Jekyll2023-12-31T10:05:46+00:00/Ronak ShahEngineer | Entrepreneur | Student2023 Annual Reading List2023-12-31T01:34:55+00:002023-12-31T01:34:55+00:00/2023-Annual-Reading-List<p>This was a year of rereading.</p>
<p>I definitely tried to read more new books - but ultimately I crept towards comfortable books. Of the books I did read this year, I’ve been able to name only two as a ‘top’ book - perhaps because I feel that certain books aren’t meant to be ‘top’ books (if they’re meant for kids / based on a tv show). In the past I’ve named a handful of books that fit this criteria to the top - this year these books live in Honorable Mentions.</p>
<p>Whether it’s because of some societal bias against that style / genre of book, my unwillingness to induct any of those novels was reason enough to omit them. Anyways, here’s my lists - with an added section this year of ‘Most reread’:</p>
<h1 id="top-books">Top Books</h1>
<ol>
<li><strong>The Namesake</strong> <em>by Jhumpa Lahiri</em></li>
<li><strong>Crying in H Mart</strong> <em>by Michelle Zauner</em></li>
</ol>
<h1 id="honorable-mentions">Honorable Mentions</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Ready Player Two</strong> <em>by Ernest Cline</em></li>
<li><strong>Elon Musk</strong> <em>by Walter Isaacson</em></li>
<li><strong>Upgrade</strong> <em>by Blake Crouch</em></li>
<li><strong>That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea</strong> <em>by Marc Randolph</em></li>
<li><strong>Avatar, The Last Airbender: The Rise of Kyoshi + The Shadow of Kyoshi + The Dawn of Yangchen + The Legacy of Yangchen</strong> <em>by F. C. Lee</em></li>
<li><strong>Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make — and Keep — Friends</strong> <em>by Marisa G. Franco, PhD</em>
books i read</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="most-reread">Most Reread</h1>
<ol>
<li><strong>Ready Player One</strong> <em>by Ernest Cline</em></li>
<li><em>by Rick Riordan</em>
<ul>
<li><strong>Percy Jackson and the Olympians</strong></li>
<li><strong>The Heroes of Olympus</strong></li>
<li><strong>Daughter of the Deep</strong></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Harry Potter</strong> <em>by JK Rowling</em></li>
<li><strong>Magyk</strong> <em>by Annie Sage</em></li>
</ol>
<h1 id="whats-on-my-radar">What’s on my Radar</h1>
<p>If you’d like to recommend me anything, feel free to send me a line via email to <a href="mailto:ronak.manish.shah@gmail.com">ronak.manish.shah@gmail.com</a>, or send a tweet to <a href="https://twitter.com/trulyronak">@trulyronak</a></p>This was a year of rereading.2022 Annual Reading List2022-12-31T01:34:55+00:002022-12-31T01:34:55+00:00/2022-Annual-Reading-List<p>2022 was definitely quite the year - this year saw my final two quarters of college, a trip to Europe (where I read all the time in random spots), and my move to San Francisco (where I rediscovered my love of libraries).</p>
<p>I started off the year with more ‘business-y’ books, but ended with what I feel is a bit healthier of a mix.</p>
<p>As always, I’m leaving writing this for the last possible second, and this year I’m writing this when it’s already 2023 in ~half the world.</p>
<p>Anyways, let’s get to my top picks.</p>
<h1 id="the-top-5-books">The Top 5 Books</h1>
<p>1. <strong>Violeta</strong> <em>by Isabel Allende</em></p>
<p>Probably one of the best books I’ve ever read. <em>Violeta</em> follows the life journey of its titular protagonist, and has this way of sucking you in and totally immersing you in her life. You root for her throughout the book, and form a link with her - when she feels trapped, you feel suffocated, when she catches a break, you release a sigh of relief, and when she makes a mistake, you cringe alongside her (but try to justify it in your head).</p>
<p>This is one of those novels that simply makes you feel like the character, and it’s a testament to Allende’s writing ability. 10/10, highly recommend!</p>
<p>2. <strong>The Anthropocene Reviewed</strong> <em>by John Green</em></p>
<p>I read a lot of John Green books this year, including (but not limited to) <em>Turtles all the way Down</em>, the famous <em>The Fault in Our Stars</em>, and <em>Will Grayson, Will Grayson</em> - but this book has a casual writing style that I just love. Probably because it mirrors my own writing style here - <em>The Anthropocene Reviewed</em> is simply John’s thoughts on the world as it is today, and his takes on everything, from things as complex as the temporal range of Humanity to as simple as Dr. Pepper.</p>
<p>For those of you who watched Crash Course growing up, it comes to no surprise that John writes with a friend’s voice, as he earnestly gives his opinions on the simple joys of life and how incredible humanity truly is (without skimping too much over the darker sides of things).</p>
<p>3. <strong>The Song of Achilles</strong> <em>by Madeline Miller</em></p>
<p>Miller made it last year with <em>Circe</em>, and after (many) recommendations, I read her first book, and it too, was an instant classic. Written from the perspective of Patroclus, the lover / friend of Achilles, Miller writes in a way that makes it feel like you’re reading the myths in the original Greek. There’s really not a better way to describe the phenomenon - it quite literally to me feels like I’m by a campfire as an old storyteller chants the tragedy and beauty of the life of Patroculus.</p>
<p>The actual plot will be familar for those who are familar with the Illiad, but the details of the relationships involved will likely be new.</p>
<p>If you’re not really a fan of Greek mythology, I’d still recommend <em>The Song of Achilles</em>, just because Miller writes beautiful characters.</p>
<p>4. <strong>The Autobiography of Malcolm X</strong> by <em>Malcolm X</em></p>
<p>Growing up, I only learned about MLK (and a little about Rosa Parks) in their fight for Civil Rights. If Malcolm X was mentioned, it was only in the context of “he was a bit more extreme”.</p>
<p>Oh boy, I see why the public school system didn’t really want to touch on Malcolm X. The man himself is incredibly complex, and his autobiography is one that you need to finish in its entirety before forming too many opinions.</p>
<p>From what I’ve gathered, Malcolm is a bit controversial amongst even his ardent supports, because he seemingly ‘retracted’ on his harsher statements after his Hajj. Reading the biography, you can see the transformation happen in realtime, and it’s really quite fascinating to see.</p>
<p>His opinions on race and coexistence are a direct product of his lived experiences, but his voice and the impact he was able to have is a testament to the power each of us humans possess. His willingness to stand up against his idol (who quite literally saved his life) when he saw hypocrisy is something we should all strive for, and his writing style does an incredible job of stitching together one of the most complex lives someone has likely ever lived.</p>
<p>Readers who are hesitant to read ‘political’ books might shy away from Malcolm’s biography, but if I could say one thing to convince a political hesitant to read this, I’d emphasize that at the very least, it’s a fascinating story.</p>
<p>5. <strong>Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley</strong> by <em>Emily Chang</em></p>
<p>This is the book I read before graduating, to ‘prepare’ me for moving to San Francisco. Nothing really could have prepared me for reading the book itself, but to say it was eye opening would be an understatement. As an Indian male in computer science, I’ve generally benefited quite a bit from seeing myself in the field I wished to enter. As such, I knew I didn’t really understand the perspective of a woman in tech, aside from anecdotes from my friends.</p>
<p><em>Brotopia</em> seeks to address this gap in understanding, by not only highlighting aggressions, but also by uncovering some of the reasons <em>why</em> the ‘bro’ culture became so prevalent in the valley. One of the parts I really appreciate is how she highlights how even seemingly ‘good’ companies like Google and Slack (both lead by male founders who wished to create truly equal and equitable companies) ultimately weren’t able to prevent brotopia in the end.</p>
<p><em>Brotopia</em> is a book that I recommend every man in tech (or really otherwise) to read - it’s a painful pill to swallow if you believe in the meritocracy of tech, but in that case it’s even more important that you do read it.</p>
<details>
<summary><b>
(Spoilers) A common criticism that <i>Brotopia</i> gets is that
</b></summary>
the book has too much of a 'shock' factor. Critics usually point to the chapter dedicated to the sex exploits of silicon valley, and how this is an extention of the attidudes of tech elites ultimately seeing women as property or 'conquests'.
