Memento

I’m migrating blog platforms

2021-10-10T14:00:00+00:00

Well sort of

Lot of you may be wondering why i’ve not been writing, well life happened. Last time I published anything on the blog I wasn’t even married, now I am happily doing so. I did do lot of writing between my last post on site optimization and this, I just didn’t proofread or well enough to publish it, they say perfect is the enemy of good. Few things concerned my writing and sharing.

Reach was minimal writing on my own compiled blog. Its difficult to get articles from self hosted sites to get trending unless you’re a more ‘well googled’ individual on the web. The RSS feeds were the thing that kept blogging alive for a long time but now those aggregators are going away. There are few just around. Most of my reach came through Social Media, which I didn’t actually like. There was a clear need to diversify. An uphill battle.
There was no way for me to maintain mailing lists People can’t reach out to me through the blog and I couldn’t reach out to them. This was a clear gridlock. I could put up a form and collect mail, but there are issues relating to GDPR and data storage. I don’t want to end up in a legal issue. Data handling is a fulltime job on it own.
Its near impossible for me to track viewership Since I hardly use tracking on the site, except for a very minimal google analytics. That doesn’t involve a super cookie that follow you around. Needed to find a halfway solution that aligns with my personal values.
Near impossible to implement comment system With the current set up i’ve got its near impossible to do any form of comment system, I’d like to hear from you. Yes You! Either I invest in a more dedicated AWS / GCP system and host everything there and risk scope creep and bloating. This defeats the primary purpose of the blog - keep it simple stupid.

My Halfway Solution

I’ll be parallel publishing to two platforms, my own and SubStack. Including this article. I might even migrate my old ones to that. It fulfills lot of my requirements I’ve mentioned above. While it has a paid route, this blog was more of a hobby writing for me. I initially thought of writing on medium but now they force users to sign up. However with that said, I can continue to improve the site while not panicking about the articles not displaying correctly.

You can checkout my Page here at SubStack where you can easily follow. Else you can keep visiting me at lakith.me

Cloudflare Optimization is Insane

2020-07-06T21:00:00+00:00

Short Story

The title might be hyperbolic, but hear me out. I’ve made my site using open-source stuff as much as possible and made it in such a way that its pre-compiled so that its not going to consume lot of resources for the end user. Just when I thought the system cannot be sped up even more I was proven wrong. I was doing my usual maintenance on the site and I thought of using cloudflare for DDOS protection. Since it was free for blogs I had no issue trying it out. I didn’t expect things to get super optimized. Boi I was wrong. The service also offers code minifying. Meaning the same HTML, JS, CSS code that runs behind the scene could be more optimized on the fly. Initially I didn’t want to minify the code since it would become a hassle for me to make changes. But with this I can just forget all about it and let cloudflare do its thing. If you’ve been a past reader of this blog, you should be able to see that the page is lot more lighter and faster.

If you’re running a blog, website or webapp you should consider cloudflare. This is not a paid sponsorship. They do a really good job at what they do and its all well documented.

Future Plans

I am planning on integrating a comment system to the current blogging system I have, this is not hosted on popular sites. Your suggestions are welcome.

If you like to support me

I don’t blog for a living, this site isn’t monetized, I don’t sell your data to corporations every time you visit this site. Only analytic I use is a view counter from google, its the only one worked with my custom site. If you wish to contribute to my writing you can do directly through Brave Browser. It has a built in easy to use crypto currency mechanism that you can use to make contributions anonymously. As I’d like to remain independent and to keep my writing unbiased I don’t accept paypal.

Regardless you should switch to more privacy centric browser even if you don’t have anything to hide.

Motivation is Bad

2020-06-18T15:00:00+00:00

I, like most people have watched and enjoyed motivational speeches on social media and real life. This is nothing new to you as well. Perhaps you came across my article title and felt something deep within. It could perhaps be a confirmation bias or perhaps feeling of being attacked.

The issue with most people is not that there’s a lack of motivation to do anything, its the other way around. We have our lives filled with too many mundane things in life we don’t focus well onto the things that bring about real productivity.

Prior to social media, prior to any motivational gurus. There was a time when I used to prototype ideas for crafty things in a little book. That book remained untouched since 9th grade. That’s the year facebook became popular where I used to live. Like any teenager I ended up signing up for it, It was the hip thing. Suddenly farming fake potatoes on Facebook and selling them to friends online became a thing. It was an endless pit of mundane entertainment.

This is not by accident or that teenagers are inherently stupid. It is by design, imagine a hypothetical situation where you convince people to consume a little bit of something for a randomized chance at getting something in return. Given how close we are to the primitive humans in the journey of evolution we’d always take it. If this was untrue then lotteries and ponzi schemes wouldn’t exist.

Now with that said, I’d like to put motivational speeches to the same bracket as mental lotto scheme. To elaborate this I’ll bring in an example from my work life. I used to work for a partner company for a much bigger company. The mother company would host quarterly meetings for its partner companies. I happened to be busy on one such event and couldn’t attend it, but I got a glimpse of the itinerary. Once all the sales and numbers are settled the last item due was some form of a speech with a new age bullshit title.

Once the event was done the next week morning I’d have my coworkers come in and tell me that I had missed a great deal of “Knawledge” (purposeful misspelling) by missing that event. Then I asked what was it that I missed, they couldn’t give me an answer properly. Just said “its hard to explain bro, but it was mind blowing”. Then I proceeded to ask him about the important details, “how was the mother company’s regional sales?”. The answer I got was that its really good.

Being inquisitive I looked up the figures. All publicly traded companies should submit copies of the data to SEC of their respective countries. A live stream of the event was also available on the web. At best the figures were not that great, but average. In some cases you could say underwhelming for a big company. The speech at the end however has nothing to do with the company but a whole lot of motivational talking and people’s ego pleasing. This talk pretty much override the important elements of the events of the day.

Motivational Speeches achieve nothing and provides a false sense of getting work done. Not only that, this implants a false narrative that the speaker is all good messiah figure in the attendee’s mind. But the truth is that person was paid to make a speech to that audience. We could spend hours talking merits and demerits of motivational speaking. But that day itself nothing of value was added. No real path for improvement provided. No changes to the workflow was provided. A motivational speech and management dusted the hands, with their fingers crossed hoping for a miracle that divine deity would provide the attendees with the wisdom to make more sales.

Why would a company chose to give kool-aid instead of real solutions?

