2024 Weekly Notes

Week Notes 24.46

• Listening to meditations on Philippians with Joni Eareckson Tada. I am glad she is hanging there still. (she became quadriplegic at 17 and she is now 75 and still preaching and sharing the Bible; what an inspiration)
• Apple approved my Dev account. Need to submit t2n.
• Panchkula has amazing list of cafes. There are five cafes in a lane alone. Love it. Only if the pollution is lower!
• This whole week AQI has been around 300; Today it has come down to around 160.

Week Notes 24.42

• biggest win: developed mobile screens using nativescript svelte.
• worked everyday on either t2n or tech-driven sales book draft. Somedays worked on both. Experimenting with different writing styles too. One I particularly like is Bill Bryson's.
• delivered "Do they know that the Lord delivered you" sermon

Week Notes 24.41

• t2n usage: 53 users; 116 notes created
• Boys have started playing chess with Appa. It started out as a time-pass for Appa but now boys are hooked to chess. They play every day.
• Managed to get what I have to focus on for the next 3 quarters. I'm happy about it. I'm going to focus on
  • developing t2n
  • writing techies boosting sales book; and sharing on LI
  • writing meditating on ten commandments (already at 8th commandment)
• Josh passed Trinity grade-2 certification with distinction; now onto grade-3 preparation
• Boys' focus for OND
  • Josh appearing for NIOS-10th exams
  • Josh preparing for grade-3
  • Jerry preparing for grade-1; he got a new guitar
  • Javascript coding with assistance from cursor
• Crossed 7000 followers on LI. Just noting this down. Since I post for self-learning and not as an influencer, this doesn't change anything for me. Just a nice, warm feeling I got when I saw the number.
• Cleaned up a lot of orphaned notes on my notes vault. I love to go over my notes and connect new nodes.
  Insight

Van Gogh, Emily Dickinson, Nikola Tesla, and many others stuck to their independent way of thinking and working, often staying out of the spotlight. In their time, they weren’t respected or admired like they are now. If they were alive today, they probably wouldn’t care about social media or chasing trends—they’d still focus on doing things their own way. Am I willing to follow that path too? Think independently, shape and run your race without a care for applause of the crowd.

Week Notes 24.40

• t2n usage: 51 users registered; 93 notes created.
• Modified PWA with few more changes and submitted to Android store. was published the same day.
• Tested NativeScript for developing mobile apps. Installed without any trouble. Able to create a signin page and see in emulator.
• Posted a "What I learned about sales as a CTO". JG suggested that I should create a book out of it. Interesting idea. May be that should be my quarterly goal.
• Was a chief-guest at Rayat-Bahra University Springer conference
• Started teaching Javascript to kids. Here is the curriculum for next 30 days. As usual, asked boys to write blogs and make videos about it.
• Since Appa is here, boys and Appa started playing chess. Boys are now addicted to it. They are playing at least 2 games daily.
• Cleaned up many orphan files in obsidian. There are many note-taking apps out there. I keep trying them. But I keep coming back to obsidian. No other app beats the overall user experience of Obsidian.
• Moved siteaudit tool to hetzner using coolify. Now coolify has become my goto tool for devops.

Week Notes 24.39

• integrated rollbar for I can track both front-end and back-end errors in a centralized place
• t2n is a functional PWA. Submitted to android store;
• created a daily report that gives me an approximate idea of how the app is getting used; so far 41 notes have been created.
• Rani swam 25 mts, overcoming her fear of swimming in 6ft.
• We all enjoyed swimming. Pity the pool is closing. Looks like we joined the pool just on time to learn enough.
• First instance of fraudulent use of my card; surprised that ICICI will take 7 weeks even to investigate and to tell me that if it was fraudulent. I am getting a feeling that they will just tell me it is too late to do anything now.
• delivered a message in church - your behaviors should reflect your beliefs

Week Notes 24.38

• Boys regularly swim about 10 lapses and 3 dives. They have gotten it really well
• We race together sometimes and of course they reach before me. This is one instance where I enjoy failing. It brings a smile to me all the time.
• Rani has also gotten hang of breast-stroke. She swims 13 Mts.
• One of my LinkedIn post went viral. It has gotten 50k impressions so far. I wrote as usual as ever. In fact, had a doubt if I should post it. I don't enjoy it going viral, because I write to think aloud and seek thoughtful feedback on my opinion and writing. Virality doesn't achieve that; it only attracts trolls.
• Next day, I went about posting whatever regular stuff I post. Didn't want to "ride" on the wave. That way I can probably cut the cord of virality and troll comments.
• Appa is here. First time he is traveling here after Amma's death. He is coping up well. I miss her. Just the fact that she is not going to be there to talk about all the future events is hurting even more. Every time, boys do something in swimming, I think of her. I imagine what all she would've said. Hmmm...
• Shared 10 years testimony in Church as a message. Can't believe 10 years went past so fast here at Pkl. What next?
• Had a really deep conversation with RG. Though he is 20 years younger, he is so mature that he asks really meaningful, deep questions. No shallow talk when we chat. I love that.
• Developing & deploying t2n has hit a snag. Can't make it to work on iOS browsers. Cursor is no help here. Deploying via coolify is also giving troubles. Deployment is stuck at a certain step for hours. In fact, I had to recreate the entire Hetzner containers.

