From my 2020 post:

2019 has been the year that’s primed me the most for life changes. I imagine 2020 will the be the one where a lot of these changes materialize.

… that’s cute.

If you’re reading this in the future and suprised why, I suggest this Netflix mockumentary. Contagion style blazing dumpster fire year aside, it’s been hard to find the motivation to write this post. But reading my previous years’ posts, I’m usually grateful past me took the time to capture my thinking, priorities and general frame of reference.

So power on, I shall.

2020 Recap:

Fragmented

Fragmented remains my proudest labor of love but I’m not kidding about the labor part of this statement. We’re taking it much slower on Fragmented releasing as and when, our lives allow us. But with 2021 rolling around, the hope is that we can kick things back up atleast from the current dormancy. Stay tuned.

jkl.gg

Lot of changes here. I moved my primary domain and assets from kaush.co1 to jkl.gg.

This blog saw a lot of tweaks and customizations. The joke goes: most people with custom blog setups spend more time customizing their blog than writing posts. This was true for me but I actually enjoy the process of customizing my blog. In addition to (pleasantly) reminding me of my WebDev days, it also helps me learn and understand my UX skills better.

Posts like the one I wrote on sidenotes2 come from this process. Another change that was probably not evident was the entire CSS refactor of this blog. A lot of display:grid is now being used. No post on this but in the process of this refactor, I’ve actually started work on a minimal jekyll theme for podcasts 3.

Mechanical keyboards and hacking

Productivity has always been a theme for this blog. This year I played (and spent) a lot with Mechanical Keyboards. It was a fun experiment, learning to flash and customize keyboards. Eventually settled with tricking out existing apple keyboards with karabiner and goku.

Lot of TV

I watched a lot of TV. This is more than my usual self, which is to say a heck of a lot more TV. As someone who’s known in friend circles as the guy who watches a lot of TV, obviously I’m asked for recommendations all the time.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the process looking at Movie recommendation services and just rating systems in general. I plan to write a lot about that this year.

Random learnings from 2020

Blog post on the Dangers of shipping software at the last minute

Heroes don’t fall from the sky. They’re just ordinary people who step forward

Katz: …and one thing that always stuck with me is how persuadable @dhh was when presented with actual solutions that people created to solve actual problems they encountered in real apps.

DHH: SHOW ME THE BEFORE/AFTER CODE! It reduces all these abstract debates to the realm of the concrete. 80% of disagreements disappear when you look at real code vs make-believe arguments

“They made their own clouds, brings to mind the people who built the great Gothic cathedrals. Knowing they’d be long dead before their work was finished, trusting their great-grandchildren would lay the final stones. We’ve lost that kind of generational thinking on Earth. Here, you see it in everything they do.”

  • The Expanse Season 4 Episode 2

We operate at the whim of this world

  • Joe MacNally

Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.

Even, when I’m disappointing you, I will tell you honestly why

Parting thoughts

Recuperate, Regroup and Resume. Let that be the chanting slogan.

  1. kaush.co still redirects here. ↩︎

  2. read this post on a browser if you’re on RSS. ↩︎

  3. Fragmented probably won’t use this but a newer podcast I’m helping get started, might 🤫. ↩︎