My experience tells me that when a company is reluctant to hire better talent and wants to keep everyone onboard they do this sort of thing. Stay with us and we’ll give you more dopamine every quarterly review.
Change is hard, sometime needs more resources. More resources aren’t cheap. As companies get bigger they don’t like to spend more or give better value.
This third ones a big one. Bad planning from the get go, which they want you to forget all about it. When companies pitch products or plans to customers they give a timeline first and then plan within that. For example the customer is told we will deliver in 10 days. Since the work being done fits within that window. Oh how wrong. Despite having access to the state-of-the-art products to do project planning the management seems to forget that employees only work 8hours a day, by law. Any additional time is compensated as overtime. The typical flow in this scenario is, the management accepts the work, not enough employees to do the work, management guilt trips employees to put more hours in (often unpaid), somehow deliver underwhelming product that is unrepeatable. When quarterly meeting comes in hire someone to do motivational speech so they’ll forget their pain and keep working at the same place. [This segment will need a whole other article]

This is not just limited to corporation talks

Workouts, Music, Dancing, Learning a Language, Dieting, Personal Projects. There are motivational gurus for every segment in life. Let it be motivation coaches on instagram, or facebook. The list is endless. Even Ted Talks are now just random speakers just wasting time telling people things which they could have asked their grandmothers. None of them will provide a real clear path on to getting things done, or even how they managed to get things done. There are some gems that’d still recommend to some people.

What I learnt from a Xiaolin Monk

A root cause analysis into what causes us to lose motivation is more important. Like this talk by Xiaolin Master Shi Heng Yi on 5 hindrances to self-mastery one gem I came across YouTube was very helpful, it helped me in correctly framing my understanding of the idea of getting things done.

Its a Xiaolin way of self improvement through understanding 5 things about yourself. Not all of these will affect you, and for some of you none of these will have an effect.

Sensual Desires
Ill will / Aversion
Dullness / Heaviness
Restlessness
Doubt

Understanding what affects you the most will help you overcome that and do more for yourself than watching a motivational talk.

The key point here is doing something in exchange for a hit of dopamine would not be very productive and counter intuitive. Where as if you were to build up your habits bit by bit it becomes a routine, a part of your life. This way you are less reliant on motivation.

Example

What you want to do might be to Go To Gym, but going to gym is pointless if you drink and binge eat (Sensual Desires). If you’d rather go to McD’s than the Gym you won’t achieve it (Aversion). Your body naturally like to remain in a low energy state to preserve energy. This is a survival tactic during times when food was scarce (Dullness) it will take lot of time and training to overcome this. Browsing other people working out on instagram might tire you out easily than doing the exercises yourself, you might endlessly scroll the web looking for that perfect workout without having done anything (Restlessness) . The real killer is the doubt, if you doubt that you can lose weight you will never lose weight. I’d suggest start by getting rid of the doubt, lose 1kg first just clean eating to prove yourself that doubt is only in your imagination.

If you’re more into business and want to get into reading books a great starter book I read on doing business was “The Narrow Path - by Felix Dennis” this is no motivation no bs book, some textbook millennial tropes might find it hard to stomache (you’ve been trigger warned). Its more of a mediation of thoughts on how he approached certain problems when doing business.

What I’ve done for my writing

My writing is my current hobby, I am guilty of having an aversion to writing only on paper and avoiding my laptop altogether. So there are lot more articles that ended up on paper than on the blog. I managed to keep writing since 2018. To stay motivated I got rid of financial incentives altogether. I only write when I want to, when there’s a worth while topic that I like to talk about. I gain No financial reward or pressure to write. So I only write things which I believe would help you the reader do better. Therefore motivation is not necessary for me to continue writing.

Future Plans

I am planning on integrating a comment system to the current blogging system I have, this is not hosted on popular sites. Your suggestions are welcome.

If you like to support me

Regardless you should switch to more privacy centric browser even if you don’t have anything to hide.

My Thoughts on Laptops

2019-12-02T00:45:00+00:00

Overpriced and Stagnant, this is the new age innovation

My Thoughts on Laptops

Ah laptops, the ubiquitous tool that I love to hate. Its the second on my list of gadgets to hate. So what’s the first you may ask, Its the printer. That deserves a separate article (or maybe not, since everyone seems to hate printers anyways). I’ve been wanting to jot these thoughts out to get them out of my head for a while now. I also want to keep this as informative as possible. You can use this as a checklist when you buy laptops and I’ve recommended some at very end.

My Frist Laptop

reference image from google images

It was a cheapish Acer Aspire 5220. I didn’t actually want to buy this particular machine. I just had to accept it because the sales guy managed to bullshit to my parents on how great the deal was and that “Acer” is a “Reputed Brand”. Oh how wrong it was.

What went down on this bad boi…

One week in - Trackpad stops working
Month in - Starts to Overheat
Few More months in - Wi-Fi drops
1 year in - its basically a desktop

My Second Laptop

reference image from google

Somewhat pricier one than before, HP Envy 15-j013ea. Why I mention the model specifically is, there were so many variations that it was relatively hard to get support on when needed.

What went down on this good boi…

1 year in - laptop heats up
2 years in - battery doesn’t hold well
3 years in - screw standing near the hinge snaps :(

My third Laptop

reference image from google images

A really expensive Dell XPS 9360. This was probably the single most expensive thing I bought. My experience with this machine is both positives and negatives. Positives wise, this machine is insanely fast. Not built for gaming but overall for programming and designing its pretty good. (Android Studio, Photoshop and Illustrator is Very Snappy). But its was marred with hardware cost cutting (Pretty Notorious with Dell). The burdens were eased thanks to their pretty good onsite global support service.

How my marriage with the devil going …

On Arrival - Dead Pixel on the screen, Shift Key Broken. Called Dell support, after few hoops I managed to get hold of an engineer.
1 week in - Screen got Replaced along with the keyboard by the Dell Support engineer whom I called.
2 weeks in - Auto Update screws up Bios and BSOD at random times (Not sure if its a Dell thing or Windows 10 thing), Mother Board Got Replaced by Dell Support the next week.
4 weeks in - Display Hinges are too tight that it made a squeaking noise. Dell Support Replaced the Entire Screen again. (They could have just adjusted the hinges, but oh well new screen for me again)
2 years in - Battery displays as un authentic, despite not replacing the battery. (This is a sinister thing I would probably address later in a different article)
3 years in - screw standing near the hinge snaps. I’ve untightened hinges and using the machine for the time being with no major issues at all. (Dell warranty ran out :( )

Observable Issues and Fixes

From my experience these are the issues I’ve come across frequently and how I’ve fixed them. Don’t try to do these on your own if you’re still under warranty. Call your support technician. (If you’re a mac user reading this LOL, may the god you worship bless you)

Battery losing capacity

This is normal and expected, this happens due to laws of physics and entropy. Batteries can be replaced and newer batteries get better each year. You can also opt for a high capacity battery on your device.

Note: Some manufacturers tend to include a Battery validator / DRM on their BIOS chip to keep customers away from buying 3rd party batteries. Sometimes the laptop may even refuse to charge the said battery. So check before you buy it.

Heating up after a year

This happens because of the cheap thermal compound used during the manufacturing process. Its good enough that it passes the Quality Tests but not good enough to last multiple years.

You can safely remove the heatsink and apply new thermal compounds. What you need to look for is the thermal conductivity value of the paste. If its too techy for you just go for the ones that are most reviewed on amazon (Just search CPU thermal compound).

Hinges tightening / Loosening

This can be fixed with a precision wrench, its not easy to do this unless you’re experienced in doing repairs. Best course of action is to go to a technician and ask them to tighten the hinges. They might try to sell you new hinges or screen replacement, That’s just bs these guys are trying to make a quick buck.

