A thing or two | Writing by Sanket Pathak

Prepare to be model agnostic

2026-04-22T00:00:00Z

The last few weeks have been erratic. Model providers are clearly figuring things out on-the-go and as a result we're seeing:

Claude hitting limits before you finish your first coffee in the morning, followed by:
GitHub pausing Copilot individual sign-ups and tightening usage limits
Z(dotai is tightening its plans for all users upon renewal
Codex randomly resetting limits

My weekly Claude limit was reset on Friday and I was out by Monday afternoon. So, I'm not complaining about the Codex limit resets. I'm here for it! But it's still... erratic?

None of that makes sense, and that's ok. It tells me one thing: no matter how bold the tech is, the 90% of things AROUND the tech that humans do will take their own sweet time to settle down.

We are more dependent on models today than our grandparents on their glasses. If you're reading this (not you grandpa), I presume you too are AI-pilled... Your morning starts by talking to agents and your day ends with putting an agent on an overnight task for you.

It's no news that we've been living on a token subsidy. My prediction is 2026-27 will be the year things get pricey AF for individuals because companies will focus on penetrating enterprises and subsidising them. Which means actually lower limits (not because of a bug; hey Claude!).

Non-technical users rarely care where their agents store data. So, God forbid, if Claude decides to actually take away Claude Code from the Pro plan OR reduce limits even further, your entire life may come to a halt.

So, you either reduce your dependence and "learn to live within your limits / below your means" as they say... OR prepare yourself to be model / provider agnostic.

Be model / provider agnostic

Prepare for a non-subsidized world where we work with a mix of subscriptions, OpenRouter, and local models. Well, not to live in the future, you could benefit from this during outages as well.

Finicky? Maybe. But isn't it fun preparing for such scenarios, and feeling insanely happy when they happen, and you 'Mark yourself safe' from the wave (millennials, remember Facebook?)

A few things I've done over the past few days:

Audit your cloud projects: Ask your agent to list all your cloud projects. Ensure all your MCP servers and skills are included.
Centralize locally: Ask it to set up a ~/workspace/ where you and your agent will co-work, including claude.md or agent.md under each directory.
1. Each project's Custom Instructions become an individual claude.md file under each local project directory.
2. Put all your skills under .agents/skills and ask your skill-creator to default to this folder & create a symlink (aka alias) for each skill in the respective skill-folder (i.e. .claude/skill/ .codex/skill, .pi/skill etc.)
Switch to Cowork or Codex. That way, all future conversations & files remain on your device-workspace. If you want to get your hands dirty, use Pi coding agent or OpenCode. Both are open source coding agents which can be used as general purpose agents too, and both are model agnostic. HOWEVER, you cannot use Anthropic subscription with them. So, that's a bummer.

If you need help, ~~reach out~~ just talk to your agent.

A brief note about Pi

I absolutely love Pi. It's stupid simple, fast, keyboard-first, and well, model agnostic!

I started my career as a developer and that made me a keyboard-first person. So I do more tab tab space instead of drag & click. Pi's onboarding starts from keyboard shortcuts and it had me right there. Thank you, Mario!

Anyway, switching between models or thinking mode with Ctrl + P and Shift + tab, building custom features on the fly, its ability to work with stupid simple prompts, and tree (aka the rewind feature that actually works) are a few things that I've found insanely helpful.

It's a coding agent that knows itself well & can build itself as we go! Just like OpenClaw or Hermes agent!

It doesn't have built-in theme switcher. So I asked it to build it. I asked it to write stupid simple prompt to be 'general purpose agent' and it did. I said I want to work with Paper MCP server and it wrote an extension to work with it! Tweet

I've been using Gemini & GPT models in Pi and it's insanely fast. Gemini when the APIs are up that is! I can't objectively prove it but at least the perceived performance is super fast!

I wish Claude hadn't blocked other agents from using the OAuth subscription.

Anyway, check out Pi!

This is not a time-investment advice. Please read the docs carefully. :P

Be easy to work with

2025-04-23T00:00:00Z

After technical proficiency, how well you work with others matters most. The latter requires deeper behavioral change and it's harder to train. That's why, as you progress in your career, being easy to work with slightly outweighs pure technical skill.

Being easy to work with doesn't mean being a pushover. It doesn't mean saying 'yes' to everything, always agreeing with your team, or just following instructions well. Those behaviors actually make people harder to work with, though some organizations with subpar cultures reward them.

So, what does being easy to work with actually mean?

You build and maintain trust
You bring clarity to confusion
You navigate situations with emotional intelligence
You read rooms instinctively
You can build rapport with different personality types
You show agency
You maintain momentum especially through ambiguity
You keep tighter feedback loops

Unlike technical skills that can become obsolete, being easy to work with creates an advantage that gives you disproportionate returns throughout your career. Everyone wants to work with you, leaders think of you first when delegating a key project, your teammates are happy to refer you, career growth gets easier, and so on...

If you're inherently easy to work with, you've an edge over most teammates; go build on it! Because, being easy to work with is not easy.

