Personal

For the past few months, I’ve been trying to get my photography side hustle off the ground. My initial assumption was simple: people are always looking for photographers, so if I start with very affordable rates, clients will follow. I did all the necessary setup and busywork early on: insurance, a new camera, PPA membership, and the other basics that make things feel official. What I didn’t expect was how difficult it would be to land paid clients. I’ve done a few TFP shoots, which were useful for practice and portfolio building, but so far I haven’t earned a single dollar from photography. ...

As I build my photography side hustle while working full-time as a software engineer, I keep returning to one idea: minimalism. Both fields pull me in different directions. Programming has taught me to strip things down to their essentials. Photography constantly tempts me with more gear, more tools, more stuff. Balancing the two has made me think deeply about what minimalism really means in creative work. The Simplicity of Code In programming, I live in a world of virtual tools. A laptop, an editor, a few accounts, and I can build almost anything. Over the years, these tools have faded into the background. GitHub, IDEs, frameworks, and cloud platforms all exist, but they feel weightless. They live on the screen, not in my bag. ...

We’ve all heard the classic question: “What would you do if you won a million dollars?” It’s a fun daydream, but let’s be honest, most of us know that’s a pretty unlikely scenario, so we don’t really think deeply and give very surface level answers. Instead, let’s talk about something that’s actually going to happen to most of us: retirement. Thinking about retirement is a lot more grounded than fantasizing about sudden riches. Pretty much everyone retires at some point, and many of us are saving (or at least planning) for that phase of life. Even if it’s not something you’ve thought about in detail, it’s a realistic scenario. And the beauty of asking yourself what you’d like to do in retirement is that it can help you figure out what you truly want to do with your life right now. ...

“The things you own end up owning you.” - Chuck Palahniuk. I was a minimalist. It was a very easy and stress-free life. I did own many things, but only after careful planning, and I was quick to sell things that didn’t meet my expectations or once I stopped using them. I also used to live well below my means. I felt free because loss of job or any other financial crisis would not affect me much. ...

It’s both intriguing and somewhat disheartening to observe how trading concepts often mirror human behavior. Here’s how: Follow the Trend In the investment world, the saying “past performance does not guarantee future results” is well-known. Despite this warning, many successful trend followers have found that stocks moving up generally continue to do so, and vice versa. Interestingly, this concept applies to humans as well. Those who are happy and kind often continue in the same manner or even improve, while those who are miserable tend to spiral downward. ...

In my view, horizontal spaces should be minimalist and vertical spaces can be maximalist. This way you will have a lot of horizontal space to sit at, write on. And walls covered in art to entertain you and also reducing echoes and creating a quieter space.

To me fake plastic plants mean that one is too lazy to take care of real plants but they want to pretend to be someone who they are not. Nothing wrong with not wanting to take care of real plants. But why not decorate your place in a way that reflects who you are.

In our backyard lay a series of deck drains that perennially harbored standing water. Despite my best efforts, tracing the end of these drains proved to be an elusive task, seemingly due to the fact that it was compacted and buried beneath layers of earth. I even ventured to employ a drain snake to address the issue, but the screws securing the drain covers were victims of rust, rendering them immovable. ...

I think a lot of people would love to live their life as if they are on a permanent vacation. Before I was married, I didn’t make a lot of money but felt like every day was a vacation. For me, vacation means: Eating out/not cooking Not cleaning Spending time outside Not working Ready to travel Eating out is cheaper than cooking, if you are not picky. I ate mostly fast food. Of course, it is not healthy but it is vacation. Also it is still better than overeating home-cooked meals. ...

Follow up to my last post, the people I admire the most are usually startup founders or business people. And then creators of open source software. This weekend, I also met my engineer turned entrepreneur friend and saw Jobs movie. It seems I know what I should do. I want a business that gives a lot of freedom, especially freedom to be with my kids. If I can involve kids in the business, it would be even better. Would love low stress business but it is not a requirement. ...