<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" ><generator uri="https://jekyllrb.com/" version="3.10.0">Jekyll</generator><link href="https://adityarelangi.com/feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" /><link href="https://adityarelangi.com/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" /><updated>2026-01-02T20:11:19+00:00</updated><id>https://adityarelangi.com/feed.xml</id><title type="html">Aditya Relangi</title><subtitle>Aditya Relangi&apos;s website</subtitle><author><name>Aditya Relangi</name></author><entry><title type="html">You make the team</title><link href="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/you-make-the-team" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="You make the team" /><published>2025-11-30T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2025-11-30T00:00:00+00:00</updated><id>https://adityarelangi.com/blog/you-make-the-team</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/you-make-the-team"><![CDATA[<p>We talk about great teams and great companies as if their excellence is something you inherit by joining them. As if the quality lives out there and all you need to do is step in for you to become excellent.</p>

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<p>But excellence isn’t something a team simply has. It’s something created by the individuals inside it by their decisions, their craft and their judgment. And that influence isn’t abstract or collective; it’s personal. The moment you join a team, its trajectory changes because <em>you</em> are now part of how its work gets made.</p>

<p>Your standards shape its standards.<br /><br />
Your taste shapes its taste.<br /><br />
Your way of working becomes part of how the team works.<br /></p>

<p>Excellence is not a fixed property you absorb. It’s something you contribute to and sometimes, something you initiate. The same is true for companies. What we call a “great company” is just a long accumulation of people who cared enough to do things well.</p>

<p>It goes without saying, the dynamic goes both ways. The team exerts its influence on you. It shapes you while you shape it. Excellence emerges in that push and pull.</p>

<p>Great teams aren’t found. Great companies aren’t inherited.
They become excellent because individuals make them excellent.</p>]]></content><author><name>Aditya Relangi</name></author><category term="personal" /><category term="work" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[We talk about great teams and great companies as if their excellence is something you inherit by joining them. As if the quality lives out there and all you need to do is step in for you to become excellent.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Thinking beyond the ask</title><link href="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/thinking-beyond-the-ask" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Thinking beyond the ask" /><published>2025-09-09T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2025-09-09T00:00:00+00:00</updated><id>https://adityarelangi.com/blog/thinking-beyond-the-ask</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/thinking-beyond-the-ask"><![CDATA[<p>In large organizations, work often arrives already shaped in the form of a ticket, a feature spec or a defined task. Each team owns a slice: product defines, engineering builds, analysts measure, ML tunes. It keeps things moving, but it also narrows how we think.</p>

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<p>Most people operate inside these systems, where efficiency and advancement depends on staying within scope. But when one only focuses on a narrow slice, we risk solving the assignment instead of the problem. The better question is: what are we actually trying to achieve here?</p>

<p>Sometimes the right move is to stay narrow and execute quickly; other times, to step back and redefine what matters. Roles exist to divide work, not to limit curiosity. The best engineers and teams know when to zoom out and solve the bigger problem.</p>]]></content><author><name>Aditya Relangi</name></author><category term="personal" /><category term="work" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[In large organizations, work often arrives already shaped in the form of a ticket, a feature spec or a defined task. Each team owns a slice: product defines, engineering builds, analysts measure, ML tunes. It keeps things moving, but it also narrows how we think.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Krakow, Poland</title><link href="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/krakow" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Krakow, Poland" /><published>2025-05-16T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2025-05-16T00:00:00+00:00</updated><id>https://adityarelangi.com/blog/krakow</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/krakow"><![CDATA[<p>I reached Krakow around noon on Monday, May 4th. The flight from Frankfurt was short and the view from above wasn’t anything special.</p>

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<p>Krakow has a small airport, maybe slightly larger than Omaha’s. I couldn’t check-in to the hotel until 3pm as they had a conference and all the hotels rooms were booked the previous night and were still being turned over for the next day but they were happy enough to hold my bags until 3pm. I had lunch on the hotel’s restaurant. Tried a polish potato soup and an asparagus risotto. The risotto was decent but the soup, not so much.</p>

<p>After lunch, I walked over to a cafe to meet Shahid and Wai. We had coffee and spoke in detail about work. After a couple of hours, we split ways and I checked-in to the hotel and caught up on some work.</p>

<p>I was busy for the next three days with the Snowflake workshop. I couldn’t peel myself off of work even after coming back from the workshop and kept working late into the night. This didn’t help as I was already short on sleep. I did get to walk back from team dinner on Tuesday from Old town to the hotel by the river. The weather was pleasant, but maybe because it was a Wednesday there weren’t a lot of people out on the streets and Krakow felt a bit lifeless compared to the other European cities I’ve been to.</p>

<p>One the last day of the workshop, we went for a team dinner at Folga close to the jewish quarter and it is one of the best meals I’ve had. The beetroot salad in buttermilk was so rich and just the right amount of tart. There was some excellent cabbage too. We walked back that night again from the restaurant to the hotel. Chad and I walked on Grotzky street before going to the restaurtant for dinner. Krakow was as I feared. It was a much smaller city. It wasn’t as charming as Brussels, Bruge or Amsterdam or even Lisbon.</p>

<p>I booked a tour of Auschwitz and the salt mines for the next day and had to be ready outside the hotel for pickup by 6am. The ride to Auschwitz took about 90 minutes, but by the time we reached, there was a really long line at the Auschwitz museum. The tour guide decided to take us to Birkenau first as there wasn’t a wait there and the hope was there wouldn’t be as long a wait when we circle back to the museum itself.</p>

