This week: IVF embryo transfer completed, now cautiously optimistic. Traveling to Istanbul for work. Dealing with an unstable iOS beta. Food poisoning & new House plans and efficient space utilization.

For folks not in the know, this is a weekly stream of consciousness zero-agenda “here’s what’s happening” or “here’s what’s interesting” post.

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What’s been happening

• Our IVF embryo transfer is complete. This took pretty much half of the week, and it was a draining process all through. We traveled to Kochi by car, stayed near the hospital for about 5 days, but came back via flight to avoid jostling. We’re at the height of the expectation curve now: Ammu is at home now, happy, excited but also in pain because of daily injections. We’re doing the beta HCG test on July 2.

• I’m traveling to Istanbul for a week tomorrow. It’s the first time I’m leaving Ammu alone during this time, but that’s one of the advantages of living in my home town. My mother will take her to the hospital every day for injections, and she’ll be well taken care of. I’ll be back in time for the results. Istanbul will mostly be work, but I’m staying back for a couple of days after planned work ends: if you have visited the city before and have any recommendations, do ping!

• The iOS developer beta isn’t the most stable this time around. There are frequent crashes, and the iPhone storage also ends up filling up often. The last few days have been pretty stable, but I’ll probably roll back this soon. I do love the small little improvements though!

• I got a bit of food poisoning around the middle of the week, but thankfully that went away after a half night spent on the toilet. Food safety is terrible in India, and we’ve been trying to cut down on food ordered from outside.

• ChatGPT’s memory is pretty accurate. I was looking at what it figured out automatically from Ammu’s prompts, and here’s a few nuggets:
  • Loves doing Mandala painting on given patterns.
  • Is reading Shashi Tharoor’s book Why I Am a Hindu.
  • Sometimes uses ‘CE’ as a shorthand for ‘Communication English.’
  • Primarily communicates in Malayalam.

• Got the first iteration of plans back from the architect for the new house. We really liked this version and suggested a few changes. I think what struck me was how much difference a genuine expert makes in a field: they consider so many factors that you haven’t even thought about, and think about the project holistically.

Links of the Week

• Because we’ve downsized on the plans for the house a bit, I was looking at efficient space utilization, and came across balcony workstations. If they are green enough, I think I would love working out of such a space. Kerala is super hot and humid though, so we need to figure out how this would work in the summer months.
• When I was part of Pupilfirst, we used to talk about Lambda School at least once a week. They seem to have been the folks who had “cracked the model”. Now, all of that was just a lie. No wonder folks turn cynical as they age.
• This article about essential complexity was wonderful. I’ve tried several times to reduce the systemic complexity by restating problems instead of working with them, but I’ve succeeded very, very rarely. I now think that this is a skill that all great product managers absolutely should have.

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