My notes and stuff - Learning

Helping with IT

2026-03-08T00:00:00+00:00

My kids are in elementary school, and even though my oldest has been there for a while, I only really started getting involved with the PTA at the start of this school year. I’m not sure why I waited for a couple of years, but I think I just wanted to be more helpful in the place where my kids spend so much of their day.

I’ve done the usual volunteering before (class parties and school events) but I wanted to try contributing on a slightly higher level. I started attending more meetings and trying to be more attentive to how things actually run. And now, I have become the point person for a lot of IT-related matters for the PTA.

It’s been a great experience so far. As a software engineer, I’m used to the way big companies work, but a small non-profit is a completely different world with its own set of needs. I’m learning a lot and honestly enjoying it quite a bit. My plan is to share what I’m doing here as I try to improve things for our PTA. Hopefully, someone else finds it useful, and it’ll be a nice record for me to look back on when my kids eventually head to middle school.

AI for Switching to a New Codebase

2025-12-21T00:00:00+00:00

I recently moved to a new team at Zendesk, which meant switching to a new programming language and framework I haven't used in years.

Besides reading various related documents and trying to familiarize myself with new things, I think I have come up with the most useful AI prompt I have used so far. It goes something like this:

"I've been using [Language A + Framework 1] for the last 3 years and have not used [Language B] since version X. Tell me everything I need to know switching to this codebase, which is using the latest version of [Language B] and [Framework 2] as a framework." </blockquote>
And this was awesome. It helped me map my existing knowledge to the new environment, highlighting new language features and framework conventions I had missed. I asked a lot of clarifications and follow-up questions, and at this point, I feel like I am very familiar with the code and features of the framework. This is probably the most time-saving prompt I have used to date.

The Power of Hands-on Learning

2025-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

This week, I wanted to highlight briefly how important it is to be hands-on with any learning. Theory is great, and I would have learned a lot just by reading Kubernetes docs and examples. But I would never solidify that knowledge if I hadn't built my own K8s cluster.
When you are actually applying what you have learned, there is some different feedback loop in the brain that makes it stick better. I'm sure other people can explain it better. All I want to say is if you want to learn something new, just reading about it is not enough. You need to practice it. I know that's nothing new, it's a well-known fact. I'm just comprehending and appreciating it much more after doing it myself.
I find it a bit relevant with AI. I always ask it to explain to me what and why it is doing certain things so I understand. But when I actually do something similar myself, my understanding is much deeper. And that's just much more satisfying.

The Joy of Scope Creep in a Homelab

2025-10-26T00:00:00+00:00

Last week was a classic case of scope creep (for a personal project): I started one task and it instantly spawned five more. On one hand, it's a good learning process; on the other, it feels less productive because my To-Do list got bigger, not smaller.
All I wanted was to set up some security scanner for my homelab K8s cluster. After researching different tools, I spun one up and got a summary report, which was great. Time to start fixing vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, right?
Well, I thought I needed to set up alerting first so I know the number does not go up. But for that, I need to set up secret management so alerts can be sent via email. And each part requires quite a bit of reading, research, and evaluation of which solution will work best for my case.
And so, by the end of the week, my To-Do list for the homelab is twice as big as it was when the week started. And I love it. I am learning so much with this project.

Useful Productivity Courses for Obsidian and Note-taking

2025-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

I wanted to let people know about two really useful Udemy courses I finished last week. They have nothing to do with software engineering or any specific domain, honestly, and I would highly recommend them to anyone who finds this at least remotely interesting.
One caveat: I purchased these on sale for $10 each, but I think they are absolutely worth the full price. Or you can wait for the next Udemy sale.

The Zettelkasten Method in Obsidian</a> — This course teaches you to take better notes, not just write down information, but gather knowledge.</li>
Mastering Goal Setting with Obsidian</a> — This is a very powerful system to set, track, and achieve your goals. It takes some work to get started, but it's designed to become a habit.</li> </ul>
You don't have to use Obsidian. I don't; I use Logseq for my notes. You can use whatever is convenient for you. Even pen and paper would work fine.