<hr />

<p>Birkenau was (surreal/insane). To imagine what happened there 80 years ago. The scale of cruelty man had for their fellow human beings was astounding. As we retraced the steps millions of people took to the gas chambers, I was overcome with grief and anger. I still am unable to fully comprehend how such a dastradly acts could happen there. About 1.3 million passed through the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau and 1.1million of them were sent to the gas chambers. The planning, deception, secrecy and the evil on display are unimaginable.</p>

<p>We went to Auschwitz after that and, to see the places where the first gas experiments were done, to see the shoes, luggage, the hair is heartbreaking. To think each of those were people with full lives, dreams, hopes. All of them just vanished. I do not think a more grim place could exist.</p>

<p>There were a lot of jewish kids with Israeli flags. If I was feeling so strongly in such a place, for them to visit, to confront the horrors their ancestors endured, many that did not survive was something else. Things like this should never ever happen. Never again. How would a populace that endured so much react? More than 90% of jews in Poland were killed during the Holocause. They numbered 3.2 million before the war.</p>

<p>To think of what is happening in Palestine at the same time. For a people that suffered so much to turn around and subject another populace to cruelty and brutality is heartbreaking. One could see where their angst for their own place comes from. The resolve and the determination to never let this happen again. The fear, anger, grief all of it has now festered maybe and turned them blind to the pain they are inflicting on Palestinians. I think they have to turn a blind eye to their cruelty under the guise of look what happened to us and we deserve to live too, or they woldn’t be able to look themselves in a mirror.</p>

<hr />

<p>Going from Auschwitz to the salt mines felt inappropriate. After the mines, I walked around old town, walked by the market square, facetimed Bharu to show her a little bit of Krakow before walking back to the hotel to catch some sleep. I had to wake up at 3:30 to catch my flight back. There was a bit of misadventure at the airport. The card reader in the cab did not work and I did not have any cash to give. The driver started panicking and it took us a while to figure out what to do. Eventually, I found an ATM and was able to withdraw some local currency for a fee and paid the driver. I should remember to carry some cash, particularly in foreign countries and not rely purely on cards.</p>

<p>The flight back was uneventful. Came back to SF instead of Seattle on Saturday, 10th of May and flew back with Bharu to Seattle Sunday night.</p>]]></content><author><name>Aditya Relangi</name></author><category term="travel" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[I reached Krakow around noon on Monday, May 4th. The flight from Frankfurt was short and the view from above wasn’t anything special.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Feh - A Memoir by Shalom Auslander - Review</title><link href="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/feh-review" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Feh - A Memoir by Shalom Auslander - Review" /><published>2025-01-10T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2025-01-10T00:00:00+00:00</updated><id>https://adityarelangi.com/blog/feh-review</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/feh-review"><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://openlibrary.org/works/OL37590034W/Feh?edition=key%3A/books/OL50661555M">Shalom Auslander’s Feh</a> is a masterpiece of wit, despair, and, surprisingly, hope. It stands out as one of the most impactful books I’ve read in recent memory.</p>

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<p>I first encountered Auslander through an <a href="https://www.thisamericanlife.org/281/my-big-break/act-three-9">episode of This American Life</a> where he read an excerpt from his earlier memoir, <a href="https://openlibrary.org/works/OL8453751W/Foreskin%27s_lament?edition=key%3A/books/OL27348027M">Foreskin’s Lament</a>. The excerpt was hilarious, irreverent, and immediately captivating. However, when I picked up the book itself, I found it repetitive despite its engaging moments. Had I not already reserved both his memoirs from the library, I might have skipped Feh. I’m glad I didn’t.</p>

<p>While Foreskin’s Lament examines Auslander’s life leading up to the birth of his first child, Feh dives headfirst into his struggles with middle age. The book resonated with me, perhaps because Auslander’s lens on life mirrors my own. At the heart of this memoir is the Yiddish word “Feh,” which Auslander defines as “Yuck.” To him, everything is Feh—his surroundings, his circumstances, even himself.</p>

<p>Living with a worldview steeped in “Feh” is as torturous as it sounds. Auslander’s world has few bright spots. His wife and children are among the rare un-Feh parts of his life, but even they are not immune to the taint of his bleak perspective and his insecurities. Yet, amidst this existential gloom, Auslander weaves moments of absurd comedy, finding humor in the human condition, the absurdities of religion, and the wrath of a vengeful God. His critiques are undoubtedly shaped by his strict Orthodox Jewish upbringing, a source of deep scars and rich material.</p>

<p>One of the memoir’s most poignant arcs recounts Auslander’s friendship with Philip Seymour Hoffman, whom Auslander casts as a kindred spirit—a fellow “Feh.”. When Hoffman died just as the project was green-lit, Auslander was left grappling with grief, anger, and guilt—devastated by the loss of his friend yet burdened by the financial and emotional fallout. This raw, conflicted reflection showcases Auslander’s ability to face profound loss with honesty.</p>

<p>Feh is a tighter, more polished work compared to Foreskin’s Lament. It benefits from meticulous editing, avoiding the repetition that bogged down its predecessor. Just as the narrative begins to feel like it might circle back on itself, Auslander pivots and offers a surprising ending. His conclusion carries a glimmer of optimism—a rare and hard-won lightness that suggests the possibility of choosing joy in a world that often feels irredeemably grim. It’s a powerful shift, handled deftly, and it left me rooting for him.</p>

<p>As someone who often finds themselves stuck in their own Feh-ness, Auslander’s memoir felt like a mirror. His ability to articulate despair with humor and honesty is a testament to his talent as a writer. And while the journey to un-Feh feels far for many of us, Auslander’s story reminds us that it may not be an impossible destination.</p>

