karma police

day thirty three

July 26, 2020

Book review: The Mom Test by Robert Fitzpatrick

Recommended reading for my Nu School summer program, this book redefined my perspective on my own projects. You see, as an engineer at my core, my first instinct has always been to open an IDE and see how I can fix the problem. WRONG!

This book provides an excellent framework that everyone can utilize to interview users. A lot of times, we tend to ask bad questions: – “Do you think this product is a good idea?” – “Would you pay X for a product that does Y?”

These are examples of questions that WILL make people lie to you, because they don't want to hurt your feelings. This book leads you away from fluff, compliments, and mere annoyances to facts, data, and real world user problems.

It's written in a dry, real style. It gives advice so practical that you could read this book and go off and ask questions.

“It boils down to this: you aren’t allowed to tell them what their problem is, and in return, they aren’t allowed to tell you what to build. They own the problem, you own the solution.”

#100DaysToOffload

day thirty two

July 25, 2020

Blurred

As you became Dancing patterns of pixels Three moving dots and a bubble I saw new weird angles and lighting

A chainsawed off A pale, cut-off Imitation of your hesitation.

I needed to be alone Didn't expect an accept- ance with no resistance Why didn't my dance rhyme with yours?

So then I held on much tighter To lightless visions To countless imaginations This lack of vision An absolute lack of direction All with a new revelation.

My dance rhymes with yours now My laughter crackles so loud now Shuffled so it rhymes in the now now Through your tinny speaker And terrible fibers that drive our connection We work that much harder for it now.

#100DaysToOffload #NotAPoet

day thirty one

July 25, 2020

Closed Source

My two eyes I thought my own Spotted a comet in the sky Trailing dust and specks of the moon And I thought it a distraction. But as you straked through the shky In a graceful parabolic curve My eyes followed you.

At first I thought you an offshoot An additional addition A pop-up window in my augmented reality.

And then you landed onto my planet Created a crater in my heart. I thought it a crack I created To fill the others that existed just like it.

And then you rose again And I saw the flame twirling in the periphery As it took center stage. And just like that you rewrote the code And created our brand new virtual reality.

#100DaysToOffload #NotAPoet

day thirty

July 25, 2020

Book review: Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuinston

Delightful, wholesome, ambitious.

I went into this book skeptical. It was so far outside my typical genre selection that I had nothing but my best friend's recommendation to go by. YET another romantic novel featuring lovey-dovey teenagers?

Red White and Royal Blue is a delicious book.

It tells the story of angsty, lovesick, intrepid oddballs who literally have to fight the world (the Queen of England included) for their love. It's a story so populated by lively characters and insanely courageous bonds that it gently warms one's heart into a wide, wide smile. It's a book that makes you feel alive – as the characters and words and actions and settings fly off the pages in sumptuous paragraphs.

That's why I said the book was delicious – it's a book to devour. It's not a book that felt like a chore to read. It's a book that laughts in the face of deriving beauty from sadness and fragility and introspection – chosing instead to derive beauty from friendship and love and the present.

A book like no other, it lucidly weaves together the tale of a presidential campaign, a delicate royal image, personal frustrations and desires: and most importantly, places the unconventional on the center stage with the spotlight flashing brightly on it.

day twenty nine

July 25, 2020

How does a Cryptocurrency gain value?

We’ve all heard about cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin. Most of us know what they are, and some of us know how they work. But most of the struggle to understand one simple question – “how do they have any value?” How do carefully flipped bits in servers across the world represent real monetary value?

Cryptocurrencies have no intrinsic value. They aren’t food that you can eat or water you can drink. However, the same can be said about cash. A piece of paper has no intrinsic value – however, since society as a whole has decided that a 100 rupee bill represents a certain amount of value, and it can be transacted freely in exchange for other goods and services, it is considered to have value.

So here’s how something like Bitcoin gains its value:

– Durability – since cryptocurrency does not exist in the physical world, it can never be destroyed, and will never lose its value. Even if a user loses the keys to their wallet, the currency itself will never itself be destroyed.