Liquid luck

2025-04-21T00:00:00Z

We experience a phase where everything just clicks; not just for one random day but for weeks! Most won't remember the details of when and how it started; it feels like you swallowed liquid luck and the universe shifted to work for you.

This magical phase is cyclic. The key is to recognize and capitalize it, and increase the surface area of luck.

To recognize it, watch out for some signals: A lot of opportunities appear, you feel in control, obstacles are dissolved quickly, you have a better momentum... etc.

To capitalize on the moment, make bold moves. "Have almost too much self-belief", as Sama says. Make that career switch, take on that ambitious project, pitch your ideas, be more vocal in meetings, work outside your comfort zone, build new skills, work harder, go on that date... You know where you're holding yourself back; push past those barriers.

If you plant the right seeds, they will continue to grow beyond this phase. You will increase the surface area of luck, and returns will compound.

The point here is not to wait and watch for the phase to come and do all the above. It is to sail faster with ease when the wind is on your side. Make the journey more rewarding.

With agency comes power

2025-04-18T00:00:00Z

Julia Fedorin, a YouTuber and marketing student from Ontario, showed the true power of agency.

She liked the idea of working at Shopify. There were no suitable open roles. So, she decided to pitch to create one. That's power.

She did what she does best — created a video that captures the value she has created for the world. She challenged Shopify to think bold, and create room for one more (role). That's power.

She reached Shopify with one tweet. That's power.

The company CEO, COO, and many others noticed. Loved her audacity. Gave her "You're hired" response on her tweet. That's power.

From tweet to getting hired took just 4 hours! That's power.

People talk about high agency a lot, but we rarely see such clear illustrations of it in action. Thank you, Julia and Shopify leadership team for showing the world the true power of agency.

Take praises seriously

2025-04-17T00:00:00Z

"When someone, especially a stranger, notices and appreciates your qualities, you must play closer attention to it." I wrote in my journal a few months back.

Reflecting on your qualities from others' perspective acts as a great compass to navigate your professional journey; especially when you're uncertain or lost.

My usual response to praise has been an awkward thank you, or self-doubt, or letting it go, or worst — all of it! The self-tip and new perspective changed my mind.

Derek Sivers wrote a chapter ‘Obvious to you. Amazing to others.’ in his book. He writes, "Everybody’s ideas are obvious to themselves. We’re bad judges of our own creations. We should just put them out there and let the world decide."

So, next time someone appreciates you, take their word for it; take it seriously.

Isolation is a mindset

2025-04-16T00:00:00Z

At work or home, you have access to the people you can rely on and ask for help. You know a few things are beyond your knowledge or control today. You know a handful of personal or professional coaches to skill up. You’re aware that you can tackle a challenge much faster if you simply drop that message or make a call. But you don’t.

Abundance of people, time, or any resources doesn’t guarantee action. You’re not limited by any of them, but your mindset.

If you’re stuck at the moment, check if you are the spoke in the wheel.

Clarity is a currency for effective async work

2025-04-15T00:00:00Z

Async collaboration fails because people don’t know how to ask for help clearly. Bullet points, longer messages or repetition doesn't mean over-communication or clarity.

Poor async-hygiene is a silent blocker and gets prevalent when you work across opposite timezones. It's not an art; it's ~~rocket~~ science.

Async communication protocol that works for me:

Everyone, I’ve worked on [project] and need your help to [finalize / unblock / validate / etc.].
I’d love your feedback on [specific sections]—especially on [problem statement / JTBD / solution direction / etc.]
Please share your thoughts by [deadline]. If you need more time, please let me know.
After I get your input, I’ll [next step: revise, share v2, sync, etc.]

We gravitate towards simplicity

2025-04-14T00:00:00Z

I have purchased a couple AirPods, over-the-ear headphones, wireless in-ear earphones, expensive wired earphones, and not to mention a dedicated microphone. I still own a few of these and yet I went looking for my Apple 3.5mm wired earphones last week. Fortunately I found them and that's the default now.

I lived the bell curve meme

one more time...!

Like the meme captures perfectly, we gravitate towards simplicity. Every now and then, new promises of higher quality, speed and productivity come around like a centrifugal force and try to pull us towards complexity. But, it's only a matter of time before gravity does its job.

This pattern can be observed across digital tools and devices, clothing, travel plans, productivity systems, and so on. Perhaps it's smart to recognizing this cycle early.

Becoming a person who enjoys reading books

2025-03-23T00:00:00Z

Building a habit is not a "21 day" project. It's a gradual shift in your identity; a shift that takes regular self-talk, some success but many failures, intentional choices, and perseverance.

As someone who read just 30-odd books in 30 years and consistently failed at every reading resolution, I was the definition of a 'non-reader.' I've set reading goals year after year, only to abandon them by February. I've picked up books only to put them down again after a few pages. In 2023, my goal was to read just one book. Guess what happened? Correct. I failed.

But last year (2024), everything changed. I read 16 books in 12 months. My original goal was to read 12!

The one key takeaway from this is: If I can do it, so can you.

I got interested in building habits 3 years back around Nov 2022 — that's when you start planning your "resolutions" for the upcoming year.