To me, this chapter is just to highlight how bad it can actually get there - but that it fundamentally starts with the microaggressions that Chang describes in the earlier chapters.
</details>
<h1 id="honorable-mentions">Honorable Mentions</h1>
<p>1. <strong>After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul</strong> <em>by Tripp Mickle</em></p>
<p>Contrary to its clickbaity title, this book really just does a good job of detailing the struggle between innovation, principles, and the unrelenting demands of capitalism. I’ll let you form your own opinions on the book, but the reason I’m highlighting it here is that I found the rise of both Ive and Cook to be equally interesting, if not similar - and it’s interesting to see how two very interesting (and important!) people approach the problems that Apple faced.</p>
<p>2. <strong>Olga Dies Dreaming</strong> by <em>Xochitl Gonzalez</em></p>
<p>Really great book - it takes place primarily in New York City and follows the lives of two siblings set in modern times (the year after Trump was elected), and with the backdrop of the Puerto Rican independence movement ever increasing in prevalence. You follow Olga as she lives her life, navigating work, relationships, love, and familial problems, all while she’s just trying to get a moment to breathe.</p>
<p>3. <strong>TJ Powar Has Something to Prove</strong> <em>by Jesmeen Kaur Deo</em></p>
<p>I’m a sucker for Young Adult / Teen books, and this was recommended by DesiTok / BookTok, so I had to try reading it. While super short, it’s a fun story and highlights some of the problems indian women face that most people just aren’t aware of, as well as some good commentary on Western influence on beauty standards. That being said, it’s primarily a fun + whimsical story, and you could totally see a movie adaption of this premiering on Disney Channel.</p>
<p>4. <strong>Slumdog Millionaire</strong> by <em>Vikas Swarup</em></p>
<p>While the movie came out ages ago (never saw it), I finally found the book this year - it’s incredible. While the movie’s plot seems to ignore all the nuance + tough topics of the book, Swarup’s novel doesn’t shy away from the harsh reality (and beauty) of India. The novel reminds me a lot of <em>The White Tiger</em> (movie - I haven’t read the book yet!) - a glimpse of the world from the bottom up.</p>
<p>Ram Mohammad Thomas is an instantly likeable protagonist, and his journey to a billion rupees is a story you won’t want to put down.</p>
<h1 id="whats-on-my-radar">What’s on my Radar</h1>
<p>From last year, this seciton is to hopefully better inform readers what I’m about to read, so that I can get more suggestions on what genres I’m interested in (since I don’t always highlight all genres I enjoy in my reading lists).</p>
<p>If you’d like to recommend me anything, feel free to send me a line via email to <a href="mailto:ronak.manish.shah@gmail.com">ronak.manish.shah@gmail.com</a>, or send a tweet to <a href="https://twitter.com/trulyronak">@trulyronak</a>. Or, if you’d like to leave an anonymous tip (or really just give any feedback), let me know at <a href="http://tellmeanything.ronakshah.net">TellMeAnything.ronakshah.net</a></p>
<h2 id="planned-books">Planned Books</h2>
<ul>
<li><strong>Kaikeyi</strong> by <em>Vaishnavi Patel</em>
<ul>
<li>The perspective of the infamous queen and wife of Dasharatha (she’s the person who called for Ram’s exile in the <em>Ramayana</em>)</li>
<li>I’m sure the book will be a little controversial (seeing as how the <em>Ramayana</em> is a religous text), but I’m curious if it’ll be similar to <em>Circe</em></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Star Wars: The High Republic</strong> novels
<ul>
<li>I’ve been meaning to read these for the past year, so I’m planning on trying to get to these this year</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendency</strong>
<ul>
<li>Same with the High Republic novels, I just have these on my back burner!</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="things-id-like-to-read">Things I’d like to read</h2>
<ul>
<li>more fun novels</li>
<li>books about design + product thinking</li>
</ul>2022 was definitely quite the year - this year saw my final two quarters of college, a trip to Europe (where I read all the time in random spots), and my move to San Francisco (where I rediscovered my love of libraries).Paris is just okay2022-07-10T12:49:43+00:002022-07-10T12:49:43+00:00/Paris<p>I was going to do a follow up post to my London one, but got busy while being in Paris, so I’m going to <em>first</em> write about Paris since it’s more fresh, then probably just write about <em>all</em> the cities I’ve been to when I’m done.</p>
<p>For context, I’m currently traveling across Europe, and have been to London and Paris. I’m on the train headed to Brussels right now, then I’ve got Bologna and Amsterdam left to visit.</p>
<p>I’m going to do a similar format to my London post, and just highlight key things I found notable in Paris.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Accessibility? Try <del>taking the stairs</del> looking for the stairs.</p>
<p>Paris has definitely felt like one of the most inaccessible places I’ve been to. Most metros I’ve seen have elevators / ramps all over the place, and the roads are generally smooth, enabling wheeled transport everywhere. In Paris, most metros are only accessible by stairs, cutting out disabled people everywhere from being able to get around.</p>
<p>The roads here are <em>incredibly</em> bumpy (likely a relic of the old town’s streets), and I don’t really remember seeing many ramps. Contrast to London, where (1) escalators were in most metros (escalators » stairs) and (2) elevators were in most metros, and I saw the accessibility sign everywhere). I’ll admit this isn’t an issue I used to notice as much, but after seeing close friends deal with trying to find an accessible way to get around, I grew a <em>ton</em> more appreciative of the US, and especially the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It’s the clearest example of why government <strong>does</strong> need to step in sometimes to ensure that everyone is accounted for.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Let them eat cake</p>
<p>Anyone who’s studied even a bit of French history knows that they love their revolutions. It’s a popular joke at this point, as the French are currently on their fifth republic. Many of these revolutions happened due to people not being able to get food and necessities, and this is something it seems is addressed in the regulation of “La Baguette Spéciale”. This baguette’s price used to be regulated by the government, and now it’s done by consumer expectations. With inflation, I never paid more than 2 euros (euro to dollar is a near 1:1 exchange rate now) for a full baguette.</p>
<p>This proved to be really nice, as I could this baguette to make a sandwich or a meal fairly easily.</p>
<p>I will say however, it’s got nothing on London’s ‘meal deal’, which gives a <strong>full</strong> meal for just £3.50 at any grocery store. But I’m definitely going to miss the proliferation of baguettes.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>“Oui oui baguette”</p>
<p>This was a (mildly offensive) phrase I heard a lot from friends growing up in the US when we’d pretend to speak French - probably a reason most Parisians have a strong distaste for American tourists.</p>
<p>Jokes aside, I’d never experienced a language barrier like I have here. I was traveling alone, which meant for the first time I couldn’t tug at my mom’s arm to explain the sign in Gujarati. In Paris, while you can see English on a lot of signs and many people who live here do (kinda) understand it, it feels very much how Spanish is in the US (well, much better than that). Most people here can recognize some key words, but don’t really speak it. This makes ordinary things like ordering food, taking the metro, or just shopping <em>way</em> more difficult. In my London post I touched a little how I felt conscious about my American accent; here, it’s not even close how awkward I do feel.</p>