You could do it yourself. Just follow this article on iFixit

Screw Standing Snaps

This only happens when the hinges get critical, usually you’ll hear a slight creaking sound every time you open and close the laptop. This is when you need to fix it to prevent future disaster. Once its broken its really hard to fix it (Sometimes impossible). Most cases you’ll have to live with it or buy a new machine. If its still under warranty by that time (which I doubt), you could get it replaced.

Alternatives to Consider

Since Laptops are the things I hate second most, you might be wondering what I might recommend as a replacement.

Tablets

Lets be honest, if you truly track down all the things you do on your laptop you’re probably spending 80%, 90% or 100% of the time using your Web Browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox … ) So why pay a premium of $1000++ for a web browser that often breaks. Here’s a video of two guys using iPad Pro as their daily driver.

2 - weeks on iPad

2 years on iPad

These days Tablets can pretty much do everything a laptop does. Document editing, Photo editing, Designing, Video Editing and Even Coding can be done. Heroku and GitLab is a pretty good example of this.

If you want to do coding locally just take a RaspberryPi or Equivalent system with you. I’ve attached a video below of this lad explaining how he uses his iPad Pro with Raspberry Pi Model 4 via Thunderbolt 3 port.

Tablets are the future. In my view. Only some of us old skool IT geeks and hardcore gamers would stick to desktops.

Desktops

Few reasons why

Reparability Its pretty easy to do repairs, and there are plenty of places to get them done
Upgradable You can start with a basic budget and keep adding more parts. For example most modern motherboards go up to 64GB Ram, technically you can keep adding new 8GB RAM card every year and still not hit the maximum.
No Compromises You want the most budget build, or you want a overkill system. Its completely up to you.
Easy to Claim Warranty for Parts Lets say the RAM dies, just send the RAM for warranty claim instead of the whole system. If the GPU dies, swap the GPU.
Reliability I’ve been using my desktop pc for over 8 years now its still running, its a 4th Generation Haswell i5 processor with 8GB RAM which is more than enough for me but I could upgrade. I do coding and designing from time to time and it works with minimal troubles.

If you really need a laptop

Go for ThinkPad’s or Chromebook.

If you’re like 90% of the world’s internet users you could make do with dedicated Chrome based Chromebook system and save your files on Google Drive. These machines are cheap sub $500 (USD) and makes pretty decent laptops. But keep in mind you’ll be locked in to the Google Eco System and Google does have gained notoriety for privacy violations and listening on people.

If you want the privacy and the best option in my mind is a ThinkPad, these come with various specs subject to availability starts at around $700 (USD). Go check in with the local suppliers. These machines are pretty durable, lasts long has a good build quality also easy to repair and to find batteries.

Why not MacBook

You got $4000 lying around? Go ahead. The basic models in my view are a rip off (These devices carry insane profit margins). Storage is subpar and RAM offers are very little and expensive for upgrades. You need to buy the machine in one go and you can’t upgrade later. Make sure to go for the Pro Models. Keep in mind while the hardware build quality on the outside looks good, but what’s on the inside is what matters most.

Just watch Louis Rossman’s Channel before making a purchase of a Apple Products. His comments may be a bit hyperbolic at times, there are some advantages to using a Mac which needs to be discussed separately.

Just to give an example watch the below video of the MacBook Air. These devices are made to crash. This is to keep people on Apple care and to get them to buy the new model every year.

This is not to say Mac’s are inherently bad. They are just computers like any other machines, they just don’t deserve the kind of hype and the marketing for what they’re putting out. The “apple care” customer care isn’t really customer care. Its just a bunch of SALES guys pretending to be IT. They’ll quote high repair price just to justify buying a newer model. Watch the below video as proof.

They’ve toned down on this practice but they’ve made their laptops difficult to repair, and the Apple legal team has been going against small time repair shops for decades now.

All in all, this company is a Bad Apple. Giving a Bad Name to IT guys. So don’t donate too much of your money. When possible buy something else.

What about Gaming Laptops

After many years I’ve come to accept there’s no true gaming laptop. I’ve used many of these machines, but I wouldn’t call them Laptops. The battery won’t even last 30 mins on heavy setting gaming, the laptops can heat up pretty badly making it impossible to use as a LAP-TOP. But these machines are really decent portable desktops. Its good if you’re always on the move and need something a little bit powerful get work done.

Other Noteworthy Mentions to consider buying

System76 These guys are opensource hardware manufacturers. They built their own OS based on Linux which I’m using right now and its pretty solid. While I’ve never owned one of their machines I’ve gotten in touch with them over email. They are pretty helpful at solving many of the questions I’ve had. Probably the easiest and best customer service I’ve gotten in touch with.

Purism This is another opensource manufacturer. I’ve never contacted or purchased them ever, but they’ve done justice by building decent laptops as indie manufacturers.

These devices are off the shelf Linux devices because they’re not part of the Microsoft OEM program. But you can buy your own windows license and install on these machines. But then again if the only thing you do on your laptop is to use Chrome, then the off shelf solution would do fine. Linux Supports all major browsers except for Internet Explorer (LOL) and Safari. Only reason I’ve not bought from them yet is they don’t ship to where I live and the shipping / clearing taxes where I live are insane.

Lets have a chat

I would like to get your constructive opinion on this matter or any other articles I’ve written. DM me on Instagram @Lakithk. I reply slow but I will reply.

Research Referenced

Lots of Past experience
Lots time spent on Fixing Laptops / Desktops (I’m in IT)
Mr. Louis Rossman
Y’know don’t believe everything on the internet do your own research

The LinkedIn Problem

2019-08-27T21:00:00+00:00

If you get it you get it

The LinkedIn Problem

My stance on social media differs from platform to platform. To look into what I feel about each one I’d have to write about them individually. This is the first article of them all. I’m taking on a big one that’s hardly criticised on news and media, LinkedIn.

Problem I have with LinkedIn is that its paints a very dishonest picture of the individual, the experiences they have with the places they work at. Sometimes its a bit of a exercise ego and a whole new kind of corporate circle jerk. There’s nothing inherently right or wrong about it, but it bothered me enough that I might delete my own LinkedIn profile by the end of the year.

Why I started LinkedIn Profile

Typical answer for this from someone on LinkedIn would say something along the lines of, “I wanted to share my career story to inspire the next generation of young people to build their professional career” (Not going to cite this one cause I don’t like to call out names, so I’ve changed the wording a bit to not be able to reverse search). This is assuming that you are up there with the rest of the 1% and want to redistribute the means of production like a proper socialist bernie bro. If you are infact in the 1% then make a real change by investing back into the system, could be as education or business. Besides you’ll make back that money and even more in the process. But lets assume say you’re not in the 1% but would like to be seen as then ofcourse the next best thing is to offer cheap ambiguous career advice on LinkedIn. Thats even less helpful than the Career Advisors in universities.

