Logs '26
Feb 02 ‘26. I found this Gwern interview really interesting. Special note from the section “The Writing Pipeline”:
I just know that I finish things and so my output is infinitely larger than many other people who are much smarter than me, much more talented than me, much more interesting than me; and yet no one will ever know or only their friends will know or only their job will know because they wouldn’t finish things and put them into the public. what I call “the pipeline” , which is that the reason you get these surprising log-normal distribution of outputs is because everything is a sequence of phases and you have to finish each phase to have a single final output, and only the final output counts. The original model like Shockley 1957 used for modeling the writing of a scientific paper—you have to have an idea, you have to execute the experiment, you have to analyze the results, you have to write it up, you have to send it out to a journal, and then you have to go to the full process to have a published journal. And if you fail at any step along the way, at any step, you have nothing at the end.
Another interesting read on AI Coding by Kailash Nadh. I think he is one of the most grounded people in tech. Effect on his work:
The physiological, cognitive, and emotional cost I generally incur to achieve the software outcomes I want or am capable of engineering, has undoubtedly reduced by several orders of magnitude. The time and bandwidth this has freed up, I now spend on engineering, architecting, debating, tinkering, trying to expand my imagination, and writing much more concise and meaningful code that I actually want to write.
His concerns around junior engineers and their journey:
Personally, I don’t care about the extreme vibe coders or denouncers or even slop. We are all going to drown in a deluge of slop, from which, many islands of sanity, recovery, and a new order of software will emerge. The real concern is for generations of learners who are being robbed of the opportunity to acquire the expertise to objectively discern what is slop and what is not. Even worse, the possibility that experienced folks who use these tools effectively, will feel disincentivised from mentoring and training junior folks in foundational ways, something that was a natural part of societal evolution. And not just with software development, but the wholesale offloading of agency and decision-making to black boxes.
Previously found his interview insightful at Cred Curious and Scaler Pod.
Jan 31 ‘26. [New] Posted a mirrored version of BitTorrent codebase walkthrough by Michael Parker.
I’m unhappy about some of the problems during editing and rendering of documents. One is that I need to add custom HTML tags within the markdown files for images. Secondly, the way codeblocks are rendered is still terrible.
Jan 29 ‘26. I found an old video dated from 2022 yesterday. It was the first time I recorded a “project” I did by writing programs and running them on my computer. Although I have been working with computers since I was a child, and did write some very basic programs in languages such as HTML, LOGO, Java and MATLAB from time to time, I never really got into programming. My first job was far from the aspect of day to day programming. Yet, I made this video during that time. Looking back, it feels like, I always stuck with this, even when it was not something I was paid to do, nor was good at. It was simply something I was interested in.
[New] Check out the ongoing list of ML Sites I’m collecting. Let me know if there are more (I’m pretty sure I’ll miss a ton!)
Jan 28 ‘26. I’m starting a new project. I call it ML-Utils. It’s a log of problems that occur in my daily life, which can be solved using Machine Learning. Partly this is in spirit of strangely shaped tools post. Although I’d like to explore models, beyond LLMs.
Starting with the problem of Noise Removal in videos / audios. I used RNNNoise models (more detailed explanation on them later) to remove background noise for the Jonathan Blow talk on Deep Work. You can check out the original where there is background noise of audiences.
I used simple bash scripting and FFMPEG for the entire thing. Check out the script here.
Jan 23 ‘26. I felt like posting a short rant today. There’s an an analogy in the book The Untethered Soul, which talks about how you end up identifying yourself as the mind - akin to how you identify yourself as part of watching a movie. I feel, esp. with most media for consumption (be it movies, anime, pornography & news) only “hook” you in - the moment you start identifying yourself as part of the narrative being presented. It is designed for immersion. Given the right circumstances, the right kind of person and narrative, we can get sucked in.
Jan 01 ‘26. Happy New Year! My last log was posted in October. I didn’t feel the intellectual growth compared to the year 2024. That being said, there are a few things that I was happy about.
Firstly, this website itself. I’ve had a website, or some place to host writings in the past, but this was the first time I felt like calling something “a home on the internet” (yes, it sounds cheeky). I combined a few elements from websites I’ve visited. The “refs” section is where I host various pdf’s (inspired from worrydream and gwern). Readings - which hosts books/articles that I’ve read. I’m planning to improve the design for to make it more like a virtual shelf (see here). The last addition was Logs. It was built from a need to have a single place to store stray links, thoughts and content, the inspiration came from Ran Prier’s site. Apart from these, other sections seem standard. I’m excited about improving the design of current website as well as the experience for myself as someone who posts stuff on it and people (if any) who read this stuff. There’s lot’s of work to get done!
Secondly, I got to travel a lot in start of 2025, covering parts of Western and Eastern Europe - Poland (Warsaw, Auschwitz) , Czech Republic (Prague) and Austria (Salzburg, Vienna). Additionally, I went on fewer hikes (one solo) in the nearby alpine regions in Bavaria as well as bike rides by the Donau river. I ended the year by travelling back home (Maharashtra and Kerala), visiting friends and lazying around.
While, this year I don’t plan to travel, these places would be on my radar for travelling in case I can save up time and money: Netherlands (Amsterdam, Groningen), France (Strasbourg, Paris) and hopefully getting to go on more hikes and bike rides.
Things I thought a lot about: 1) Consumption - especially digital media. Such as social media feeds or just movies and television series. Here’s the link. I genuinely believe, without learning new things and solving real problems, we would grow dumber, just by virtue of not continuously learning to use our intelligence. As, each new skill you learn requires you to not only understand the skill in question, but also about yourself. What works for you in X scenario, when do you feel frustrated, what helps and what doesn’t help (example, I found lecture videos and tutorials to be my thing). 2) Regression - things in life are not guaranteed to improve. Even if you’ve done things the “right-way”, went to school, got a degree, got a job and other shenanigans. You must be constantly vigilant, because regression is the default. Just like entropy and poverty in the world is default, nations and individuals don’t just keep growing wealth. I experienced regression in the second half of 2025.
I also got into watching Anime and reading manga (comics). These seemed to bring stories to life via a form of storytelling I’ve not experienced before (special emphasis on character growth and internal monologues). Although not a regret, I do wish I would have spent less time on these, because it’s really good, and it pulls you in towards “binge-watching”. Some things I liked: Your Lie in April, Re:Zero, Mushoko Tensei, Attack on Titan, Blue Box, Chainsaw Man, Cross Game, Berserk (1997), Kids on a Slope (read the manga, gives a complete ending, compared to the one in the anime), A Silent Voice, Whisper of the Heart, From Up the Poppy Hill, I want to eat your pancreas and DanDaDan.