Personal on Harshvardhan

A New Home on the Internet

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

For the last few years, I’ve maintained two separate websites. My personal website — built with Hugo Apero — housed my publications, projects, talks, and an about page. My blog — a separate Hugo site with the Archie theme — held all my writing. The idea was to keep “professional” and “personal” apart. In practice, it meant I was never sure where something belonged. Is a technical tutorial about R a “project” or a “blog post”? Is a conference reflection a “talk” or a piece of writing? The boundaries were artificial, and maintaining two sites meant twice the headaches.

Jailbreaking: Turning My Kindle to A Juggernaut E-Reader

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Jailbreaking my Kindle to run Python, draw, and block lockscreen ads.

Recommendations: List of Things to Read, Listen and Watch

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

All the ones marked * are freely available at the link.

This will be updated over time.

The following is the grand list of recommendations from me. Currently, it has reading, listening, and watching recommendations. It may be updated with other recs, but I can’t promise. The last time I posted a Rec-List was three years ago on my father’s birthday.

Read 📑

Short Reads

Short Stories Collections

Web surfing isn't fun anymore 🏄

Wed, 15 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Like many blog posts, this one started with an idea conveyed in a Tweet. A Tweet where I vented how the internet has changed so much that the art of exploration — called surfing because riding on the waves of information — wasn’t as fun anymore.

There are several reasons why I don’t enjoy it as much as the early days of internet but here are a few of my guesses:

Book Notes | Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The following are my notes from the Book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein. In today’s hyper-specialized world, it might seem counterintuitive that broadening one’s experiences and delaying specialization could lead to greater success. However, David Epstein provides compelling evidence and stories to support the idea that being a generalist in a specialized world is not just advantageous; it’s crucial.

Here are some of my key takeaways from the book:

Trapped in Beautiful Garden

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A poem on how I’m trapped in Apple’s Walled Garden

Who are Twitter Blue Users?

Sat, 01 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In this blog post, I explore who are the Twitter Blue subscribers. It is not celebrities, businesses or governments. It is our regular old Joe with fewer than a hundred followers.

I wonder how this AI thing is going to shape up

Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Revolutionary changes are cyclical. First was agriculture. More recent one was the growth of industries, powered by pooling. It looks like AI is the latest one.

DLTGH: Days Left to Go Home

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Today, I was at Chaiyos. It’s a Thai restaurant near my home in Knoxville. I asked for lo mein with spice level 8. I thought it’d make me feel homely. I was wrong.

Stoned to Death at the Public Square

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A problem with learning in public is keeping a strong note of how to avoid heresy. Back in the seventeenth century, if you said anything against God, even if the statement were true, you would be penalised. Sometimes it meant death. It didn’t matter if the statement was true. If you don’t believe me, just ask Galileo.