<p><strong>Parisians hate tourists</strong>
This is a common stereotype, and one I mentioned earlier (treating it like a fact). I’d like to say this isn’t entirely true; A more accurate statement would be that <strong>Parisians want to talk to other Parisians</strong>. This doesn’t mean they actively berate tourists, but it does mean that you’re going to get the cold shoulder more often than not, and that you aren’t going to be a priority.</p>
<p>I’ll talk a little more about this in #5, but the biggest issue with not knowing French is losing out on key attractions; I wasn’t really able to get much out of the Louvre at all (despite having a special exhibitions ticket), since most of the writing was only in French.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Annoying payment methods for transit » dysfunctional transit</p>
<p>Paris has a metro, which is nice - you can get around (mostly) anywhere, and it’s generally pretty cheap (only €1.90 one way). However, unlike the Tube (london), the Subway (NYC), the Metro (DC), and Bart (Bay Area), there’s no support for contactless payment. Additionally, fares are the same, which means that traveling short distances costs the same as traveling long distances. This means that (1) you’ll ‘overpay’ for traveling within Zone 1 (tourist central) and you’ve got to buy tickets in # of rides, not in fare amount.</p>
<p>It’s definitely cheaper though than London - but also more inconvenient. The train for where I lived stopped running around 11 PM, leaving me with no option aside a bus more than once, vs with London I’d been able to Tube until midnight.</p>
<p>For paying, your options are either a contactless card (which you can only get from a staff member at a window, for some reason these cannot be retrieved from a machine, which makes ZERO sense (all other systems I’ve tried give the card at the machine), or to get a paper ticket that lets you go one way. I cannot express how much I hate these paper tickets, so if you’re coming to Paris, my recommendation is to get a physical card and load on it transit passes.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Ranking Tourist Attractions</p>
<p>Since my flight was cancelled, I had 1-2 less days in Paris than expected (and an extra day in London). This proved to work to my advantage (I liked London far more than Paris), but as such I was really only able to do the ‘touristy’ things here. This bullet is called ‘ranking tourist attractions’, but I’m just going to rank all the things I’ve done here.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Walking Tour of the Main City</p>
<p>Did this with <a href="https://www.neweuropetours.eu/">SANDEMANs Walking Tours</a>, and this was absolutely amazing. Highly recommend doing this (you can do an English or Spanish tour), and you get to see all the main attractions + get a feel for the city a bit. Your guide also knows <em>a ton</em> of what the fun things to do are, and it’s overall amazing. I also was able to meet + make a friend on the tour, so that was also awesome. These tours are free, but it’s recommended to leave a tip after if you enjoyed it - I personally tipped €7, no idea what the standard is, but for mine it was easily better than many paid tours, so it was 100% worth the €7.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Eiffel Tower (or Tour Eiffel)</p>
<p>This is the cliche, the most famous thing to do in Paris, and let me tell you, it’s so worth. It’s only €11 to go to top most floor, and if you book your ticket in advance, there’s not really much of a line, and you’re able to easily go floor by floor and see everything. I took many pictures (people here are quite tourist friendly, a blessing for solo travelers in need of someone to take their photo), and it’s quite nice.</p>
<p>There’s also food in the Tower, and I had easily some of the best food of my life (yes, that good) on the first floor at <a href="https://www.restaurants-toureiffel.com/en/madame-brasserie.html">Madame Brasserie</a>. Easily some of the best food I’ve ever had (the vegetarian option was really good), and it was the first place I had hot chocolate (or chocolat chaud) in a fancy restaurant, and that’s something I will be sad to lose.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Eating Falafel + Lebanese Food</p>
<p>Whereas the US gained most of its cultural diversity from a mix of slavery (our worst legacy), immigration (the “american dream”), and some colonization (we did control the Philippines for a while), Europe <strong>predominately</strong> gained it’s diversity via colonization. As you might have learned in European History in high school Europe colonized most of the world, and as such some people from those colonized countries came to their oppressor’s homeland.</p>
<p>All this is to explain why each European country has very specific types of cultural food, and in France this is seen in it’s great variety of Lebanese food. Note - I’m in no way trying to sugarcoat colonization or say it was good; I’m just trying to give context as to why each European country has it’s own specific variety of non-national food.</p>
<p>At any rate, the lebanese food in France is quite good, and there’s Lebanese ‘delis’ everywhere. Late night falafel is a staple (similar to Kebabs in London), and I’m a fan.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Exploring Bars + the 2nd Arrondissement</p>
<p>With one of my friends in Paris, we were able to walk around and check out cool bars. One of the coolest was a place called “Reset”, which another friend actually texted me about (while I was inside it, craziest coincidence), where you can play all kinds of videogames while getting a drink. Overall, one of the nicest things about eating out + bars in Paris is that you’re never rushed for the check. I’m told this is a European thing in general - but I’ve never been asked if I want to check; I’ve always had to ask for it myself when I want to leave. This makes for much nicer conversations and it feels nice.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Reading by the Seine</p>
<p>Nothing much to explain here - in general when I’ve been traveling, I bring my Kindle everywhere, and like to find places to read - the Seine, especially by the Trocadero with a view of the Eiffel Tower, is a great place to read.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Exploring the Palace of Versailles + the Gardens</p>
<p>A TON of walking, and just a ton of bougieness, I can see why France got rid of their monarchs. The gardens are beautiful, but the flies are everywhere. While better than the Louvre, a lot of the exhibits don’t have english, which makes exploring the palace a lot less fun.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Arc de Triomphe</p>
<p>It’s just an Arc - you can pay to go in (huge line); I just avoided it by walking around it. Pro tip for anyone visiting - you get there by walking through an underground tunnel. Don’t be like me and walk around the roundabout in circles - go find a tunnel.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Visiting the Louvre</p>
<p>This ranks at the bottom because of how disappointed I was. Not in the Mona Lisa - I knew that was overhyped + just a portrait - but in the lack of accommodation towards English speakers. I can’t honestly get that mad - in London, most exhibits were in only English, with some Chinese/French/Spanish at times, but it was still quite frustrating. Not many places will top the Roman Baths, which had an audioguide in 4 different languages, but alas I wasn’t able to really enjoy the Louvre at all.</p>
<p>I had also gotten tickets for the Egyptian exhibition, which turned out to be a total bust, as I couldn’t really see anything. I really wished that they had Google Translate tablets available - my phone was on low battery so I didn’t want to use it - but that would have made it just a little easier to enjoy the experience.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Overall, I enjoyed Paris, but I wouldn’t really say it was that great as a non French speaker.