Unlike most of these people I made an account cause I wanted to get interviews for jobs, more eyes on my profile = more job opportunities, thats the way i saw it. As I used the profile over the years I realised couple of things that made me reconsider.

Data Mining

First one was this, it is nothing more than a massive data mining platform. Because from the moment you first download the app it will ask you for permission to access your contacts. Its not that difficult for me to search my friend’s names and add them to the list. But ofcourse like facebook you are the product. Microsoft is the owner of the platform and they are present in almost all the major and minor economies. I believe this platform is a great tool for them to target business users to their platform of software applications. Its their money, their platform. The benefit you derive from this is completely up to you.

You can use any social media platform to get your product to the market, just see if its the correct platform for your product or service. LinkedIn less apparent to me at this point.

Name dropping

You’ll find a lot of people with all kinds of jargon on their profiles. In the case of tech industry. I’ve met alot of people who proudly wear the latest in-words and parade a form of psudo-intellectualism by quoting some tech. These types of people often go from one managerial position to another, often in big name companies. Remember managers don’t code and has nothing to do with coding, they are often bad managers. You’ll often see things like expert this and that on their profile. They’ll also claim to have 5 years of experience on a framework that just came out last year, unless they built the framework for the last 5 years don’t take their word seriously.

Most young tech people are afraid of speaking up to the managers or supposed seniors because of all these name dropping, because they talk like they know so well about something you just heard. If you encounter this at a public networking session just ask questions see where its going. Its likely the person will pivot or buckle up, its up to you to decide if they’re lying or not. If its at work you’ll just have to be diplomatic about it, or just ignore all together, whichever is your style. but you don’t have to bow down to them. As for you, keep up with the news about what’s out there but don’t get too drowned out by all the jargon and tech. Most of this tech are still unstable for business use cases, but learn the existing tech well.

LinkedIn References

This is something I keep getting, often so I don’t repond to these messages. Please don’t ask anyone to recommend you on a professional level if you’ve never worked together with them on any project. You may have had friendly encounters multiple times with the same person, might also be from the same work place but that doesn’t qualify as actual collaborative work. Its just a bit dishonest.

I’ve seen so many profiles with generic half-arsed references that doesn’t indicate what the actual work was or the project involved. This leads me to the final conclusion that they asked all these people to write something good about them in their profile.

Past Experience and Ageism

Ageism is prejudice on the basis of one’s age. All companies shun ageism like a religious mantra, but their HR always add up the number of years in your profile’s past experience section to make sure you’re not too old or not too young (If you’re young and talented, they’ll make you work for “Exposure/Passion/Experience” with very low unreasonable pay). On LinkedIn you can’t mention the places you’ve worked without mentioning the number of years. What this means is that you’re pretty much giving away all your chips at the poker table. You’ve already reduced your chances of getting invited to the interview.

Past Experience at Top Companies

So how do you get a good first job ? What else connections! People who got their first job in a reputed company through their connections often end up getting better offers for their subsequent job positions. This is just a starting advantage but often wears out fast, because if you mess things up in your current workplace the word kinda gets around fast. So the more you mess up the faster the word goes around. I don’t really care about where they worked before rather look into what they did and how they got over their challenges.

If you’re someone who’s not from an affluent background, don’t let your hopes down. Make sure to build good connections with people you encounter, leave a good impression. It will help you build up your career. Honest work always builds better foundation.

Why I believe credentials aren’t everything (Especially in IT)

Credentials are proof of identity and certifications (Oxford Thesaurus). The reason why I bring this up is because I’ve seen profiles that would put some fortune 500 CEO’s to shame. Most of what I’m sharing here are in the context of Tech Industry.

If I am being honest about myself I was never the person who gave much time to education instead I spent more time tinkering with tools and electronics, I often just sat for my exams based off what I remember from lectures, Sometimes that’s all I ever needed, and sometimes I got good marks for the subjects that I cared the least than the ones I actually studied for. This isn’t some weird flex on whoever’s reading this, I was never a studious person to begin with and I don’t care.

What I am emphasising is its not difficult to get good grades for your subjects in school or university as long as you pay attention and hit the marking criteria. This comes to another part I would like to explain, I’ve met really smart students who doesn’t quite make it to the HD stock. Why? Lot of the times the reason tend to be either they have difficulties in speaking the language or are introverted by nature. Does their introversion make them less dedicated than the ones that get HD’s? I’ve also worked with people in university whom I wouldn’t recommend for any collaborative project, not even to my enemies, not even at the end of a gun barrel. But they manage to make the cut to become HD students.

I believe part of the reason for these outcomes is the human element that we often ignore. This is something I noticed a lot in the HD students. Lot of them maintain close professional relationships with the members of staff. Becuase of the close relationship the staff, the staff members are more attentive to the student’s work and gives more critical feedback that actually help them improve, not only that but they’ll also spend more time marking their papers. We all know all universities and colleges put out official statements along the lines of “Our Staff are Objective and Unbiased”, One day I’ll believe that statement when universities are owned and operated by sentient superintelligent benelovent Ai’s. Shortly : Its not the truth. Humans are flawed creatures and are very subjective.

If you’re young and introverted remember this, Your introversion will play against you, if you’re young take this as advice and make sure to train yourself to be bit more of the opposite. It’ll help you get better grades and better connections. Even if you don’t, remeber credentials aren’t everything. The course you were following isn’t the right one for you.

Am I Salty ?

Maybe, a bit. But I don’t care and I understand that ths is the world I live in and this blog allows me to share bit of my knowledge to help out anyone reading this to have a head start in their careers.

Last But not Least: The LinkedIn Effect

You’ve seen this happen right before your eyes, all the Coding Ninjas, Marketing Wizards, Productivity Gurus and Cheif Entertainment Officers. Is your reality this bleak that you decide to put this up on your digital resume?

How I imagine the typical HR would be keying in their search criteria.

Looking for {Insert Popular Language / Framework name} developers with 20+ years experience, below the age of 25 with extensive knowledge in AWS, Azure, Dev-OPS and willing to work weekends for no pay.

Lets have a chat

I would like to get your constructive opinion on this matter. DM me on instagram @LakithK. I reply slow but I will reply.

Research Referenced

Oxford Thesurus
Lots of Past experience
Lots time spent on LinkedIn
Y’know don’t belive everything on the internet do your own research

Analysis- Is Putin Right about Liberalism being Obsolete?

2019-07-15T00:01:00+00:00

Putin on a Bear, Possibly Photoshopped no sources can confirm nor deny exactly

Note: This article is a response to a request made by a collegue, I was to comment and express my views on Putins remarks highligted on a BBC article. I’ve highlighted my personal opinions and comments in Italics and the Bold font was used to emphasis points. The link is in the sidebar. In no way this article is intended as an endorsement of any figure or state or ideology. If you have any criticism or concern about this article fell free to approach me on instagram, I will respond in my downtime.

Analysis of the Article

Here I’m only considering some of the strong statements made by the Russian Prime Minister and BBC.

