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Chris Dhanaraj

@chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social
931 followers 709 following 66 posts

PM @ Netflix (UI Platform & Design Systems), ostensibly figuring out a better way to build UI applications. Former UI Engineer, used to co-host a podcast called Toolsday.

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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Oh I just took it for - pre-death of JavaScript Twitter, people used to complain that they had to keep track of Twitter to stay up-to-date on industry news / web shenanigans. Now, it's really hard to keep track of where anything is (fractured through ten thousand Discord servers I guess)
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Leveraging it for editing and tone suggestions? Fantastic. Creating prototypes or visual assets to better communicate your ideas? Even better. But the core part of your work (e.g., the idea itself and the rationale of why it's important) you should be drafting yourself.
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
This isn't to say don't use AI in your jobs - for sure you should. But also, you know, be aware that leveraging AI to *do* your job is actively making you worse at your job (see: that one MIT article about writing / reading comprehension).
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
(Also hello again BlueSky, maybe I'll start being a PM thought leader or some garbage like that)
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Because lets be real, your team knows you wrote that PRD with AI, and every word in there that doesn't communicate what you *actually* meant is another piece of proof that you (the PM) don't know what you're doing and should be ignored
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Conceptually this is true for the written word as well but it's *so obvious* when you write with AI, at least for now. One of the primary currencies you have as a PM is trust with your team, and it's fascinating to just watch folks trade it away for some short-term time savings.
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
My less than hot take is that there's a pretty significant difference between engineers using AI to write code and PM's using AI to write PRDs. A user of an application at the end of the day has no idea of the code behind an app, just the quality of the application.
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Attempted to buy a Fujifilm XT-5 from Amazon, got sent a literal box with a rock inside of it instead and now am having to repeatedly explain to Amazon that… I cannot return the time because all I have is a box with a rock.
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
Found this post a few years later and wanted to say - Seafall remains one of my favorite games of all time. It was the first time I had friends come together and just get completely immersed into something. No regrets here! I’m playing it 8 years later and I’m curious about all the feels
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
I love Arc, but… man that battery drain is untenable :( all I really want from browsers is the URL copy shortcut and the left-hand sidebar
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
But also seriously, live tennis is such a different experience. It was amazing to hear the crowd all get entirely enamored with Watanuki's playstyle together
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
If Watanuki has a million fans, I am one of them. If Watanuki has ten fans, I am one of them. If Watanuki has only one fan, that one is me. If Watanuki has no fans, I am no longer on this earth. #indianwells
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
This has been the most exhausting last three weeks of work in a while - my brain is tired and my body is ready for a week of naps. I did write a lot of great design system memos though, so there's that
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
If ESPN could stop airing Wolf Man trailers during the Australian Open, that would be great thanks
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Someone tell me why ATL is consistently the worst airport
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
It's delightful, but now I have so many more questions!
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
Okay but now what do I do until Stormlight book six??? (just finished five)
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
They've figured it out
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
I don’t hate this, except the roboto-mono. Swapped it to San Francisco and this is lovely
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Reposted by Chris Dhanaraj
Cthulhu Answers @cthulhu.network · 05/12/2024
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Re: burnout - I know you've all heard this before, but oh wow is it important to implement *some* kind of physical practice into your life. Near daily tennis has done wonders on keeping me mentally grounded when work is stressful
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
My burnout is immeasurable and I am ready to go turn off my brain for a few weeks. Two weeeeks left
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Oh no
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Obligatorily Thanksgiving plate, powered by Serious Eats. Also mashed potatoes prep is made SO easy with the Anyday dishes, highly recommend
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
I know when I play poorly against pushers in tennis the problem is actually me, but god DAMN is it infuriating
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
This is already happening at some levels - I've gotten asked by eng leadership multiple times in the last two months around where AI fits into our roadmaps. And this is at the developer productivity angle, versus product where they're even further ahead on this
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
#subscribe
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Spent a solid two to three hours trying to ChatGPT / Reddit a Notion formula question before just reading the docs and figuring it out in fifteen minutes. A big ole whoops from me (the AIs haven't come for me yet!)
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
We’re not actually going to have enough people to hit real scaling limits, and it’s a good reminder you don’t always need the most advanced tech to get something done for a problem
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
We’re leveraging Notion as a CRM + Database for this tennis community app I’m building and… its honestly been delightful. One of the requirements was that manual entry had to be easy to do for a non-technical person, and working with Notion API has been pretty straight-forward.
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
I’ll say I’m a little surprised there aren’t more tutorials out there around modeling User data with Prisma / Supabase + Clerk / Auth0 / something out there. It *feels* like this is just a hard requirement for most applications, and nobody wants to stick all their data into Clerk, right?
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Also my cats are trying to figure out how to share this
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
More lukewarm takes from me - your internal design systems (probably) should be building on top of React Aria or something similar. You probably aren’t resourced where you can cover the same level of expertise, and it’s a better use of your time to invest in business-specific component compositions
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
I know everybody is saying this, but *wow* what a world of difference my BlueSky feed is versus Twitter. Mindblowing how bad it is over there
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Every six years or so I realize I need to get an even bigger desk, haven’t regretted it once
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
This is what I got (kickstarted it when it was $100). It's super stable and, well, my cat is actually using it desknest.com
desknest.com
Desk Nest™ Cat Bed | Purrfect For Your Desk
The Desk Nest™ Cat Bed is the first desk-attachable bed that keeps your furry friend close, content, and your desk paw-free. It’s easy to attach, adjustable, and a purrfect fit for any workspace. Bid ...
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Hot DAMN my cat is actually using one of the weird things I bought her
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Reposted by Chris Dhanaraj
Wes @notwes.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
This was *very* fun to be a part of. Our group call doing the platform operations was one of the most chaotic but impressive things I have seen while working at Netflix.
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Going to my first hackathon in like a decade, just like the youths.
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Don't ever want to hear someone say that Node simply can't handle the RPS internally again
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Reposted by Chris Dhanaraj
jordan @jdan.me · 16/11/2024
Do they have chairs and tables in this or is that a different thing
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Watching the live ops channel tonight has been amazing, so much respect for the team #netflix
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
I’m sketching out an app for this tennis community I joined (#justSFthings), and I’m continually wow’d by how easy it is to just ship things these days. I can go from nothing —> full-stack application + db + auth in less than hour, just wild.
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
ahhhhh amazing, a big thank you to the Discord community
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Bufo emojies are suddenly all the rage in our Slack channels and never have I ever felt so out of the loop. I love them, but what’s the context??? Where did they came from, what’s going on help
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
I've done a 14lb turkey in mine! So not _huge_ but reasonable
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
This is why the people follow me right? I have many many opinions on kitchen appliances
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
My not-so-hot take is that air fryers are great, but assuming limited counter space, not worth it. Get a counter-top convection toaster oven instead - no nuggets in five minutes, but you can get them in fifteen AND also cook a turkey in it
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Reposted by Chris Dhanaraj
Norin 🦈 🔜 Designercon @mahoukarp.com · 11/11/2024
Oh to be a shark
Comic of shork living life 

1.) Am shark! (this is Mako Shark)
2.) No bills! (tosses papers in air)
3.) No work! (playing games and eats all day)
4.) Only chomp chomp (eats pizza)
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Chris Dhanaraj @chrisdhanaraj.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
Not going to lie, opened a code editor for kinda the first time in a year this weekend and wow was that relaxing
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