My AMA with Reddit India - Devs N Hackers group

I did an AMA with Reddit India Devs N Hackers group on 27th May. It took me some time to get into some shape. All the text below is unedited and right from slack export using some python script. Its available on github at https://github.com/the100rabh/Slack-Export-JSON-to-CSV :)


Date Username Message
2016-05-27 18:30:28 v For our next AMA we have @Saurabh Minni and here is his intro:

Tinkerer at heart. Worked on different technologies from assembly to c++ to Delphi to php to Python to Java to Scala to JavaScript in the past 11years. Have been in Tata Elxsi, Adobe and Intuit previously. Right now Technical Architect at Near. Been organizing Barcamp Bangalore for past 9 years. Author of Apache Kafka Cookbook. Just love technology and try to keep learning new stuff everyday.
2016-05-27 18:41:31 Robin Malhotra @Saurabh Minni: Need advice saar. Delhi doesn’t have tech culture. It’s mostly a chicken and egg problem. How do we break the cycle?
2016-05-28 04:00:03 Saurabh Minni @Robin Malhotra it doesn't matter if the city has culture or not. All that matters is the culture around you. Get your friends together. Do something like a tech night. Learn from each other. Build something. You will soon have a big enough circle to call it a culture of the city.
2016-05-28 04:16:46 Hiemanshu Sharma @Saurabh Minni: what's your setup like?
2016-05-28 04:40:01 Saurabh Minni I have a Dell Inspiron i7 with Kubuntu. An RPI which is used for entertainment. An old(2010) Intel core 2 Quad which survives from with parts of my PC from different decades. Like keyboard is from 1997, monitor from 2006 and so on and so forth. It's become a more like Ship of Theseus :stuck_out_tongue:
2016-05-28 04:49:25 rahulhp What does being a "Technical Architect" actually mean?
2016-05-28 05:09:34 Saurabh Minni It depends from company to company. For Near it basically meant that which technology to choose among so many available is something which I had to decide. Involved a lot of experimentation with different technologies and evaluating them for the task at hand. Basically I get to whet my appetite for different pieces of tech. This is and taking design decisions for new projects for scalability and latencies. But other than this I am just another regular software engineer.
2016-05-28 05:44:29 v s @Saurabh Minni: technology/framework/language you love from last years.. ??
2016-05-28 06:09:17 Saurabh Minni @v s Oh boy that would be a long list. Let me see in no particular order and not really limited. Linux kernel, Android, Redis, Storm, Kafka, php-fpm, nginx, KDE, WxWidgets,R, Mesos, Kyoto Tycoon
2016-05-28 09:02:29 Jalem Raj Rohit @Saurabh Minni: Do you read books (often)? If yes, then what is your fav. book, and what book would you recommend if you were to?
2016-05-28 09:28:50 Saurabh Minni I don't read books often. Only while traveling. I love to read fictions and mystery. Two series I would recommend to all is Foundation Series and Feluda Series.
2016-05-28 09:40:01 Samaksh @Saurabh Minni: At what point in 11 years you were learning the most and the least?
It's been a year since I am working and I am just overwhelmed by the techs that seem exciting and I keep jumping from one to another, to a point I feel aimless :joy:
2016-05-28 09:54:10 Saurabh Minni @Samaksh I think I get bored after a couple of years in the same job. Thats the time I switched company and another technology. BTW for me learning never stops. If anyone says they are learning only during their day job, I feel they are not completely truthful. Job gives you some learning but you learn about things at interest you outside your work. I love to do some small side projects of mine which have nothing to do with the job. Like I learnt Android on my own and fortunately enough landed a job with it without any professional experience at Intuit.
2016-05-28 09:42:37 Jalem Raj Rohit @Saurabh Minni: Same here. I see that good programmers have a T-shaped skill set.

Which means an in-depth knowledge of some, and a considerable knowledge in some others.

So, how do yo keep from jumping from one cool tech to another and choose what to have an expertise in? How did you do it?