Excerpt 1: “markets were allowed to determine everything”

Not true, for example in the post 2008 financial collapse, if the market was truly free it would have allowed the bad banks to collapse and liquidate its remaining assets and held accountable. But it did not result in that manner. It is safe to say Monopolistic Competition is not in the best interest of a free market.

Excerpt 2: “larger questions of identity and culture, with people feeling that their country is no longer their own”.

This is true depending on country to country. If a local population is displaced with a one that is foreign at every level you are expected to have a flight or fight response from a very active minority within the public. I would like to extend that historically all cultures changed and merged. With regards to genealogy English are a mix of Anglo Roman and Saxons, perhaps even Viking. With regards to culture scottish people don’t wear kilts anymore, atleast not the majority. But this change happened over extended periods of time sometimes spanning over a 1000 year period. In a capitalist system we all tend to migrate / relocate to areas with the highest economic benefit. Now speed this up with the accelerated technological growth. Large parts of the population will feel the full wrath of Gentrification and Isolation from homogenous tribal affiliations.

Excerpt 3: “we still live in a liberal world economy”

This is a tough one, Liberal to whom? Citizens or Corporations? Most parties are lobbied and paid for by corporations, often owned by special interests. Unless you’re off the grid living in the middle of nowhere on another planet you should have noticed by now..

Free will is present as long as people actively exercise it. If people are to offload the decision making to algorithms and companies your free will is up to those who program those algorithms. This outsourcing of free will is present at this very moment. If you use Spotify, You no longer listen to music you actively seek out but the ones suggested by an Ai. Your tastes are curated and the comapnies have the ability to shift your opinions of certain things by simply shifting your attention in various ways. So what is free will in an Augmented Capitalism.

Liberalism depends on the basis that people are free to make your own choices, but what if those choices were analysed and curated for the highest profitability.

Excerpt 4: “most countries in the world are liberal democracies, not authoritarian ones”

Not something Putin said, but BBC. Liberal doesn’t imply democratic however most Democratic societies tend to be liberal in nature. For this argument I would use Singapore. It is Liberal in its Economic Policy, but Not Politically liberal. Same party has Ruled over many years since its independance. People are comfirtable voting for the same guys over and over as long as the paycheck comes though to the bank account. This is outsourcing freewill to a centralised power. This is just BBC parroting the same ideas since Thacher’s era that all liberal countries are democratic and will work in favour of people. Ask that from the union workers in UK.

Excerpt 5: “This liberal idea presupposes that nothing needs to be done. That migrants can kill, plunder and rape with impunity because their rights as migrants have to be protected.

What I belive Putin has implied is a Laissez-faire economic system where there’s near zero govt intervention. Its almost Anarchic (Like all ideologies even Liberal Views are a spectrum). Even in an near anarchic system there would be certain laws in place that would support the common interests of the participants in that system. So it would not be possible to plunder and rape. Therefore I belive he got this one wrong.

With that said, there is undoubtably a rise in conflicts and crime within EU. This has largely been attributed to the immigrant populations in european countries. Refer to my Excerpt 2. Hyper Connectivity, Technology as an accelerator and market conditions are at play here. Its more than likely uncontrolled immigration would be bad for both natives, and migrants.

This issue is primarily failure to enforce the laws that are already in place. I am a strong beliver in giving person a second chance to polish up their bad behavior and live a crime free life, but it becomes a problem when the said individual/s keep on commiting them. When the carrot doesn’t work the legal system should shift gears to using the stick. Failure to enforce the law not only hurts the natives but also the migrants who came to those counties legally. Failure to recognize crime and to enforce the law would automatically put the LEGAL MIGRANTS agiainst the native population. The Legal migrants still has to interact with their neighbours, and when the neighbours are suspicious of these people who should they turn to? This is how Mafias emerged in state of NY.

Excerpt 6: “It has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population,” he said.

Lets look at this mathematically. Political parties don’t have an incentive to represent common voters opinion. Do a simple math, take any politicians yearly salary and divide it by the number of voters that they have to be accountable within the region. If its a provincial/state election take the population of the state. If its the country then the entire countries tax paying population (Spoler: if you never paid taxes you never supported the democracy you’re living in, refer to: Economic Free Rider Problem)

If you did the calculatuion, if you’re lucky enough your opinion should round up to a nice $0.0002. The only country where this number approximates to a full $1.2 value is Singapore where the Prime Minister is paid $2.2mn and that is for a population of 1.82 million tax paying individuals. This is according to Inland Revenue Service of Singapore. If you’re Singaporean your vote is worth a full dollar, this is easier and straight forward method to quantify voter opinion. So don’t be surprised when politicians turn to businesses and special interests for funding. We are part of the problem when we expect the govt to everything, Because we outsourced our individual responsibilities to them.

So yes Putin got this right, govt is in conflict with the majority opinion and they have an incentive to do so.

Excerpt 7: “In European countries that have been entry points from recent wave of asylum seekers - Greece, Germany and Italy - attitudes about immigrants have deteriorated since 2014,” Mr Lopez says - although 59% of Germans still have positive views on immigration.

This point made by BBC in the article doesn’t differenciate between LEGAL vs ILLEGAL immigrants. It would most definitely be in the best interests of the Germans to import high skilled labour from other countries. You should also notice the 41% that is not in favour, that is a significant proportion of people who voiced their negative opinion in the survey. What this could means is 41% percent are affected by the negative effects of Mass Migration.

Again BBC doesn’t go in to the details about which elements within the society are strengthened. If one was to consider supply & demand theory. An increase of labour supply while the demand for labour remain steady (companies don’t just pop up, and the startups that do majority would fail in the 1st year of operation) would result in reduction in average salaries as there is a larger pool of employees for companies to chose from.

Average incomes in west has not increased with the rising inflation over the last 10 years and shows a downwards trend.

source: tradingeconomics.com

wealth gap has increased

and we are in an age of Trillion Dollar Corporations,

so just connect the dots.

Therefore Increased immigration definitely is in the best interest of corporations. Refer to my comments on excerpt 2.

When large groups of people with ideologies and cultures that are polar opposites are in the close proximity its usually a ticking timebomb for racial violence. Just 200 years ago India and china was heavily divided along ethnic and tribal affiliations. All these multi ethnic mega cities came into existence in the last century. I don’t think any culture had enough time to adjust to the rapidly changing world.

I am not sure how BBC makes the claim that immigration strengthening the country. I would put it this way, in the short term it benefits corporations not the individuals, in the long term it might benefit the individuals as the genepool expands and more brains result in more productivity (will governments need this once Ai has been harnessed?). But this is assuming people get along well in the long run. (I’m trying be be optimistic here)

Excerpt 9: Within Europe, a Pew survey found that a majority of people in the EU countries they surveyed - including Germany, Sweden, France, the UK, Greece and Italy, favoured taking in refugees fleeing violence and war - although Poland and Hungary were exceptions.

