• Couple of bad news from the village: an old widow died after shock of bank proceedings against her 5 lacks loan sent her to a comma. She was milking her cows when she fell back. It is typical for banks to announce these things loudly in public because public shaming seems to work on villagers. The rural economy has been under duress for a long time and Iran war made things worse. There are long lines for diesel, petrol and LPGs, and prices of fertilizers are up. Despite what your media and govt telling you (or keeping mum), things have not been positive for a long while.
  • Talking of govt telling anything to the public, they have not yet released the Air India crash report. And there are many more still pending. Congress govt used to tone deaf, BJP govt is an improvement, it is just deaf.
• It was heartening to see PARI is publishing many more news stories. I’ve setup a monthly subscription. Currently, I only subscribe to two news portals, PARI & Caravan. I’ve cancelled most others: frontline, Indian Express, and even EPW after Thakurta fiasco and trustees using Prof. Beteille name on the letter while he was ailing in the hospital. It was vile! Vote with your money, it works!
• I tried to read “Inversion of Control layer” but couldn’t find motivation after a few paragraph. I am pretty sure it has some value in it but the motivational example is way too “enterprisey” to pay attention to.
• “Why Japanese Companies Do So Many Different Things” was an interesting read.
• I think I am now suffering from AI fatigue and communication slop it causes. The social rules around using/producing AI content are in flux. I feel irritated when someone sends AI generated content my way but occasionally do the same myself. One solution to this is maybe to slow down and take time to do things the old way but not using AI now feels like “not using your super-powers”. Interesting times I am living in.
• Its been over 6 months that my Tata Nano XTA is still in garage. The mechanic has been telling me this week or next week for last three months!
• I wished I watched the Bangladesh and Australia second ODI match. Bangladesh played excellent cricket.
  • It is becoming very very hard to watch cricket when India is playing — the advertisements are so cringe on Hotstar. And commentary has become really meh — commentator are also parroting ads! I don’t know how long they are going to milk nationalism.
  • Perhaps I need to find a more sports-friendly streamer who is less interested in shoving ads down my throat. I watched few hours of NZ and ENG test match on Sony LIV which otherwise has terrible content; and SL and ENG T20 match (Women World Cup). Commentary was good. I get to learn a few things and tidbits about cricket and cricketers. And ads were just ads. Or maybe I am just getting old.
• Age has stopped becoming “just a number” now, more and more it feels like a timer!
• So have you heard that someone has 1 trillion dollars now? A few decades ago, I read a historian talking about how after world war II, super riches have become things of a past! 🙄️
• Following is a really good talk — a bit long. Ask AI to summarize if you are interested in content, and then enjoy the details.

• 🏃️In last 5 months, I’ve ran over 320km, 680 more km to go in next 7 months. Pretty doable since running in winter is easier. It’s harder to run >4km without a good company.
• These days I come across more and more apps broken in subtle ways. After the last update, my Android phone becomes unusable within a day unless I reboot it once a day. Android has started behaving now a bit like Windows! I feel anxious about updating anything (including Linux kernel).
  • Most annoying is when bluetooth and phone apps stops working in weird ways. I hear caller tune but no icon to pick the phone. If I switch off the bluetooth, I won’t switch on again unless I reboot the phone. Google playstore complains that I am not logged-in and BHIM stops working since googple play service complains that I am not logged in! 😪️
  • Web-apps are also broken in equally silly ways. One of my client uses a new and upcoming HR web-app which I always found annoying. These days, I loaded a few mega bytes of data on landing page, and that keeps changing its background images. Their login flow is mysterious once you are off the happy path. I just want to upload invoices. I’ve given up on it just send invoice over email.
• I downloaded GST application for Linux to sign my filings. I wasn’t expecting it to work since it is a govt. app and it didn’t disappoint. It didn’t work.
  • It is a java application that requires Sun Java and doesn’t work with openjdk. I downloaded the Oracle java and ran it but again no dice. I asked Claude if it can help mitigate the sloppiness of my country men/women and it did a good job.
  • Apparently the developers (eMudhra) shipped Windows related files inside a Linux app. I don’t think anyone opened it on a fresh Linux machine before shipping. Claude was able to patch the app. Patch is available here https://github.com/dilawar/GSTSigner-linux . We Indians have a well-deserved reputation of being sloppy and lazy at everything we do.