– Scarcity – the total supply of Bitcoin is capped at 21 million Bitcoins. Litecoin is capped at 84 million Litecoins. Increased scarcity (or lower supply) drives prices up, causing an increase in the value of such currencies.

– Divisibility – cryptocurrencies are typically more divisible than traditional currency. For example, the Indian Rupee can be precise only upto 10^-2 places. A currency like Bitcoin, however, is better in this regard – being divisible to upto 8 decimal places.

– Transportability – cryptocurrencies can be easily transferred from one cryptocurrency to another, and even to traditional fiat currency. Unfortunately, this process is not very seamless, involving hefty transaction fees. In terms of transferability, cryptocurrency can be efficiently transferred between wallets.

– Recognisability and utility – while not comparable to traditional currencies, cryptocurrencies have been gaining traction and support – it is not uncommon to see them supported for payments and donations at major retailers and distributors.

So if that’s the case, and Bitcoin is just like fiat currency, why is it’s value so volatile? Why are people still on the “crypto-fence”?

The price of a bitcoin is determined by supply and demand. When the demand for bitcoins increases, the price increases, and when demand falls, the price falls. There is only a limited number of bitcoins in circulation and new bitcoins are created at a predictable and decreasing rate, which means that demand must follow this level of inflation to keep the price stable.

Because Bitcoin is still a relatively small market compared to what it could be, it doesn’t take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down, and thus the price of a bitcoin is still very volatile.

Such are the wonders and complexities of the modern world. Thankfully, there is little stopping an average user from dealing in cryptocurrencies, due to the increased sophistication of modern wallets and trading platforms. Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies still wait at the fringes – all set for mainstream adoption.

Disclaimer: This post does not qualify as professional financial advice. Always consult your financial advisor and think wisely before making any investment decision.

day twenty-eight

July 25, 2020

COVID-19 and Big Brother

Every major disaster in history has always lead to calls for great surveillance. The false relation between public security and personal privacy leads governments to call for increased scrutiny into the daily lives of the masses.

The important questions that help us consider whether the steps undertaken go above and beyond the need of the hour, whether they are truly effective, are being ignored.

Today, I intend to tackle the three main questions recommended by the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) that MUST be asked while considering private and public response measures to the pandemic.

Would the proposal work? In all cases, the burden of proof should fall on the authority proposing a measure. In a lot of cases, projects have been undertaken without a clear understanding to the public how and why they would be useful. While it is understandable that there is little time to conduct extensive research, there must be clear communication about the problem being solved. For example, while the calls to carry out location tracking of citizens to track the spread of the virus are common, there is little evidence to suggest that this granular data (accurate in the magnitude of many meters) could help meaningfully establish contact points.
Would it excessively intrude on our safeguards? Measures undertaken must be proportional to the risk at hand. Theoretically, a company could launch a system to read a user's every message to determine if they reveal that they are infected by the virus – and then alert the government. However, this is not proportional to the issue at hand – and is an unforgivable breach of privacy. An example of a proportional measure is the storing the names and contact details of international travellers during the time of a pandemic. This targets a very specific, heightened risk of transmission, and has a clear public benefit.
And are their sufficient safeguards? There are some clear safeguards to be established when it comes to pandemic measures. The EFF lists 10, but a few key points stand out.
- Consent: the user must specifically “opt-in” to such a program
- Anti-bias: many major algorithms intentionally or accidentally display bias as described in my fellow student's article. All such measures must be explicitly tested for this weakness.
- Expiration: the most important. Powers gained during the pandemic should not be treated as permanent. After the crisis, all data collection must stop. All data collected should either be deleted or minimised to explicitly health-related concerns after the pandemic.

Technology can massively help prevent the pandemic. It is up to us to decide whether we want to create what Edward Snowden calls an “architecture for oppression” or what I envision – “the operating system of humanity”.

(published here)