[Sounds noobish, but a common problem amongst a lot of people I’ve met]
2016-05-28 09:58:29 Saurabh Minni @Jalem Raj Rohit: I am a generalist and happy being one. I dont claim to be the master of any one tech but I know sufficiently enough to be able to bring to life ideas involving those techs. If I knew answer to everything it would damn boring for me to do it. The adrenaline rush for me comes in figuring out things to do which have not been attempted so far or no one has clues what to do.
2016-05-28 09:58:49 Samaksh @Saurabh Minni: Being in a startup, you have the opportunity to pick up as many techs as you want, so should I be learning `n` things together or focus on a single tech and *try to* master it.
2016-05-28 10:00:56 Saurabh Minni @Samaksh that a very individualistic choice. You can do either, doesnt matter. Its important that you do what you like. Do 1 thing very well or learn N things in broad detail.
2016-05-28 10:02:23 Saurabh Minni But at times to do things well, you have jump in and learn things in detail. It depends on the problem you are trying to solve. Sometimes and indepth knowledge is not really required.
2016-05-28 10:02:43 Saurabh Minni but at other times, you are screwed if you dont learn those details
2016-05-28 10:14:46 Samaksh @Saurabh Minni: Thanks! This helps a lot.
2016-05-28 10:15:26 Saurabh Minni @Samaksh ur welcome :slightly_smiling_face:
2016-05-28 10:27:47 Hiemanshu Sharma @Saurabh Minni: when/how did you come with your nick?
2016-05-28 10:29:55 Samaksh he can't tell you, he took a 100 rab ki.
2016-05-28 10:30:17 Hiemanshu Sharma :facepalm:
2016-05-28 14:07:30 Saurabh Minni I had tried to open an account in Hotmail way back in 1996-97. I tried sminni and got it. but luck would have it, I lost the password. others like saurabh were not available and then it suddenly 100rabh came to my mine, but then hotmail would not allow first character to be a number. So finally settled on the100rabh. It just stuck with me ever since. I got this ID without much effort at all major sites
2016-05-28 10:30:41 sathyabhat @Saurabh Minni: how did you end up writing a book? What was the experience like? Did the publisher dictate the terms(x pages etc)? Would you do it again, if no why not?
2016-05-28 10:31:23 Hiemanshu Sharma @sathyabhat: did he write a minni book series :trollface:
2016-05-28 14:26:45 Saurabh Minni @Himanshu Kashyap: thats not a bad name idea
2016-05-28 10:33:45 Jalem Raj Rohit Is that a Packt book? I’m authoring the final chapters of mine :beer: `Julia Cookbook`

So, how was your experience writing a book? While and after?
2016-05-28 14:21:50 Saurabh Minni @sathyabhat Actually PaktPub had approached me to review a book on Apache Kafka(Learning Apache Kafka). Post this they approached me to write a book on the same as a cookbook. Well I would have had said no had it been a regular descriptive book because I have been spoilt by twitter. But idea of cookbook suited me. Gave them a list of chapter and topics in them. They approved it. Then started out writing different chapters of the book. Nothing much eventful there. I wrote the book and they gave me the advance. Nothing much after that.
Yes they did ask for 120pages of content but I could do only 100 :smile: But they were good with it.
As far as writing again is concerned. I may very well do it again. It takes a lot of effort to write a book. Not just about knowing the tech but also converting your thoughts into meaningful words. You really have to master the tech to write a good book. I find it more fun to use the tech to build something rather than write an essay on it. Cookbook is something which comes closest to it. You might find me writing a cookbook on Ionic but this time, its not going to be published anywhere, might end up as a gitbook most probably. I still have not started on it and do not know when I would.
2016-05-28 15:05:36 asicsp taking notes/writing book/teaching - good ways to get better in that subject.. just the thought that what you write/teach is for others creates different mindset altogether :slightly_smiling_face:
2016-05-28 15:08:23 asicsp @Saurabh Minni: have you taught any course to your college juniors? what's the experience like if so?
2016-05-28 15:11:45 Saurabh Minni @asicsp: I never taught my college juniors nor my classmates as far as I remember. I was not the topper in my college.
2016-05-28 15:13:05 Saurabh Minni The only differentiation I had was that I wrote all my code myself and not from some shitty guide book or teachers notes. Writing that code teaches more than reading books.
2016-05-28 15:15:00 asicsp cool.. by course I meant weekend workshops too...
2016-05-28 15:15:53 Saurabh Minni I guess all I did was explain to my project mates, what the code did :smile:
2016-05-28 15:17:45 asicsp <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worked-example_effect>
2016-05-28 15:19:37 Hiemanshu Sharma @Saurabh Minni: if you make minni book series I need 5% of all book sales.
2016-05-28 15:27:27 eswarm @Saurabh Minni: You have been working since some time, ever had a tech burnout ? If so how did you deal with it ?
2016-05-28 16:07:29 Saurabh Minni I think what I feel as 'bored with tech' is same as 'tech burnout'. I just start working on something of my own. Built my own side project and have fun doing it. Job may not be fun all the time, thats why they have to pay us to do it. I have quit and moved on to other jobs when it got too much to boring for me.
2016-05-28 15:28:48 eswarm @Saurabh Minni: Also, you said you are an architect, how do you decide which tech you need to keep yourself updated with ? How deep do you go into it which makes you feel you can make right decisions ?
2016-05-28 16:09:43 Saurabh Minni I dont do much except for following tech on hackernews and reddit. I just try to read as much as I can about tech. Its fun doing that. Then when I get time I try to think of some project and start pursuing it. Some see the light of day, some die on my system.

