rrajath's recent activity

  1. Comment on United States: What personal (non-business) tax software/program do you use? in ~finance

    rrajath
    Link
    I've used CreditKarma for several years. They recently got acquired by Cash app. Pretty happy with it.

    I've used CreditKarma for several years. They recently got acquired by Cash app. Pretty happy with it.

    2 votes
  2. Comment on I hate 2FA in ~tech

    rrajath
    Link Parent
    Regarding SMS-only 2FA, it's absolutely mind boggling to find that sites like Fidelity still use SMS based 2FA. And I've seen a handful of bank websites (that I cannot recall at the moment) that...

    Regarding SMS-only 2FA, it's absolutely mind boggling to find that sites like Fidelity still use SMS based 2FA. And I've seen a handful of bank websites (that I cannot recall at the moment) that restrict password length to 20 characters. Like, wtf?!

    10 votes
  3. Comment on Proton CEO tweets support for Donald Trump's Department of Justice pick and the US Republican Party in ~society

    rrajath
    Link
    Alright, I'm going to get a lot of hate (or disagreement) for this, but please do play devil's advocate and hear me out. I keep seeing posts like these either on Tildes/Reddit/Hackernews/personal...

    Alright, I'm going to get a lot of hate (or disagreement) for this, but please do play devil's advocate and hear me out.

    I keep seeing posts like these either on Tildes/Reddit/Hackernews/personal blogs. One post from a CEO or a prominent person makes people go into a frenzy and they immediately want to switch services. It's like, Proton CEO tweeted something (whether a month ago or a decade ago) and people want to switch to something else. Kagi chooses to use Yandex and people are furious and watch to switch. Buy Tesla few years ago when Elon was sane, but once he starts saying shit, sell Tesla? Stuff like that. It's interesting to see this pattern show up again and again.

    I'm all for voting with your dollar/click/subscription/etc. And I'm all for taking a stand and not funding something nefarious. But where's the line? Just because I don't agree with one person's view on one thing, does that mean I should stop using all their services? I know it's up to the individual to consider what subscription is worth stopping and what is worth continuing, and how much something means to them. Also, if I dig up anybody's past tweets or conversations, isn't it likely for me to find something you disagree with? Isn't this particular outrage just because it happened to show up on my feed? Is that enough grounds for not using their product?

    Why not just use a product just because it's good? Because this argument seems to somehow work well for iPhones. Everybody knows how Apple uses (or at least used to for a very long time) cheap labor with horrible working conditions to manufacture iPhones. But that's somehow okay for everyone. I mean, when was the last time we did a thorough reasearch on whether the CEO of the company that makes the toothpaste we use didn't tweet anything weird?

    Having said all this, I get it. I was this person. I was the same way when WhatsApp introduced a change in their Terms of Service a few years ago and I uninstalled WhatsApp. I tried convincing my friends to switch to Signal and not all of them did (because nobody they knew was on WhatsApp). I ended up losing contact with them and a couple of years later I reinstalled WhatsApp so I could talk to them again. I took a stand against WhatsApp for a couple of years. Was it worth it? No. To me it created more friction than I expected. I also switched from Gmail to Protonmail because I didn't want Google mining my emails for data.

    The switching cost for replacing services like these are very high. I mean, what are my next steps supposed to look like? Happen to see a tweet, get triggered, spend the next few days/weeks thoroughly researching an alternate secure email provider, then spend the next several weeks moving all my accounts to a different email? Update my password manager along the way as well? And then what? Repeat this whole thing all over again when that email provider's CEO tweets something I don't agree with?

    Sigh!

    I don't have an answer. I cannot have an answer. It depends on the individual. Having been that kind of person, I just feel it's not worth it. I learned over the years to let go of most things. Life's too short for high switching costs. I just want to get through the day doing things I enjoy. Just because I happen to see a tweet from someone, if that turns my next few weeks into a frenzy, then it's not worth it.