definitely worth visiting for a few days though!</p>I was going to do a follow up post to my London one, but got busy while being in Paris, so I’m going to first write about Paris since it’s more fresh, then probably just write about all the cities I’ve been to when I’m done.London after a weekend + some change2022-06-27T15:18:58+00:002022-06-27T15:18:58+00:00/London-after-a-weekend<p>I landed in London on June 23rd, 4 days ago, on a Thursday.</p>
<p>Since then, I’ve been exploring the city mainly by myself, but also alongside some of my friends who I met up with in the city (shoutout to Matei for coinciding his Grand Tour with mine, and Giovanni for taking time of work to hang out with me).</p>
<p>I’m really lucky to be able to travel like this, and thus I intend to make the most out of my experience abroad. I’ve only been here a few days, but I’d like to share a few of the things (good and bad) that I’ve found notable here in london.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p><strong>The £3 meal deal</strong></p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/london/mealdeal.png" alt="Meal Deal in Action" width="400" /></p>
<p>Well, it’s really £3.50 since I don’t have a club card, but the deal is still incredible. The deal includes 1 “Meal” item, 1 Drink, and 1 Snack. You can get this deal at any Tesco, Sainsbury’s, or M&S. At airports or big transit hubs, the deal gets marked up to £4.99, but it’s still a great deal.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>Meal items generally include sandwiches and wraps (with great veggie options!), but I’ve also seen sushi, salads, and sausage + veggies! The snack is usually just chips, but I’ve seen sushi (4 pieces vs the 8-12 you’ll get in a meal sushi), fruit cups, and hummus/veggies. The drink options are generally standard, ranging from water to sodas to chilled coffees (some places let you get fresh costa coffee from a machine).</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>This is <em>insane</em>, coming from the US. I’ve never seen a deal like this in the US, and if I see something like this, it’s not nearly as ubiquitous as the meal deal is here. It’s an absolute lifesaver that I can find this meal <em>anywhere</em> in London. Unironically, if you were here on a budget, you could live on £10.50 - £14.00 a day (without cooking) if you didn’t want to cook to save money, since each meal deal is around 500 calories.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>In general, I’ve noticed London to have a range of great options throughout, all with great veggie options (will talk about this more later).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Public Transit</strong></p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/london/thetube.png" alt="The tube coming into the station" height="400" /></p>
<p>Landing in London Gatwick (the second largest airport), I was able to take a train into central london, then easily transfer to a tube that took me close to my Airbnb (in Islignton), never waiting for more than 4-5 minutes for a train. The cost? £12.20. (And the airport is quite far!)</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>Oh, and it was also faster than the Uber would’ve been (and obviously cheaper).</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>London is a city with a really well designed transit system, and one that feels generally quite safe* (taking it mostly between 9am and 10pm, and I’m a male, so this point definitely has an asterisks). The Tube is super efficient and fast, and it’s really nice to know you can go basically anywhere for a pretty decent cost. Some <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/Tube-strike-London-Underground-the-worlds-most-expensive-metro/">basic googling </a> indicates that the tube is one of the most expensive transit systems, but in my opinion it’s definitely worth it.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Vegan KFC</strong></p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/london/vegankfc%20box.png" alt="vegan kfc" height="400" /></p>
<p>I never thought this would be possible, based on my impressions of Kentucky and of fast food in general, but the UK has done it again. This exists, and it’s pretty good!</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>The UK in general has an insane amount of vegetarian / vegan friendly food options everywhere, so I’m just going to give a list of a few of my favorites that I’ve already tried (yes, I came here to eat, that’s the best part of traveling!)</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p><em>McDonald’s</em>
<br /></p>
<p>In the US, McDonalds is known for being so anti-vegetarian <a href="https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/faq/snacks-and-sides.html">they put beef flavoring on the oil used for their fries</a>. In the UK, not only are the fries vegetarian, but McDonald’s has a <a href="https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/menu/vegetarian.html">Vegetarian</a> and <a href="https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/menu/vegan.html">Vegan</a> <strong>section</strong> on their menu, with many great options. I can’t describe how surreal it was to eat a Happy Meal for the first time in my life, something that the US McDonald’s has always denied me. Odd that I was able to complete an American right of passage only in Britain, but here we are!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Pret-A-Manger</em>
<br /></p>
<p>You cannot go more than 2 blocks without seeing one of these, and these are quite amazing. They’re basically just better Starbucks’ (and Starbucks here feels like it’s trying to copy Prett), and they have a really great amount of to-go sandwiches and wraps (and some salads). I’ve tried the <a href="https://www.pret.co.uk/en-GB/products/UK001921/posh-cheddar-and-pickle-baguette">Posh Cheddar & Pickle Baguette</a> (they’ve got a half sandwich for £2.50), the Meatless Marinara Wrap, and the Tomato and Cheese Croissant, and they’re all pretty good (I think the Wrap isn’t for me personally though).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Wasabi</em>
<br /></p>
<p>This place is quite amazing — it’s got a variety of Japanese style items, all available either for to-go or eat in. There are two veggie options for curry, with Tofu and with fake Chicken. There’s also veggie sushi boxes. Yet again, <a href="https://www.wasabi.uk.com/our-food">an entirely vegetarian</a> section of the menu. It’s just amazing here.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Wagamama</em>
<br /></p>
<p>This place is also great in terms of options, and I really like the vibe of eating here. Whereas the previous places are more of ‘grab and go’ + limited indoor dining, this place has a giant cafeteria style food hall inside, and also features an almost 50% vegetarian/vegan menu. Great options all around, though I will say you’ve got to ask them to make things spicier (or maybe that’s a UK thing).</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>4 Days, 4 fast food places, that’s pretty concerning LOL</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>All in all, I’m <em>loving</em> the options here.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Speaking Outloud</strong>
On a more uncomfortable note, it’s always interesting to see the reaction for when I speak outloud. I (shocker) have an american accent, and people instantly shift when they notice the accent. Some are friendly, but most instantly place you as ‘ah, annoying tourist’, and while helpful, are a bit distant.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>It’s honestly not really that bad, but it’s the first time I’ve ever felt conscious of when I speak (aside from when I visit India, but there it makes sense because I don’t <em>really</em> speak the language (Gujarati or Hindi) too well).</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>The accent thing definitely is what terrifies me about visiting Paris though, so wishing myself the best of luck before I visit there, since Paris is known for being anti-tourist + mildly racist + anti-anyone who doesn’t speak French (I am a classic American who only speaks English). At any rate, we’ll see how it goes!</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Free Museums!</strong></p>
<p>There’s a <em>ton</em> of free museums here. Pretty much all the major ones are, including but not limited to: The British Museum, The Tate Modern, and the Natural History Museum. (there’s a lot more free ones).</p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/london/meatmuseum.png" alt="Me at the British Museum" height="400" />
<br /></p>
<p>One of the things that did strike me is the awkward question of empire - it’s impossible to miss the impact of it - after all, London was the capital of the world for a while - and countless things in the city are directly ‘imported’ from its colonies. I find it really interesting in particular to read the wording of how a museum or attraction acquired its items. As an Indian, I know that <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/inglorious-empire-what-the-british-did-to-india-1.2981299">Britain brutally ruled my country of origin</a>. For most items I’ve seen, the display will often read that the item was a ‘gift’ from the East India Company. The company was a state-sponsored unit to effectively do whatever they’d like in the colonies, and there’s a few articles on the atrocities they committed, if you google a bit. There’s even a <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/worst-things-the-east-india-company-did/melissa-sartore">top 10 list</a>.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>I suppose it’s only natural that the British wouldn’t want to acknowledge their ugly past, but it’s definitely something that gets to me. Seeing countless ‘gifts’ taken from India everywhere isn’t pleasant, and it does feel weird knowing I’m in the capital city of a country that once brutally oppressed my ancestors.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>I’ve never really felt this way before, and so for that reason I think it’s been an interesting visit. I don’t think it’s fair to compare it to African Americans in the US, but walking around here and seeing museums has made me reconsider what it might be like to be black in the US, especially if you were to visit DC, where all the buildings were built with slave labor. It’s not at all the same - but this experience in the UK <em>did</em> prompt me into thinking about what it might be like to just exist in every day life in the US.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>It’s a complex topic for sure, and not one I’m really qualified to unpack, but I wanted to bring it up because I found it to be something I wrestled with almost daily, since almost every exhibit or museum I went to would have some item or some attraction ‘gifted’ by the East India Company. It’s quite wild that I wasn’t even able to see the Koh-i-Noor diamond, because it was behind an (additional) pay-wall in the Tower of London with a <em>giant</em> line, because they were part of the British Crown Jewels. The Koh-i-Noor diamond, for context, was stolen by British during their reign.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>In general, I don’t know how the British can really resolve this (governments rarely like to admit they messed up), but it’s definitely something that weighed on me as I traversed the city every day.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>At any rate, these are my thoughts after a few days here - unsure if I’ll post a follow up before I get to Paris, but this was fun to write, so hopefully I’ll be able to write more on each city I visit while in Europe!</p>I landed in London on June 23rd, 4 days ago, on a Thursday.Lessons from Tutoring2022-03-18T15:18:58+00:002022-03-18T15:18:58+00:00/Lessons-from-Tutoring<p>Today marks the end of winter quarter at UCSD – my official last day of employment as a CSE Tutor.</p>
