Notes on reverse-engineering a mobile API with Claude Code in 2 hours

Ground Truth is a Human Job

"What's the Use Case?" Is a great question. Until it Isn't.

Notes on figuring out how to work with LLMs, from someone still figuring it out

Introduction

Every experience teaches you something. The only question is what.

Notes from my first job: research, teams, and the things that actually mattered

Things I Learned in 3.5 Years at my first job

A little bit of slope makes up for a lot of y-intercept

Control Wipro smart plugs programmatically using TinyTuya and the Tuya IoT platform, with an example battery-based charging automation script.

Automating Wipro Smart Plugs with TinyTuya

Set up instant, end-to-end encrypted Obsidian note syncing across all your devices using a self-hosted CouchDB server exposed via a Cloudflare Tunnel.

Self-Hosting Obsidian Live Sync with Cloudflare Tunnels

Guide for downloading HTML presentations as PDF files using DeckTape.

Converting HTML Presentations to PDF with DeckTape

How to configure a Jupyter notebook server to start automatically at system boot using systemd.

Creating a Systemd Service for Automatic Startup

I recently discovered Prof. John Ousterhout's ["Thoughts for the weekend" playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcs1ZorNr2uTGPZPZnBa408qLVHjbMTzT) and one metaphor about learning and growth resonated: **A little bit of slope makes up for a lot of y-intercept**. He expressed the concept of growth mindset in an elegant, simple and mathematical way. 

![slope_image](/api/image?path=slope_image.png)
Source: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE98Is1quwY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE98Is1quwY)

The idea is straightforward: Plot two lines with different slopes -- the one with steeper slope will eventually surpass the one with higher starting point (y-intercept). Applied to life, this means how quickly you learn matters far more than how much you know at the outset.

Your y-intercept is where you begin: your initial knowledge, credentials, or experience. Maybe you graduated from a top college, or you've already worked in a field for years. This gives you an early advantage.

Your slope is your learning rate -- how quickly you acquire new skills, adapt to challenges and grow. This determines your long-term trajectory. The person who learns faster will eventually overtake the person who merely started ahead.

**Slow and steady slope wins the race!**