They also seem to offer a developer API which I want to try using sometime. Earlier, someone had to be a tweaker and keep hunting for these utilities and try them out of their own interest. Now everything comes neatly packaged in a well integrated whole. In an ideal world, all the above utilities would be standard operating system features but our tech overlords nowadays are more interested in building more marketable features. Needless to say, I highly recommend Raycast.

Why is Alfred behind?
It is not like Alfred is not actively maintained. I used to receive regular updates. I think they are a small team and got caught up in their more advanced features and maintaining them. They were focussing on their existing user base and satisfying the needs of their power pack users. To be fair, those are the ones that pay for the software. But meanwhile, the world around them changed. The number of knowledge workers is only growing. You no longer have to be an 'enthusiast' to be able to appreciate these improvements that remove friction from your day to day work. Most people spend a lot of time inside web apps like their email, calendar, bug/task tracker or version control app. First class support for deep integration with these web services is the killer feature of Raycast. Alfred is from an era where files and folders on the computer were the way to manage your data. Raycast allows API endpoints to be on the same level as files and folders.

Some of the things I mentioned above is probably already available on Alfred using workflows and extensions on Alfred. But it requires work. Feature discovery is also poor in Alfred where you are met with a blank prompt to type something instead of surfacing all the different things you could do. It took me three years after using Alfred to set up my first shortcut. It requires you to go into a preference pane to configure everything and it is not staight forward. It looks like Alfred has been caught sleeping at the wheel and I hope they wake up.

Maybe some of this is harsh because Alfred seems to be maintained by a few indie developers whereas Raycast is backed by venture money. I don't know what Raycast's business model is. They offer all this for free and it is installed at my operating system level with potentially access to all my data including web services. I don't feel very comfortable with this. Maybe the time saved using it is not worth it. Which is why I hope Alfred improves in these regards and all of us have an indie alternative. I know I will personally switch back if they simply bring better Google calendar and Google drive integration. Until then, I continue to enjoy using Raycast. Give it a shot if you find it interesting.

Clearing some cobwebs

2021-07-31T07:17:17Z

It has been a while since I paid any attention at all to this site. My goal for this weekend is to finally remove the under construction banner and have a decent page up. This whole thing of designing in the browser is not working for me. I think I will try moving into a design tool to try some layouts before I get into code. I am also seriously considering moving to next.js from eleventy. Eleventy is great but I want a more familiar environment for data fetching etc. I am okay as long as I get to keep the posts in markdown so that I don't lose any of the content. Astro looks very interesting but it is too new and I am sure they will introduce breaking changes. So here we go. Consider this a 24 hours challenge if you will. Let us see how far I can get.

Computing Happiness

2022-05-06T12:08:38Z

The first computer I met was in my school's computer lab. It was the only room in our school that was air conditioned and we were not allowed to wear our shoes inside the lab for whatever reason. To be honest, I am unable to recall my exact feeling when we were introduced to the black & white command prompt and taught to write our first program in LOGO. But I do remember feeling excited to be in the room because the lab was off limits until we were in class 4 or something. It was quiet and we were allowed to talk only in hushed tones. For me, the air conditioning was probably a bigger draw than the computers themselves.

Starting there, these have been the highlights of my life with computers. Or rather, these are the things that I remember with fondness (Some of the timeline is probably not in order)

Prince of Persia
MS Paint
Netscape Navigator
Having a computer at home with internet
Microsoft Encarta, Lode Runner, Road Rash
Eliza
Porn
Kazaa
Lot of Freeware, Shareware, Abandonware
Windows ME
Windows XP
Piracy - VCD/DVD, MP3, Video games (Hitman, Commandos, Mortal Kombat)
Yahoo! messenger
Yahoo! mail
SUSE, Mandriva, Fedora
Compiz
Broadband
DivX, VLC
Orkut
Wikipedia, Blogs
Torrents
Hackintosh (OSX Tiger)
A list apart
HTML, CSS, JS, jQuery
Hacker news, Reddit
WhatsApp
Raspberry Pi
Macbook Air 2014

After 2014, the trail kind of runs cold and I cannot think of much. I don't know if it is the consumerisation of tech, but I stopped getting excited about the newest thing on the block. Until last week, when I got issued an M1 Macbook Air at work. It has been a joy to work with so far and I think it is worthy of going on my highlight reel after a long time. Everything feels snappy. I also realised there are a few apps I use all the time and rely on. I feel grateful for these apps. Some of these apps are quite old so I don't know if that is just me or the way software is built today.

Sublime Text
Sublime Merge
Postico
Jumpcut
Licecap
Keynote

I feel reluctant to include a few other apps that I like and use like Raycast, Noteplan and Arc browser (beta) because they do a lot and don't feel focussed. I should probably write a separate post about my experience using Arc because it is very interesting. I mean to try OnePassword and Fantastical sometime but I am a cheapskate and continue using Bitwarden and Apple calendar which serve the purpose for now. One more thing in my wish list is the Happy Hacking Keyboard.

I hope to add more to this list. I like the stability and curated features of these apps. The scroll performance on Sublime Text feels buttery smooth. I also got gifted an iPhone 11 by my lovely wife. Coming from a second hand iPhone 7, I really appreciate the longer battery life and ability to manage two phone numbers at the same time. I was hesitant to get a new phone but I am quite enjoying this. I just wanted to record this small moment in life where I have access to more computing power than ever before in my life. And it feels good.

Test post

2026-05-03T07:35:40Z

{:html "

This is a test post

Helooo

2026-05-03T07:44:29Z

Let us see if this works

One more post

2026-05-03T07:47:11Z

This time from micro publish

One more test post

2026-05-03T14:49:11Z