In 2023, my first project was to write 12 articles (one per month) on my blog. I wrote 10 by the end of the year — not bad for the first attempt. But, I didn't continue writing in the new year. My second project was fitness. So I dug out a physical activity I've enjoyed in the past - cycling. I bought second-hand cycle, rode enough to convince myself to buy a new one, and then cycled more than I anticipated (approx. 350km) Then, since 2024, I haven't touched my cycle. My third project was to read one book — you know what happened with it already.

I wanted to understand what went wrong. Here's what I learnt:

Number-driven goals: Kms if cycling, no. of articles on blog, and no. of books per year.
Lack of focus: There were too many goals in a year. Yes, 3 is a lot when you do neither of them intrinsically.
Lack of system: To keep things easy, to catch and handle failures, to build intrinsic motivation, and so on...

Taking these learnings forward, I decided to walk into 2024 with:

Long-term goal: becoming a person who finds knowledge and joy in reading (over just podcasts, Netflix, and social media)
Focus: One goal and take it very seriously
System: Something that keeps me on track

The one thing I started with, and this gets as meta as it can, is by reading a book - Atomic Habits by James Clear. This would be my second read and I've benefited from many tactics mentioned in it. I'll cover them and a few more that I came up with below.

As I write this, it's March of 2025. I've read a couple of books, currently reading 3 books(!), I still miss many days of reading... but whenever I get a chance after work or over weekends, I default to my Kindle, & that's a win!

I'm confident that some of these tips will click for you and you would be able to build reading or any other habit by implementing them.

20 tips to help you become a person who enjoys reading books:

Read Atomic Habits. Really really really read it. It works.
If you don't want to read the entire book, learn about 2 min rule, identity-based habit building, and habit stacking.
Journal about the habit you want to build; even if you're failing at it everyday.
Start scrolling Goodreads like Twitter. Once a day is fine. Collect book, check friend's goals, books they have read, and so on.
Pick 3-4 genres. Buy bunch of books from those genres.
Before buying a book (physical or digital), read any random page (1-2). Typically start of the chapter. If you can easily follow what author is trying to convey, buy it. If not, discard it even if it's "the classic" "the must read" or whatever category.
Don't finish books if they are not working for you.
Pick 10-12 books under 250 pages. Maybe 1-2 bigger than that.
Skipping for days or even weeks is ok. Skipping for months is also ok. Just get back to it. It's never too late.
On flights, airport, cafes, and other places, look for people who are sitting with a book or kindle. Sit around them. Remind yourself that's who you want to be.
Keep min. reading time low for the entire year. 2 min, 5 min, 10 min, or whatever works.
Surround yourself with books. Visit book stores and buy some books. Keep on your desk. If someone asks what to gift you, ask for a book.
Read at least 50% fiction books from your goal. Absence of pressure to read carefully, to take notes, implement the learnings, and so on... is liberating.
Sometimes create mandates that link to the rewards. I can't do {my favorite thing} until I read for 2 min or 1 page. Works for yearly goal as well. I can plan my vacation only if I finish 50% books by 50% of year.
Carry a Kindle or a book when you go out. If you forget it, buy a new one (book) from bookstore and roam around.
Start of the day (before touching your phone), or end of the day (before going to bed) are usually best times to read.
If you start with 1-page per day rule, absolutely stop after 1 page. Don't go over even if you feel like it. Not for the first few weeks.
Depending on how critical this habit is for you, set up higher and crazy rewards or losses (Tip 14).
Use habit tracker app. Update progress on Goodreads even if it is 1% every single day.
Follow folks who talk about books. Join book clubs or similar even if as a listener.

Find out what ticks you. Does glamorizing a habit help? Do it. Does big reward help? Do it.

Fruitful 1:1s with your manager

2024-03-02T00:00:00Z

In the past year, I’ve spent a lot of time with my manager in weekly and monthly 1:1s. There was a short period of time when I consecutively cancelled my time with him for various reasons viz. no agenda, unavailability, or just sheer guilt to face my unproductive week or a month. However, I soon realised, skipping this time with them is one of the worst negatively-compounding decision you can make for your career. Since then, I ensured that each 1:1 has a great agenda to talk about.

Below, I’ll dive into my ways of driving 1:1s. I hope you learn a thing or two, and make yours more fruitful.

What’s a prerequisite for having a fruitful 1:1 with your manager?

Each point below acts as a prerequisite for the following one.