2016-05-28 15:30:24 tylerdurden what is your education ? from how many years have you been working and what did you started with ?
2016-05-28 16:14:51 Saurabh Minni I did my engineering(BE(CSE)) from Global Academy of Technology, Bangalore. Was the first batch of the college. I started my first job in 2005 at Tata Elxsi in embedded systems. They had 6months of extensive training, which was like 6 months of college. First job was writing image processing algorithms in C and them optimizing them in assembly on TigerSHARC processor from Analog Devices. My first blur algo took 26s to process an image, an optimised version of the same took 6 seconds. Later I learnt that the client had a target of 20ms. It was fun doing that with all the research and trying to understand the assembly code with processor nuances.
2016-05-28 16:16:56 Mrinal Purohit @Saurabh Minni: How has barcamp helped you? And how has barcamp itself changed since the first time you attended it? :slightly_smiling_face:
2016-05-28 16:26:44 Saurabh Minni @Mrinal Purohit My last 2 jobs have a strong connection to BarCamp. During interview at Intuit I was asked about BarCamp. I told we are looking for a venue and they asked if we would like to do it at Intuit. We finalised the venue as well got the job :stuck_out_tongue:. My very good friend and planner at BarCamp was the VP and now Chief Architect at AdNear, now Near. But beyond that BarCamp has taught me a lot of things, I just noted a few things here <http://the100rabh.blogspot.com/2016/04/lessons-being-planner-for-barcamp.html>
2016-05-28 16:31:41 Saurabh Minni @Mrinal Purohit BarCamp has changed a lot since I first attended. The topic quality and range has improved a lot. A lot of folks are open to talking about things they are doing. 101 sessions have reduced as the folks themselves have grown, so I see a lot more indepth sessions compared to earlier. Technology has helped make things simpler for which we(All of us planners, cant leave anyone out here) have worked really hard. But actually to talk about change at BarCamp, I am probably not the right guy to answer as I my view is very myopic thanks to being a planner for so long.
2016-05-28 16:32:25 Saurabh Minni BarCamp Bangalore is an experiment in progress for us(planners). Change is the name of the game there.
2016-05-28 17:59:40 tocttou @Saurabh Minni: What was your moment in a project when shit got real hard and you had brief thoughts of giving up but didn't?
2016-05-28 18:04:38 Shubham Rao (assuming that happened) ^^
2016-05-28 18:06:48 tocttou Happens with everyone. You don't become good before shit becomes hard.
2016-05-29 05:20:45 Saurabh Minni @tocttou: if it's not hard, is it really worth doing?. Once it's too easy, it's boring for me. I never gave up on a project which was hard for me. I always made a plan and stuck to it. None of my projects were like long term ones except the current one. All my previous ones were rather small projects so i never had time to give up once I started.
2016-05-29 02:40:58 Jalem Raj Rohit @Saurabh Minni: Do you follow anyone’s blogs (tech or non-tech)? If yes, then whose?
2016-05-29 05:24:08 Saurabh Minni I used to follow tons of them while Google reader was around. But post that it's too much effort and Reddit +HN serves me well in filtering things that are worth the read. Plus my friends on Twitter share all the interesting stuff they find.
2016-05-29 09:27:16 tylerdurden what are some common myths about software industry you feel young people have ?
2016-05-29 16:56:42 Saurabh Minni @tylerdurden: I am not sure if I can really answer this, but since u asked, here are a few of them.
1. Whatever you learnt in college is useless in professional life
2. You have mastered X Technology in college.
3. You will get to work in the field of your choice always in your first job.
4. Your first job determines your destiny
5. MBA is the way to move your career forward
2016-05-29 16:57:26 Saurabh Minni I am sure a lot of folks would differ with me on this
2016-05-29 17:03:44 Nikat Oh this is still going on. Hi! I wanted to ask how often do you see BSc IT/CS or BCA people in the industry? Where do they stand against, say, B.Tech people?
2016-05-29 17:17:16 Saurabh Minni BSc and BCA not so much but MCA is treated at par with BTech generally by the industry
2016-05-29 17:18:25 Saurabh Minni The struggle for degree generally is for the first 5 years of your career, post that only your experience counts
2016-05-29 17:21:34 Robin Malhotra inb4 this turns into a job/MBA/MS thread..
2016-05-29 17:22:22 Robin Malhotra What’s the most overhyped thing in tech right now?
2016-05-29 17:25:19 Saurabh Minni @Robin Malhotra: Cloud computing and Big Data I guess
2016-05-29 17:35:18 Azarel . Since you have so much experience in IT industry , and must involved in hiring new recruits , do you feel once academic history is going to affect his working capability in IT industry . I was denied all of the campus placement due to my academic background and forced to join some thing other than IT .
2016-05-29 17:37:20 Robin Malhotra @Azarel .: Really? Damn.
2016-05-29 17:39:22 Saurabh Minni @Azarel . you are making me feel too old now :angry:
Campus placements are over rated, dont judge yourself by campus placement. If you love Tech, pls pls pls go and search for off campus jobs. I am sure you will find something. Your academics(college, marks etc) matter only for first 5 years of your job after that its your experience that makes a difference.
2016-05-29 17:47:57 ativerc Someone i know told me....."agar tu accha padhta toh tujhe 1st round mein campus mil jaate" :disappointed: Sometimes i want to curl up into a pool of black vile tar and die.....
2016-05-29 17:50:06 Saurabh Minni @ativerc: Just FYI my college toppers (1st, 2nd and 3rd) did not get placed in the first round at Infy
2016-05-29 18:54:01 sathyabhat @Azarel .: fwiw I was not allowed to take campus recruitment because my % was less than 60
2016-05-29 18:57:15 sk mines a similar story ..
2016-05-29 18:57:37 sk +backlogs too :stuck_out_tongue:
2016-05-29 19:12:23 Saurabh Minni I was not allowed to sit in the first 3 cos in campus because my 12 marks were less than 60%. But I live to tell a different story I guess :stuck_out_tongue:
2016-05-29 19:15:33 Sudhir Khanger @Saurabh Minni: What brought you to KDE and Kubuntu? Kubuntu has one of the most awesome communities around. What do you like and dislike about Plasma? Are you on LTS or non-LTS?
2016-05-29 19:24:03 Saurabh Minni @Sudhir Khanger: I have been a fan of KDE since early days of KDE2 . Loved the simplicity of KDE compared to all things that were there that time. KDE just worked for me. This was the days of free RedHat4 and PCLinux. This continues with Kubuntu because I find *buntu easy to work with nowdays. Currently on LTS obviously because thats the latest. I love being on the edge of the cutting edge generally :stuck_out_tongue:
2016-05-29 19:26:08 Saurabh Minni I seriously dont hate anything in Plasma. Its highly configurable and more importantly it just works. Though there are some bugs which keep getting quashed every now and then
2016-05-29 19:27:24 Saurabh Minni If u asked what I like most about plasma is that I can hide the borders of any window and thats just awesome for firefox :smile:
2016-05-29 19:32:26 Sudhir Khanger @Saurabh Minni: How do you consume news off HN, Reddit, Twitter, etc.? What devices do you use to visit them? Do you use official website or apps to access them or 3rd party? How often do you visit them? Do you visit the sites and save link for future read or do you read right away? As far as Reddit is concerned do you visit multiple subreddits individually or you use multireddit or you subscribe to them all and only visit your home page? On an average how much time do you think you spend on the aforementioned sites each day?

