Quotes

Thoughts that my came across on the internet, most of them are cliché and cringe, some are paraphrased, some are directly stolen, some are original(lol) probably.

Education and Research #

As a PhD student, your post reads like a beautiful research paper. Motivation, prior work, contributions, technical details, example use cases, self-references, future work, even a system design chart. You’ve certainly sold me on the extension, great work!
In Theory, Theory and Practice are the same. In Practice they’re not.
You may not be the smartest person in your field, but you should know the most about it.
there is very little that you cannot learn, just things you haven’t learned yet.
Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.
And we must study through reading, listening, discussing, observing, and thinking. We must not neglect any one of those ways of studying. The trouble with most of us is that we fall down on the latter thinking because it’s hard work for people to think. All of the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. - Thomas J Watson
One of the dirtiest tricks the Indian education system plays on students is to make students believe that they are not capable of doing something so as to filter out students ultimately achieving nothing
Spending a few days researching the topic always completely changes how I am going to solve it.
Every time we do sit down to learn something, we have to make a decision whether to widen our breadth of knowledge, or to dig deeper into something we’re already familiar with. Then we have to decide which thing within those two broad categories we’re going to tackle.
Breakthroughs happen when what is suddenly possible meets what is desperately needed.
We discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.
It was more important to inspire the students so that they wanted to learn, than to actually teach them the material
What I cannot create, I do not understand. – Richard Feynman

Programming #

why would u write code without documenting it, write for humans man. computer toh 1 and 0 bhi samajh lega.
ActivityPub isn’t the future. Useful things that are built, brought to market, and meet user needs that may happen to use ActivityPub under the hood are the future. Knowing what is useful for whom and how to bring it to market in a sustainable manner for the people it’s intended for is a super critical element. One that’s often overlooked. Specs are like plumbing pipes. People care about sinks, showers, and stuff like that. The pipe fittings, materials, and sizes enable a lot. But, it’s not what the end users tend to care about.
Simple things should be simple it’s ok if complicated things are complicated.
if you aren’t seeing problems in your work that can be solved by graphs (or any advanced algorithms really), then you are likely avoiding those problems.
If you try ‘cat /boot/vmlinuz > /dev/dsp’ (on a properly configured system) you should hear some sound on the speaker. That’s the sound of your kernel!
Main challenge in real-world software engineering is not writing code but changing code once it is written and deployed.
I read about bootfs at a book from our libraries university from 2019. I contacted the lector of it and he contacted the authors and it turned out, that they had their information from the internet, including stackoverflow. Unfortunately I had to rethink my trust in books. - some SO post
“When to use iterative development? You should use iterative development only on projects that you want to succeed.” - MF
We reject: kings, presidents, and voting. We believe in: rough consensus and running code. -David Clark 1992
A little duplication is far cheaper than the wrong abstraction.
Every time you pip install, go get, or mvn fetch something, you’re dojng the equivalent of plugging a thumb drive you found on the sidewalk into your production server. - lorenc_dan
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.
The more I research, read, talk to folks, and think about programming, the more I’m convinced that there are no rules. There are only guidelines.
“Train Basic every day!"—reads a poster (bottom center) in a Russian school (c. 1985–1986).
adding manpower to a late software project makes it later
“The revolution in views of programming started by Dijkstra’s iconoclasm led to a movement known as structured programming, which advocated a systematic, rational approach to program construction. Structured programming is the basis for all that has been done since in programming methodology, including object-oriented programming.”
The truth is that programming isn’t a passion or a talent, it is just a bunch of skills that can be learned. Programming isn’t even one thing, though he had been talking about it as if it were; it requires all sorts of skills and coding is just a small part of that. Things like design, communication, writing, and debugging are needed. Also, “we need to have at least one person who understands Unicode”, he said to laughter.
grep is a word derived from the command for regular expression searching in the ed editor: g/re/p meaning “Global search for Regular Expression and Print matching lines”
The most important advice I can share with you, as you’re starting out, is that a career is a long road, with many twists and turns along the way. The best way I know of to excel in software is to keep a growth mindset. The more you can learn and improve, the more career options you’ll have.
No website is as good as a good book. And no good book is as good as a disassembly output.
A three-line proof of a subtle theorem is the distillation of years of activity. Reading mathematics involves a return to the thinking that went into the writing
Knowledge Debt, Being a programmer is about being in a continuous state of learning. Letting knowledge debt accumulate can slowly bring your career and productivity to a halt. If you have a knowledge debt in an area that is essential to your work, you will find that it takes more time and effort to write new features and much, much more time and effort to fixing bugs. The longer you take in returning the debt, the more “time interest” it will cost you.
Matching string sequences is one of the most common problems you’ll face as a programmer.
Reminder that it takes just as much effort (time, money, staff, etc.) to build the wrong thing as it does the right thing. Problem discovery is under appreciated as a practice in software engineering, especially when compared to problem solving.
The device(mouse) was patented in 1947, but only a prototype using a metal ball rolling on two rubber-coated wheels was ever built, and the device was kept as a military secret.
Condition your brain to think in the world of data structures.
As soon as an Analytical Engine exists, it will necessarily guide the future course of the science. Whenever any result is sought by its aid, the question will then arise—By what course of calculation can these results be arrived at by the machine in the shortest time?
John Carmak on DRY on twitter
- Everyone knows that when you have similar code repeated several times that you should consolidate into a loop or function, but changing discrete variables into arrays and adding loops can have a small readability cost, so sometimes it can feel like a debatable choice for something small just repeated two or three times.
- Usually, optimizing for readability is positive, but a requirement to keep two separate things aligned through future changes is an “invisible constraint” that is quite likely to cause problems eventually.
- Many years ago, I would casually copy-paste-paste-paste-modify 4D vector statements, but now I almost never even do two related statements like that.
- The hazard is when you combine two things that are close, but not exactly the same, and the strain induces complexity.
- “Don’t Repeat Yourself” versus “Repeat Once or Twice”
- But when things aren’t exactly the same, do it three times before trying to infer an abstraction.
Links: Favorite Sayings by ouster

