https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/ Blog posts en-us https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20261009-pitcher/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20261009-pitcher/ Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 No, this is not an elevator pitch for anything, quite the opposite. I just made an app, and it's called Pitcher! And by that, I don't mean I really wrote any code, it's all written by deepseek and... https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20261007-reverse-interview-questions/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20261007-reverse-interview-questions/ Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 A while ago I wrote about my values at work, and that if I had a choice, what would I choose. It is not often that I have that choice, but it is good to aim idealistic and expect realistic. So, in... https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20261007-bbq-sause/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20261007-bbq-sause/ Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 When I moved to the US, I tried BBQ sauce and decided I didn't like it. Too sweet. Later I learned there are two families: sugar-based and vinegar-based. The vinegar kind, I loved. https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20261002-jahan-e-omid/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20261002-jahan-e-omid/ Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 با صدای احسان طبری (شاعر) https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260915-lossy-encoding/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260915-lossy-encoding/ Tue, 15 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 When gpt3 came out, I half-jokingly wrote: https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260820-valuing-consistency/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260820-valuing-consistency/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 I'm often interested in understanding why people believe the things they believe and why they behave the way they behave. Usually the former is a reason for the latter. Pondering these, I've realized... https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260806-what-is-mathematics/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260806-what-is-mathematics/ Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Last night Ehssan sent me a post from a math professor that has been making the rounds. The professor loves research and hates grading. Who doesn't? But lately, he wrote, his research has started to... https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260804-solopreneurship-for-beginners/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260804-solopreneurship-for-beginners/ Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 I sat through a talk by Clair Sullivan about making a tech career layoff-proof by going solopreneur. I am still deciding how much of it I actually believe. This is my notes from that talk. https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260727-what-i-want-to-become-when-i-grow-up/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260727-what-i-want-to-become-when-i-grow-up/ Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Every once in a while I have to revisit this question and this time I took a bit longer to answer it, trying to inform it based on multiple blog posts by Chip Huyen and Eugene Yan. As Maleknaz says I... https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260716-empathy-vs-sympathy-vs-compassion-feature-matrix/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260716-empathy-vs-sympathy-vs-compassion-feature-matrix/ Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 ✓ = present / defining = partial / possible = absent / not required https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260708-the-i16n/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260708-the-i16n/ Wed, 08 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 It has become very common for companies, entities, institutes and so on to signal that they care about other cultures and languages. For most of them it simply means more customers, more business,... https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260508-marginalia/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260508-marginalia/ Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 I keep finishing books and forgetting the things they teach. I've had the same issue with math and had looooooooooong discussions with Ehssan about what does it even mean to "learn"/"know" something?... https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260412-and-no-one-knows-im-gone/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260412-and-no-one-knows-im-gone/ Sun, 12 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Hamid said something that stuck with me: how come nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody, has my point of view? Why does no one say the things that are in my head, while when I'm talking to you guys... https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260408-the-elevator/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260408-the-elevator/ Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 There are a few people in my life (mostly in the role of an advisor/mentor) that have given me a feeling that I haven't experienced anywhere else. These are people who are well accomplished and well... https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260329-don't-read-news/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260329-don't-read-news/ Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 I don't normally read the news. But with the current situation in Iran I've been reading a lot more. Something like 7-8 hours on some days. Reading that much bad news with that high of an impact... https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260329-bale-trap/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260329-bale-trap/ Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Iran has had no internet for four weeks. Not slow, not restricted. Gone. The only app that works is Bale, made by the Iranian government. Everyone knows what it is. Everyone knows what it's for.... https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260326-manufacturing-taste/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260326-manufacturing-taste/ Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 I asked Hadi, half-jokingly, whether Bach was the Justin Bieber of his time. Are we just listening to the most "popular" artists of the 1700s and calling it high culture? And the flip side: will... https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260223-is-bpa-bad-fa/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260223-is-bpa-bad-fa/ Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000 بی‌پی‌آ (بیسفنول آ) و بی‌پی‌اس (بیسفنول اس) موادی شیمیایی هستند که در پلاستیک‌ها، پوشش قوطی‌ها، و کاغذهای حرارتی رسید استفاده می‌شوند. این مواد اختلال‌گر هورمونی هستند که می‌توانند استروژن را تقلید... https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260223-is-bpa-bad/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260223-is-bpa-bad/ Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000 BPA (Bisphenol A) and BPS (Bisphenol S) are chemicals in plastics, can linings, and thermal receipt paper. They are endocrine disruptors: they can mimic estrogen and interfere with the body's... https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260201-lets-talk-privacy/ https://k1monfared.github.io/notes/blog/20260201-lets-talk-privacy/ Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000 When a company talks about "end-to-end encryption" (E2EE) they could mean several things in practical terms. The fact that data is encrypted "on sender's device" and then decrypted "on receiver's...