Sorry for the OCD type question but I have tried so many times to keep up with news but I just find it impossible to manage. There's just too much of it.
2016-05-29 19:35:22 Sudhir Khanger Even if you spend a hour and fifteen minutes on reading news you end up spending almost a forty hour work week in a month. One can do a lot in that time.
2016-05-30 04:00:30 Saurabh Minni @Sudhir Khanger Twitter - Twidere on my N5
HN, Reddit on desktop once in the morning, once in the evening like medicine :slightly_smiling_face: Saving links doesnt work for me, I almost never get time to revisit them. If there is a need and I remember keywords, I just google it. I visit each subreddit that interests me.
I never keep up with news, if I missed it I missed it. My backlogs are never ever serviced. In Google Reader if I was a few days off it, I marked them all as read. I found that I could never really cope up with the flood of information that comes over.
2016-05-30 04:05:30 Frag O'Matic @Saurabh Minni: what side/personal projects are you working on now? How much time do you spare per week roughly on programming outside of work?
2016-05-30 04:07:01 Saurabh Minni @Frag O'Matic: my side project right now is in stealth mode, cant reveal much right now :smile:
2016-05-30 04:07:55 Saurabh Minni I spend roughly 4 to 8 hours programming outside of work :slightly_smiling_face: But I am not consistent with it though.
2016-05-30 04:11:47 Frag O'Matic awesome. couple of more questions @Saurabh Minni: what are your preferred editor and OS (dev env in general)? What is your feature & defect tracking workflow (for personal projects)?
2016-05-30 04:13:27 thorongil @Azarel .: Just don't mention your academic history in your resume , only passing year . My academics is worst than you can simply imagine !!
2016-05-30 04:13:58 v a good company doesn't care about acads
2016-05-30 04:14:49 Saurabh Minni @Frag O'Matic: My preferred OS is Kubuntu. I have used Mac and Windoze as well and my preference order is Kubuntu > Windoze > Mac
2016-05-30 04:16:57 Saurabh Minni @Frag O'Matic: as far as editors are concerned, it depends on what I am coding right now. But I use Notepad++(For generics like JS, XML, Text editing), IntelliJ(Java only) and Atom(PHP, Python and everything nonJava) .
2016-05-30 04:18:28 Saurabh Minni @Frag O'Matic: for my personal projects I use Trello nowdays, earlier it used to be Google Sheets.
2016-05-30 05:28:18 tocttou @v a lot of good companies do. If anything it shows that you are sincere. Google doesn't care about your GPA much outside if you are #pro, but for in campus placements they certainly do because there they come looking for sincere people.
2016-05-30 05:32:21 tylerdurden ^^ exactly..
2016-05-30 05:32:40 v @tocttou: I don't agree and I will get back to you later
2016-05-30 05:33:05 tocttou @v you never do :disappointed: and okay
2016-05-30 05:33:17 tylerdurden and if you are such a pro to get a job at google, then you yourself wont care abt your gpa coz you will know your capabilities.. when doubtful its always good to have good acad records
2016-05-30 05:33:38 v I am not saying having good acads is bad
2016-05-30 05:33:38 Jalem Raj Rohit Both my employers don’t know my CGPA :stuck_out_tongue:
2016-05-30 05:33:45 v @Jalem Raj Rohit: same here
2016-05-30 05:34:00 v and I don't deny having a good CGPA is good
2016-05-30 05:34:07 tylerdurden sir but you had two research papers, iit cs degree, kaggle rank 2500 ,
2016-05-30 05:35:24 tocttou If you want to go for academics, just get a good CG. It becomes impossibly difficult otherwise.
2016-05-30 05:36:40 Saurabh Minni FWIW, Me no IIT, no papers, no rankings, but none my last 3 cos know my marks in college :smile:
2016-05-30 05:37:10 Saurabh Minni I repeat myself here, your marks and college matter only for the first job, thats it.
2016-05-30 05:43:19 Hiemanshu Sharma Your marks and college only matter if you want to join a corporate and want placements.
2016-05-30 13:24:04 Sudhir Khanger @Saurabh Minni: How's an average day in your life looks like?
2016-05-30 13:42:28 Saurabh Minni @Sudhir Khanger: My ideal day is something like this.