• My neighborhood saw rain this week, decent amount. Mosquitos are back! Surprisingly there was no power-cut after first bout of strong winds. In last couple of years, they replaced naked aluminum wires with a bundle of insulated coated wires. Perhaps that helped.
• I learnt a bit about “mock testing“. I thought it knew about it. The way it interacts with Rust’s trait was new to me. This weekend, I am going to collect materials on it.
• Govt agencies are rarely known to be a place for efficiency and accountability but recent news of CBSE botching up student’s mark-sheet is a new low. I read that a “journalist” called the student who brought up the issue Pakistani and cockroaches! Why rush towards a new system just a few weeks before an event is beyond me?
• I’ve never been a fan or admirer of any living politician. I find them necessary evil to be tolerated as long as we can potentially replace them next election cycle. I feel a bit sad when I meet someone who is. The job of citizens is to keep its government on it’s toes rather than touching its feet! Perhaps that is the issue: some folks want to be a subject rather than a citizen? A politician influencing ECI so brazenly is like watching a cricket team installing their own umpires in a match! What is left to celebrate after victory then?
• Some psychologists claim that old people who are bhakt now were chamchas before. Why do they start worshiping Mr. Modi after so rudely disillusioned by Ms. Gandhi is beyond me. It would make a good Ph.D. thesis.
• Powerful leaders, more often than not and surely in our country, cause more harm than good to the foundation of nation. What Ms. Gandhi did to civil services and press is not different than what the current government is doing to judiciary and press. These have long lasting effects that rarely gets corrected on its own. For a weaker judiciary and a spineless press and police are more useful for any politician doesn’t matter which party they belong to.
  • We have few examples in Europe to compare. In US, a cult of personality seems to be winning over a “check-and-balance” style of governance.
  • Reminds me of Gandhiji who deeply distrusted political parties in general and two parties system of US in particular. He thought that a two party system will eventually turn citizens against citizens. Despite finding Gandhiji politically naive, he sure has a point if you think beyond a few decades.
• We sure have a thing for “powerful leaders”. Sadly even among people who should know better. Perhaps the educated class in this country is subconsciously aware of worthlessness of their education and degrees. I’ve seen them lining up behind Anna Hazare and Mr. Modi as if they couldn’t think of better ideas.
• Even when your leaders are “good” and not interested in lining up his pockets or keep himself in the limelight, they can’t think beyond next election! Some leaders might enjoy nothing more than contesting elections because it gives them a high they can’t get by solving problems that may take more than a election cycle. The timescale of 5 years is too short in life of a nation to lay the foundation of semiconductor fabrication, improve primary education and health system and to improve universities. Might institutes that don’t have to think about their existence every five years help? I hope this to be largely the case but we also have institutes like DRDOs!
• In may countries, political parties are also “institutes” for they easily outlive their current leaders. And these parties can think beyond election cycles though I find this to be rarer and rarer. In our style of society, we have factions rather than parties because they grow and wither with their ring-leaders.
• Sure, one can ditch democracy and look for autocrats for they don’t seek votes. It might work in some cases for a few decades but when it doesn’t work, and it eventually win not, it is going to hurt really bad.

• Some rain this week on Tuesday. Cloudy week. Not bad. Running after the rain when there are no dust particles in the air is already pleasant.
• People are still very confused about AI. What should it be used for and how much? What are its real benefits?
  • I wish there is little less AI content on my feed. LinkedIn is bad again but in a different way. HN and lobste.rs also have way too much AI on front-page. Some reddit communities are doing well but someone will mention AI somehow on every tech thread!
• I’ve got GSTIN this year since I am mostly working as contract/freelance roles.
• My phone has been misbehaving in mysterious ways for a few weeks now. Pressing call icon doesn’t work unless I restart!! GMail app is crashing when I try to open right panel, MS Team doesn’t sync calendar with system calendar anymore. Google Play complains that I am not logged-in but shows my google profile picture anyway and also refuse to show me “Log In” button because I am logged in. BHIM refuses to open unless I login to google play service but google won’t let me because I am also logged in and not-logged in at same time! A bit like Schrodinger cat. I am almost sure that these small small bugs are due to AI slop and compounding now. I hope this all ends badly soon enough so we can move on.
• Skill rot due to AI use is real (at least for me). I am finding it very hard to write code manually now. The struggle to type by hand is mostly psychological. Like trying to wash dish by hands when you’ve gotten used to dishwasher and it working well, or driving manual after driving automatic. These analogies are from people on podcasts, and somewhat true. AI is mostly convenience driven programming.
• This week I didn’t read anything carefully.

• No rain this week either! And the raw mangoes that I plucked last week are still sitting pretty in basket.
• [jj](https://steveklabnik.github.io/jujutsu-tutorial/) promises to be a simpler git. I played with it this week but I still don’t get it. I like what they are selling though!
• At work, I got my first MR merged into the codebase! Totally hand-written code, AI was used for on-boarding and rubber-ducking.
• I vibe-coded a moderate complexity project — a PCB router like freerouter. I doesn’t work. The UI is excellent and it looks like that it almost work but it doesn’t. Now every prompt is like shouting into the void, things changes but were not fixed at all.
• The successful vibe-coded projects and web-pages are working fine and looks OK as long as you don’t read the code carefully! I usually don’t notice big issues when skimming but as I soon as I try to understand the code, …!
• I am going to write write most of the code by hand since it is quite possible at my new job where the codebase is managed by folks that are older and more conservative than me. Each MR goes through 5 to 6 reviews and it is expected that I understand every bit of it. So far, I am not convinced that I can “understand” a AI written code by reading it faster than writing it myself.
• I love that I can treat AI an average senior developer who is always available to answer anything about the codebase and never judge you. Moreover, you are not scared of asking the dumbest possible question. It can also be used to learn patterns in the code-vase without mastering git grep and other search tools. And get a decent review of your MR.
• Another good use case: it can copy-edit your first ‘vomit’ draft. Please write you own text. Then ask AI to copy-edit your brain vomit. DO NOT violate the first principle of writing — spend more time writing a text than others are expected to spend reading it. AI can also be used to rewrite your text for different type of users, e.g., add a “KT” focused post for fellow maintainers that highlight “how the code-base story is changing with this MR” (don’t use this exact phrasing in your AGENTS.md).