    I'm sure I may have gotten some of the data or even the worldview wrong. I feel, just like how people have knee-jerk reactions to this kind of news, I'm having a meta knee-jerk reaction to these kinds of posts.

    PS: Please do not feel personally attacked by my views. Everybody has opinions, I respect yours and this one's mine.

    15 votes
  4. Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books

    rrajath
    Link
    I just finished reading A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains and absolutely loved it. Highly recommend for anyone that is curious how...

    I just finished reading A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains and absolutely loved it. Highly recommend for anyone that is curious how brains evolved.

    I'm looking for something light for my next read and I'll have to dig through my ever-growing kindle library

    1 vote
  5. Comment on Omnivore alternatives? in ~tech

    rrajath
    Link
    I use Omnivore more as a place where I read my newsletter subscriptions than as a place where I save articles. I like the fact that I can subscribe to newsletters by giving them my Omnivore email...

    I use Omnivore more as a place where I read my newsletter subscriptions than as a place where I save articles. I like the fact that I can subscribe to newsletters by giving them my Omnivore email address, that way my personal email does not get leaked. And also the fact that all newsletters are in one place and outside my email inbox is a huge relief when it comes to taming my email.

    From what I've seen, I'm not sure I see any of the services listed on this thread offers that. If there is one, I'd love to know.

    2 votes
  6. Comment on Elevator pitch your favourite book! in ~books

    rrajath
    Link Parent
    Interesting. What's the name of the book?

    Interesting. What's the name of the book?

  7. Comment on Does anyone else have posting anxiety? in ~tech

    rrajath
    Link
    I read through some of the top-level comments and it was u/MechanicalMagpie's comment that I resonated with the most. I've struggled with posting anxiety and in general expressing myself for years...

    I read through some of the top-level comments and it was u/MechanicalMagpie's comment that I resonated with the most. I've struggled with posting anxiety and in general expressing myself for years (maybe decades?) And the main reason for me was the fear of being wrong or being pointed out that I'm wrong. If I talk about something, I expect myself to have enough knowledge about it to make well-formed arguments. If I don't make good arguments, that means I don't understand it well enough. In my mind I viewed that as equivalent to bullshitting. And I hated that.

    As u/MechanicalMagpie wrote:

    i feel like other people will say anything I could say, but better, so my input isn't wanted or needed. I'm actively debating posting this, because I feel like someone else will come along and say all of this but more coherently, or more humorously, (humerus-ly.....) or whatever.

    I always felt this way which made me stop myself from expressing. My first instinct would be to express my opinion, but then I'd supress it, thinking "why bother".

    Recently, I had a perspective shift about this, and I had the following realizations:

    1. Nothing matters, nobody cares. People have low attention span to begin with. Most posts don't go viral anyway. Especially when posting in small forums and niche communities. Everybody's caught up in their own lives and won't really care that much about something specific that someone says online. (sure, there are trolls, but whatever)
    2. I find it useful to articulate my thoughts for my own sake. Sure, somebody else can come and say it better. But the exercise of articulating it makes things clearer in my own head and also makes me improve the way I put things across. Over time I get better at it.

    I find #2 is what gives me the most value. I find growth in that. Just the act of sharing helps me think better because I know there will be the eyes of several strangers on that piece of content. I used to think I can just write my thoughts down and not really have to publish it, what difference does it make. That changed. For me, it's like running 10km on my own vs doing a 10K. The distance is the same, but the experience is different.

    After all these realizations, I still rarely post anything. I only do when something resonates with me very deeply (like this post). But I'm not as hesitant or as anxious as I used to be.

    Can people find things wrong with this particular post? Sure. Could someone write these same things a 100x better? Of course. But can they feel what I feel? No.

    I also realized it's the fear that stops us from doing anything. I know I'm stating the obvious and 'posting anxiety' is literally in the title of this post. But catching ourselves the moment we hesitate and pushing ourselves a little bit will open us up to great results, if not great experiences.