<p>For the past two and a half years, I’ve been tutoring classes in the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Department at UCSD. I’ve had the opportunity to help students from all walks of life and experience levels learn new coding concepts, debug issues in their PAs (programming assignments), and review material for their finals.</p>
<p>It’s kind of wild to move on from this experience that has been a big part of my life, teaching me new skills and forming some of my strongest friendships. I thought I’d take a moment to glance back at my journey and reflect on some of the most valuable lessons I’ve taken away from tutoring in hopes of gaining some introspection into how this has shaped me as well as hopefully inspiring someone reading this to tutor others as well someday.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p><strong>Everyone has a different approach to problem solving.</strong> Everyone has their own unique way of viewing the world around them. This may appear obvious out loud, but it’s a truth that becomes readily apparent after a single tutoring session. That assignment you approached with classes and object-oriented design patterns might instead have a solution using pure functional programming. More often than not, you’ll encounter a giant <code class="highlighter-rouge">main</code> method, filled with all the code needed to solve the problem.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>When I realized this fact, I was immediately struck by the parallel seen in the software engineering industry. The differences in coding style can be significant even between engineers on the same team (albeit with no giant main methods, thankfully enough). Because of my tutoring experience however, I’d already accepted and realized the incredible variety of equally valid ways to solve a problem, and thus I was able to see the different approaches in industry as what they were - different forms of art. Richard Hamming often said programming was more similar to art than engineering, and tutoring countless students all with their own unique paintings (despite using the same brush) gave me early exposure to this fundamental truth.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Look for the root of the problem.</strong> You can become a better problem solver and gain a broader perspective by understanding exactly why things happen. Regardless of which solution is better, tutoring opens your mind to realizing other perspectives exist. Early on in my tutoring career, I caught onto the fact that rather than forcing students to blindly follow one path, you’re better off understanding why a student went down their approach.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>Oftentimes we try to solve problems by fixing the bugs and errors they cause — but ultimately this is only symptomatic support, and to really prevent the problem from happening again, we need to understand why those problems occurred in the first place.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>A benefit tutoring offers is that you can easily determine what classes a student has taken until that point, and a simple understanding of all the professors will help you know if a student has been taught with a particular emphasis on class-oriented code vs focusing on cleanly organizing code into modular functions. As such, you can then use this understanding to introduce new concepts + re-emphasize old ideas. Oftentimes, mistakes are made due to misunderstandings or misapplications of a prior teaching.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>In this way, tutors can guide students in the right direction and explain exactly why their problem came up, providing them with the ability to treat all of the symptomatic bugs that arise and craft more considerate solutions independently.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>The real world doesn’t give as much clarity - but some forensic work to understand design decisions (another reason why good documentation is a must!) will help you similarly debug real-world problems.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Patience matters.</strong> It’ll help you listen and detect the problem. When you’re debugging someone’s code for the first time, it’s usually better just to listen — at least for a little bit — instead of jumping into debugging their code. In industry, this idea has become so common that it has a name: rubber duck debugging, coming from the belief that talking to a rubber duck is a great way to think through your code and notice pitfalls while defending one approach — and it has clear benefits in undergraduate courses as well.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>I’ve found that not only is just listening + letting students resolve their own problems whilst talking it out really useful (seriously, I resolve the majority of my tickets like this), it also helps students realize that they have it within them to fix their own problems.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>It’s often said that the main differentiator between a novice programmer and an advanced one is their ability to Google things; to abstract further, it simply comes down to their problem solving skills. Allowing students to talk through their issues, often only prompting them to come up with better questions as to why their code isn’t working, helps them get a stronger view of their code (not mention the added benefit of learning about someone else’s thought process).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Sometimes people just need support.</strong> Everyone who comes for help has it within themselves to solve their problems, and sometimes it may just take a little external validation to get there.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>I get quite a few tickets from students who don’t actually have any issues. These students tend to come in the earliest (asking for help early on in the quarter), however often have the most anxiety and fear. These students aren’t actually weak at programming; quite the opposite, they give me the best questions and seek different perspectives on how to solve a problem on their own. I realized early on that, for these students, they’re simply coming to get a bit of validation for the current approach they’re following before they go too far down one path.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>For these students, I generally noticed that the best way to resolve these issues is to (a) tell them when they’re on the right track and (b) offer ways for them to self-validate their approach through example test cases and questions they can ask. Learning how to self-validate an approach is an essential skill for a programmer, as it’s also how you’ll have to explain your code at any job, and potentially how you’ll write unit tests later on.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/iroh.gif" alt="As Iroh says, a little help from others goes a long way" /></p>
<p>What I find most notable about this group of students is that they usually are my favorite group; they’re filled with potential and intelligence, but they’ve also grasped early on the importance of talking to others to validate their approach. They’re a substantial group of the students I tutor, and as long as this group of students continues to thrive, I think we’ll continue to create new and amazing programmers for years to come.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="final-thoughts">Final Thoughts</h2>
<p>It’s truly been a remarkable experience being able to tutor for this long at UC San Diego. Throughout my experience, I’ve been given nothing but continual support from my bosses (the professors) and my fellow tutors (who were only ever happy to jump on a ticket to help me on a call). UC San Diego has also been really supportive, providing us with resources to tutor better during the pandemic (I still use my drawing tablet to help on calls), and allowing us to work seamlessly from home.</p>
<p>I’d like to give special thanks as well to <a href="http://niema.net/">Niema Moshiri</a>, who I’ve had the privilege of tutoring under for the past 2 years. I’ve seen how he iterates on his coursework every single quarter, and there’s a reason that almost everyone I meet calls him the best professor they’ve ever had.</p>
<p>Special thanks as well to <a href="https://farisashai.github.io/">Faris Ashai</a> for helping me edit this blog post.</p>
<p>Lastly, I’d like to thank my fellow tutors, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZgwHft8N5Q">share a video</a> that recaps the time we’ve all spent together.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZgwHft8N5Q"><img src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/oZgwHft8N5Q/0.jpg" alt="CSE 100 Tutor Video" /></a></p>Today marks the end of winter quarter at UCSD – my official last day of employment as a CSE Tutor.2021 Annual Reading List2021-12-28T01:34:55+00:002021-12-28T01:34:55+00:00/2021-Annual-Reading-List<p>Wow! It’s been another year, and this time we spent the first half in the pandemic (until June-ish), the second half in a weird hybrid-pandemic (until November), and now we’re back in a pandemic for December!</p>
<p>This year I read far fewer <em>new</em> books - I noticed that if I picked up a book that I didn’t find particularly interesting, I would just drop it (in contrast to last year where I was so bored that I’d read it anyways). That’s not to say I didn’t read - I actually reread <em>a lot</em>, rereading titles like <em>Steve Jobs</em>, <em>Outliers</em>, <em>The Lords of Discipline</em>, and the entire <em>Percy Jackson</em> series yet again think this was primarily because I was either working a fulltime job this year or in a hybrid-non-pandemic state for most of the year, and so didn’t fully rely on books to pass the time.</p>
<p>I also found that I read mostly business and leadership books, and generally read male authors. This is something I’m hoping to change more of next year, so if anyone has any book recommendations (fiction or business leadership) by women or bipoc authors, I’d love to hear about them!</p>
<p>At any rate, this is this years annual reading list.</p>
<h1 id="the-top-5-books">The Top 5 Books</h1>
<ol>
<li>
<p><strong>Project Hail Mary</strong> <em>by Andy Weir</em></p>
<p>Andy Weir once more knocks it out of the park with an incredible narrative, bringing the same dry-wit-humor combo I loved from <em>The Martian</em> but with the interesting world concepts I loved from <em>Artemis</em>. This is his strongest novel yet, and introduces some really interesting concepts. Spoilers ahead, but I want to talk about some of the specific things I loved in this book.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<details>
<summary><b>
(Spoilers) Specific things I loved about this book.
