Personal website and portfolio of Sarthak Mishra - sharing thoughts on technology, design, and entrepreneurship.
AI commoditized execution, so "taste" is the new moat. But taste is too vague to act on. Here's the programmer's version: imitation is copy by value, inspiration is copy by reference. A moat is a rate, not a position.
Lakhs of government PCs can reach the core, each one trusting whoever sits in front of it. Borrow Apple's closed system — on open foundations — and make the wrong move unavailable.
The multi-year, single-vendor RFP is the root cause. Treat the core platform as an open commons instead: small priced tasks, paid per merged pull request, governed hard.
You don't fix a meltdown with experts parachuting in after the breach. You fix it with defaults that make the breach hard to commit: a federated core, HTML-first frontends, and storage you can't make public.
CBSE called its result-day collapse a cyberattack. The numbers say plain demand: 1.5 million hits in two minutes is barely four percent of its own students. This is what monolithic, one-vendor government IT produces under load.
NEET leaked, CBSE's new marking system melted down, and 23.6% of young Indian graduates are jobless. We keep debugging an exam machine we should replace.
Here's the definitive guide to choosing between Orama, Pagefind, Meilisearch, and Google for your static site.
Google's search API sounds perfect for static sites. It isn't. Here's why the pricing model and indexing delays make it impractical for most blogs.
Self-hosting Meilisearch with Docker, Traefik, and Astro - complete with API key management, content indexing, and rate limiting.
Why I use Pagefind: A deep dive into chunked indexing, bandwidth scaling, and setting up a production-grade search for Astro.
Stop using the Orama Astro plugin. Here is how to build a type-safe, metadata-rich search engine that actually works in Dev Mode.
How I replaced Lottie with Canvas sprites, migrated to Preact, and removed heavy dependencies to cut over 300KB from my bundle.
How I automated accessibility across my portfolio by building a build-time pipeline that uses Gemini Flash to generate accurate alt text for hundreds of images.
How I built a high-performance, interactive pixelation effect for image transitions using HTML5 Canvas and custom easing interactions.
How I eliminated layout shift and improved perceived performance by generating 20px base64 placeholders automatically at build time.
How I built a pixel-perfect animated hero section using Midjourney, a custom Python processing pipeline, and Astro View Transitions.
Building a "related content" engine using Vercel AI SDK, OpenRouter, and a hybrid scoring algorithm for pennies.
Little by little, a little becomes a lot. Reflecting on the small wins of 2025 and laying out the roadmap for 2026.
A step-by-step guide to LinkedIn outreach automation concepts using OpenOutreach, an open-source Playwright-based tool.
Find verified work emails that never made it into public databases, in a way that is cheaper and more effective than Apollo/Hunter.
Build a pipeline to enrich leads with LinkedIn data and generate highly personalized cold emails with AI for under $5.
A practical guide to what actually works in 2025: infrastructure, targeting, personalization, and multi-channel strategies that still get meetings.
An honest post-mortem on shutting down my design agency. Lessons on scope creep, hiring pitfalls and remote ops friction.
OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google keep dropping wild revenue numbers, but once you cut through the hype and wild speculations, the numbers don't add up.
Building three different Traefik configurations - from simple local development to production-ready infrastructure with security layers.
A deep dive into building a Table of Contents component with sophisticated visual debugging and pixel-perfect active state detection.
How I added a complete newsletter system to my static Astro site using Cloudflare KV, Resend, and MDX - no external CMS required.
Skip the manual server setup with a three-stage Ansible approach that gets you from fresh Ubuntu install to production-ready in under 10 minutes.
Learning infrastructure automation the hard way - from multi-node cluster-f*ck to a production-ready, single-node setup with Ansible.
On embracing risk, learning from failure, and why I believe the unconventional path leads to the most meaningful growth.
An initiative management and productivity platform for teams to align on goals and execute effectively.
Interactive code visualization and mapping platform that helps developers understand complex codebases.
A collection of interesting design work, hackathon projects, and experimental interfaces created during my time at Drool agency.
An innovative MVP that combines generative AI with personalized eCommerce, delivering daily outfit recommendations with realistic photos of users wearing them.
A comprehensive landing page redesign for an innovative AI assistant platform, focusing on clear communication and conversion optimization.
AI-powered learning platform that generates personalized learning paths, featuring intelligent pathway generation, content curation, and an AI tutor.
A comprehensive design overhaul of an all-in-one cold outreach platform that automates LinkedIn and email campaigns for B2B sales teams.
An experimental venture creating a flavoured tea brand inspired by new-age coffee culture, focused on supporting small indigenous tea growers.
Interactive code visualization and mapping platform that helps developers understand complex codebases.
A collection of logo designs and brand identity projects created for clients - showcasing versatile branding solutions across industries.
Modular backpacks designed for any environment - lightweight, durable, and adaptable to meet your needs.
A fashion ecommerce marketplace connecting consumers, raw-material producers, and boutique tailors for custom clothing creation.