Week Notes 24.37

• We finished one month of learning swimming. Boys have learnt freestyle, backstroke, and diving. They do these really well. Have to improve on each of these though. Jerry has come to enjoy water. It is clearly visible in the way he is in the water. He is learning breaststroke now.
• Rani still lags behind. She is still learning to freestyle. But I'm glad she is persistent and willing to learn at this age. Takes courage. Love her more for this.
• I am able to do 7 lapses of 25 mts without a break. I am glad I'm improving my stamina.
• Had a dental implant surgery. Pissed with my dentals but can't do anything about it now. Have to manage for the rest of life with whatever is left.
• Tried installing Android development tools on MacBook Air. First tried with react-native, then flutter, and finally kotlin. Nothing worked. Developing for Palm pilot was much easier even two decades back. Comparatively, web development (including front-end) is so much easier.
• Attended two birthday parties this week. One was an orphan. Warms my heart to see his brother taking care of him. I went for the party only for that reason.
• Met a friend who had tried starting an EV company. I learned a lot about the electric vehicle industry. Starting and running a business in an emerging market is tough. It's not just about handling regulations and money issues, but also dealing with dishonesty and other challenges.
• Posted almost daily about my understanding of GenAI field. I write to develop my own understanding than for anything else, as per my Consume-Produce-Engage learning model.
• I'm recording all my posts with ThoughtToNote. It is special kind of feeling to use one's own tool daily.

Insight:
In the days of GenAI, only data and customer experience will differentiate companies.

Quote I'm thinking these days

The secret to being a private person is to overshare dumb shit so people think you are an open book but then not tell them any of the important details of your life.

Week Notes 24.36

• An eventful week. Enjoyed every bit of it
• Released another version of ThoughtToNote . As soon as I released there was bots scanning for vulnerabilities to attack. I had to quickly deploy WAF to counter them. I started using it daily and I have found couple of problems to fix. Will be working on them.
• On Tuesday, attended an AWS hands-on workshop on GenAI tools. I took lots of notes. I will be trying some of these things in the coming days. While there is lot of enthusiasm about GenAI, what I repeatedly hear is: businesses are skeptical to deploy GenAI solutions out to their customers. They are ok to deploy for internal employee engagement, sales training, and the likes but when it comes to customer facing solutions, not lot of them are deployed and successful. Is the hype busting? Or will we start to see real-world solutions now?
• Presented "what GenAI solutions we can deploy for you" to an e-commerce client. He loved it and asked us to create PoCs. Excited to see another idea of mine taking shape. Let me see if we can take these to production, or at the last minute, customer will develop cold feet.
• We went swimming everyday. Boys have taken a liking to water well. They have started practicing diving and backstroke. Jerry especially enjoys backstroke relaxing after intense practice.
• On Thursday, while returning from swimming, on a whim, we took a turn to a nearby "Third Wave Coffee" shop. Had a delicious hot chocolate and breakfast. For me this is wealth - having freedom and money to spend on what you love with whom you love when you want to. And I'm privileged to have freedom, enough money, and a lovely family to spend on.
• On Saturday met a friend and discussed about investing in a EV startup. Learning PE investing. I think I ate too much spicy chili chicken and got mouth ulcers.
• On Sunday, delivered a sermon in the church, sharing my testimony for the past 10 years - how God led us to PKL and how we have been blessed all these years - with ups and downs.
• After a hearty meal with the Pastor's family, we went to "Naturals Ice Cream" for delicious ice creams. I had "Malai Khurma" flavor. Loved it.

Music

• As I type this, I Ain’t Worried by OneRepublic is playing on loop. I love these words:
  I don't know what you've been told
  But time is running out so spend it like it's gold
  I'm living like I'm nine-zeros

Week Notes 24.35

• We went swimming daily. Boys learnt diving, though they are still at an early stage. I swam 11 lapses of 25 mts. Longest I've done so far.
• I did lot of work on t2n but nothing moved the needle so I can release to the public. I am overwhelmed by all the work that is involved in taking an app to public (how much more work it is going to be to make is successful?).
• We found a new restaurant (opened only in July) in Chandigarh that serves tasty Italian food. We will be going there again surely. It is near Aadhaar center
• We completed 10 years in Panchkula. This is the place I've been longest, next to my hometown. It is a journey of discovery.