</b></summary>
Meeting Rocky was probably the coolest experience of the book, especially with how nice the buildup was. Rocky's presence in the book sparked countless questions, making the story even more interesting. Questions like "how would you communicate with a species that speaks in a biologically different way from you" and "how would another species see the universe" (via math) were really cool to explore, and I found the interaction between Rocky and Ryland to be really amazing.
I also really loved seeing the ingenuity of humanity at work - seeing how we as humans used a huge problem (Astrophage) to actually invent an entire suite of brand new inventions.
</details>
<p><br /></p>
<p>Overall, <em>Project Hail Mary</em> tops the list for it’s unique blend of really interesting questions (as sci-fi often prompts us to do) and a strong protagonist (Ryland is just so much fun).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>The Innovation Stack</strong> <em>by Jim McKelvey</em></p>
<p>Jim gets it. This book, which tells the story of Square’s founding, explains why innovative companies actually succeed. The key idea Jim talks about is this idea of a innovation “stack”, or a combination of innovations, that when in tandem, result in a strong competitive advantage. It’s this combination of innovations that make innovative companies so strong - oftentimes competitors can copy a facet or two of their innovative upstarts, but can rarely copy the entire stack.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Circe</strong> <em>by Madeline Miller</em></p>
<p>Taking me by surprise, Circe is a first person narrative biography about the Immortal Circe, daughter of the Titan Helios. I’ve known a little bit about who Circe was from prior classes where I studied Greek mythology + countless times reading the Percy Jackson / Heroes of Olympus / Trials of Apollo series’, but reading this book from the perspective of Circe herself was something brand new altogether. The emotional journey Circe goes through + the feeling of slowly recognizing a big event (when I realized we were about to meet the Minotaur I got really excited) made this an absolutely incredible read.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>The Ride of a Lifetime</strong> <em>by Robert Iger</em></p>
<p>Disney has transformed itself more than perhaps any other media company in the last 20 years, and has proven itself to be the ultimate home for good content. This could not have happened without the clear vision put forth by CEO Bob Iger, and this book gives us an inside look into how he made the decisions he did.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>But what made me really love this book was the detail it gave to the steps Iger took to reach the position of CEO. It’s honestly pretty inspiring, following Iger’s journey from a studio supervisor (performing menial labor on sets) to helping book shots for ABC Sports, eventually leading ABC Sports and after (many) other steps, becoming the CEO of Disney. I skipped <em>a lot</em> of Iger’s journey here (because it’s more worth for you to read the book and learn about it), but Iger’s telling of the past allows you to see the lessons he took along the way, and he earns his place as one of the most likable CEOs out there.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Creativity, Inc</strong> <em>by Ed Catmull</em></p>
<p>Pixar is one of the world’s most innovative companies, and Ed Catmull tells us how it came to be. It’s worth noting however, that <em>Creativity, Inc</em> was published in 2014 - 3 years before shocking <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/john-lasseters-pattern-alleged-misconduct-detailed-by-disney-pixar-insiders-1059594/">allegations of workplace sexual misconduct were levied against John Lasseter</a>, and 6 years before <a href="https://medium.com/@sterling.mom2/my-experiences-of-systemic-racism-and-sexism-at-pixar-a529d1abc7b6">other articles detailing systemic racism and sexism at the company.</a></p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>Horrifying facts about problems about Pixar aside (something that I can only do since I have never worked there), the <em>commercial</em> success Pixar enjoyed cannot be denied. Something about the company allowed them to have a 14-film streak of consecutive box office successes.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p><em>Creativity, Inc</em> follows Catmull’s personal journey through leadership, as he lead small teams at the Computer Graphics Lab at NYIT to starting the graphics division at ILM (a Lucasfilm company), which eventually became Pixar. Catmull’s leadership journey is fascinating to follow, and the vehicles and processes he sets up to ensure Pixar’s creative success <em>are</em> good models to follow. It’s really worth reading this in tandem with <em>A Ride of a Lifetime</em>, since Iger details how he resolved issues involving integrity and workplace sexual misconduct.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p>I don’t think Pixar is a perfect company or even a company to be fully idolized, but I think completely dismissing the company’s creative success would be a mistake - <em>Creativity, Inc</em> allows you to get a glimpse of what helped Pixar succeed (while keeping in mind that all the while, there were severe problems brewing in the company.)</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h1 id="honorable-mentions">Honorable Mentions</h1>
<ol>
<li>
<p><strong>The Unbanking of America</strong> <em>by Lisa J. Servon</em></p>
<p>One of the most revealing books, it furthered my belief that existing industries often need to be re-examined. I picked up this book after spending some time at the <a href="https://nearside.com">Nearside</a> offices, and was shocked to learn about the dismal state of banking in America today.</p>
<p><br />Highly recommend reading if your even tangentially interested in finance, or even if you’re just curious about how people start small businesses / try to get by in 21st century America. Warning - kinda depressing to read (there is a ‘hope’ section of the book which is nice, but the book does make it painfully clear that stuff needs to change). This book definitely was a key factor in my decision to commit full time to work at Nearside.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes</strong> <em>by Suzanne Collins</em></p>
<p>I absolutely love reading things from the “other” perspective, and Colllins knocks it out of the park with this biography of the villainous President Snow from the <em>Hunger Games</em> trilogy. Learning about how the Hunger Games got started + how the Capitol looked in the early days is super interesting, and I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed the world of the Hunger Games.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>(re-reading) <strong>Steve Jobs</strong> <em>by Walter Isaacson</em></p>
<p>Okay, this is kinda cheating since <a href="[2020 Annual Reading List (ronakshah.org)](https://ronakshah.org/2020-Annual-Reading-List)">I’ve already read this (it made last year’s reading list!)</a>, but rereading this after reading the leadership books by Bob Iger, Ed Catmull, and Jim McKelvey, was seriously worth it. It’s easier to see a method to some of the madness of Steve Jobs, and I really enjoyed rereading this. It’s 100% a book that I think I’ll continue to reread, as I recognize more of the problems Jobs faced (whether I experience them in my own personal career, or in reading about the careers of others).</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h1 id="whats-on-my-radar">What’s on my Radar</h1>
<p>I’m adding a new section to my annual reading list posts - what I’m reading next! This is to hopefully better inform readers what I’m about to read, so that I can get more suggestions on what genres I’m interested in (since I don’t always highlight all genres I enjoy in my reading lists).</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>My Life in Full</strong> <em>by Indra Nooyi</em></li>
<li><strong>Lean In</strong> <em>by Sheryl Sandberg</em></li>
<li><strong>Brotopia</strong> <em>by Emily Chang</em></li>
</ul>
<p>Generally, I’m looking to read more about</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>business leadership / startups</strong>
<ul>
<li>I’d like to read more from diverse authors, since my current reading experience here has been mostly from white men (nothing wrong with that, but I’d like to get more people’s perspectives)</li>
<li>I’d ideally like to read from people who have actually <em>started</em> or <em>done</em> the actual work of leadership. I’ve really enjoyed reading Malcomn Gladwell in the past, but after reading <em>The Innovation Stack</em> I realized I greatly prefer reading from the perspective of an actual founder or leader.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>novels from the “bad guy side”</strong>
<ul>
<li>I really enjoyed Timothy Zahn’s <em>Thrawn</em>, primarily because it was really cool to see the Empire’s perspective during <em>Star Wars</em> as well as the political journey of Arihnda Pryce.</li>
<li>Also <em>Star Wars</em>, I loved <em>Inferno Squad</em>, since Iden Versio’s perspective as an elite Imperial squad was really revealing about structures + how to hold true to your own beliefs + it’s really cool to see the Empire’s perspective (similar vibes to <em>Thrawn</em>)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>political thrillers with worldbuilding</strong>
<ul>
<li>I really love anything that gives me information about how a world works + how things work in that world. Referencing <em>Thrawn</em>, I enjoyed it quite a bit since both Thrawn and Eli Vanto both know very little about the Empire, and they reveal how it works through their own experiences.</li>