<hr />]]></content><author><name>Aditya Relangi</name></author><category term="personal" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[Shalom Auslander’s Feh is a masterpiece of wit, despair, and, surprisingly, hope. It stands out as one of the most impactful books I’ve read in recent memory.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">DFW Lions</title><link href="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/DFW-Lions" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="DFW Lions" /><published>2024-02-19T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2024-02-19T00:00:00+00:00</updated><id>https://adityarelangi.com/blog/DFW-Lions</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/DFW-Lions"><![CDATA[<p>“I’ve got to be honest, you probably won’t get batting.” That was my first introduction to Lions. I was filling in an empty spot in the 11 just before the day of the game.</p>

<p>On the way to the ground Prasad told me his template for winning and Lions have been winning that season. Win toss, bat first, score 200. The opposition will cave under chasing pressure.</p>

<p>“What if we lose the toss?”</p>

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<p>“Well we just have to out bat them.” He smiled.</p>

<p>That first game Lions scored 192 runs. The other team made 139. The game was done before the opposition walked into bat.</p>

<p>This is a team that no one will write about. None of these players will be remembered for their on field heroics except for the players themselves when they reminisce in old age. But they will keep playing until they can’t. They will bat until their hands grow slower, their eyes grow weaker and the ball seems to rush them just a little bit. A few more loose balls than they used to bowl, few more mishits and misfields. They will play until their bodies are worn down and they know deep in their hearts what their mind knew years before that their body cannot take it anymore. Until then they will come to the field to play for four hours, stretch a little, take some catches, set up the cones. For four hours they forget the daily grind of their jobs, the responsibilities. Four hours just being that young boy who got excited by the crack of the ball hitting the middle of his bat as it raced to the boundary, the sight of the stumps splayed when they bowled that one perfect ball that nipped back in and snuck between the bat and pad.</p>

<p>This is my ode to those boys, to my friends that I miss playing with.</p>

<p>I did get to bat that game. The first game I played for Lions. I went in 4th down and made 6 off 3 balls, hit a four off the second ball I faced before being bowled to full straight delivery right at the stumps. A weakness that accounted for over 50% of my dismissals throughout league cricket. To this day I struggle with that shot trying to nudge the ball to mid-wicket rather than presenting a straight bat and hitting it straight.</p>

<p>League cricket is like that. The players are decent in the leagues, they aren’t great, they aren’t good, they are just decent. An arrogant young player might even call them rubbish. When you judge them, keep in mind they are not playing first class or international cricket. They are not professionals. They have their strengths and their flaws. Some of them mental, most of them technical. They are just amateurs playing on the weekend.</p>

<h5> Pradeep Prabhu - The Senior </h5>
<p><br /></p>

<p>And the oldest amateur player playing that day took a fifer. He bowled 4 overs for 24 runs and 5 wickets. He was not the fastest bowler. He was not tall, he couldn’t hit the deck, he didn’t have to, cause he had swing. He could swing the ball from Gulbarga to Shivmogga and back again. He knew the opposition had a target to chase, they had no option but to go after him. So he used his wile to pitch the ball up, make the batsman come forward and play. He took the old ball, swung it in to the batsman and then when they thought they got the hang of it, he swung it away from them. He lorded over them his mastery of swing. And just like that three batsman fell to his cunning in the same over. Before the others could pad up he had two more wickets.</p>

<p>Pradeep Prabhu was not unplayable. He had his challenges. His balls came at a gentle pace when the ball didn’t swing. And he usually opened bowling when the ball was at its hardest. This meant he was consistently bowling to the best opposition batsman who went hard at the ball. They would try to hit him over the top into the stands and out of the attack. He might take a couple of punches, but on most days he would come on top and nip the top order. He would get most of his wickets either bowled, caught behind by the keeper. If that’s not quality bowling, what is?</p>

<h5>Bolar - The Champ</h5>
<p><br /></p>

<p>The second oldest player in that game hit 63 off 36 balls with 50 of those runs in boundaries. He was Achilles with a cricket bat. Some are born with such innate athletic ability that they’d excel in any sport they play. Pradeep Bolar is such an athlete. I’ve seen numerous innings of his where he doesn’t just hit the ball, he destroys it. VVS Laxman once wrote, a good innings for him is when he doesn’t hit a ball in anger and I’ve never seen Bolar bat angry. He is calm, composed, he knows he belongs on the pitch.. Nothing frays him, not the run rate, nor the quality of the bowling. It’s just the ball and him and where it needs to go. He has the skill to play all day if he wants to, unfortunately there’s only 20 overs to see him bat. Once in Russell Creek, he hit a spinner for for a six that it took a whole minute for the bowler to get the ball back only for his next ball to go to the same place.</p>

<p>I always wondered what I’d bowl to him if I were facing him in a game but never found out. I loved bowling to him in the nets though. While others would struggle trying to hit me out, Bolar would calmly hit the ball straight over my head if it was a little full or whip it to the leg side if it was short, if I hit that in between length that’d frustrate other batsman, he’d calmly push the ball to mid-on or mid-off for a single. I hate not being able to even trouble him.</p>

<p>Even Achilles had his heel to contend with but I could never figure out what’d stop Bolar. That was until I saw him face pace. Red hot pace. Pace that added 10ks when played in the closed confines of EICA. I wonder if he played the same pace in the ground, he’d have hit that deep over square leg into the boundary too.</p>

<h5>Sankirth - The Prodigy</h5>
<p><br /></p>

<p>Most league bowlers aren’t 6’2. Most league bowlers don’t bowl over 120ks. They don’t scare you into submission and they definitely don’t threaten you to give them the wicket or they’ll knock your head off. Most bowlers aren’t Sankirth. Sankirth coming to bowl at you is all arms and limbs. He hunches over at the start of his run up as if that makes him look any smaller and as he picks up pace he straightens up fully to unleash that 6’2 frame on you. And before you realize the ball is out of his hands, it’s at your throat threatening to knock you over if you don’t get out of the way. If you managed to survive that without gloving through to the keeper or top edging to short fine leg, you either got hit or god was on your side and saved your life. If you are still there after the first ball, your audacity to exist at the crease knowing you don’t belong there will be corrected with a sharp yorker that’ll either knock down the stumps or crush your toes before the umpire puts you out of your misery for an LBW.</p>

