https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/Recent content in Home on Vishal BhoriwalHugoenMon, 13 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/bookshelf/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/bookshelf/<h1 id="bookshelf">BookShelf</h1> <p>Books I&rsquo;ve read, am reading, or want to read.</p>https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/papershelf/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/papershelf/<h1 id="paper-shelf">Paper Shelf</h1> <p>Papers I&rsquo;ve read, am reading, or want to read.</p>https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/archive/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/archive/https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/blog/inequality-in-this-world/Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/blog/inequality-in-this-world/<p>Have you ever stopped to think about how vastly different life can be for people depending simply on where they were born, who their parents are, or even their gender? We live on the same planet, under the same sky, yet the opportunities, resources, and even basic dignities available to us are incredibly, often shockingly, unequal.</p> <p>This isn&rsquo;t going to be a post filled with complex statistics. Instead, I wanted to share some of my personal reflections on the inequality I see and feel in the world around us. It&rsquo;s a topic so vast it can feel overwhelming, but ignoring it doesn&rsquo;t make it disappear.</p>https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/blog/simplicity/Wed, 20 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/blog/simplicity/<p>There&rsquo;s a question from Extreme Programming that I keep returning to:</p> <blockquote> <p><em>What is the simplest thing that could possibly work?</em></p> </blockquote> <p>It sounds almost naive. But it&rsquo;s one of the most useful filters I&rsquo;ve found when designing systems.</p> <h2 id="the-complexity-trap">The Complexity Trap</h2> <p>Engineers — myself included — tend to over-engineer. We anticipate scale, future requirements, and edge cases that may never materialize. We reach for distributed systems before we&rsquo;ve saturated a single machine. We add abstraction layers before we have two concrete cases to abstract.</p>https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/blog/commit-messages/Sat, 10 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/blog/commit-messages/<p>A commit message is a letter to your future self. Make it worth reading.</p> <h2 id="the-problem-with-bad-commits">The Problem with Bad Commits</h2> <p>We&rsquo;ve all seen them:</p> <pre tabindex="0"><code>fix wip asdf final final FINAL </code></pre><p>These tell you nothing. Six months later, when a bug surfaces and you&rsquo;re spelunking through <code>git log</code>, these are useless noise.</p> <h2 id="the-rule-of-thumb">The Rule of Thumb</h2> <p>The subject line of a commit should complete this sentence:</p> <blockquote> <p><em>If applied, this commit will&hellip;</em></p> </blockquote> <p>So: &ldquo;Add input validation to login form&rdquo; rather than &ldquo;validation stuff&rdquo;.</p>https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/blog/hello-world/Mon, 15 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.vishalbhoriwal.me/blog/hello-world/<p>Every blog starts somewhere. This is mine.</p> <h2 id="why-im-writing">Why I&rsquo;m Writing</h2> <p>Writing helps me think. When I write something down, I&rsquo;m forced to be precise about what I actually understand — and more importantly, where the gaps are.</p> <p>I&rsquo;ve been in software for a while now, and I&rsquo;ve accumulated opinions, lessons learned (often the hard way), and observations about the craft. This blog is where I put those to paper.</p> <h2 id="what-to-expect">What to Expect</h2> <p>No fixed schedule, no promises. Just honest writing when I have something worth saying.</p>