6:30 am : Wake up
8:30 am : Office & Check and reply to all mails, reddit, HN etc. Plan my rest of the day.
9:00am : Daily Standup
9:15am - 5pm : get around doing stuff planned at work.
5pm: Leave office
7-9pm: Relax and work on my pet projects or read
11pm : Sleep
2016-05-30 13:46:28 perverted_sage Which vehicles do you own? Which one would you buy if you were to buy one today?
2016-05-30 13:54:02 Saurabh Minni @perverted_sage: I own a Trek mountain bike and Ford Figo. I would like to buy a Honda City if I could afford one :slightly_smiling_face:
2016-05-30 13:54:45 perverted_sage > I own a Trek mountain bike
Ah, your solution to get through Bangalore’s traffic?
2016-05-30 13:56:40 Saurabh Minni @perverted_sage: true that
2016-05-30 13:57:08 haigaguy Trek Bikes :heart:
2016-05-30 13:57:53 haigaguy I have a btwin mtb. Saving up for either Trek or Giant!
2016-05-30 14:05:44 haigaguy Even Amit says highly of you @Saurabh Minni
2016-05-30 14:08:26 perverted_sage What’s so good about more expensive bikes?
2016-05-30 14:09:48 Sudhir Khanger Which trek mountain bike?
2016-05-30 14:12:35 Saurabh Minni @perverted_sage: A bike is a bike, making it more expensive does a few things for u.
1. Better tyres and rim so that it can take some of the damage from bad terrain(Potholes in the city)
2. The frame is much stronger to and does break due to extra stress
3. The gear system is much smoother and requires less effort while riding.

