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!**