Week of Nov 1st, 2026: Collaboration, man era, flash cards with friends

Work #

New product at work. What this means is #

1. New codebase to learn the intricacies of. We’ve ported a lot of the hard stuff over - our eval framework, our admin definitions and privileges, the way we do auth. But there’s a new architecture here and I don’t yet know what it is. #
2. New way of writing code. We rebuilt Claude Tag (opens in a new tab) (we’re calling it a software factory) and load balancing all the work across all our machines. This way the work and the prompting happens on slack - which means it is much easier for us to pull in each other when we want more detail. #

This is an attempt to #

1. Circumvent the cycle of building something that is subtly different from what is good for the product #
2. Accept that the LLM is mostly good at what we want it to do if provided with very strong defaults and constraints (the constraints are built into the factory) #
3. Move the process of building from being very individualistic to being more collaborative. #

LLMs have made it easier than ever for people to disappear down a rabbit hole, learn what they need to, and come up for breath with a strong opinion. As a young engineer, if I told baby Tanvi that my instinct would be to not ask a human questions and for collaboration, I would be appalled! But ngl, I really enjoy the process of understanding and building a new thing with an LLM. I am able to shed my ego and ask about the same thing from different angles, or find different points of relation, or work all the different angles so that I have a take and the understanding to back it up. This may also be a consultant tendency. I’m learning that when you work in an organization, it might be more valuable to go on this journey with your peers, as a more effective way to build consensus. #

The new product is in the space of community-building - a space that is very dear to my heart. I am very excited to be more of a product thinker in this context. When I was younger, I wanted to be a product manager! But I’m really glad I stayed the path and acquired technical chops - I feel much more informed about executing my (or any) vision now. #

I have at least 5 drafts that just need time to be polished and published (including those two eval explainers the way I use them) and several more in the outlines stage. I have allotted 2h a day this week to work on them. It’s going to be intense but I am curious if I find it useful and keep the habit or tiresome and figure out a new thing. But one thing is clear - just like I now regularly allocate and spend weekend time thinking, I need to spend weekday time writing. #

Life #

This week has been very social! I went out for several meals, courtesy Restaurant Week (opens in a new tab) #

1. Baan Phad Thai (opens in a new tab) with a gang of 6, followed by coffee and excellent cake at Ondu Plate (opens in a new tab) (happy birthday!) #
2. Boteco (opens in a new tab) for a team lunch #
3. Mai Mai (opens in a new tab) with Kenneth (opens in a new tab), Noopur, and Ankur (opens in a new tab) for a mostly sushi and pork dinner #
4. Bistro Cameo (opens in a new tab) for a sunny sunday lunch #

We also had several people over, and I played entirely too many hours of Unrailed (opens in a new tab) on the couch, classic co-op style. #

I spent 5 shameful but glorious hours on dietsabya (opens in a new tab) this week. Learnt about Komolika (opens in a new tab), whose style Lara Raj (opens in a new tab) seems to have lifted as inspiration recently. I think - maybe - I would tentatively like to be on social media if the consumption is of culture curators like this (I am similarly partial to r/popheads (opens in a new tab)) as opposed to meme content or comedy/influencer skits? I feel like there is more to think about and I feel better about it. Who are the current culture curators in our upper-class, english-speaking context lately? #

Early in the week, I was still recovering from the sickness, and Devanjal (opens in a new tab) and my aunt both insisted on feeding me, which I am very grateful for. Mum also came by and made me a tambali (opens in a new tab) from the sambarballi (opens in a new tab) growing in my balcony! Proud Plant Parent moment for sure (though my gardener and my help should take most of the credit for pruning and watering respectively). #

I have not cooked for several weeks now. I am surprisingly happy and okay with this. A combination of people feeding me, frozen food from meal prepped large batches (that mom generously supplied!), and going out have kept me pretty happy and well fed. I have occasionally made eggs, maggi, or soup that would take less than 10 minutes (and less than 1 cycle of brain power). I am very happy to slowly morph into the straight raja beta I was meant to be. Being free of responsibilities - even for yourself and your house - frees up so much of the brain cycle time for thinking, doing, or recovering from all the thinking and doing. #

Health #

The flare continuous to flare. It is horrible. When will I be released from this mortal coil?? I have been exhausted. Today I took a general painkiller for the first time in I don’t know how many months. Forget running, even walking 4k steps one day exhausted me so much I slept for ten hours that night. #

A friend has recommended a new, different personal trainer who supposedly has a good track record and experience working with people with chronic illness. Do I trust them? In the last few years, I have been disillusioned by the fitness training world the way I was disillusioned by the medical field in my early twenties. Nothing can be outsourced. I have to do all the reading, research, collating, myself. I have to recognize the various interactions and contraindications, understand the implications, and make my own decisions. Some days I feel like I should get rid of this section entirely - thinking about this reminds me how nerfed I am. But I must remember. I must do something about this. Without my health I have nothing. I have fought so hard, and come so far, that regression is no longer a possibility. But I have plateaued - sacrificing the progress of better health for the ability to dive deeper at work. #

I don’t regret it yet? But I need to balance this now. I have a Very Large painscience.org article to read through (without getting distracted and following all the footnotes this time!). And i am getting back on gfdf. Let us hope the sacrifices please the inflammation gods. #

Learning #

Did my flash cards only three days of this week, but progress continues to be excellent. I spent an evening doing the flashcard recall with a friend who has also spent some time learning the kannada script. They had actually taken classes, so I learnt about how some letter forms are written in a way that is different from the font - there is not nearly as many twists and turns as print kannada makes it look like! I also found that reading handwritten kannada was much harder than reading the font. I am unsure where to practice this second skill from, apart from perhaps writing letters to my mother back and forth? #

Things I need to spend time learning this week (there is urgency) #

1. The vagaries of various models that ai-sdk smooths out (and what it doesn’t) #
2. How the router on our custom software factory works #
3. How to design a good benchmark for a model #
4. How steroids work, and what long-term usage does to a body #
5. Network reliability instrumentation #

there really aren’t enough hours in the day. #

Media Diet #

girl where is the time. I did visit the A Moving Line exhibit at MAP (opens in a new tab) and added about 20 graphic novels to my to-read list, but I doubt a dent is being made in it any time soon. I would like to pick up India After Gandhi (opens in a new tab), and I would really like to read well-reported fashion ethnographies, but I don’t think any exist in popular culture? I miss catching up on music videos as they come out. I have only been listening to singles, but they are all good. All the pop girlies are doing good. #