Self-reflect: As Socrates said, “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.” The more you understand where you struggled or excelled, your strengths and weaknesses, the better you can help your manager to help you. You need to know where you need the most help; you need to know what you did really well. Give your manager an opportunity to learn from your failures and successes.
Trust manager and process: To begin with, you need to put a complete faith in your manager to give you continuous and helpful feedback. Manager is equally responsible for earning your trust. You may find yourself reporting to someone newly hired or promoted manager. In that case, you both need to start with complete trust in each other to be a great manager, and a great report. Additionally, you need to trust that 1:1s are a great way to help you grow.
Ask for help: It’s easy to fall into the trap of I should know it all. It’s important know that you’re hired to find out the answers; not to have all of them. The sooner you learn to ask for help on the right thing at the right time, the more successful you will be. Your manager is best suited to help you find the answer. Again, they may or may not have all the answers. But they too are hired for finding all the answers and not having them.
Prioritise: You may have a single problem at hand or many. You need to learn to prioritise the most important one for the day, week, or a month. If you talk about all problems at once, you will end up having high-level conversations – which may lead to generic conversation and advice. If you prioritise well, you can go deeper and leave the conversations with effective and actionable plan.
Document: This needs no explanation. Write down what you want to talk about, the advice you received, action items, open questions, and everything.
Show ROI: Your manager has an overflowing plate of work. They have (and should have) a vested interest in helping you level-up. Because that’s how they can delegate more things to you, make an away for you to grow and move onto different challenges. However, it’s critical that you show progress when they give you an advice and plan of action. The higher the returns you show, the more they would want to invest their time in you.

What’s the secret ingredient for great 1:1s?

Answer: Great questions!

The key to wisdom is knowing all the right questions. John A. Simone, Sr.

I have relied quite a bit on the interviews of great people. They are invited on many podcasts and shows but only some of them truly stand out. Over the time, I realised, it’s not the speaker but the host… It’s not just the host but their great questions!
They ask great questions and let the wisdom from the great unfold for the next hour or two. That’s why Lenny’s Podcast, Tim Ferris, The Knowledge Project and alike are so densely packed with timeless material.

What are some of the questions I ask during my 1:1s?

What is your definition of X?
X = Being strategic, Strong Craft Person, Being a great manager etc.
We discussed 2 goals in our last meeting. Here’s the update so far. How do you think I’ve been doing? What can I do better? What do I need to change?
I see myself being X / doing Y in next 2 years. What do you think about it? Do you think I’ve what it takes to be there?
X = Sr. Designer, Design Manager, Visual Designers etc.
Y = 1:1 mentorship, leading a vertical, establishing a research practices etc.
What are the key milestones you want me to achieve in next X time that gives you confidence of me being on-track?

X time = 15 days, 2 months, 1 year etc.
Here is my plan of action to achieve X. Do you think this will work?

X = Completing this project, improve my strategic muscle, better visual design, clear writing etc.
What are the most common pitfalls you and others have fallen into when you were on the same track as I am?
Who should I look up to in Postman for being the best at X person?

X = Product thinker, Craft person, Manager, Coach etc.
What changes do you want to notice in my team in the next X time to give you a confidence that this is a winning team?

X time = 15 days, 2 months, 1 year etc.
What’s on your plate that you need help with? Can you delegate that to me?
To flip this, you may also observe what is on their plate and say, “Can I pick up this task from your plate?”
How can I help you become a better leader for all of us?

This is not an exhaustive list. I don’t repeat these questions in every 1:1. Consider these as guiding questions and think what you need from your manager; rather, think what you need from anyone and your manager can help you with the answer or the right people or resources. Depending on your rapport with your manager, consider asking them questions that helps you see the person behind the title, and beyond the company.

To conclude, 1:1s should be considered as a sacred time between a manager and report. They are never cancelled and only rescheduled if needed. It’s the only way to ensure alignment, motivation, coaching, two-way feedback, and becoming a better professional than you were yesterday.

Thank you for reading till here. Here’s one more tip for you…

Your manager is not perfect; never will be. There are a few things they may not be able to help you with and you would know when that’s the case. It doesn’t mean they are bad managers; it means they are human. Understand that you need help to unblock yourself or to grow. Identify who else in the company is better suited to help you. It’s probably your manager’s manager, one of your peers, head of some vertical, or someone outside the company. Learn to ask for help for your growth depends on it.

New year theme over new year resolutions

2023-12-30T00:00:00Z

I stumbled upon the idea of a 'theme' at the beginning of '23 and liked it. Rather than setting new goals, I decided to find my theme.

After spending a month reflecting on the previous year, I resonated with 'Newness' as one of the themes. As the time went by, I realised 'Newness' and other themes acted as a strong guiding principles, helping me become a better version of myself. I certainly failed a fair few times to stick with it, but I still consider it a great success and would highly recommend trying it.

Few examples of how it helped:

Published more posts on my blog! In the past, I often hesitated and overthought before hitting the Publish button on my blog. This year, I challenged myself by asking, "Is hitting the Publish button a new way? Am I living the old way by not publishing this post?" The answer was yes, and I hit the button. Although my soft goal was to publish 12 posts (one per month), I managed to publish 9. Oh wait…! 10, including this one!
Learned to drive. Even though I knew how to drive, I'd always find excuses to stick with my scooter. The fear of driving was real. So, I started asking myself, "What would the newer version of me do? Grab the 2-wheeler keys or the 4-wheeler keys?" It took me a while, but eventually, I found myself reaching for the car keys more often.

There are many instances at work or in personal life (documented in private journal), where I let my theme guide the decision. I haven't regretted any of them.

If you’re failing at resolution, try theming your year. Try something new.

RSS feed

2023-11-23T00:00:00Z

For those who don't know, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Introduced in 1999, it is now 24 years old in 2023! In really simple language, it's a single file which is always up to date with certain information from a website. Check the RSS feed of my blog. You will see all the articles listed on the page.