<p>There’s more to Sankirth than just pace. Reducing him to just pace is unfair to how much thought he puts into his cricket. He’s smart, has the patience to set up the batsman and the skill to execute what he thinks. For a long limbed fast bowler he can either field at the boundary never dropping a catch or take diving catches fielding at short cover and point. And we haven’t even come to his batting yet. His long arms give him reach that changes a length ball to a full one. He can sweep, slog sweep and reverse sweep the same ball. He can hit you through covers, over mid off or out over mid wicket. He doesn’t mind running his runs even though he can score at will in boundaries.</p>

<h5>Fani - The Fire</h5>
<p><br /></p>

<p>While Lions have red hot pace in Sankirth, we also have just red hot. If aggression had a face it’d be Fani. I have seen Fani’s batting improve from good to phenomenal. He sees the length early and pounces on it if it’s short. There are no half hearted shots in Fani’s batting. He swings the bat with all his might. While Laxman recommends not hitting the ball in anger, that is all Fani does. I remember the first good Fani innings. He hit 68 off 38 balls while chasing 221. We lost that game. An opposition player I was friends with told me after the game “Fani doesn’t know how to play spin”. True. Fani doesn’t know how to play spin. He doesn’t know how to hit the perfect cover drive, he doesn’t know his elbow needs to be straight and extended when he finishes the shot. There are a lot of things he doesn’t know. What he does know is how to score runs and score them fast. His shots may not be correct or beautiful to the eye. His batting is workman like. It’s ugly, it’s hurried, it’s batting that wouldn’t look out of place in a ring. He will hook your short balls, punch the back of length balls and jab at the full ones. What he won’t do is stop fighting.</p>

<p>As effective as Fani’s batting has been in the past two years, it’s been his bowling performance that stands out to me. Fani’s bowling is rubbish on bad days. He hits the deck hard, bowls short, bowls wide, mixes in a slow delivery you can see coming from a mile away and flings down half volleys that deserved to be hit for sixes. On good days he’s unstoppable.</p>

<p>I want to tell you about this game in Oct 2019. We were relegated to Division B on the back of a terrible Spring and Summer seasons. Fani took over the captaincy and our aim was to get back to Div A by the end of the season. It was morning game in Russell Creek G7. Chilly October morning, little bit of cloud cover and we were put into bat. We forgot to get the stumps, so I drove down to Rama’s house to pick them up. By the time I got back half our batting was back in the pavilion. We were at 29/6 after 8 overs with 8 of those runs coming in extras. That was the first time I top scored for Lions with a 22 off 22 balls. With some handy hits from Nithin and Srikanth Anna we dragged the score to 87. 87 is a nothing score. It’s a score where teams just pack up their kit bags to leave early. This was a score we had to defend with just one dependable bowler in Pradeep. We’ve seen the opposition beat us with pace. We didn’t have pace. All we had was Nithin, who was was brilliant for three balls and pedestrian the rest of the time. And we had Fani. That 87 was a score that pushed us into a corner. It pushed Fani into a corner. And that’s when Fani is the most dangerous. That day Fani bowled 3 overs and gave away 6 runs and took 4 wickets. He only bowled 3 overs coz he didn’t have to bowl a fourth. He inspired the other bowlers, marshaled the fielders, set up aggressive fields and gave no inch. Ever dependable Pradeep Prabhu took 3 wickets for 10 runs off his 4 overs. Nithin, the most wayward of the pace bowlers, got the other three wickets in 3 overs at 23. The opposition was all out for 49 in 12 overs. Nithin bowled 16 wides that day. If not for his 3 wickets Fani would have killed him on the field that day.</p>

<p>That is what Fani is. He leads by example and doesn’t ask of you what he himself doesn’t do.</p>

<h5>Vinny - The Grace</h5>
<p><br /></p>

<p>When Vinny bats, he does so with an elegance that reminds you of a perfectly orchestrated symphony. His stance at the crease is tall and lanky, his long arms allowing a reach that is at once graceful and menacing for the bowler. He always wants to bat one down, and why shouldn’t he? His batting is fluid, smooth as silk in the wind, with strokes that are breathtaking in their simplicity and execution. His sixes, particularly, are a thing of beauty. There’s no violence, no brute force; just languid arms and a smooth follow-through, as the ball sails past the boundary, its flight akin to silk billowing in a gentle breeze on a warm sunny day. Bowl too full, and he’ll strike you straight down the ground with an elegant drive; too short, and his pull shot to mid-wicket will leave you regretting the error. Bowlers find that there’s a very small margin of error when bowling to Vinny.</p>

<p>But that’s just one side of Vinny. The dual threat he poses is not confined to his batting. Vinny’s bowling is a weapon that can be employed with precision, in the vein of Jadeja’s. His action is similar to throwing darts - quick, straight, and sharp. He bowls with a rhythm that doesn’t give the batsman time to breathe or think. Before you know it, the over is done, and we’re setting up a new field for the next bowler. Vinny can be an attacking option during the power play or a suffocating presence during the middle overs. His bowling can tighten the screws when required or provide breakthroughs when the team needs it most. There is an unwavering confidence in Vinny’s approach, whether with the bat or the ball. In essence, Vinny epitomizes a quality that is rare in league cricket - a complete package. A batsman who could win matches with his graceful strokes and a bowler who could do it with his unassuming yet effective spin.</p>