I always suggest that you buy the most expensive one you can afford.
2016-05-30 14:16:12 Sudhir Khanger @Saurabh Minni: Do you go around on you bike? Or it only for recreation. I feel like Indian roads are highly risky for pedestrians or bikers. There's no concept of pedestrian first or right of passage in India.
2016-05-30 14:23:30 Saurabh Minni @Sudhir Khanger: I dont remember the model name right now. But use it generally to commute to work. While I was at Intuit I used to do it one a week ( 15km one way) and later at Near almost every other day. Recently though its gone down because of various reasons. But Indian roads are definitely not safe for bikers or for that matter any mode of transport. You have to be careful. I used to make sure I use the inside roads and avoid main roads. I infact used to beat the office cab almost every time at Intuit. At Near which is near Forum, makes it 30mins by bike and 1 hour by car from my place. You tell me which one is better now :smile:
2016-05-30 14:24:21 haigaguy do you carry your laptop and necessities in a backpack over the bike?
2016-05-30 14:26:07 Saurabh Minni @haigaguy Yes everything in my backpack. Trust me its not that heavy while riding
2016-05-30 14:26:32 haigaguy coool!!
2016-05-30 14:26:52 haigaguy I often bike to bring home groceries and whatnot
2016-05-30 15:51:57 ativerc @Saurabh Minni: What do your pet projects look like? Share some previous ones?
2016-05-30 16:17:11 Saurabh Minni @ativerc Some are on github at <https://github.com/the100rabh/>
2016-05-30 16:23:59 Saurabh Minni @ativerc: some apps are at <https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=100rabh>
2016-05-31 03:45:41 Frag O'Matic @Saurabh Minni: what hyped tech of today do you think is going to be big in the future? Have you "called" any trends/hyped techs in the past?
2016-05-31 04:01:41 Saurabh Minni @Frag O'Matic: I was very much for Android(still am) at the time when every thought it was shit compared to iOS. I loved and still love the tech and technical design of Android.
2016-05-31 04:07:26 Saurabh Minni A few things that excite me now is Ionic Framework, basically a universal HTML based App framework which can do everything that native app can. I see convergence of tech and speed there. Next big thing is AI definitely, we have not even scratched the surface for recommendations. It will become a commodity very soon with data being provided by various vendors like Google, Amazon, FB, Twitter and others for better recommendations.
2016-05-31 05:35:45 Sudhir Khanger @Saurabh Minni: What do you think of Play Store on ChromeOS and possibly on all Chrome browser? I am very excited about it. One app can run anywhere without any modifications without looking stretched or ugly. All you have to do is to provide resource folder for that particular screen range. We might as well get AOSP on Rpi3 soon. Do you think Android is going to be the defacto OS of future? Or at least the defiant OS of future in personal computing and IoTs?
2016-05-31 05:39:10 Sudhir Khanger @Saurabh Minni: Is there anything your Android device doesn't do for you that you wished it did for you? As a user what feature do you want to see on Android?
2016-05-31 05:46:53 Saurabh Minni @Sudhir Khanger: I think Linux as a kernel was awesome. UI on it was a disaster because of various reasons. Android makes it good and is very well on the path to become the defacto OS of the future. IoT I am not sure, Android might be too heavy for that. But personal computing, it will dominate. But I have a more inkling towards convergence of web tech. Things like Electron and Ionic are making it possible to move web closer to native experience. PlayStore on ChromeOS is just a stop gap measure. But you never know what might happen in the future :slightly_smiling_face:
2016-05-31 05:51:34 Saurabh Minni @Sudhir Khanger: I would love to see Project Ara get to life making it possible to have assembled Mobiles where I can change components based on my liking. I hate the compromises I have to do while buying devices. Back in the day I had written about Mobile phone of the future, for some we are already there, for others I am still waiting <http://the100rabh.blogspot.com/2006/10/my-best-cell-phone.html>
2016-05-31 05:54:20 Saurabh Minni Oh boy, that post was like 10 years back :grinning::blush:
2016-05-31 13:27:00 Saurabh Minni Wind down, by just lazying around at home, reading something online or working on my active project
2016-05-31 13:28:00 Jalem Raj Rohit @Saurabh Minni: What community-building tips would you give to the people who are trying to build one?
2016-05-31 13:35:07 thorongil @Saurabh Minni: Sir what's your opinion of working hours and laws of IT industry in India ?
2016-05-31 13:39:36 Saurabh Minni @Jalem Raj Rohit: I have never built a community. I cant really say anything of value here. But I hate the whole idea community-building tips and tricks. A community is a group of people who are like minded. All that is required for a community is to have a common goal and a****les who want to take over and push their personal agenda must be shown their position by rest of the folks. Community always grows organically. There are no shortcuts or tricks to it.
2016-05-31 13:46:31 Saurabh Minni @thorongil: First the title of 'Sir' needs to be thrown out of the entire ecosystem. I always believed in getting shit done. Most of product based companies I have worked with have believed in it. The services company is a completely different space. They need to show hours worked to get paid by client. I think if there is any company which wants you to work unreasonable long hours for a long time, you should just find another job.
2016-05-31 13:47:18 v > Community always grows organically.