People who flee conflict should be saved and is a noble thing to do so. But BBC is seems to be misrepresenting data. The article doesn’t cite the source of the data. What seems to be on the rise is economic migrants claiming to be reugees and gaming the system. This by definition is illegal, there are plenty of pathways to seek employment in EU and US legally from H1B’s to Greencards and many more. But these individuals do not come from war torn areas nor do they face extreme poverty. Major characteristic that keeps recurring is their ability to pay thousands of Euros to human traffikers to get them to the other side. This matter itself deserve a whole research on its own.

Excerpt 10: However, a majority in many of the same countries - including Germany, Sweden and Greece - separately believed that immigrants increased the risk of terrorism or crime.

This reverts back to some of the earlier points I’ve analysed. Conflicting ideologies in close proximity is not a good idea. All the way until 1918 both Chrsitianity and Islam had been at each other’s throats. African tribal warfare is an ongoing affair. China (People’s Republic of China) and Taiwan (Republic of China) are still fighting over disputed territories. Now people in the west expect them to live in harmony in close proximities as good and dandy neighbors and shed their nationalistic / tribal affiliations. This is equivalent to day dreaming. Even if we pick a 3rd gen migrant child, they would still hold ideas similar in nature to their ancestors. This is the culture effect, even if they got nothing to do with any of the past grudges they’ll be holding on to them for a foreseeable future. So don’t be surprised when your migrant neigbours are killing each other, they’re used to doing that. Take it from a guy living in a 3rd world country.

Excerpt 11: And all the European countries that Pew surveyed disapproved of how the EU had handled the refugee issue.

Again, I am not sure where BBC is getting this data from nothing is cited and we must put full trust in BBC, all these articles seem more like attention seeking clickbait rather than a solid analysis. Besides who has time to go through the details right? Just tell us who the bad guy is so we can collectively be angry about them on Twitter.

With that said refer to Excerpt 6, 7, 8. Its in a countries best interest to secure the best talent, its not in their best interest if they are radical and could bring harm to communities. Therefore laws are put in place to ensure such things won’t happen. But out of compassion (or lobby money from special interests?) politicians have decided not to enforce said laws. Now bad guys get into the country and legal immigrants take the beating from the system. More lobbying to prevent enforcement of said laws by the influencing popular opinion on social media (privately owned, not decentralized). Its a spiral EU cannot get out of.

Summary

Putin gets some parts wrong, some parts right. I am not sure if BBC correctly presents his views on Liberalism. To be honest I doubt there’s any self proclaiming liberal out there who actually read any books relating to the matters of Politics. Its just used as branding and self promotion (self loathing?) on social media. As a centrist you could say liberals are very liberal on their definitions on liberalism. In my honest opinion I don’t really think we have any truly liberal societies anymore. Its late stage capitalism (i’m not anti-capitalist, just anti-monopolist) fueled by Ai and Blockchain Coolaid heading towards a 2050? singularity.

References

Original Article : Is Putin right? Is liberalism really obsolete?

European elections 2019: Country-by-country roundup

US Wages and Salary Growth

US Inflation Rate

My Thoughts on Folding Phones

2019-03-21T21:00:00+00:00

Photo by Sasha Freemind on Unsplash

Credits where its due

Congrats to Samung on Acheiving this engineering feat. But tbh Samsung wasn’t the first. It was a small scale manufacturer named Royole, and the name of the device is FlexPai. Perhaps it was a mix of bad execution, and the silly name (LOL: Royole FlexPai) that solidified its death. Here’s the article on the first of its kind. But as far as I can see, in terms of execution, marketing mix, and engineering Samsung will likely hold the helm for Foldable phones for a forseeable time.

Why should you get one

Like many of you I began to think why would I need a foldable device. It seems more of a novelty than a useful tool, but I’ll explore these point by point.

1. Cheaper than buying 2 devices

USD $ 1980 (without TAX) is pretty expensive for a phone. But lets look at the current lifestyle trend of people. Almost all of you have a laptop / desktop at home, probably a smartphone too since you’re reading this. Probably another percentage who owns a tablet and a smaller minority owning a smart watch. Its device galore everywhere. Considering the current lifetyle trends buying this is cheaper than buying Tablet and a Phone Separate.

2. Big screen when you need it

There are moments when I’m using the phone and I come across an article that I find interesting. Often so I send that link to my laptop or tablet for easy reading. This is where a foldable device comes in handy. You can seamlessly go from small screen to big screen. Imagine checking your map on your larger device and then putting it away in your bag when you’re out for a walk. Now you don’t have to you can just fold it away and keep it in your pocket for easy reach.

3. No more device management

If you owned a tablet and smart phone you’ll know what I’m talking about. Sometimes you install app on your phone, but its not available for the tablet or when its there you’ll have to manually install it.

In this case your home screen format won’t change, this helps your muscle memory specially when staying productive. You know where your apps are when you need them. No need to change and setup the icons on each device.

However there are features available that you could use that solves this problem. Since we’re talking about android phones, you can use a custom launcher. What you install on one device can be made available on all the other devices by going to the settings on your phone (each manufacturer does this differently, also available on iPhone). Nowadays most companies are opting for PWA’s (Progressive Web Apps) they’re essentially web apps with native element to it. So the app should be readily available on all devices.

4. You support cutting edge technologies

You might be one of the early adopters of all things tech, which is something that I am not (early majority here). You guys and girls are the reason why tech is rapidly evolving. You like folding phones? Go vote with your cash at the checking counter, cause you’re worth it.

Wikipedia : Product Adoption Cycle

5. You got $2000 lying around

Lets be honest if we had some 2000 dollars lying around under the bed and got no other worries in the world we’d all get it for the heck of it. You can always brag to your buddies, play fetch with your dog with it or switch up to a higher resolution when you’re taking selfies of your sorry sad face (Make sure to have the Snapchat bxtch filter on).

Why You shouldn’t buy it

1. Its $2000 !!

That’s a lotta money boi. Do you really need a bendy phone?

2. The fold isn’t perfect

If you look closely there’s a crease going through the point where the phone is folding. They even used a butterfly photo with a black background to conceal it. But people started to take Galactic Note on this (punintended).

photo by @karissabe

Like I’ve said before its not a perfect technology, this is what you’re getting when you’re an early adopter. TBH I’d rather wait it out for a more refined product that can be used as a daily driver without giving me OCD attacks every time I open the phone.

3. Innovative bezels

Apple managed to bamboozle us all with their courageous innovative bezels. Now Samsung is taking it a step further. Have a look below and let me know what you think of it.

photo by @karissabe

The bezels are unacceptably huge. The phone is also thicc and not in a good way. This is not really progressive interms of tech. They got a mildly accaptable phone and made it into a cash grab.

Opinion: If they’re going to release thick devices why not ship smart phones with bigger batteries instead of making them slimmer to the point they all become involuntary bendy phones. Lot of people would happily embrace a smartphone that can last 5 days without charging.

4. Developer Hellhole

The app development on Android is already quite fragmented to the point that indie app devs find it harder and harder to develop on android (FYI: They just target the most popular device spec or do web apps). One of the reasons why Google Playstore is flooded with trash Ad Supported apps from Indian and Chinese Mega Corps.