<h5>Nari - The Commitment</h5>
<p><br /></p>

<p>In a team with a top order that usually goes in and hits 50s and 100s regularly, it is extremely hard for a middle order batsman to come in and make an impact. More often than not, you are in a situation where you get to face two or three overs at most and you have to go big from the first ball you face. If by chance you are going in to bat with 10 or more overs remaining, that can only mean you are now doing a rescue job with the top order collapsing. Nari balances both these roles. It’s not an easy place to bat at. And it is very hard to get credit for your contributions. Nobody notices you on easy days and you need to be exceptional on tough days. Nari can absorb pressure, steady the ship and unleash carnage at the end.</p>

<p>I remember this one game in the Spring of 2019, the Lions were playing against Dallas Chargers. It was another cloudy day in Russell Creek. The Lions bowled the opposition out for 146 in 19.3 overs. The target was a middling total, neither here nor there. Chasing targets between 135 and 150 is always tricky. You don’t have to go hard from the beginning because the target is always within reach, but if you go easy and lose a couple of quick wickets, even a middling target becomes imposing, which is what happened to the Lions that day.</p>

<p>Our top order went in and came back before we had ten runs on board. Pradeep Bolar was still there, Rama walked into bat. So it wasn’t all bad. While they steadied the ship and just as it looked like things were back on track, we lost both of them in quick succession. That’s when Nari walked into bat, in the 5th over of the innings. I joined him on the crease and left two balls later trying to hit one over long off. We were distraught in the dugout, we were out of batters, Nari started saving his wicket. The runs stopped coming, Nari started stealing a one here and a two there. The other batters kept getting out, he started farming the strike. We were worried the run rate was mounting, Nari started going for the big shots. We needed 16 off the last two overs with just one wicket in hand. Nari finished the game in the 20th over with a two, six and a single. We went crazy. He single handedly dragged the team from the jaws of defeat that day.</p>

<p>I’ve played many games with Nari since and he’s hit many more fantastic innings since then. But this will always be his finest knock for me. Just one guy doing what’s needed, in his own way. In a team full of super stars Nari is the workhorse that carries the heaviest load.</p>

<h5>Ravi - The Heart</h5>
<p><br /></p>

<p>If DFW Lions has to be personified, that would be Ravi. He is the heart of this team, the glue that holds it together and the force that pushes it forward. The first ever game I played for Lions, Ravi didn’t play. He was getting engaged, but he’d call in between to Fani and Prasad and keep checking the score. His passion for this team borders on obsession. I got to meet him at the next game. I was nervous walking into a new team with people I barely knew. Ravi walked straight up to me and welcomed me to the team as if we’ve known each other for years and made me feel immediately at ease. He has immense belief in everyone he comes across and he roots for your success.</p>

<p>Many good players are in their own space when they are batting. When they are batting, they are solely focused inward. This is the exact opposite of how Ravi approaches batting. He’s never playing by himself. He’s always partnering with you. He’s talking to you, sharing what he’s observing, strategizing, making plans with you, pumping you up and cheering you on. It’s less me and more us. That’s the approach he takes to all aspects of the game. It’s never the individual, it’s always the team. We win or lose as a team. He carries his stature lightly and makes everyone feel at home.</p>

<p>I’ve seen him hit hundreds, but there’s one inconsequential innings of his that’s etched in my mind. This was a game we played against Desi Cowboyz in the summer league in 2018. The Cowboyz were on a downward spiral that season and didn’t really put up a fight. Vicky(Vikram) took a five for and we had them bundled all out for 74 runs in 18 overs. Pradeep Bolar high scored in that game hitting 25 runs in 8 balls and we chased the target in under eight overs. Ravi went into bat at one down in that game, scored 18 off 8 and was caught out. But in those 8 balls he hit a six straight over their best bowler to a short of length delivery that was about chest high. Think about it, he hit a straight six over the bowler’s head off a short of length delivery that popped up to his chest. If you are having trouble visualizing it, the closest I could think of that shot was when Virat Kohli hit Haris Rauf for six in the 2022 T20 World Cup. My jaw dropped when I saw Ravi hit that shot. He got out soon going after that bowler, but that’s the shot that comes my mind whenever I think of Ravi.</p>

<p>There are far too many instances to list out how good of a player Ravi is, but he’s more than just a good batter, he’s a fantastic leader.</p>

<hr />

<p>It’s now been close to two years since I stopped playing for Lions, two years since I’ve stopped playing cricket. Maya Angelou said “At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” and Ravi and his Lions made me feel at home in this foreign land. There are now others that are making the Lions proud, carrying the team forward. Some day soon, I hope to stop by a game, see some of the new faces and the old faces just be boys playing a game that we all love.</p>]]></content><author><name>Aditya Relangi</name></author><category term="personal" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[“I’ve got to be honest, you probably won’t get batting.” That was my first introduction to Lions. I was filling in an empty spot in the 11 just before the day of the game.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Quotes</title><link href="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/quotes" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Quotes" /><published>2018-12-08T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2018-12-08T00:00:00+00:00</updated><id>https://adityarelangi.com/blog/quotes</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/quotes"><![CDATA[<ul>
  <li>“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Sydney J. Harris</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