Management #

Till the time we don’t create strong communities, we will always feel alone. It is just mind tricking us in believing that ‘I’ is the most powerful entity in our best/worst moments. To create strong communities, we must accept that humans comes in different shades/color/psyche
anti productivity can be a new productivity, anti-brand can be new form of brand
Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration. I try to learn certain areas of computer science exhaustively; then I try to digest that knowledge into a form that is accessible to people who don’t have time for such study. - Donald Knuth
While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.
This thing we call “money” is just a (slow, lossy & unsecure) database for labor allocation. Investing is meaningless without people, at least until AGI happens, which will obviate need for labor & necessitate UBI. - elon
The world might criticize your ideas. Let that feedback sharpen your insights. You need to be devoid of emotions when it comes to seeking knowledge. The moment you judge yourself for your curiosity, for your desire to connect the dots, you will not grow.
Find faults to fix, not to blame.
Ask to be involved early or ask for clarity, we can only pick one.
How Apple makes even Microsoft seem well-behaved and conformant.
As soon as you give people a metric they’re judged by, they optimize for that metric rather than do quality work.
Cashflow is like oxygen, cut it off and firm falls apart.
Ørsted was the first modern thinker to explicitly describe and name the thought experiment.
absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Euler went blind and said “Now there will be fewer distractions”.

Science #

We thought the Internet was going to be a global library but then it turned out to be a global bookstore instead. Nice coffee tho.
The term “galvanometer,” in common use by 1836, was derived from the surname of Italian electricity researcher Luigi Galvani, who in 1791 discovered that electric current would make a dead frog’s leg jerk.

Random #

hey baby unclench ur jaw blink a few times drink some water
Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?
Not really facts… more like loosely postulated theories presented with overconfidence.
Yggdrasil is an immense mythical tree that plays a central role in Norse cosmology, where it connects the Nine Worlds.
With passive learning (like passively reading), you get the most limited form of understanding/knowing. It is ephemeral, and you are not able to reconstruct that on your own. The second level is “knowing by first hand experience”. At this level, you are able to understand/witness and if necessary rediscover the knowledge on your own. Finally, the third level is “knowing by heart”. At this level, you internalized the knowledge so that it becomes part of your nature. You grok it. - Murat

