Welcome to Devography

What even is this site?

Hello and welcome to Devography. I created this blog because I needed a place to think out loud. It’s part dev-log, part personal archive, and mostly a way to make sure my learning doesn’t just stay trapped in my head. This is what the site is for and what I’m hoping to get out of it.

A bit about me and how Devography came to be

I’m your typical CS student (though my course is actually Software Engineering). What I love most is the idea that, with code, I can build almost anything I can imagine.

Outside of coursework and academics, I enjoy diving into whatever interesting topic catches my attention—signal processing, async I/O in zig, you name it. Over time, I realized I was spending more and more hours exploring these topics.

I learned a lot from watching YouTubers like The Primeagen and Fireship, and from reading various blogs—they were really crucial in helping me find my bearings. But after spending what felt like an eternity in “tutorial hell,” I realized that books, documentation, and papers are often the closest thing to the source of truth (duh). They provide a level of depth that videos usually skip. When I finish a book, I feel confident that I have a solid foundation to build on, without the usual oversimplifications or surface-level abstractions.

Friends recommended timeless classics like Programming from the Ground Up and Designing Data-Intensive Applications. I knew they were essential, the kind of books that save you months of debugging down the road. But honestly? I found the actual reading part a bit of a slog. There were always a dozen more “exciting” projects or shiny new tools competing for my attention. It’s hard to sit through a dense chapter on CPU scheduling when every second headline is a “world-changing” AI tool that’s gonna replace you. If that bubble hasn’t popped by the time you’re reading this, you’ll know exactly the kind of noise I was competing with.

There’s a specific kind of demoralization that comes with returning to a book after a fortnight, only to realize you’ve lost the plot. The gap between where I was and where I wanted to be felt like it was widening. I had the blueprints, timetables, trackers, and enough strategic planning to launch a rocket, but my mind is a curious beast that refuses to be caged by a schedule. I was fighting my own nature; it felt more like homework than learning.

Enough about my failed attempts at being a disciplined human and building a solid reading routine. I haven’t given up, though; the fact that you’re reading this is a sign that something finally clicked. Or at least, I hope it has.

As I kept reading, I realized all this energy needed a better outlet than a dusty summary book. What if the struggle is the point? If I was going to invest this much mental effort, why not document the journey? Turn my internal monologue into a public dialogue, sharing the evolving ideas and mid-chapter crises that might actually serve as a road-map for someone else (And hey, everyone knows a public blog is international code for ‘please hire me, I actually like doing this.’).

That’s when I decided to start Devography.

What is Devography?

Devography is a blog where I share:

• Notes on the books I’m reading (chapter by chapter)
• Ideas and thoughts that come up while reading
• Anything else you’d typically find in a personal blog

I wanted to build a system that grows as I do. Each post starts with a seed, my initial thoughts. As I learn more, I simply append to it with whatever bitter corrections and contradictions or just simply complements and additions. You’ll see my thoughts evolve, pivot, and occasionally contradict my ‘past self’ entirely. Hell, At its peak, a single post might devolve into what looks like a toxic Stack Overflow thread with ten different people having a shouting match about a completely unrelated tangent. Consider it a live-stream of my thoughts and perspectives.

It’s a clear record of the ‘How’ and the ‘Why.’ I’m keeping the mistakes, the bad takes, and the early errors exactly where they are, partly to keep my ego in check, and partly as a courtesy to my future foes. I’m giving them a curated archive of my own incompetence to use as leverage for when they find my reasoning too great a challenge and inevitably resort to cheap fallacies to save face (About that ego thing, it’s a work in progress.)

My goals with Devography

My main aims are simple: learn consistently, document the mess to show the naked learning process, and maybe trick a few others into feeling confident enough to learn in their own unique ways.

In the future, if I ever become an expert in something, that is I manage to hit atleast 0.1 Carmacks on the scale of engineering greatness, I want this blog to be the hard evidence that I wasn’t some born-ready super-genius. I’ve always found it hard to believe when legends like Linus Torvalds say, ‘Nah, I was just a kid who was stupid enough to think he could make an OS.’ With this record, you won’t have to take my word for it.

My future self might hate me for it, but the promise stands: no erasing, no sanitizing, no wipes. I’m leaving every mental train wreck exactly where it landed.

Structure of the blog

For now, there are three main types of posts:

1. Book Notes
   These are my summaries and thoughts from books, papers, or other content. Usually one post per chapter, though some chapters may get multiple posts.

2. Logs
   Short, straightforward explanations of concepts. My goal here is maximum clarity and zero fluff, hopefully distilling a topic down to its most vital components so it can be understood and referenced quickly. I think these will be the hardest to compile or the most “volatile” with a long trail of corrections.

3. Essays
   Longer, deeper explorations of a topic or set of topics. These are more reflective; they include my thoughts and ideas rather than just explanations. They are unconventional, reflective, and completely disregard traditional formal structures—more like deep dives where I test my own theories and perspectives and the occasional unfiltered rant.

A quick note: I hope my ideas and expression transcend my lack of formal writing skill. I often go to great lengths to compile and structure these posts for maximum utility, using whatever tools, imagery, and analogies at my disposal to ensure the value is worth your time. However, my “syntax” remains unrefined and might be confusing sometimes. If it helps, please don’t get attached to the exact wording. Focus on the underlying concepts. I hope to optimize this site for insight rather than eloquence.

Feedback

I haven’t implemented comments yet. I’m still weighing the value of public discourse against the reality of internet toxicity, and frankly, I’m not ready to pay the price for an “emotional firewall” that’s production-ready for the masses. Though I use X, I haven’t interacted nearly enough to develop the kind of thick skin required for the specific brand of chaos that public comment sections tend to attract, especially for a site like this.

If you have something to say, send me an email. I value genuine advice and constructive criticism, it’s a bit more high-friction than a comment box, but it ensures that our interaction is intentional. As long as you aren’t just trying to be a “foe” with a cheap fallacy, I’ll likely appreciate the message and respond appropriately.

That’s all

Thanks for sticking around until the end, this means a lot to me. Most of my ideas usually end up in a graveyard of unfinished repos, so actually bringing Devography to life is a huge win for me.

I hope there’s something valuable for you in the mix of posts, or at least enough here to make you curious about what’s coming next.If you prefer keeping things simple, you can follow along via RSS. Also, no ads here, ever. That’s a promise.

Note to my future self

Hopefully, you’re reading this and feeling proud. You took a moment of frustration and turned it into Devography. You actually finished something, which is more than we can say for the hundred other folders currently rotting in code/ if we even still use that name.

I hope the journey was worth the effort and that the learning process remained as honest and messy as we promised it would be. Don’t forget, no matter the achievement you have made, to love. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.”