<li>I’m not limited to just <em>Star Wars</em> books (despite what I seem to be quoting), just to be clear 😅</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>If you’d like to recommend me anything, feel free to send me a line via email to <a href="mailto:ronak.manish.shah@gmail.com">ronak.manish.shah@gmail.com</a>, or send a tweet to <a href="https://twitter.com/trulyronak">@trulyronak</a></p>Wow! It’s been another year, and this time we spent the first half in the pandemic (until June-ish), the second half in a weird hybrid-pandemic (until November), and now we’re back in a pandemic for December!2020 Annual Reading List2020-12-28T23:43:10+00:002020-12-28T23:43:10+00:00/2020-Annual-Reading-List<p>I don’t blog often, but when I do, it’s for the annual reading list.</p>
<p>This being the year of the pandemic, I read a lot more, fulfilling the commitment I made <a href="https://ronakshah.org/2019-Annual-Reading-List">last year</a>. This year, I finally moved into the digital era, and read more on my Kindle than ever before (although nothing still compares to the feel of physical books).</p>
<p>One thing I found interesting about this year is that while I read many <em>good</em> books, I wasn’t as willing to place as many books in my top x. This is primarily because I got more critical with what I place in higher regard, but also because I’m in a different mindset now, and I look to get more out of my books.</p>
<p>Without any further ado, here are my top books of 2020:</p>
<h2 id="the-top-4-books">The Top 4 Books</h2>
<ol>
<li>
<p><strong>Born a Crime</strong> <em>by Trevor Noah</em></p>
<p>I read this book very recently, and it instantly became one of my favorite books of all time. When my sister first told me about this book, I paused — I hadn’t watched much of Trevor Noah on <em>The Daily Show</em>, and I just knew he was a comedian. “What would a comedian put in a book?” — 2 pages in, I understood. Trevor’s incredible life story of growing up in South Africa under Apartheid sounds like it’d be mostly depressing yet eye opening, but Noah instead inspires you further by showing his outlook on everything. Despite everything happening to him, Trevor shows his (or his mother’s) impossibly optimistic view on life, and writes with remarkable relatability that you can’t put the book down. I won’t spoil anything, but after reading this book, I just really want to become friends with Trevor Noah — he just seems like a cool dude to be friends with.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Becoming</strong> <em>by Michelle Obama</em></p>
<p>Another book I was skeptical about, I was curious what Michelle Obama was going to write about. Like many Americans, I knew little about the First Lady, other than she did cool stuff as the First Lady, and that she gave incredible speeches. Her book proves that she isn’t going anywhere — with an incredible life story, she infuses the pages with stories from growing up (with astounding detail, I might add), and takes the reader along her own journey, coming of age, mid life crises, and twists. It’s easily one of my favorite biographies, and you can’t help but relate to her.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Steve Jobs</strong> <em>by Walter Isaacson</em></p>
<p>As you might have guessed, it’s a good year for biographies. Unlike the other biographies on this list, Jobs isn’t as easily relatable — his life is chaotic, nonsensical, and wildly intriguing. I’ve found myself inspired, appalled, and in admiration of his thought processes and actions. Isaacson weaves together different events and themes across Steve’s life, letting you remark every once in a while as he explains how Steve Jobs set out to make a dent in the universe. With any luck, I — and millions of other readers — will do just that.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>2 States</strong> <em>by Chetan Bhagat</em></p>
<p>While not officially a biography, <strong>2 States</strong> is based off of the author’s life story, making 2020 the year of biographical books. The story is fascinating, but what I enjoy the most about it is how open Krish is about his thought process to us (the reader). It’s what drives the plot, and what makes it such a great read, and what makes Krish so relatable. While the movie is definitely good, it doesn’t bring forth the thoughts racing through Krish’s heart, which is what makes it so great. The movie also skips what I think is the biggest lesson from the entire book — that “Forgiving doesn’t make the person who hurt you feel better, it makes <em>you</em> feel better”.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="honorable-mentions">Honorable Mentions</h2>
<p>These are all fantastic books. I just simply didn’t feel right placing them in my tops for the year, but each and every one of these books is well worth reading.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p><strong>Battlefront II: Inferno Squad</strong> <em>by Christie Golden</em></p>
<p>2020 saw me rekindle my <del>relationship</del> obsession with Star Wars. Inferno Squad tells the story of Iden Versio, an Imperial born-and-raised special forces soldier, and how she fights against the terrorist Rebel Alliance. It’s a fantastic flipped perspective, and it taking place in a universe that you’re at least somewhat familiar with greatly enhances the story. Seeing the world through the side of the enemy is always interesting, and Inferno Squad goes above and beyond. I’m really thrilled that this story gets expanded on in Battlefront II (the video game), and I’m excited to play the game when I get the chance.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Everything I Never Told You</strong> <em>by Celeste Ng</em></p>
<p>I didn’t expect to like this book this much. I read it as part of a book club, and didn’t allocate much time at all for it, but it finished itself, quite literally. The book hits really well on several topics, but the part that hit me (and made me cry) was the slow degradation of the sibling’s relationship, and it really drives the point of communication home. One thing I’ve taken from this book that I’ll never forget — you never really know what’s going through someone else’s head, but you can start to form a picture by talking <em>with</em> them.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Dune</strong> <em>by Frank Herbert</em></p>
<p>Dune’s a classic, but it’s not my kind of sci-fi. It’s a slow burn, fantastic, incredibly complex, and has many elements I look for, but it’s pacing is why I can’t place it higher. I still enjoyed the book nevertheless, and it’s one of the most unique books I’ve read this year. It’s one of those books that you pickup on many more details on another read, but it’s something that exhausts you when reading it.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Thrawn: Alliances, Treason, and Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising</strong> all <em>by Timothy Zahn</em></p>
<p>I finished what I started last year, and finished the Thrawn Trilogy, then read more. The character is easily my favorite, and his mention in <em>The Mandalorian</em> only excites me further. The character’s cunning and wit is coupled well with Zahn’s world building, and I look forward to reading more of his work (and seeing him hopefully come in live action!). The books continue to showcase a bit of a political thriller and complex world building, although none of the books are quite as strong as the original (but still really good).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>The DaVinci Code</strong> <em>by Dan Brown</em></p>
<p>A classic Dan Brown book to the end, the <strong>DaVinci Code</strong> requires a mention just because of the sheer content in it. I learned far more about pagan and biblical influences than I ever thought I knew, and as always, the best part is everything he talked about is based in a high amount of reality. The fascinating history of the Church and the intense thriller keeps you interested, and it’s a super good read.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Five Point Someone</strong> <em>by Chetan Bhagat</em></p>
<p>I love this book, but I loved the movie adaptation (<em>3 Idiots</em>) more. It’s probably the only one of a few books that stand in this class, but the fact is that <em>3 Idiots</em> greatly improves on the messaging of the book. That being said, <strong>Five Point Someone</strong> does an incredible job of putting us into Hari’s footsteps (just like <strong>2 States</strong>), and drives you through countless emotions. I ultimately ranked <strong>2 States</strong> higher than <strong>Five Point Someone</strong>, but it wasn’t an easy decision.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="other-good-books-ive-read">Other Good Books I’ve Read</h2>
<p>These are also great books! I just didn’t have much to say about them.</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Physik</strong> <em>by Angie Sage</em></li>
<li><strong>A New Dawn</strong> <em>by John Jackson Miller</em></li>
<li><strong>Lost Names</strong> <em>by Richard Kim</em> (read this in a class I never attended, but this is a really good book!!)</li>
<li><strong>Better</strong> <em>by Atul Gawande</em></li>
<li><strong>Artemis</strong> <em>by Andy Weir</em></li>
<li><strong>Tarkin</strong> <em>by James Luceno</em></li>
</ol>
<p>See you next year!</p>I don’t blog often, but when I do, it’s for the annual reading list.KP-Personal2020-10-01T15:04:02+00:002020-10-01T15:04:02+00:00/KP-Personal2019 Annual Reading List2019-12-31T20:02:04+00:002019-12-31T20:02:04+00:00/2019-Annual-Reading-List<p>Technically, I’m releasing this in 2020 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone">(in some countries)</a>, but whatever.</p>
<p>Right away, I want to be honest — I didn’t read as much as I liked to. My list is shorter than last year’s — so I’ll be commiting to reading more next year.
