iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Previnder @previnder.com · 28/08/2026

Rookie mistake. I once damaged a motherboard trying to clean it.

Previnder @previnder.com · 01/07/2026

Contrary to received wisdom these days, it’s not impossible to succeed at building great products at scale even if you get into it well past the trend.

Previnder @previnder.com · 01/07/2026

Apple did not invent the personal computer. There were operating systems before Windows. There were search engines before Google. There were social networks before Facebook. And there were car companies before Toyota.

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Previnder @previnder.com · 28/06/2026

One persistent problem with designers is that they all work with 5k displays with high pixel density and perfect color calibration and they forget that the majority of people use worse displays everyday (sometimes far worse). A significant portion of the accessibility issues comes from this alone.

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One that requires npm is the worst option of them all.

But I'm with you that the "us-vs-them" mentality is built deeply into the human brain, and it won't be gotten rid of so easily.

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If not going away, watering down is absolutely necessary. The good thing is that this has been happening in many parts of the world in the last 50 years or so. People are less nationalistic, less religious, and more welcoming of people who don't look like them than they used to.

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Previnder @previnder.com · 24/06/2026

Discrimination can go away to a point without country/race/religion going away, but only to a point. The more that people take those constructs seriously, the more trouble there will be.

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Either humanity would become one—and all the distinctions of country, race, and religion would fade away—or one day we'd go extinct by our own doing. This multi-polar nuclear standoff cannot continue indefinitely into the future.

Previnder @previnder.com · 24/06/2026

Unironically kind of true. We're memetic machines designed to copy what others do. But I suppose there's a big difference between copying others 100% of the time, and only copying others 90% of the time or something.

Previnder @previnder.com · 23/06/2026

Nietzsche hits the mark once again.

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Previnder @previnder.com · 23/06/2026

To be truly authentic and always true to oneself is the most radical way to live. Incidentally, it’s one of the things that people near death apparently regret the most: not having lived their life on their own terms.

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You can also disable history on search, YT, locations, etc, now, and that's good.

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I'm afraid we'll have to wait until the bubble bursts. Until then, they won't leave.

Personally, if they work well, I'm okay with it. Google already knows a lot about me, and it's kind of futile and too much work to fight it anymore.

000

MIT is awesome. They have a ton of stuff on their YT channel as well.

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That's the hard part lol

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But of course it doesn't work in practice. Because the "algorithms" are built to increase watch time, serve ads, and make the most amount of money, not to increase the satisfaction and the well-being of the users.

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I mean, in theory, it could work, and work very well. The suggestions could be based, as they are, on past watch, search, interaction history, and could provide excellent suggestions.

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analytics.opensyllabus.org

analytics.opensyllabus.org/record/works

Recently came across this site that you can use to find out which textbooks are the most used in universities around the world. It lets you sort by field, country, institution, etc. Extremely useful for finding good textbooks to read, especially if you’ve only just started studying a subject.

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Previnder @previnder.com · 19/06/2026

I pretty much never look at my for you feeds on any platform except Youtube (even that, not very often). Those tend to be terrible.

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There are some who need to hear that, by being too considerate of the feelings of others, they might be in danger of unconsciously assuming that their own feelings are not legitimate.

Previnder @previnder.com · 18/06/2026

Alexander von Humboldt in his library in his Berlin apartment in 1856, three years before his death at age 89. Not a bad way to spend ones final years, or indeed any years, if you ask me.

Previnder @previnder.com · 17/06/2026

Unpopular opinion: Probably a waste of time. MySQL is pretty good, too.

Previnder @previnder.com · 15/06/2026

Decisions are what we make when we don't know what to do.

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Previnder @previnder.com · 14/06/2026

TIL that there’s such a thing as Yen Buddhism in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld universe. Honestly, the majority of the Buddhist monks here in Sri Lanka would feel right at home in it.

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Previnder @previnder.com · 14/06/2026

How? Let me know as well.

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Previnder @previnder.com · 14/06/2026

I've seen and have eaten avocados once or twice in my life, but I don't like them very much, which baffles some people, I must say. Avocado smoothies are not half bad, though.

Previnder @previnder.com · 22/04/2026

Reddit user making the case that it’s easier to lobby politicians than most people imagine, and that it’s an underrated method of effecting political change.

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Previnder @previnder.com · 22/04/2026

If Apple does it, and does it right, it's kind of scary how humongous the company could be.

Previnder @previnder.com · 22/04/2026

A 200-300 page paperback feels nice in the hands. But if you're reading a 900 page hardback behemoth sometimes you wish it were a Kindle.

Previnder @previnder.com · 21/04/2026

If you’re not sure what to do right now, set a timer for two minutes, enumerate all the options at your disposable, and pick one of them to do. Among these options, include also the option to extend the amount of time to think about what to do next. Repeat until you know what to do.

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Previnder @previnder.com · 20/04/2026

Never let a moralist, of whatever flavor, be in charge of a creative enterprise. Art has but one purpose: to produce beautiful things. Everything else must be subservient to this ultimate end.

Previnder @previnder.com · 20/04/2026

Refactoring is like the second most fun thing in programming for me.

Previnder @previnder.com · 18/04/2026

You won’t have to explicitly lie in order to do this, but you won’t present the truth as objectively as you can, because that won’t convince many people.

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Previnder @previnder.com · 18/04/2026

If you wish to rally people to your cause, to win arguments, to mobilize masses for strategic ends, I’m afraid you’ll have to simplify things, speak half-truths and quarter-truths, present one side while denying others, exaggerate some things and downplay others.

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Previnder @previnder.com · 18/04/2026

Unfortunately, the truest and the most logical arguments are rarely the most persuasive. Rhetoric and reason are therefore always in tension.

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Previnder @previnder.com · 16/03/2026

Amazing what a single dedicated developer can accomplish.

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Previnder @previnder.com · 13/03/2026

Things are gonna get heated real soon.