This device adds multiple other layers to dev testing pipline to all those indie developers. These type of devices can increase cost of app development to the point that independant app vendors won’t even bother developing apps to it. So as a consumer you’re going to be missing out on lot of apps and updates.

As I predict most apps will be PWA’s or WebApps that barely make use of on board hardware capabilities. (That 12 GB ram on you got on your phone might be pretty useless battery drain)

Eco-System offerings

Despite the complaints that I have regarding Apple’s ecosystem, Samsung has nothing that comes close to it. This might be something you might want to consider. Since most of the apps on android are webapps or PWA’s the apps don’t function without Internet connection. Where as I’ve had better offline experience on the iOS ecosystem. My data is always with me unless I sync with the iCloud.

Verdict

All things said and analyzed my personal take on this is its Not a Good Purchase. Because the device attempts to be Jack of All Trades and Master of None. The cost of the device cannot be justified by the number of obvious problems present on the device. It was a good attempt on Samsung’s side. If you’re still looking for a decent tablet phone you could consider Galaxy Note 9 at half the price.

Disclaimer: End of the day Apple, Samsung, Huawei or whoever out there is just trying to sell you a product to get your money. So be civil and don’t kill eachother over a phone. I ain’t responsible for your sorry asses.

References

Is the Galaxy Fold Bad?

Why won’t Samsung Show us the Galaxy Fold

Wikipedia : Product Adoption Cycle

Verge Article

Images by: @karissabe

What Stoics taught me about Depression

2019-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

Photo by Sasha Freemind on Unsplash

There’s depression on the rise, you see this in the statistics and you see these in the popular culture (i.e. memes, movies, TV shows) I too had a point in life where I felt this. For every step I took forward, it felt as if the distance to my expectations doubled. What follows is the fear, uncertainty and doubt. Not in others but in yourself.

There is no silver bullet solution to this, but you can learn to manage your expectations and life your life to the fullest. One of the books I read changed my life for the better, no it’s not a self-help book. Meditations: By Marcus Aurelius. The book is a self-reflection written by the then Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. I’ve attached a link at the end of this post.

Reading this book made me realize few things,

Not even the Emperor of Rome was immune from depression

“I am rising to do the work of a human being. Why, then, am I so irritable if I am going out to do what I was born to do and what I was brought into this world for? Or was I created for this, to lie in bed and warm myself under the bedclothes?” - Meditations (By Marcus Aurelius)

Here the emperor was struggling to get out of bed, to do his job. A job that ensures the future of his people. Contemplating his own existence.

Unlike many books that romanticize the Kings and Queens of the past. Book such as Mahabharat, Ramayana or Kalevala depict the kings at a deity level resilience. Likely some form of Ancient Propaganda for the purposes of Nationalism. But these books don’t provide that down to earth practical advice that a person will need to navigate through life. Reading this book allowed me to understand that behind all that glamour, wealth and power, they are after all human.

There are things that you cannot change

and what you cannot change, you must not worry about. Epictetus is another philosopher that’s worth mentioning here. I haven’t fully read his work, but I plan to do so in the future.

“What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgments about the things.” - Enchiridion (By Epictetus)

Often so we let the actions of others and natural causes affect our wellbeing. Partly because we don’t anticipate the world to be so harsh. A common application of the above statement is how adverts compel us to purchase things we often don’t need. Majority of the products and services exist and sustain production by exploiting a deficit within your psychology. Fitness products, Cosmetics, Dating Apps, Supposed Detox Drinks, Essential Snake Oils, MLM all follow this pattern. There are probably very few products that has a direct net positive benefit on people (think… vaccination, education, protective clothing, etc..). While some others outcome depends on how you use them (think… smartphones, computers)

Set the difficult expectation

Note: It is never setting unrealistic expectations. It is attainable, for example the models in adverts are real. Exercising is necessary for human life and wellbeing, but do you want to spend 1/3 of your day in a gym every day, instead with family and friends? Opportunity cost exists and choices you make matter

Follow up with immediate self-image comparison
Suggest product that compensates for the said deficit.

This form of constant barrages of adverts and TV shows can really diminish the mental health of some people. Watching less TV helped me, now I spend that time to catch up with my readings. My purpose is not to tell you how to live, that’s a choice you have to make. Don’t let others or corporations decide it for you.

Practical Approach

“Say to yourself at the start of the day, I shall meet with meddling, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, and unsociable people.” - Meditations (By Marcus Aurelius)

Anticipating the worst-case scenario at the start of the day helps you get through the day. Something I did was to think of the worst thing that can happen to me on that day after I wake up. Lose my job? Get mugged? Be met with an accident? Then I thought how I would go on with my life if something like that happen. I would need to apply to new job, I would be short of cash for a while, I would be hospitalized for few weeks. Chances of any of this happening on your day to day life is minimal. You’ve eliminated most of your worries at the start of the day by anticipating an extreme outcome. End of the day be grateful that things went your way.

Not all of us live the same lives, if we did that would be boring. This advice worked 1000 years ago for some old man running a country, it certainly worked for a guy working in IT in in 21st century.

While this book was one of many guides that got me through, its contents may not fit for everyone. Each person has their own journey, but if you only have a hammer everything looks like a nail. Take your situation as a learning opportunity to better understand yourself. Because its only at the crux of despair we manage to pivot to a better path. Depression will perhaps consume better part of our lives forever, it’s a matter of coming to peace with your inner demons

References

School of Life - On Depression

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Another Year Another Milestone

2018-12-31T17:30:00+00:00

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

It’s that time of the year, all about #newYearNewMe. So how true is this? Past 365 days of experience could be life altering for some, while others just a cake walk. So, what was it for me? I kept asking this from myself again and again. This is probably the best summary I could think of.

Looking back at the year, managed to trek 8 freaking mountains in a period of a month or two, nearly died in some (don’t tell my mother). Managed to ask out the girl I love (Plot twist: didn’t work out as imagined). I made another major geographic jump by moving back to Colombo. Been 8 years since I’ve left this place and seems strange coming back to a place so familiar yet so alien. Getting back with the family after a long time also was quite nice (no more instant Ramen, screw that shit). Made a career change from being an entrepreneur to an employee, I’ve been heavily criticized for this decision. Lot of things both internal and external affected this change in me, but I am glad it happened the way it did. To be honest its interesting being on the other side of the table, seeing how things are run. Perhaps I can do a better job the next time I jump start on a new venture. With all the interactions I had, I can safely conclude that most adults are just overgrown children hiding behind a complex facade, and it’s not just me being immature (at least I’m honest about it). Made new friends, discovered what I am capable and incapable of. Its ok not know everything. It opens more opportunities. In summary my past years collectively been a roller coaster journey that I’ve grown fond of it. Perhaps my greatest fear is settling down to something mundane and quiet. Perhaps its insanity to crave chaos over comfort. But as I have come to understand there’s a difference between mediocrity and peace, chaos and challenge. My hope for 2019 is that it becomes challenging as past few years that went by, it made me learn and grow. All those people, experiences I’ve encountered made me a different person. Perhaps for the better. Thank you for being part of my 2018 and hope we meet again in 2019.

