The Contribution Theatre Trap
AI is strongest in the middle mile of work; the last mile still depends on human judgment, context, and thinking.
Narayan — Essays
Writing about software, systems, products, and the work around them.
Latest posts
Why your side project is worse than Netflix & chill
A framework for auditing how you spend your life: Creation vs Consumption vs Chore — and the simple reuse test that reveals what actually compounds.
3E Formula: Entry × Engagement × Ecosystem
A simple mental model to diagnose growth: score your product on Entry, Engagement, and Ecosystem, then engineer the weakest link.
Notes on Yahoo’s Pogue review on Lollipop
A quick, opinionated teardown of a (funny) review — and why Android/Google and platform/app boundaries matter.
When product designers become power users
After you ship 1.0, your instinct is to add features. Often the right move is the opposite: make 2.0 leaner for the new user.
How 24 donuts got us 700+ likes and 400+ app installs
A tiny, delightful offline loop that created online distribution — plus the exact mechanics of the campaign.
My talisman for daily life: an 8-step loop
A simple algorithm I try to run before acting: input → prioritize → validate → process → validate → prioritize → output → feedback.