My posts on journal.

I write about anything and everything that interests me.

designdevgrowthjournal
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Where to draw the line between Imitation and Inspiration?

AI commoditized execution, so "taste" is the new moat. The programmer's version: imitation is copy by value, inspiration is copy by reference.

Hands reach toward a glowing vintage computer enclosed in a glass dome, surrounded by stars.

Assume the Endpoint Is Hostile

Lakhs of government PCs can reach the core, each trusting whoever sits in front of it. Borrow Apple's closed model and make the wrong move unavailable.

Illustrated workers pass bricks up a ramp while building a red domed structure with scaffolding.

GitHub for Government Work

The multi-year, single-vendor RFP is the root cause. Treat the core platform as an open commons: small priced tasks, paid per merged pull request.

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How I'd Build Government Software That Doesn't Fall Over

You don't fix a meltdown with experts parachuting in after the breach. You fix it with defaults: a federated core, HTML-first frontends, private storage.

A towering server building drips pink goo as paper airplanes fill a vivid city sky.

BTS of CBSE's Infra Meltdown.

CBSE called its result-day collapse a cyberattack. The numbers say plain demand, the kind monolithic, one-vendor government IT can't survive.

A worker climbs a massive riveted steam machine beneath swirling orange clouds and flying papers.

Stop Fixing India's Exams

NEET leaked, CBSE's new marking system melted down, and 23.6% of young Indian graduates are jobless. We keep debugging an exam machine we should replace.

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New Year 2026: Little by little

Little by little, a little becomes a lot. Reflecting on the small wins of 2025 and laying out the roadmap for 2026.

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Drool is shut down - An honest post-mortem.

An honest post-mortem on shutting down my design agency. Lessons on scope creep, hiring pitfalls and remote ops friction.