If you read books, you may have noticed how one book or author leads you to the next book to read. Similarly, great bloggers point you to other great bloggers. Larger the number of blogs grew, the more I struggled to keep up with it. The bookmarking system failed for me and the email subscriptions... well, it was bound to fail. Dozens of newsletters every week and keeping up with them felt like a chore rather than a fun reading session. When the unread newsletters number hit 200+, I just hit unsubscribed to all of them.

Later, I stumbled upon Stammy's 'Hello, RSS' post and I felt hopeful. I installed NetNewsWire -- a tool that allows you add multiple RSS feeds (aka blogs) -- almost 2 years back and haven't looked back since! Now, when I like someone's writing, including those who don't write that often, I automatically get their writing at one click. I no longer dread the reading and living happily ever after...

Keep your devices boring

2023-11-22T00:00:00Z

Your smartphone or a tablet can easily distract you into social media, emails, texts from friends, and so on...

You pick-up a phone to "quickly" check something important. After 10 mins, once you're caught up with ~~something important~~ all the distractions, you keep your phone away. In a second, you realise what happened, and pick your phone again. This time, you do check the important thing and then get lost in the new set of distractions. This cycle can go on and on...

To have unhurried and deliberate lifestyle, you need to get rid of distractions or at least reduce them as much as possible. You can achieve that by keeping your devices boring — Disable all the unwanted notifications, delete social media apps, set up screen-time, and last but not the least, keep your phone away while you indulge in other activities.

References

Sam Altman. “The Days Are Long but the Decades Are Short,” April 29, 2015. https://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-are-short.

Minimize your own cognitive load from distracting things that don’t really matter. It’s hard to overstate how important this is, and how bad most people are at it. Get rid of distractions in your life. Develop very strong ways to avoid letting crap you don’t like doing pile up and take your mental cycles, especially in your work life.

Cal Newport. Digital Minimalism: On Living Better with Less Technology. 2019. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40672036-digital-minimalism.

Type to Siri

2023-08-22T00:00:00Z

Me: "Hey Siri, do (something)"

Siri: "Sorry, could you say that again?"

Although the above situation has improved over the years, the "Hey Siri" on any Apple device (except the Watch) is not something I feel comfortable repeating throughout the day; especially when I'm not confident in its ability to understand my dialect, and solve my query.

Instead, I prefer 'Type to Siri' feature especially on my MacBook. Keyboard is the primary interaction device with your Mac and that's why typing fits perfectly well with the workflow. Typing also ensures that the input is accurately given and understood which may not be the case with voice (especially with Siri).

I type to Siri for setting timers, alarms, and reminders. Noting ad-hoc requests and reminders, setting Pomodoro timer while working, setting timers during design critique or other meetings are some of the ways I use it. It's helpful when you've to repeat it multiple times a day.

Here's the workflow without Siri (voice or type):

Pick up phone
Go to control center > Timers
Set a custom timer (includes changing the digits)
Put the phone down
Get back to my laptop

Here's the workflow with Siri:

Siri shortcut (I currently use ctrl + i)
Type "Set timer for 40 min" or "Remind me to take medicines in 30 min" or "Follow-up with (someone) for (some inputs) tomorrow"

For the workflow, I used phone as a device because I don't remember using 'Timers' i.e. 'Clock' app on my Mac before.

If timers and reminders are your way of working, and you don't want to rely on yet another app, just type to Siri.

Read this MacOS user guide to enable the feature.

The productivity tools money can't buy

2023-04-05T00:00:00Z

I've spent countless hours in quest of the "perfect" productivity app. Eventually, when I find one, I invest a lot of efforts in creating the perfect "structure and workflow" to follow. I want to make sure, that our email, Slack message, voice note, important article, and everything I come across is automatically added to the list.

Now, I've gathered so much "work" to do, that the whole app feels like a dump yard. Yet again... this app doesn't "feel right" and I move to the "next big thing" in the market. By now, days have gone by, the 'Get Things Done' initiative has turned into 'Don't get things done', and I have fallen a victim to Placebo Productivity.

I recently realised that the most powerful productivity tools can't be bought with money. They are – clear mind, good sleep, fit body, and discipline. If these are in your toolbox, you wouldn't care if you write your tasks in Things 3 or a post-it note that you can't find the next day.

If I haven't slept well, I can't focus well. If I've a 'tech neck', I can't be at my best. If I'm not disciplined, I'll procrastinate. If I start my day with social media or similar distractions, I'll have unclear mind.

So, a lesson learnt – before jumping to the next-cool-productivity-tool, fine-tune your mind, fix your sleep schedule, be physically fit, and be disciplined.