<!--excerpt-->

<ul>
  <li>“Long-term consistency trumps short-term intensity.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Bruce Lee</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“Speak only if it improves upon the silence.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Mahatma Gandhi</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Ralph Waldo Emerson</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“Pain is knowledge rushing in to fill a gap.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Jerry Seinfeld</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Buddha</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“When you don’t create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. your tastes only narrow &amp; exclude people. so create.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Why The Lucky Stiff</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“Democracy is not a synonym for justice or for freedom. Democracy is not a sacred right sanctifying mob rule. Democracy is a principle that is subordinate to the inalienable rights of the individual.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Terry Goodkind</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“I would rather be without a state than without a voice.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Edward Snowden</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“Lost rights are never regained by appeals to the conscience of the usurpers, but by relentless struggle…. Goats are used for sacrificial offerings and not lions.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ B.R. Ambedkar</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“I don’t have to be who you want me to be; I’m free to be who I want.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Muhammad Ali</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ George Bernard Shaw</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Upton Sinclair</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“What I cannot create, I do not understand.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Richard Feynman</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“Focusing is about saying no.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Steve Jobs</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“The most important thing I’ve accomplished, other than building the compiler, is training young people. They come to me, you know, and say, ‘Do you think we can do this?’ I say, “Try it.” And I back ‘em up. They need that. I keep track of them as they get older and I stir ‘em up at intervals so they don’t forget to take chances.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Grace Hopper</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Martin Luther King Jr.</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“You got a dream… You gotta protect it. People can’t do somethin’ themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want somethin’, go get it. Period.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ The Pursuit of Happyness (movie)</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Herbert Spencer</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“You have to dream before your dreams can come true.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ A.P.J. Abdul Kalam</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“A goal is a dream with a deadline.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Napoleon Hill</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Archilochus</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“Every real problem in startups is a people problem.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Antonio García Martínez</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“If you’re always starting interesting projects and not finishing, then no matter how hard you work, you’re just busy, not productive.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Jack Simpson</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“Creativity still arguably blossoms best among youth, those who have the least stake in the existing rules of the society”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Paul Buhle and Harvey Pekar</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“The paradox of education is precisely this, that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ James Baldwin</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“For we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the major portion of death has already passed. Whatever years be behind us are in death’s hands.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Seneca</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ William Faulkner</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“You have to keep a dozen of your favorite problems constantly present in your mind, although by and large they will lay in a dormant state. Every time you hear or read a new trick or a new result, test it against each of your twelve problems to see whether it helps. Every once in a while there will be a hit, and people will say, “How did he do it? He must be a genius!””
    <ul>
      <li>~ Richard Feynman</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Lewis Carroll, Alice Through the Looking Glass</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Lewis Carroll, Alice Through the Looking Glass</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“Stop caring about what other people think, but still care about how other people feel”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Robodav, Reddit</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Steve Jobs</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Simon Sinek</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>“If a larger country oppresses a smaller country, I’ll stand with the smaller country. If the smaller country has majoritarian religion that oppresses minority religions, I’ll stand with minority religions. If the minority religion has caste and one caste oppresses another caste, I’ll stand with the caste being oppressed. In the oppressed caste, if an employer oppresses his employee, I’ll stand with the employee If the employee goes home and oppresses his wife , I’ll stand with that woman. Overall, Oppression is my enemy”
    <ul>
      <li>~ Periyar E. V. Ramasamy</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>]]></content><author><name>Aditya Relangi</name></author><category term="personal" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” ~ Sydney J. Harris]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Change Data Capture –&amp;gt; Kafka –&amp;gt; Go Consumer –&amp;gt; Apache Ignite –&amp;gt; Zeppelin</title><link href="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/change-data-capture-apache-ignite" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Change Data Capture –&amp;gt; Kafka –&amp;gt; Go Consumer –&amp;gt; Apache Ignite –&amp;gt; Zeppelin" /><published>2018-11-06T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2018-11-06T00:00:00+00:00</updated><id>https://adityarelangi.com/blog/change-data-capture-apache-ignite</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/change-data-capture-apache-ignite"><![CDATA[<p>Setting up a realtime reporting framework with MySQL, Kafka Connect, Apache Kafka, Golang Consumer, Apache Ignite, Apache Zeppelin
<!--excerpt--></p>

<h3 id="kafka-zookeeper-on-docker-consuming-from-go-program-in-docker">Kafka, Zookeeper on Docker, consuming from Go program in Docker</h3>

<h4 id="get-ip">Get IP</h4>

<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">ipconfig getifaddr en0</code></p>

<h4 id="ip">IP</h4>

<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">10.251.69.52</code></p>

<h3 id="run-zookeeper">Run Zookeeper</h3>

<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">docker run -d --name zookeeper -p 2181:2181 jplock/zookeeper</code></p>

<h4 id="run-kafka">Run Kafka</h4>

<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">docker run -d --name kafka -p 7203:7203 -p 9092:9092 -e KAFKA_ADVERTISED_HOST_NAME=10.251.69.52 -e ZOOKEEPER_IP=10.251.69.52 ches/kafka</code></p>

<h4 id="create-topic">Create Topic</h4>

<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">docker run --rm ches/kafka kafka-topics.sh --create --topic senz --replication-factor 1 --partitions 1 --zookeeper 10.251.69.52:2181</code></p>

<h4 id="list-topics">List Topics</h4>

<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">docker run --rm ches/kafka kafka-topics.sh --list --zookeeper 10.251.69.52:2181</code></p>

<h4 id="create-publisher">Create Publisher</h4>

<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">docker run --rm --interactive ches/kafka kafka-console-producer.sh --topic senz --broker-list 10.251.69.52:9092</code></p>

<p>or</p>

<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">kafka-console-producer --topic senz --broker-list 10.251.69.52:9092</code></p>

<h4 id="create-consumer">Create Consumer</h4>

<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">docker run --rm ches/kafka kafka-console-consumer.sh --topic senz --from-beginning --zookeeper 10.251.69.52:2181</code></p>

<h4 id="build-golang-docker-consumer">Build Golang Docker consumer</h4>

<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>cd /repos/irl/consumer
docker build --tag zexyphantom/conzumer:1.0 .
</code></pre></div></div>

