The last couple of weeks have been pretty light on reading. I’m learning a bunch of things at the new job. Also, the kiddo went through a spell of sickness so time and energy have been limited. I’m gonna reach into the archives for this week’s list.
- Bert Hubert, of PowerDNS fame, posted about how he tracks page views without significantly sacrificing user privacy. This post delves into the details, and I love the simplicity of sending periodic pings based on page length scrolled, and then doing dumb analytics on the web access logs. This blog is currently hosted on GitHub Pages, so I don’t have access to any useful metrics, but when I switch to something I have more control over, I hope to set up something like this.
- On the topic of working on the blog, but not actual content, I really liked Charles Eckman’s idea of accumulating writing time before working on the non-writing bits. It is a great accountability mechanism.
- Preshit, a friend, posted about the various applications and/or services he uses as part of his online life. I like this idea as a way to discover tools I’m not familiar with, and to publicly talk about what works for each of us. This seems to be a popular blog format, so I’m working on my draft too.
- Theoretical v/s Doable options is a post about setting goals in the real world. This reminded me of a senior engineer I used to work with at a previous job. Whenever someone came to them with a problem, they always responded with 2 options: the ideal solution, that everyone wants to see/use, and the practical solution that can actually be implemented given the current constraints of the codebase, systems, processes and people. They also usually could recommend a guided approach to go from the practical to the ideal. I miss working with them!
- For a long time, I used to refer to how Richard Feynman would approach problems, and share his stories among friends. I’d read Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman at a very impressionable age, and the book had a strong impact on me. Over the years, I gifted the book to various friends, and it vibed for some, while others had a luke warm, or even negative response. It took me much longer to realise that a lot of things about Feynman as a person were terrible, and this post sums it all up quite well. If you were ever like me, do yourself a favour and understand the bigger picture. This just cements an idea I’ve been working with for a while, that nobody is worthy of being put on a pedestal.
- I chanced upon this post by Prateek, that broods over how workspaces can be more caring for the humans in them. At my current age, and being fortunate to have a job that allows me and others to work from home, i’m noticing a lot more how folks are torn between helping at home, and doing a job that they love, but have finite energy for. The pandemic changed the direction for the better, but the current headwinds make those gains look flimsy. I wish more folks think, talk, and demand for more caring workplaces.
- Simon Wilison posted about why he shares his weekly links blog posts, and talks about some good considerations for doing so. This is worth bookmarking, for anyone who wants to share weekly notes.
That’s it for this week. The medicines are almost over, and I’m hoping for a more normal next week.