Different personalities on a Zoom call

2023-03-24T00:00:00Z

The active spectator: I'm here to mark my presence. I'll speak at the beginning of the call to say hi and at the end of it to say bye.
The inactive spectator: I'll be here. I'll listen to everything but make sure I won't say a word because I believe you all can add better value than me.
The introvert spectator: I'm here. I see everything that's happening. I see few wrong things being done or said. But, I'm an introvert. By the time I pull up all the energy to speak up, everyone has said goodbye and I'm the only one left on a call.
The ambiverts: I'll mark my presence by speaking in between, I'll drop in some comments in the chat; sometimes irrelevant. You will know I was in the call.
The Chandler: I'll always try and find some joke in every situation and try to make everyone laugh. Sometimes it's just me who laughs but doesn't matter. I'll continue doing what I'm doing.
The UI Nazi: Hey, you've picked a wrong shade from the 50 shades of grey. It's #f3f3f3 and not #fef2f1. Also, why this doesn't look like Notion?
The data Nazi: Do you've a data to backup your hypothesis? How do you plan to measure the success of your designs?
The question bank (state): I'll go last.
The question bank (central): I'll go first and not let anyone ask anything.
The overlap-er: No, what I am saying is more important. I'll probably repeat what you were saying but it's better that I say it.
The queue-breaker: Hey, I know you raised your hand first but I'll go first.
The time-keeper: You probably don't care but TIME CHECK PLEASE?
Time time-keeper supporter: ... types "Time Check" in the chat
The one who won't come to the point: Hey, so what I was actually trying to ask you is something that I spoke with the PM yesterday where he mentioned I should talk to you but I wasn't sure who is the decision maker here. When you worked on this, did you talk to the PM that I spoke with about what I'm going to ask you right now........
The toggle-er: Unmutes.. Hey... no no you go ahead. I'll go later. Mutes. Unmutes.. Mutes... Unmutes... mutes... Unmutes.. hey thanks! I actually forgot what I was going to ask
The thinker: Yeah I hear you. Let me think.... [1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s....... 20s...... 30s] yeah I don't have any concrete answer right now. Let me get back to you.
The garage person: Hey, can we park it for now?
The omnipresent one: hey, sorry previous meeting rolled over. Tell me.. what did I miss? [Listens for 2 mins]. Yeah cool cool. I need to drop off for another meeting. I'll get back on this later. Remind me?
The offline person: Hey, can we take this offline?
The social media person: Oh hey, looks like Adobe came up with the generative AI stuff too. I gotta share it with everyone.
The one on the mute: ..... ...... ....... ...... ..... hey sorry I was on mute. Can you hear me now?
The internet-issue person: He... ryone.. let ....... shar... .... creen............
The one with fillers: hey mmm... I mmm actually I have kind of thought about mmm.. thought about it yesterday.. I have I guess some ideas may be I'll share you can give me your thoughts mmmm actually wait......
The appreciator: This is AMAZING!!!!! You're killing it team... go go go...
The internet-issue person: [Randomly appears. and become the overlap-er] Hey sorry I've net issues. Not sure how much you heard but I'll shar..... myscreenagainletmekn..... it...

Culture of appreciation

2023-02-15T00:00:00Z

When we talk to our colleagues over lunch or coffee, it's much more candid. We don't hold back our feelings whether we want to rant or appreciate.

A manager/report appreciating each other in a formal setup may sound like, "You did a great job. Thank you for your hard work and support". When the same people talk about each other with others over a coffee, they sound more passionate. Example, "Dude, that person is super hard working and talented. I'm so glad they are on my team" or "I've had the best time working with my manager. The way they helped me gain confidence when I wasn't able to perform is incredible."

When I noticed the difference, I started passing on the compliments by quoting them. The candidness and unexpectedness of the appreciation have made folks quite happy. I have a hypothesis that it will also improve the relationship between the two individuals. A few of the responses I heard are, "I've been having such a difficult week. I was in the endless loop of self-doubt. Reading this made my way. Thank you for sharing this!", "I didn't know that someone actually learnt this from me. I'll start speaking more about my ways of working to help others."

We presume what we hear (about someone) must have been communicated to them already. This is especially relevant for high performers and folks higher on the ladder. Creating a culture of candid and generous appreciation is the ultimate goal. But it takes a while to build that. Till then, pass on the compliment and make someone's day!

How to transition into DesignOps without a prior experience?

2023-02-01T00:00:00Z

Today, especially in India, there is no formal education or pathway to move into DesignOps. It's a niche field with limited opportunities and knowledge. The best way to transition is by practising at your current job. As you practice, document your learnings, and build your portfolio. (On the other side, if you are a project/design manager, you are already involved in the operations. It makes the transition much easier for you.

To get started, build a good relationship with designers. A continuous dialogue will deepen the conversation and your relationship. Set up regular 1:1s with a few designers to get to know each other well. Share career stories, challenges, tips and tricks to keep the conversation flowing. Once you find comfort with each other, be vulnerable and honest to build trust. Once you put your guard down, they will be less hesitant to share their feelings and challenges with you.

The more folks you talk to, the more you will notice the gaps and challenges each person faces at work. Then, your job is to identify the patterns and present your findings to design leadership. Throughout the process, please ensure you respect everyone's privacy and secrets. Once you break the trust, there is no going back.