<h4 id="run-golang-docker-consumer">Run Golang Docker Consumer</h4>

<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">docker run -it --name conzumer zexyphantom/conzumer:1.0</code></p>

<hr />

<h3 id="debezium">Debezium</h3>

<h4 id="start-zookeeper">Start Zookeeper</h4>

<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">docker run -it --rm --name zookeeper -p 2181:2181 -p 2888:2888 -p 3888:3888 debezium/zookeeper:0.8</code></p>

<h4 id="start-kafka">Start Kafka</h4>
<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">docker run -it --rm --name kafka -p 9092:9092 --link zookeeper:zookeeper debezium/kafka:0.8</code></p>

<h4 id="start-mysql">Start MySQL</h4>
<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">docker run -it --rm --name mysql -p 3306:3306 -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=debezium -e MYSQL_USER=mysqluser -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=mysqlpw debezium/example-mysql:0.8</code></p>

<h4 id="start-kafka-connect">Start Kafka Connect</h4>

<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">docker run -it --rm --name connect -p 8083:8083 -e GROUP_ID=1 -e CONFIG_STORAGE_TOPIC=my_connect_configs -e OFFSET_STORAGE_TOPIC=my_connect_offsets --link zookeeper:zookeeper --link kafka:kafka --link mysql:mysql debezium/connect:0.8</code></p>

<h4 id="activate-the-connector">Activate the connector</h4>
<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>curl -X POST \
  http://localhost:8083/connectors/ \
  -H 'Accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Cache-Control: no-cache' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Postman-Token: 53a55b1b-eb22-49f3-8fbf-a80d485ff348' \
  -d '{ "name": "inventory-connector", "config": { "connector.class": "io.debezium.connector.mysql.MySqlConnector", "tasks.max": "1", "database.hostname": "mysql", "database.port": "3306", "database.user": "debezium", "database.password": "dbz", "database.server.id": "184054", "database.server.name": "dbserver1", "database.whitelist": "inventory", "database.history.kafka.bootstrap.servers": "kafka:9092", "database.history.kafka.topic": "dbhistory.inventory" } }'
</code></pre></div></div>

<p>or in Postman call <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">localhost:8083/connectors/</code></p>
<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>  { "name": "inventory-connector", "config": { "connector.class": "io.debezium.connector.mysql.MySqlConnector", "tasks.max": "1", "database.hostname": "mysql", "database.port": "3306", "database.user": "debezium", "database.password": "dbz", "database.server.id": "184054", "database.server.name": "dbserver1", "database.whitelist": "inventory", "database.history.kafka.bootstrap.servers": "kafka:9092", "database.history.kafka.topic": "dbhistory.inventory" } }
</code></pre></div></div>

<h3 id="start-ignite">Start Ignite</h3>
<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>/repos/ignite-go-client/testdata
rm -rf /repos/apache-ignite-fabric-2.6.0-bin/work/ &amp;&amp; /repos/apache-ignite-fabric-2.6.0-bin/bin/ignite.sh ./custom-realtime.xml
</code></pre></div></div>

<h3 id="activate-ignite">Activate Ignite</h3>
<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>cd /repos/apache-ignite-fabric-2.6.0-bin/bin
./control.sh --activate --user ignite --password ignite
</code></pre></div></div>

<h3 id="start-zeppelin">Start Zeppelin</h3>
<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>/repos/zeppelin-0.8.0-bin-all/bin
./zeppelin-daemon.sh start
</code></pre></div></div>

<h3 id="start-docker-consumer">Start Docker Consumer</h3>
<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>/repos/irl/consumer
docker run --rm --name rtconz   zexyphantom/conzumer
</code></pre></div></div>

<h3 id="stop-docker-containers">Stop Docker Containers</h3>
<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>docker stop rtconz connect mysql kafka zookeeper
</code></pre></div></div>]]></content><author><name>Aditya Relangi</name></author><category term="tech" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[Setting up a realtime reporting framework with MySQL, Kafka Connect, Apache Kafka, Golang Consumer, Apache Ignite, Apache Zeppelin]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">Deleting Linkedin</title><link href="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/deleting-linkedin" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="Deleting Linkedin" /><published>2018-03-31T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2018-03-31T00:00:00+00:00</updated><id>https://adityarelangi.com/blog/deleting-linkedin</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/deleting-linkedin"><![CDATA[<p>This week I decided to delete Linkedin. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now, but haven’t had the courage to do it. Nothing changed as such except me deciding to bite the bullet.</p>

<p>Update: Unfortunately, I caved to the network effects and recreated a Linkedin account. While Linkedin is as shit as ever, it has now become the defacto place to for job search. As long as I’m tied into this network, Linkedin feels like a necessary burden to carry.</p>

<!--excerpt-->

<p>There has been a lot of news about data privacy, facebook and the outsized influence tech companies wield; how <strong>If it’s free, you are the product.</strong> Even though the folks in the tech circles have been aware of the data privacy issues, it is heartening to see the general public being cognizant of this fact. Hopefully, this will lead to some much needed changes in the business models of tech companies and user expectations and behavior.</p>

<p>The world has gotten so used to accessing everything on the internet for free that paying for software or services is done rarely. The costs involved in writing software, paying for the servers, the electricity maintained to run the massive data centers has never been made clear to the users and has for a long time been offset by the advertisers. Since the value of the data that the users share also isn’t made clear to the users, they give it away for free and let themselves be profiled by data collection companies like Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram.</p>

