Skip to main content

Posts

Featured Post

The Making of a Dumb Datum

Imagine 10,000 years in the future. Two archaeologists are digging a site, and they find the remains of human bones. They take those remains to the lab, perform tests on them, and try to reconstruct the habits and lifestyle of that human. Say those bones belong to me. They are trying to find out my story, how I lived, what I ate, where I traveled, etc. Once they find all the info they need, they toss it into a museum where they store all other such ancient human remains they find. I was essentially one data point to them in trying to understand how humanity evolved over time. Or I can also call myself a “datum”, the singular form of data, literally one piece of information to solve a bigger puzzle. Honestly, I don’t need 10,000 years to become a datum. I am already a part of several datasets people use these days to study many things. So for that objective learner, I am already a datum. Now let me get to how I got the dumb part of it. I have had an interesting and eventful life so far...
Post a Comment
Read more
Recent posts

My Reading List

Currently Reading: 1. Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro Start Date:12/31/2025  End Date:  2. Maybe you should talk to someone by Lori Gottlieb Start Date: Last week of November 2025 End Date: 3. The Pleasure of finding things out Start Date: 01/05/2026 Planned: 1. Men without Women by Haruki Murakami 2. Hooked by Nir Eyal 3. Algorithms to live by - Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths 4. Finding Ultra - Rich Roll 5. Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman (Re-read) 6. Be so Good they can't ignore you (Re-read) 7. Deep Work (Re-read) 8. Once a Runner by John L Parker 9. 1984 by George Orwell
Post a Comment
Read more

What's new Scooby-Doo?

I woke up with the “What’s New Scooby-Doo?” song stuck in my head today. After listening to it on repeat four times, I thought about how in every Scooby-Doo episode, they unmask the ghost, and it always turns out to be some human who’s been in the episode all along. Maybe if I unmask the ghosts in my own life, I might also realize that I am the face behind the masks, the sole architect of all my troubles. Anyway, it turns out there is actually something new today because of the changing calendar year. I’m not a big New Year’s celebrator, but there’s something different about this one, it’s the first time in my life I’m going to be alone on New Year’s Day. Yikes. I decided to mark the occasion by doing exactly what I’ve been doing for the past year: putting on my running shoes and going for a run. I walked outside my apartment for a bit before starting, played my 2025 top songs playlist, and started singing along to “About You” by The 1975, out loud. It drew a concerned look from an...
Post a Comment
Read more

Arches & Dams

I ran on the historic railroad trail in Vegas last week, which connects to the Hoover Dam, an engineering marvel built on the Colorado River. I was zoned out at that time due to tiredness and couldn’t really soak in the complete experience of viewing the Hoover Dam with my own eyes (story of my life lately). But I know 19-year-old me would have nerded out on the structural engineering technicalities behind the dam's famous arched wall. Back then, I was in school pursuing a degree in Civil Engineering and had aspirations to work in the research side of structural or geotechnical engineering. That Civil Engineering degree taught me that arched structures are not just for aesthetics; they have a strong engineering basis that supports their usage. Now it has been more than seven years since that phase of my life (guess I’m old now), so all details are hazy in my mind. I googled a little bit to jog my memory and decided to put my limited knowledge and understanding of arches in writing....
Post a Comment
Read more

Running Slowly Alongside My Demons

Last Friday, in the middle of the afternoon heat, I was running up a steep hill, head tilted down, breathing heavily - resembling a hyena about to collapse from exhaustion. Once I reached the top, my brain ordered my legs to take a break, so without much voluntary action on my part, I sat on the sidewalk and tried to gasp in as much air as I could with heavy breaths. A stranger walking up the hill saw me in that state and asked if I was doing okay. I gave a quick thumbs-up and a forced smile that said, "leave me alone," and so he left me alone there. I was supposed to do a moderately hard 3.5 mile run that day - part of my low-mileage, slow-pace training plan that's supposed to at least make me a below-average runner. Someone slightly to the left of the running bell curve’s peak. But I blame my two demons for turning it into an extremely difficult run in 80-degree heat. I call the first demon Pridemaster -  it makes me boastful about my recent running consistency and c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Curing writer's block with sunk cost fallacy

I paid $20 to renew this blog's domain in July. But the truth is, I had been suffering from writer's block ever since the start of this year and hadn’t posted a single thing. At one point, I was ready to give up on the blog altogether, but a voice in my head kept reminding me of all the time and money I’d already invested in this blog. So, this week, I sat down to write this imperfect, patchy article—about none other than that voice itself.  Let me start with a classic scenario where you might have also encountered this voice. Suppose you’re at an Italian restaurant and ordered some pasta and tiramisu. After finishing the pasta, you realize you’re full, and there’s no way your stomach can handle that delicious tiramisu sitting right in front of you. But then, that beautiful brain of yours reminds you that you’ll be paying for the tiramisu whether you eat it or not. In a desperate attempt to avoid wasting money, you reluctantly eat two quick bites. And just like that, my frien...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is SUTVA for A/B testing?

Imagine if person B’s blood pressure reading depends on whether person A receives the blood pressure medicine in a randomized controlled trial. This will be violating Stable Unit Treatment Value Assumption (SUTVA) SUTVA states that the treatment received by an individual should not influence the outcome we see for another individual during the experiment. I know the initial example sounded absurd, so let me try again. Consider LinkedIn A/B testing a new ‘dislike’ reaction for its users, and the gods of fate chose you to be part of the initial treatment group that received this update. Excited after seeing this new update, you use this dislike reaction on my post and send a screenshot to a few of your connections to do the same, who are coincidentally in the control group that did not receive the update. Your connections log in and engage with my posts to use this dislike reaction, but later get disappointed as this new update is not yet available to them. The offices of LinkedIn are tr...
Post a Comment
Read more