At the end of this exercise, you will find your leverage, i.e. the data you've collected. Take this forward by facilitating brainstorming workshops and conversations with respective members. Develop experiments to solve the key problems. Scale your successful experiments into standard operating procedures (aka SOPs). There you go... You have found a problem and the solution you can add to your DesignOps portfolio.

No problem is too small or big. Documenting SOPs to use the tools is as important as defining the design ladder for your design team. Focus on low-hanging fruits, run the experiments, and keep the conversations going.

I was invited on the podcast Product Stories where I speak about this topic in detail. You can watch it on YouTube or any other platforms you prefer.

Career growth on their terms vs yours

2023-01-29T00:00:00Z

Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash

Equating career growth with promotions and financial appraisals can lead to unfulfilled experiences. You may often find yourself bored, stressed, or entirely lost in what's called a rat race. On this path, you will often find yourself in control of your organisation's definition of growth: hours to put in, responsibilities to take, outcomes/impact to have etc.

A better and more fulfilling way to grow is to have your own definition of growth and a list of accomplishments that fit (the definition). Think in terms of:

Skills: Learning ways to do research, improve my articulation etc.
Situations/experiences: leading a team without prior experience or improving broken relationships with client
Getting over your fear: Presenting the work in front of the entire internal team, Giving a talk at the conference in front of a large audience
Impact on the culture: Improving how well the team bonds together, Evangelising the best practices for [anything you mastered]
Promotion/Money: Getting an official promotion for the roles I already perform, Reaching 'x' salary within two years

Having your own short–term or long–term goals lets you stay in control of your growth. It will help you carve out a unique path to a successful and fulfilled career.

Originally posted on LinkedIn.

How to use Google Maps to find the right place at the right time?

2023-01-03T00:00:00Z

I moved to Bangalore sometime last year. A new city, new people, new places to visit over the weekend, and new go-to restaurants were waiting for me, and so was I...

For the first few months, I was glued to Google Maps every time I stepped out of my house. I couldn't wait for the day when I could roam on my own, knowing all the places from a tea/coffee stall to interesting alleys to shop for yourself. Coming from a small suburb in Bombay, I thought it would be easy to know everything in a few months, but I was wrong.

Bangalore is SO HUGE! I've been here for over a year and still visit new areas a few times a month. In this ever-growing list, it was pretty tricky to keep track of my 'Favourites' and 'Want to go's. To solve this problem, I started keeping a note on my phone, but as anticipated, it was cumbersome.

A few months back, one of my colleagues was telling me about all the solo trips he has had across the world. The details he shared about each trip were mind-blowing! I couldn't help but ask how on earth he plans and, more importantly, remembers all the places of his trips. What he showed me then has absolutely changed the way I roam around, yes, even in the city I stay in!

"Drop your pins on the map", he told me, for places I like. I've been using Google Maps for so many years, and yet, I've never used so many of its features! Marking your 'Home' and 'Work' or a few favourite places is one thing, but I never thought about dropping pins across the map!

I'll share a recent situation where the 'Pins' helped me out. I was planning to visit a shop in Jayanagar a few days back. I had my brunch at home and then left. It took me around 45-50 minutes to reach and another hour or so to finish my work. It was about 15:00 or 15:30, and I was hungry (more for coffee than food). I was curious if any of the places I wanted to visit were around me. So, I opened Google Maps and voila! Found one at 5 min from where I was!

This is just one example, and there are so many more! I was in the Decathlon on Whitefield Road and saw there was a Sandhoor Cafe right across the street. I went there and had one of the best filter coffee so far! I dropped my pin right there, and now I'll always know where to go for a coffee if I'm in that area again.

A lot of times, I thought that I would "remember" it, but I never did. There are so many places we come to know during a conversation at the office, or someone mentions it in a random meet-up, or you see it while you're travelling. Sometimes you hear about a hidden gem from a city or country that you plan to visit in the future. Keeping track of them and allowing them to surface at the right time in the right context is so helpful!

Here's how my maps look now with just a few pins:

If you're new to the city or an explorer at heart who collects places to visit, start dropping your pins and see if that helps.

Thanks to my friend – Sahil Khan, for putting together a list of top restaurants around the city. I now have them on my map to pick up whenever I'm around :)

Stuff I use.

2022-02-23T00:00:00Z

Last updated on December 12, 2023

Hardware

Office

MacBook Pro (14-inch, M1, 2021)
DELL U2720Q 4k monitor: 🤌
Apple Keyboard
Logitech MX Master 2 mouse: I had a personal one and it's worth every penny.

Personal

Logitech C922 Pro webcam: Much nicer than the default MacBook cam.
Blue Yeti microphone: Would I buy it again? May be not.
Green Soul Monster Ultimate chair
Scarters desk-spread
YubiKey 5 NFC security key: I use this as 2FA.
iPhone 11 13
EarPods with 3.5 jack: Yes! I moved on from AirPods and then AirPods 2 as both of them didn't last for more than 1.5 yrs. As a backup, I use Nothing (wireless).
Apple Watch (Series 5)
iPad 9th generation and Pencil: I don't own any personal lapotp and thought will see if iPad can fill that gap. Got this one at discount for 25k. I use it for reading, writing, entertainment especially while travelling.