    I'm pretty sure this particular post and all the replies you received made you feel really good about posting it. You broke through your posting anxiety and posted about posting anxiety.
    (So meta!)

    I now approach posting and expressing with curiosity and am open to being corrected and learn from it. The more caught up I am about how I'm perceived, the more hesitant I get about expressing, and the less I grow. Not caring about any of that makes me feel free.

    6 votes
  8. Comment on Is there any online store where can I buy cheap STEM books in bundles ? in ~books

    rrajath
    Link
    Not sure if this helps, but I think it’s worth checking BookFinder to see if there are new/used books that fit your budget.

    Not sure if this helps, but I think it’s worth checking BookFinder to see if there are new/used books that fit your budget.

    3 votes
  9. Comment on What is something that had far more variety than you expected once you looked into it? in ~talk

    rrajath
    Link Parent
    https://youtu.be/SkNGxM4LRKQ - this is a great intro into different types of keyboards https://youtube.com/@SwitchandClickOfficial - this channel is really good and there are tons of videos that...
    4 votes
  10. Comment on What is something that had far more variety than you expected once you looked into it? in ~talk

    rrajath
    Link Parent
    Same. I never gave much thought about mechanical keyboards except for the fact that the ones my colleagues were using made a lot of noise. And I used to think it’s mainly for different types of...

    Same. I never gave much thought about mechanical keyboards except for the fact that the ones my colleagues were using made a lot of noise. And I used to think it’s mainly for different types of clicky sounds. It’s when I started checking out split ergo mech keyboards that I fell down a rabbit hole and saw so many different variants. I started building my own keyboards. My daily driver cost me $51 and I love that keyboard.

    Besides just key switches, I found out about tenting, number of keys (I use one with just 34 keys), layers, home row mods, hyper and meh keys, combo keys, different keyboard layouts (I even switched from QWERTY to Colemak), microcontrollers, different websites that offer parts of the keyboard, PCB design, 3D printed cases, different types of key caps, and a whole lot more.

    I was evangelizing it so much at my workplace that I got 3 of my teammates interested in building their own keyboards 🙂

    2 votes
  11. Comment on What's a life lesson you've learned in the past year? in ~talk

    rrajath
    Link Parent
    I've always followed the "say it once" rule. If I have to give somebody some advice, I'd say it once and they can either take it or leave it. I don't expect them to follow it. And, I never say "I...

    I've always followed the "say it once" rule. If I have to give somebody some advice, I'd say it once and they can either take it or leave it. I don't expect them to follow it. And, I never say "I told you so" if things go sideways after ignoring my advice.

  12. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~comp

    rrajath
    Link
    @lionirdeadman and @joplin captured my sentiments about this perfectly! I need the basics - E2E encryption, having native and desktop clients, message history and all that jazz. Self-hosting and...

    @lionirdeadman and @joplin captured my sentiments about this perfectly! I need the basics - E2E encryption, having native and desktop clients, message history and all that jazz. Self-hosting and federation are a nice to have.

    The biggest pain point for me is finding people on the platform I switch to. I've deleted my Facebook and Instagram profiles because I don't agree with their business model and those are not the products that add value to my life. I'm happier without them. However, I'm unable to get off of WhatsApp for the main reason that I can't convince all my friends and family to switch to a different app. I installed Signal because I appreciate what they stand for and I support it. But having none of my friends on that platform makes it harder to use it. I made it my default SMS app, but that's about it.

    I've heard arguments for this as spreading the word and making people aware of it. But realistically, how much can you persuade someone to switch to a different platform just for one person? Some of my friends already hate me for not being on Facebook (which I don't have a problem with, by the way). But the effort involved in convincing each person to move to a different app/platform is huge.

    7 votes
  13. Comment on Setting aside the musical content (if you can), what are the best music videos you know? in ~music

    rrajath
    Link Parent
    Noice! Thank you :) I'll check it out

    Noice! Thank you :)
    I'll check it out

  14. Comment on Setting aside the musical content (if you can), what are the best music videos you know? in ~music