Life #

The main idea is to understand how your brain works, so you can understand its strengths and weaknesses, using its strengths and compensating for its weaknesses.
Lock yourself in a room making 5 beats a day for 3 summers - ye
Having ‘moral’ equity instead of real equity is an awful feeling.
You can take a break when you’re dead ;-;
look for the right voices for the deepest understanding
i think it’s much better for humanity if we equate women more with the likes of the sky or the sea. then you truly enjoy and accept them while occasionally moving out of the way for self-preservation. ~ ligmesh
Introversion is the state of primarily obtaining gratification from one’s own mental life
I haven’t failed, i just postponed by success - Rajnikanth
People who change their minds have a tendency of being right a lot.
Nothing is really ours until we share it. (C. S. Lewis)
Don’t waste a second looking back at your expectations. Face forward, and face it with a smug little grin.
Humans don’t have direct access to reality, we view reality via our cultures . Social media as of 2023 by curation of content has created an illusion that some people confuse with reality.
I speak only of myself since I do not wish to convince, I have no right to drag others into my river, I oblige no one to follow me and everybody practices his art in his own way. - Dada Manifesto 1918
lack of regret is hell of a drug
Paying attention vs Being aware
- Paying attention: Pointing the light of your consciousness at an object like a laser.
- Being aware: Having it illuminate the whole room equally like a candle.
You will rarely get more than what you’re willing to ask for. By not risking a rejection, you reject yourself before anyone else can.
We live what? 75-85 years? I don’t want to retire at 60 only to go to the hospital for the last 10-15 years of my life, some redditor
The most important thing is the ability to survive until you get lucky
“If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.” - Yogi Berra
Most people forget that the goal isn’t money. The goal is to spend days as you wish.
Consistency is the exponent.
The odds increase, the harder you try.
The greatest enemy of a good plan, is the dream of a perfect plan
If you don’t ask for anything, don’t be surprised when you get nothing
There are so many interesting topics I want to learn, but “I don’t have time”. The sad reality is: we do have time. We just waste so much of it. Sometimes I look at my screen time and see the hours I could’ve spent productively. But time management is harder than it sounds.
“So the universe is not quite as you thought it was. You’d better rearrange your beliefs, then. Because you certainly can’t rearrange the universe.”
Everybody wants to win, but the winners are the rare ones who obsessively practice their craft.
don’t do your best, do whatever it takes.
The only real test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life.
Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send
Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god.
Do not confuse motion and progress (man riding a toy horse)
Attaching your happiness or sadness to someone is the quickest way to lose
Manage your time like a CEO of multi billion dollar company. Seriously, don’t waste your time. TV shows, movies, songs, endless bakchodi with friends is easy to do but does give you anything in return.
Be soft spoken and DO NOT react to anything
Don’t compare your day-to-day activities with everybody’s highlight reel
What they say is required is not really what is required.
The whole world is not looking at you.
Keep your word. Do what you say you will do.
Sunil Pai tweeted this randomly on twitter
- can’t help anyone without first fixing yourself
- big software is built with very small steps
- helping people without expectation yields the biggest returns
- self awareness leads to resilience
- culture breeds individualism
- long term relationships are dynamic
- exercise is great for mental health
- your reputation is developed by other people’s words
- I had to accept the worst parts of myself to love myself
- explicit rules of engagement lead to better vibes
- perspective is reality
- the reason spiderverse is good is because you can tell people you like the animation but actually it’s because you relate to the characters and it makes you feel like you can do great things no matter what and that’s why you played the sunflower/what’s up danger song 100x
Be reluctant to assign bad motives to others. Most of us are blundering, not conspiring.
Each breakup brings you closer to the person who is right for you.
Learn as much as you can, about as many things as you want.
Don’t manage your time. Invest it.
Actions rule your life, words only help.
Give more than you take.
An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes, which can be made, in a very narrow field.
The formula to induce motivation, in my experience, starts with action, which sparks inspiration, which sparks motivation, which leads to action, and the loop continues.
Joy, Happiness and Satisfaction
- Joy is jumping into puddle
- Happiness is seeing your son jump in a puddle
- Satisfaction is knowing that you jumped into a puddle
Somebody once described balance to me as three buckets filled with water. One for career, a second for physical health, and a third for social and family life. At any point, one bucket might be running low. But as long as the overall water level is high enough, things should be fine. Importantly: the water represents your level of satisfaction, not the hours you spend.
2 things the rock does to manage his psychology:
- remember what it was like when he started with nothing
- ask himself “how bad of a motherfucker do you think you are”