Software

Work

~~Brave~~ Arc and Safari: I keep switching back and forth between these two for work and personal. However, for all OTP-purposes, Safari only.
Figma and ~~FigJam~~ Whimsical
Confluence
G-Suite
1Password
~~Mimestream~~ Apple Mail: Mimestream introduced paid-only tier and my work happens on Slack. So, wasn't worth paying for.
Cron and Google Calendar: LOVE Cron but it lacks certain features even today. So, keep switching between them.
Slack
Zoom
Grammarly

Personal

~~Logseq~~ Obsidian: Second brain! Everything happens in here.
~~Bear Notes App~~ Apple Notes: For quick notes, cannot rely on Obsidian. I've started using Apple Notes as a dumping ground and later develop thoughts in Obsidian.
1Password
Authy
NextDNS
Private Internet Access (VPN)
Things 3
~~Alfred~~ Raycast: Cannot believe this app is free! Absolutely love it.
~~Magnet~~: I switched to Raycast's built-in windows management especially because of easy window-size-rotating feature and 'Almost maximize' mode.
Hand Mirror
Reader: After trying out many tools out there, finally settled on Reader.
Pocket Cast
NetNewsWire RSS reader: It's still the best way to keep up with great writings on the internet! (Wrote a post about it)
VS Code
GitHub Desktop
Vercel
ChatGPT and Perplexity: For all things AI. Outlining my blog post and review it, brainstorming on personal or work projects, learning something completely new, and so on... I tend to these two before Googling anything.

The first thing I ever designed.

2022-02-14T00:00:00Z

“So, how did you get into design?”
“I was in my first year of engineering and we had a college fest...”
“Say no more...”

There is no count to the number of times we have heard this story. I don't mean in it a negative way. In fact, I would argue that the number of designers a college fest has given this world are far more than any design institution.

One day, while interviewing a candidate and listening to their college-fest-logo-design story, I realised I hadn't thought about the first thing I had ever designed. I dwelled over the memories of my first job and started making a list of things I had worked on — databases, diagrams, websites, logos, and so on. Historically, creating a list has always led me to better outcomes, and so it did this time too.

Anyway, the first thing I ever designed was an email signature, and the tools used were Microsoft Word and Gmail. No photoshop, no fancy designs; a simple email signature that helps a company appear more professional. Well, it may have disappointed some of you, but it is what it is!

This is a story from 2013 when I had joined my first company as a software developer. I was three or maybe four months into the new job, my colleagues had started looping me in the email communication, and I was also responsible for communicating project updates to clients over email. That's when I realised that we did not have any standard email signature. Most of us ended each email with "Regards, Full name".

I was an avid internet surfer and app tinkerer. Naturally, I had signed up for too many newsletters and trial versions of applications. Seeing all those emails may have informed me about the email experience that a receiver should get. Perhaps this subconscious learning made me uncomfortable about the lacking email signature as a business.

We had about 10-12 folks working across design, development and sales. I made a list of everyone's name and their designation, downloaded our company's logo from our website, listed 2-3 office numbers we had, and started designing our email signature. I remember creating a Microsoft Word doc that had everyone's signature and step-by-step instructions on adding it to their Gmail account. Now that I think of it, it was also the first-ever Playbook I had written!

It was perceived well by most of the folks in the office. Sure, a few of them didn't care what the email signature looked like, but our sales team and my boss surely understood its importance. My boss appreciated my proactiveness. I remember feeling powerful on that day, perhaps the first time in all those years, because I knew I could own and fix problems.

Retrospectively, this tiny initiative was my step towards becoming an experience designer and a thoughtful communicator. My immediate next project was creating a format or a template for all the external communication. Perhaps, I'll write about it in a separate blog post.

If I want to take away a thing or two from this, and my younger self, it's this:

There will always be problems on the table that "don't matter" in the glamour of bigger goals. If you have time, pick them up and solve them anyway.
Don't hesitate to bring the change, even if you're just a fresher or an intern in the company.
Take pride even in your smallest achievement. Don't hesitate to brag about it.

Thank you for reading my article. Do you have an interesting first project that you're proud of? I would love to know about it! DM me your story over Twitter or Telegram.

A thing or two | Writing by Sanket Pathak

Prepare to be model agnostic

Be easy to work with

Liquid luck

With agency comes power

Take praises seriously

Isolation is a mindset

Clarity is a currency for effective async work

We gravitate towards simplicity

Becoming a person who enjoys reading books

Related readings

Fruitful 1:1s with your manager

What’s a prerequisite for having a fruitful 1:1 with your manager?

What’s the secret ingredient for great 1:1s?

What are some of the questions I ask during my 1:1s?

Thank you for reading till here. Here’s one more tip for you…

New year theme over new year resolutions

RSS feed

Keep your devices boring

References

Type to Siri

The productivity tools money can't buy

Different personalities on a Zoom call

Culture of appreciation

How to transition into DesignOps without a prior experience?

Career growth on their terms vs yours

How to use Google Maps to find the right place at the right time?

Stuff I use.

Hardware

Office

Personal

Software

Work

Personal

The first thing I ever designed.