can agree completely :smile:
2016-05-31 13:52:56 haigaguy @Saurabh Minni: some product companies you think are doing great?
2016-05-31 13:59:26 Saurabh Minni @haigaguy: I am not sure if I can really comment on that as I dont really that much idea except for places where I have some friends or I know someone. Ola, Uber, Intuit, Visa, Google, InstaMojo, Styletag
2016-05-31 14:12:23 thorongil @Saurabh Minni :- How do you keep balance between work and life ?
2016-05-31 14:15:04 Saurabh Minni @thorongil: there is nothing like work and life. Work is just a part of life and if you realise this, it solves all problems for you.
2016-05-31 14:32:19 tylerdurden proud of you sir :smile:
2016-05-31 14:37:52 thorongil @Saurabh Minni: what one advice would you like to give someone who is just beginning his career ?
2016-05-31 14:38:53 Saurabh Minni @thorongil: Learning is the name of the game here. Never stop learning.
2016-05-31 14:39:07 perverted_sage Have you tried freelancing? How about your own business?
2016-05-31 14:43:14 Saurabh Minni @perverted_sage: No I've never tried freelancing. I do plan to start my own sometime in the future. Not sure when though.
2016-05-31 14:43:34 Hiemanshu Sharma @Saurabh Minni: Saar, you AI do saar? :smile:
2016-05-31 14:44:15 Saurabh Minni @Hiemanshu Sharma: Me no AI, trying to learn DS concepts though
2016-05-31 14:44:31 Hiemanshu Sharma @Saurabh Minni: like?
2016-05-31 14:44:55 Saurabh Minni @Hiemanshu Sharma: <https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning/>
2016-05-31 14:45:42 Hiemanshu Sharma @Saurabh Minni: Ah.
2016-05-31 14:45:53 Hiemanshu Sharma Andrew Ng :heart:
2016-05-31 14:48:14 perverted_sage > Not sure when though
Is it because of the convenience of a monthly paycheck? :stuck_out_tongue:
2016-05-31 14:49:17 perverted_sage I’ve heard from many people “once you’re trapped in convenience of a monthly paycheck, there’s no escaping”; what do you think of it? Do it really matter or is it just a myth?
2016-05-31 15:09:38 Saurabh Minni @perverted_sage: Not so much about money paycheck but more about, I need to have a good idea which I believe can be a billion dollar business. Else its just worth a weekend hack.
2016-05-31 15:27:40 tylerdurden @Saurabh Minni: which week andrew ng you are on ?
2016-05-31 15:31:55 Saurabh Minni still on the first week :cry:
2016-06-01 09:23:37 Aman Manglik @Saurabh Minni: your thoughts on Java ? :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue:
2016-06-01 10:03:00 Saurabh Minni @Aman Manglik: Lets leave that for the next meetup :smile: :innocent:
2016-06-01 10:04:59 Hiemanshu Sharma @Saurabh Minni: we demands it!
2016-06-01 10:33:32 Robin Malhotra THE NATION WANTS TO KNOW.
2016-06-01 10:33:48 Robin Malhotra *scurries away to add arnab goswami emoji*
2016-06-01 14:35:57 Saurabh Minni I hate Java not as a language but it's j2ee implementations. One example <https://plus.google.com/+aerotwist/posts/1QhcnQizuPc> . But I actually like Android implementations.
2016-06-01 14:37:14 Saurabh Minni Any one who feels like XCode is a good development tool is a pseudo developer/geek IMHO
2016-06-01 14:38:11 tylerdurden android can be done only in java ?
2016-06-01 14:38:24 Hiemanshu Sharma Nope.
2016-06-01 14:38:47 tylerdurden then ?
2016-06-01 14:38:54 haigaguy phonegap
2016-06-01 14:39:09 haigaguy cordova, I think is another one
2016-06-01 14:39:21 tylerdurden using js and phonegap that i know ,, but it has limited capabilities
2016-06-01 14:39:37 haigaguy kotlin???
2016-06-01 14:41:08 Saurabh Minni Phonegap and Cordova are the same.
2016-06-01 14:41:51 Saurabh Minni @tylerdurden: you underestimate the power of Cordova
2016-06-01 14:42:03 Saurabh Minni And it's plugins
2016-06-01 14:42:17 tylerdurden @Saurabh Minni: i donno sir.. just curious. someone told me that
2016-06-01 14:42:26 tylerdurden thanks for clearing :slightly_smiling_face:
2016-06-01 14:43:58 Saurabh Minni @eswarm: reimplemented Barcamp Bangalore app using Ionic framework which uses Cordova. It's just as powerful as the native one
