Sometimes the middle ground is most empowering

Writing a blog post in plain text isn’t fun. Neither is writing it in a bulky word processor like Microsoft Word. The former is too constrained, the latter too unbridled. Writing in Markdown is fun. It has sufficient features without creating bloat. Building a backend in lambda functions has a strong lock-in. On the other hand, deploying web services on Virtual Machines (or physical machines!), while having little lock-in, is complicated....

April 30, 2023 Â· 1 min      Life

Diet action plan from "How not to die" book

Checklist for Good Health 3 servings of Beans 1 serving of Berries 3 servings of other fruits 1 serving of Cruciferous vegetables 2 servings of Greens 2 servings of Other Vegetables 1 serving of Flaxseed 1 serving of Nuts 1 serving of Spices 3 servings of Whole Grains 5 servings of Beverages 1 tablet of Vitamin B12 supplement 1 workout session

May 14, 2019 Â· 8 min      Life

Binary vs Graded outcomes

Some activities have binary outcomes while some have graded outcomes. Getting admission into a college is binary, either you get it or you don’t; how well you do in the college is graded. Clearing a job interview is binary, either you get selected or you don’t; how well you do the job isn’t that black and white. Getting a promotion is binary; while a pay raise is usually on a graded scale....

January 20, 2018 Â· 1 min #Life      Life

Book summary: The science of happily ever after by T Y Tashiro

The book is an interesting take on what it takes to attain a happy marriage and why only ~30% of us end up in happy marriages. The book is divided into three sections - what is love, why we fail in the game of love and what can we do differently to succeed at it. The nature of love Why happily ever after is so hard to find In the western world, 50% of marriages end up in divorce, ~10-15% are separated without divorce and ~7% go along with an unhappy marriage which implies only 30% live happily ever after. Being “in love” is equivalent to having a “liking” (fairness, kindness, loyalty) and a “lust” (sexual desire). Post-marriage, liking declines at about 3% annually while lust declines 8% annually (in first 7 years of marriage) => from a long term perspective, it’s better to invest in liking than lust. Children’s fairy-tale belief about love is a beautiful girl falling in for a brave hero and they fall for each other in minutes. This is far from what happens in reality