<p>Leaving Facebook was an easier choice for me when I made it in 2014 as I wasn’t getting any value from it. In fact, it was negatively affecting my days as I wasted massive amounts of time on the platform while wallowing in misery looking at highly curated lives of my connections. Linkedin though is a different case. I got my current job through Linkedin and have made a lot of professional connections because of it. There definitely was some value for me in using Linkedin as even today it is an easier platform for new oppotunities to come up. Maybe that’s why it took me this long to get rid of it.</p>

<p>I decided to delete my account even with the benefits I’d lose because of how scummy Linkedin is in it’s UI/UX practices. Contsantly asking to be fed more data, hiding away the privacy and security setting deep insied a confusing interface, implementing dark patterns in their UI to discourage users from taking actions that weren’t beneficial to Linkedin. I could go on, but I don’t want this to be a rant.</p>

<p>I downloaded all the data off of Linkedin before I deleted my account there. I’m aware that Linkedin doesn’t delete all my data and it’s theirs forever, but maybe by not actively being on their platform, I take back some control.</p>

<p>So, how will I keep in touch with all my professional contacts? Where can they reach me? Well, I’ll do it by myself. I’ll be maintaing my own address book and I won’t harass them with requests to endorse me for my skills or write references. In the next couple of weeks, I’ll start sharing my resume publicly and maintain an active list of the work I do.</p>

<p>That’s all. Bye.</p>]]></content><author><name>Aditya Relangi</name></author><category term="personal" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[This week I decided to delete Linkedin. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now, but haven’t had the courage to do it. Nothing changed as such except me deciding to bite the bullet.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">2018 - Goals</title><link href="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/goals-2018" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="2018 - Goals" /><published>2018-01-01T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2018-01-01T00:00:00+00:00</updated><id>https://adityarelangi.com/blog/goals-2018</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/goals-2018"><![CDATA[<p>Alright, here are some goals for 2018.</p>

<!--excerpt-->

<h4 id="health">Health</h4>

<ol>
  <li>Lose weight</li>
  <li>Run 365 miles this year</li>
</ol>

<h4 id="programming">Programming</h4>

<ol>
  <li>Work on a blockchain project</li>
  <li>Give atleast one tech talk</li>
</ol>

<h4 id="reading--writing">Reading &amp; Writing</h4>

<ol>
  <li>Read 12 books this year</li>
</ol>

<h4 id="personality">Personality</h4>

<ol>
  <li>Be patient</li>
</ol>]]></content><author><name>Aditya Relangi</name></author><category term="personal" /><category term="year-review" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[Alright, here are some goals for 2018.]]></summary></entry><entry><title type="html">On Blockchains</title><link href="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/blockchains" rel="alternate" type="text/html" title="On Blockchains" /><published>2017-12-17T00:00:00+00:00</published><updated>2017-12-17T00:00:00+00:00</updated><id>https://adityarelangi.com/blog/blockchains</id><content type="html" xml:base="https://adityarelangi.com/blog/blockchains"><![CDATA[<p>I think blockchains are a really important technology and are going to change the way applications are built. A lot of people have been trying to understand what they mean and whether they are missing out on all the cryptocoin boom. This meant I’ve spent quite some time trying to explain how these things work to a lot of people. Given that there’s a lot of content that does a good job of explaining what blockchains are, how they work, why they are important, I do not feel the need to write another blockchain 101 post. So, I’m compiling a list I think would help in one’s understanding of the blockchain.</p>

<!--excerpt-->

<p><strong>Bitcoin:</strong></p>

<ul>
  <li><a href="https://www.igvita.com/2014/05/05/minimum-viable-block-chain/">This is a link to a very well written comprehensive article that explains blockchains well</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf">The original Bitcoin paper</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://genius.com/4655346">The same paper annotated</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://anders.com/blockchain/">The blockchain demo on Anders</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://crypto.stanford.edu/cs251/syllabus.html">Stanford course on Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://medium.freecodecamp.org/explain-bitcoin-like-im-five-73b4257ac833">Explain bitcoin like I’m five, this is good to explain these concepts to somebody else</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/policy/the-ridiculous-amount-of-energy-it-takes-to-run-bitcoin">About the energy bitcoin consumes</a></li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Ehtereum:</strong></p>

<ul>
  <li><a href="https://medium.com/@preethikasireddy/how-does-ethereum-work-anyway-22d1df506369">How does ethereum work, long read</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://medium.freecodecamp.org/smart-contracts-for-dummies-a1ba1e0b9575">Smart Contracts for Laymen</a></li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Challenges:</strong></p>

<ul>
  <li><a href="https://medium.com/@preethikasireddy/fundamental-challenges-with-public-blockchains-253c800e9428">A good list of the challenges that blockchains face</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://www.r3.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/survey_confidentiality_privacy_R3.pdf">The biggest challenge I think is privacy, so here’s a survey paper about that</a></li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Peripheral:</strong></p>

<ul>
  <li><a href="https://hackernoon.com/bitcoin-ethereum-blockchain-tokens-icos-why-should-anyone-care-890b868cec06">Why should anyone care about blockchains? This is a bit of a long read, but touches upon some good reasons why these are important</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-social-network-doling-out-millions-in-ephemeral-money/?mbid=nl_100417_backchannel_p1">Social Network built on the blockchain</a></li>
</ul>]]></content><author><name>Aditya Relangi</name></author><category term="tech" /><summary type="html"><![CDATA[I think blockchains are a really important technology and are going to change the way applications are built. A lot of people have been trying to understand what they mean and whether they are missing out on all the cryptocoin boom. This meant I’ve spent quite some time trying to explain how these things work to a lot of people. Given that there’s a lot of content that does a good job of explaining what blockchains are, how they work, why they are important, I do not feel the need to write another blockchain 101 post. So, I’m compiling a list I think would help in one’s understanding of the blockchain.]]></summary></entry></feed>