2016-06-01 16:57:24 Sudhir Khanger @tylerdurden: Android apps can also be written in Python via Kivy and C++/Qt.
2016-06-01 18:16:14 Aman Singh but lets get one thing out right now, if you want native applications on android, java is the only way :slightly_smiling_face: (or something that transpiles to it, like scala )
2016-06-01 21:30:32 tocttou @Aman Singh: saar React Native
2016-06-01 21:30:56 tocttou @Aman Singh: look at the sample apps: <http://www.reactnative.com/built-with-react-native/>
2016-06-02 03:49:20 Hiemanshu Sharma @tocttou: its not 100% native. Also not the right place for this discussion.
2016-06-02 05:41:26 sathyabhat @Saurabh Minni: is there any gadget/kickstarter project that excites you the most? Any specific thing that you'd really like to own now but havent(for various reasons)?
2016-06-02 05:51:06 Saurabh Minni Good question @sathyabhat . I dont trust kickstarters :slightly_smiling_face:
There are bunch of gadgets which are part of my bucklist
1. DJI Phantom :slightly_smiling_face:
2. A Pico projector
3. Electric Cycle
4. A 120fps camera
5. A Modular phone like Google's Project Ara
2016-06-02 05:53:50 sathyabhat Nice
2016-06-02 06:29:30 Hiemanshu Sharma @Saurabh Minni: aren’t electric cycles, just electric motorcycles? :stuck_out_tongue:
2016-06-02 06:33:17 Saurabh Minni What I have in mind is more like assisted cycle than an electric bike
2016-06-02 06:49:02 Hiemanshu Sharma @Saurabh Minni: have you looked at hulikkal?
2016-06-02 06:52:00 Saurabh Minni @Hiemanshu Sharma: nope not heard of them yet
2016-06-02 07:02:10 Saurabh Minni but they seem interesting
2016-06-02 10:45:04 ativerc @Saurabh Minni: Copenhagen Wheel
2016-06-02 11:00:11 Saurabh Minni @ativerc: yes this is something which want, added to my list :slightly_smiling_face:
2016-06-02 11:48:24 Vivek i want to try build an electric cycle
2016-06-03 09:04:57 Abhinandan @Vivek: why not a plane?
2016-06-03 09:06:13 Vivek too yexpensive
2016-06-03 14:57:36 Sudhir Khanger @Saurabh Minni: How do you work? In long stretches or short ones? What do you do in your breaks? How does your productivity system look like? Any specific tools you use? Todo list manager?
2016-06-03 16:50:42 Saurabh Minni I cannot get any todo list manager which I can work with. Google calendar works well for planning and remembering meetings.

Here is the way I do things.
1. In the morning before starting work, I plan for things to do. I also plan for unplanned things. FWIW I keep 60% planned task, 40% unplanned.
2. I break down the tasks into chunks no larger than a couple of hours. Larger chunks almost always end up in failure for me.
3. I estimate the time its going to take. If I manage to do things in or before time, I start off with tasks which can be finished that day. If there is anything which will spill over to the next day, its not worth the effort.
4. I make sure I finish them even if I overshoot for the day. Some task which are exploratory in nature, like fixing weird issues or R&D work are fine to be continued to the next day.

But at the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is that what I wanted to get done in the morning, got done by evening or not. Thats my only productivity principle.

I take a lot of breaks. Almost every 30mins or so. I dont keep water bottles at desk to make sure I walk to the water cooler every hour. Talking to colleagues and having fun chitchat with them is something without which I cannot get around my day. It would be a real boring day when I am the only one in office. Everyone is welcome to interrupt me anytime, I just politely ask them to wait before answering any questions to them(Another break)(Thankfully none from work are here to dispute it as well :laughing: ) .

So no tools, just me and my plan in mind made during the morning. Thats it.
Guess I answered all of your questions @Sudhir Khanger

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