Here’s to a good 2019!

Read Something insightful, all on a single app

2018-12-11T15:00:00+00:00

Screenshot of Feedly

Are you tired of the same ClickBait on Social Media?
Are you looking for more in-depth stuff to read?
There are tons of websites that you come across that you happen to like and need it all in one place?

Try Feedly. This is an RSS Feed reader on the web. This is not the only one, but this is the one I use often. This isn’t a paid endorsement. I thought of sharing an app that I use often.

RSS Feed is simply a metadata portal to allow others to access data from a blog or a site. You probably have seen the RSS icon on various websites before and wondered what it did.

RSS ICON

Back in the day, there were RSS readers on the desktop (they still exist) where you can paste the RSS link to the Application and everytime you open it, it will pull all the unread articles from the added sites. That way you can stay up-to-date on what your favourite bloggers and sites have been doing. Feedly does the same but on the cloud, so no installation required.

This is really useful because you don’t need to visit the websites individually to read the articles. All the contents are pulled to a single interface. Once you’re done reading it will mark them as read and put it away. Kinda like an Email App but for NEWS, blogs and just about anything else.

Feedly is just as same as any other RSS reader, but with added features

It’s on the cloud, there’s nothing to install
You don’t need to find the RSS Link, just paste the weblink and it’ll add to the list
It also has a directory where you can search for sites
It understands video and audio
Its mostly free (never needed the pro package for me)

Where to get started?

This is a list of sites I personally like, Some casual blogs from my friends and some professional blogs from news sites.

Trinity’s Art Review A blog maintained by my Friends Norman Harsono, Youvadee Pareatumbee and Dwij Rogbeer. If you’re into non mainstream art this is the place to go. Not that MTV crap (are they dead yet?).
My Two cents of opinion Blog maintained by Dwij Rogbeer. He writes mostly on current affairs and economics. I’ve had the opportunity to discuss and debate his points on economics in person many times. He’s person who is well informed of the current affairs. If you never met the guy or never had a chat of this nature, this your chance! So get to know him and his views through his own blog.
Youvadee Pareatumbee Great friend, a foodie and overall great housemate. When she’s not shisha and chilling she’s out there kicking corporate a**. Get to know her through her own blog, you’ll have an interesting take on life from a Marutian girl living in KL.
Revisionist History My all time favourite author of non-fiction, Malcom Gladwell is the maintainer of this blog. Its mostly a podcast but you won’t have trouble listening to it on Feedly. He wrote Outliers, Blink and What the Dog Saw.
Little Atoms A blog filled with long reads, mostly science related. A summary wouldn’t do much justice.
Xconomy Economic news, at times they offer crossover insights between industries. Like fiat and crypto markets or Bio Tech for example. Which I found interesting. Because most sites are either Pro-Fiat and Anti-Crypto or vice versa. Both markets exsist and they exchange between eachother. Its always worth analysing both.
NPR Hidden Brain All about human behaviour and well, the Brain.
Great Moments in Science History and Science, probably the best anime combo.
You are Not So Smart As the title implies, they really like to challenge you.
The Paris Review A very well designed site with lot of long reads. If you enjoy reading, then you’ll enjoy this.
Guardian Audio Long Reads Not the most unbiased. But offers great narratives for many topics. Crystal clear audio gets plus points.
Intelligence Squared They host variety of things, just recently they hosted the Brexit Debate on BBC News. They have many contents that are fairly balanced.
Freakonomics The Podcast by the writers of Freakonomics. A great insight to economics behind the things we rarely explore. Read the book or listen to the Podcst, both are great.
CIOL A technology website, I used to read Verge a lot. They became less and less techy and more of a news paper just pandering to brands. Their nickname is iVerge, that should explain things. This site has a lot of things IT from different topics.

There are lots of other sites I enjoy, but these are probably the best. Hope you’d enjoy using Feedly as I did.

Memento

I’m migrating blog platforms

Well sort of

My Halfway Solution

Cloudflare Optimization is Insane

Short Story

Future Plans

If you like to support me

Motivation is Bad

Why would a company chose to give kool-aid instead of real solutions?

This is not just limited to corporation talks

What I learnt from a Xiaolin Monk

Example

What I’ve done for my writing

Future Plans

If you like to support me

My Thoughts on Laptops

My Thoughts on Laptops

My Frist Laptop

What went down on this bad boi…

My Second Laptop

What went down on this good boi…

My third Laptop

How my marriage with the devil going …

Observable Issues and Fixes

Battery losing capacity

Heating up after a year

Hinges tightening / Loosening

Screw Standing Snaps

Alternatives to Consider

Tablets

2 - weeks on iPad

2 years on iPad

Desktops

If you really need a laptop

Why not MacBook

What about Gaming Laptops

Other Noteworthy Mentions to consider buying

Lets have a chat

Research Referenced

The LinkedIn Problem

The LinkedIn Problem

Why I started LinkedIn Profile

Data Mining

Name dropping

LinkedIn References

Past Experience and Ageism

Past Experience at Top Companies

Why I believe credentials aren’t everything (Especially in IT)

Am I Salty ?

Last But not Least: The LinkedIn Effect

Lets have a chat

Research Referenced

Analysis- Is Putin Right about Liberalism being Obsolete?

Analysis of the Article

Excerpt 1: “markets were allowed to determine everything”

Excerpt 2: “larger questions of identity and culture, with people feeling that their country is no longer their own”.

Excerpt 3: “we still live in a liberal world economy”

Excerpt 4: “most countries in the world are liberal democracies, not authoritarian ones”

Excerpt 5: “This liberal idea presupposes that nothing needs to be done. That migrants can kill, plunder and rape with impunity because their rights as migrants have to be protected.

Excerpt 6: “It has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population,” he said.

Excerpt 7: “In European countries that have been entry points from recent wave of asylum seekers - Greece, Germany and Italy - attitudes about immigrants have deteriorated since 2014,” Mr Lopez says - although 59% of Germans still have positive views on immigration.

Excerpt 8: “By contrast, countries that are traditional destinations for immigrants, but not part of the recent wave - like the UK, France, and Spain - have seen an increase in the share saying that immigrants strengthen their country.”

Excerpt 9: Within Europe, a Pew survey found that a majority of people in the EU countries they surveyed - including Germany, Sweden, France, the UK, Greece and Italy, favoured taking in refugees fleeing violence and war - although Poland and Hungary were exceptions.

Excerpt 10: However, a majority in many of the same countries - including Germany, Sweden and Greece - separately believed that immigrants increased the risk of terrorism or crime.

Excerpt 11: And all the European countries that Pew surveyed disapproved of how the EU had handled the refugee issue.

Summary

References

My Thoughts on Folding Phones

Credits where its due

Why should you get one

1. Cheaper than buying 2 devices

2. Big screen when you need it

3. No more device management

4. You support cutting edge technologies

5. You got $2000 lying around

Why You shouldn’t buy it

1. Its $2000 !!

2. The fold isn’t perfect

3. Innovative bezels