It’s why this year only features 4 Top Books and only 3 Honorable Mentions. Anyways, here are my tops for 2019.</p>
<h3 id="top-4-books">Top 4 Books</h3>
<ol>
<li>
<p><strong>The Lords of Discipline</strong> <em>by Pat Conroy</em></p>
<p>Probably one of the best books I’ve read ever, period. It’s a journey that moves you in ways you didn’t think was possible, and Pay Conroy’s style of writing is so immersive and elegant that you really feel as though you are in Charleston. South Carolina’s finest city has put itself on my “To Travel” list by this book alone.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>David and Goliath</strong> <em>by Malcolm Gladwell</em></p>
<p>Gladwell makes it yet again on my list, with his amazing ability to uncover stories and analyze what makes them interesting. David and Goliath is a book applicable to anyone seeking to make a change in the world, from changes as small as moving a crumb to as large as trying to move a universe.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Why I Left Goldman Sachs</strong> <em>by Greg Smith</em></p>
<p>I never understood the world of Wall Street and finance, but in Greg Smith’s tell all about Goldman Sachs, I found myself intrigued and immersed in the fast-paced bustle of the Street. Smith’s growth and crumbling of his belief system is fascinating to see break down, and it’s a reminder that seemingly small factors can cause behemoths to fall. While a narrative, this pairs well with <em>David and Goliath</em>’s Self-Improvement book.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><strong>Thrawn</strong> <em>by Timothy Zahn</em></p>
<p>A political thriller, with backstabbing and intrigue complements the main part of Zahn’s novel which details the rise of an intelligent yet humane Navy Admiral. <em>Thrawn</em> is an incredible novel that keeps you on your toes and interested, and to top it all off, it takes place in the incredible universe that is <strong>Star Wars</strong>. Many will dismiss <em>Thrawn</em> as “yet another Star Wars” book, but it is so much more than that. More than anything, <em>Thrawn</em> takes what fascinates me about that universe — the politics, the chaos, the disorder — and explores it in ways not often seen.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h1 id="honorable-mentions">Honorable Mentions</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Prince of Tides</strong> <em>by Pat Conroy</em></li>
<li><strong>the four</strong> <em>by Scott Galloway</em></li>
<li><strong>Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built</strong> <em>by Duncan Clark</em></li>
</ul>Technically, I’m releasing this in 2020 (in some countries), but whatever.Hacking the Bureaucracy in DC2019-10-18T15:05:46+00:002019-10-18T15:05:46+00:00/Hacking-the-Bureacracy-in-DC<p><em>Note: This was originally posted to <a href="https://blog.codingitforward.com/hacking-the-bureaucracy-in-d-c-e6d247c3d8e">Medium via Coding it Forward.</a></em></p>
<p>On June 1st, I completed my first year at UC San Diego. Two days later, I was flying to Washington, DC to work as a Software Engineering Fellow for the Department of Health and Human Services. I wasn’t sure what to expect — I’d previously worked at a startup — Zesty.io — and did research at a supercomputer — San Diego Supercomputer Center — but this was a whole other animal.</p>
<h2 id="wait--this-isnt-software-engineering">Wait — this isn’t software engineering?</h2>
<p>During my first week of work, I quickly realized something about my workplace: there weren’t any software engineers here. Puzzled, I asked around.
Working for the CIO’s Office in DC meant that there weren’t any software engineers immediately near me and that my work would focus on analyzing data and assisting with managing the existing CIO software asset process. While this work is incredibly useful — it allows the agency to optimize its resources so it can spend more money on programs such as the Ignite Accelerator — I knew that it wasn’t the only way I could contribute technically to HHS. With this in mind, I decided to see what I could do myself.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/dc/baltimore.jpeg" alt="me @ baltimore" />
At the HHS/CMS Office in Baltimore</p>
<p>Taking the advice of my mentors and the directors of the Fellowship, I decided to talk to everyone I could at HHS. As a Software Engineer, this wasn’t my first instinct (nor something my profession is known to be particularly fond of) but it proved to be the most useful thing I could do.
By talking with different people at HHS, and following up with the people I met at the various events throughout the Fellowship, I learned about different programs within the agency and gained a better understanding of what it took to enact change.</p>
<p>Throughout this entire process, my fellow Fellow Aditya Krishnaswamy noticed my struggle and helpfully introduced me to Margeaux Akazawa, the Internal Innovation Programs Lead at HHS’ CTO Office. She allowed me to get an inside look at the aforementioned Ignite Accelerator — an incredible program that fosters innovation by gathering entrepreneurial-minded civil servants within HHS to enact meaningful change at the agency — and introduced me to the Ignite teams as a Software Consultant. Proving quite true to the name, she ignited a flame under me to learn more about other groups working to enact change at HHS, which ultimately lead to me discovering another group at HHS.</p>
<h2 id="a-lunch-to-remember">A lunch to remember</h2>
<p>A few weeks went by since I started working with the Ignite Accelerator, and while I enjoyed the work, I still wanted to do more. I expressed this to Chris Kuang, one of the directors of the Civic Digital Fellowship, who worked to set up a lunch with us and The U.S. Digital Service team at HHS, to introduce us to them and learn more about what they did.
We had the amazing opportunity to have lunch with Amy Gleason, a Digital Service Expert at the US Digital Service. She gave us an overview of the kind of work USDS was doing at HHS, told us about a GitHub where some of their work was and answered our crazy questions about what it was like to work for USDS.
After she left, I immediately searched for the USDS GitHub for their HHS work and tried to get a project called “dpc-app” working on my computer. Running into some problems, I decided to consult the creators and tracked down their office where I met the full USDS team at HHS.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/dc/twitter.png" alt="shannon sartin on twitter" />
Spoiler alert: I was the intern in the hallway.</p>
<p>And the rest, as they say, is history. I spent the last part of my Fellowship working closely with the USDS team, working on the Data at the Point of Care API. I worked to add tests, analytics, fix bugs, help out on documentation, and add some minor features. <strong>There’s honestly nothing quite like working on software, only to go to the White House and see it launched to the American People.</strong> The entire experience, from USDS Staff Meetings to chatting with USDSers in Jackson Place, and to engineering alongside brilliant engineers, opened to me a whole world of innovation that I hadn’t known to exist just 10 weeks prior.</p>
<h2 id="acknowledgments">Acknowledgments</h2>
<p>I’m so incredibly grateful for all the support I got during these 10 weeks — I would not have had as much fun here had I not had the support of all the incredible people. Shoutouts to Kristen Honey, Amy Gleason, Margeaux Akazawa, Nick Robison, Shannon Sartin, Steve Ressler, and Zachary Goldfein.</p>Note: This was originally posted to Medium via Coding it Forward.