Reading list

• https://matklad.github.io/2026/05/12/software-architecture.html has some excellent reading list on software development.
• https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/the-view-from-mumbai-matchbook-graphic-design-130426 talks about matchbox designs (India specific). HN has a good thread on it!

• No rain this week either!
• At work, my week was spent learning codebase and getting access. I finally have required access. I am dealing with a very large Rust codebase which is going through architectural refactor. Interesting times ahead.
  • After working with claude for a month, copilot feels like a little under-performer. Good thing is that I can avoid using AI agent at job if I want to. copilot could not even do a rebase with main!
• I’ve been learning a bit about investments e.g. PPF, SSY and other fixed rate schemes. HDFC bank keep updating its app. New iteration has more pixel porn, and more stupid notifications over functionality and it requires too much resource. Fortunately, I’ve to use it occasionally. BHIM upi app is also slow and mild mannered as late Mr. Atal Bihari Bajpayee.
• I plucked a few raw mangoes from the tree outside. Perhaps make some pickle?!

Reading list

• Why Async Rust is a great post on, well, “why async rust”. It covers a bit of history as well, and talks about the design choices.
• Zero-cost futures in Rust — why golang like “green threads” were not chosen for Rust. Some interesting bits from the post.
  Things really start getting interesting with futures when you combine them. There are endless ways of doing so, e.g.:
  • Sequential composition: f.and_then(|val| some_new_future(val)). Gives you a future that executes the future f, takes the val it produces to build another future some_new_future(val), and then executes that future.
  • Mapping: f.map(|val| some_new_value(val)). Gives you a future that executes the future f and yields the result of some_new_value(val).
  • Joining: f.join(g). Gives you a future that executes the futures f and g in parallel, and completes when both of them are complete, returning both of their values.
  • Selecting: f.select(g). Gives you a future that executes the futures f and g in parallel, and completes when one of them is complete, returning its value and the other future. (Want to add a timeout to any future? Just do a select of that future and a timeout future!)

• Two mild shower this week! Enough to clean my car and trees but not enough to clean roads. Still waiting for a proper rain.
• I’ve to tweak my working setup quite a bit this week. I am working from home at my current role. I don’t/can’t use work laptop for personal stuff. I bought a KVM switch to share the keyboard, a few peripheral devices and screen with both work and home computer. It worked almost flawlessly. On macos, you may have to ensure that KVM is powered either via one of peripheral or via dedicated usb-c cable!
• I also got a basic Yubi key (finally). I’ve using bitwarden and Zoho Vault my password manager. I prefer Zoho Vault since I can easily afford its paid plan. Zoho Vault doesn’t do well with Firefox profiles. This key is working fine except for GitHub which is refusing to save passkey to this key! Not sure why!
• I’ve been thinking what side project to do this month. The AI has taken all the fun out of writing code. I hope this is temporary else I am in for a tough time. There hardly any other thing that I enjoy more than writing code with my clothes on. Well, hiking, cycling and cooking are fun but I can’t do them whole day!
• I’ve been feeling a little low on energy for past few moths. Finally talked to a doctor. Lets see what comes out of my blood tests.
• The income tax portal still not open for filing ITR. It says it will open “soon” but doesn’t specify dates! Some Reddit post claims that it will open by June 1, 2026! Though I find income tax dept websites and UPI infrastructure to be world class, they can be a little better at communicating changes.

Reading list

• I learnt quite a bit about async Rust — a few things about snoozing futures, development history. A few more articles to read over this weekend.
• Rust has been discussed in ACM quite frequently but a pedagogical article is not what I was expecting to see there.

• I spent this week on-boarding at Toyota Connected India (TCIN) Bangalore office. At TCIN, you are expected to spend 5 days a month in office, either in one go or spread across entire month e.g. 1 day a week. My team prefer to gather in Bangalore office for a week and this was the week. So I went to office all 5 days to spend face-time with each of them even when most on-boarding call was from Chennai office.
• The on-boarding week is relaxed but packed: meetings with HR, Admin, Finance, Legal etc. Each of them spent approximately an hour with me. Also at least one meeting per day with my team-mates on KT and codebase. I also get to see the hardware that runs Toyota dashboard.
  • TCIN office also has lunch inside the office and that solves a lot of problems for me. I can leave early to avoid traffic without having breakfast and have a light breakfast in office.
  • My experience at TCIN is pleasantly different than my last on-boarding at Veeam where I was mostly on my own to figure things out! I didn’t even know I had an HR at Veeam, he didn’t meet!
• Ookie switched to a new school this week which has better activities and communication patterns.
• Rains are still absent and temperature is soaring in Bengaluru. I hope mangoes will be sweater! Every year, in this month, I read about Bengaluru climate and weather and then forget all about it later. What causes rains in April? Returning Monsoon timelines?