Creating #

My favorite phase of any project is the one where nobody knows what to do and everything seems impossible.
In writing, the fastest way to build credibility is to state the other side’s argument better than they can
We can fix it. We have the technology. OK. We need to create the technology. Alright. The policy guys are mucking with the technology. Relax. WE’RE ON IT. Dan Kaminsky’s Bio.
A disciplined, consistent effort to develop, propagate, and exploit them should indeed yield an order-of-magnitude improvement. There is no royal road, but there is a road.
Speed is important when creating stuff.
- 2 things
  - More smaller iterations
  - Confirming you’re working toward a desired outcome. (deliver the working draft)
- More speed = More shit gets done per unit time
- Time is asset, if you know you can do things fast, cost(time) of doing something in your mind is low, so you’d want to do it. It helps with getting the activation energy .
- Fast work != sloppy work, push yourself more than you think is healthy, strive to become both good and fast.

Geo/Political #

Never accept a no from someone who doesn’t have the power to say yes
“India is not, as people keep calling it, an underdeveloped country, but rather, in the context of its history and cultural heritage, a highly developed one in an advanced state of decay.” ― Shashi Tharoor
A developed country is one where the rich take the public transport, not one where poor people have cars

Startup #

Being an entrepreneur is the arts and science of accomplishing more with less money, less time, less staff etc.
Great products unlock something.
If you don’t have a enough capital to launch your business the way you plan, change your plan.
Starting a business is truly a marathon, not a sprint.
It takes a village to create something great, you need others and make sure they share your values.
If there is no competition, there is no market.
Money only accelerates success or failure - it will not turn something poor into something great by itself.
Consistently create value for nothing in return for your target personas (eg content marketing, freebies) and it will pay dividends exponentially in the long-run.
Do the right thing instead of compromise.
Maintain a goal beyond just rewards for yourself.

Making money #

All this might be cringe but sometimes motivation is useful.

Be an unrelenting machine: Commit to your goals and do not waver from them a one bit regardless of what else is there. If your goals is to become a millionaire, you need to be an unrelenting machine that does not let emotions make you give up / stop. You either get it done with 100% commitment or you don’t. Be a machine.
Market opportunity: A million dollars isn’t a lot but it can be a lot if the market opportunity is not large enough. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs put together cannot become too wealthy without changing the business if the TAM is $10bn.
Leverage: Leverage skills you know, Leverage information that others undervalue
Distribution channels: Get as many distribution channels as possible, each one by itself may not be large, but if you have many it starts to add up. It also diversifies your risk.
Go w gut: Go with what your gut says, regardless of how it might look to the rest of the world. Fame is fleeting in the traditional sense. Become famous with your customers. They’re the ones that truly matter. What they think matters and they will ultimately put their money where their mouth is.
Be a master of information: It gives you an edge.
Make waves, don’t ride them: Youtube introduced (flash+one click upload+share), other people rode the wave.
Be so good they can’t ignore you: Applies to both self and product.
Look for the accessory ecosystem: If there’s a huge new product/shift, there’s usually money to be made in the accessory ecosystem.
Productize a service: If you can make what might normally be considered a service into a scaleable, repeatable, and efficient process that makes it seem like a product you can make a good amount of money.

Relationships #

Scar tissues (talk given by John Ousterhout about sustaining relationships )
- A single catastrophic event around the the end of the relationship, but that’s typically a symptom rather than a cause.
- What typically happens is it accumulates in the little things that just build up over time, and I call those scar tissues.
- when you have a wound that doesn’t heal quite properly and you get this other tissue that just sort of fills the gap, which is called scar tissue, and that tissue is not as strong as the original tissue that was there. So, scar tissue is weak
- You know if you ever hear the phrase “You always X”: scar tissue.
- So, when there’s an issue, you somehow have to resolve it where there is zero lingering animosity.
- Some people are just too nice, and they wreck the relationships. They think, “Oh, it’s not a big deal, it’s just one little thing, not worth having a big argument about it. I’ll just give in.” Well, that seems generous, but it’s a really bad idea. You have to ask yourself, “Are you really, completely, 100% over this? You’re giving in? No animosity? You’re not secretly hoping that maybe they’ll do something for you in return or a little behavior change here or there?”
- The trick is, again, you just have to avoid the creation of scar tissue. Not easy, but it’s the only solution.