Quote

• If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking - Haruki Murakami

Why I like the quote: If you want to develop independent thinking, you need to read what other's aren't reading.

Week Notes 24.34

• We went swimming daily. Boys are progressing well. They have fallen in love with swimming and I am glad for it. My swimming is improving too
• I deployed the t2n app for testing by few friends. Nobody gave me any feedback (may be it is unusable or very little use)?
• Watched Lift by Kevin Hart. Boring. For a heist movie "Italian Job" is far better.
• Went to Caffe Sicily again. Their pizzas are great. They make fresh Ginger ale; they don't pour from a can.

What I learned

• Walmart is using AI/ML for e-commerce search, voice search and so on. Interesting read on their blog.
• As I use #llms for development, I find it hard to use it for debugging and adding features.
  Quote
• We’re only different from the bacteria because we are able to ask what the hell this is all about. Not answer, just ask. — Carolyn Ives

Week Notes 24.33

• Wife and boys are learning swimming. It is fun to swim together.
• On Sunday, three of them played music in church worship.
• Was a panelist on SkillCircle's convocation day
• Delivered a sermon on building a vision for self, family, and church, based on Habakkuk 2
• Watched the TV series - Reacher. Like it.
  Networking
• Met a CEO and discussed about podcasting
  What I learned
• What's worthwhile fulfills you intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. Worthwhile and valuable things are difficult to get. So we usually conflate the difficult with valuable. Don't.
• Worksheet to evaluate AI experiments
• Even being a small player in a winning team is better than a star player in a losing team.
• Journaling is tool for development, not a show.
• Metaphor about AI: GPTs are rubber-ducks that can reason

Quote

• There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway

Week Notes 24.32

• Completed the book "Life of Meaning". I had planned to complete only two chapters this week. But it was so good, I completed all the remaining 4 chapters. It is so good. Will re-read as well as take time to make copious notes and do all the exercises.
• Completed reading "Essay writing guide" by Jordan Peterson. He says, don't highlight. Read a passage or chapter and write in your words. Yet, I've highlighted a lot in the essay. Thinking of writing more essays. Writing essays helped me learn. Should get back to those basics.
• Took a session about lean canvas for students of Mechanical Engineering in Chandigarh Group of Colleges.
• Continuing on the "Meditations on Ten Commandments", delivered a sermon on "You shall not commit adultery". I was hesitant, but it did come out well.
• Started a book library in a church where I minister. Seems like there is lot of interest. Members borrowed all the books we took to Church. Will have to see how much interested they are.
• Learned about Home equity loans and Home equity line of credit. Don't need one now. But knowing these options helps.
• Can Do Vs Should Do is a good framework to decide what to focus on both in personal and professional life. I'll be referring this framework a lot.
• Best thing I learned? Calculating % are reversible. 28% of 15 = 15% of 28. One them will always be easy to calculate. How cool is that.

Week Notes 24.31

You don't get what you desire. Or what you deserve. You only get what you fight for - Ptr. Joel

That quote hit me hard. At this age, what am I willing to fight for?

• We've been praying via Zoom every Saturday for the past five years with some of our college friends. We haven't missed a Saturday since we started. I'm glad to be a part of such a persistent prayer group.
• This Sat being first week, I led the meditation from Phil 1:9-11 in the prayer group. It is a powerful prayer from Paul. I memorized that prayer and have been praying for me and my family.
• Enjoying the book A Life of Meaning: Relocating Your Center of Spiritual Gravity. It is not a typical self-help book. It is a self-development book but based on how we deal with our shadows. Already read three chapters. Combine this book and the quote by our pastor, I am journey of rediscovering myself.
• Took a session Homeschooling 101 via Zoom. Seems there is a growing interest about homeschooling in India.
• Watched Product Mgmt seminar by Shreyas Doshi. Though it was for prod mgrs, I got lot of insights from the session. Deep thinkers have a lot of insights you can apply to other domains.
• Appa finally got the legal heir certificate for Amma. (Lesson: India is a fantastic country until you have to deal with Govt or in some cities until you step out of your house).
• Watched the movie, Green Zone. I get why the Americans don't like this movie. The plot deals with the US fabrication of WMD. They are not there but the US made one more country in the ME a mess.
• New favorite music of the week: Mamma Maria
• Went to our favorite restaurant: Café De Piccolo. It doesn't disappoint. We have been here multiple times. Enjoy the food. Lovely ambiance. Spotless service. We get a cozy place to sit and read before the food comes. Today I had grilled fish with mashed potatoes.