digital diary

hey, i am sanjay

Building systems by day, collecting quiet ideas by night. This page is my personal operating log, not a polished resume.

now page

now

Writing more than shipping. Focusing on clarity in long-form notes.

learning

Data contracts, model evaluation design, and better technical storytelling.

letting go

Overcomplicated dashboards, fragmented task systems, and noisy workflows.

philosophy

தெய்வத்தான் ஆகா தெனினும் முயற்சிதன் மெய்வருத்தக் கூலி தரும்.

Even if fate doesn't favor you, effort will reward the toil of your body.
Thirukural 619

my journey in tech

aug 2019

freshman

Computer Science Engineering

jan 2023

internship

Software Engineer

may 2023

graduate

Computer Science Engineering

jul 2023

full-time

Software Engineer

present

machine learning engineer

Building and shipping ML systems

reading shelf

Role of Bias Terms in Dot-Product Attention

Mahdi Namazifar, Devamanyu Hazarika, Dilek Hakkani-Tur

paper completed
Build a Large Language Model (from Scratch)

Sebastian Raschka

book in progress
AI Engineering

Chip Huyen

book todo
Designing Machine Learning Systems

Chip Huyen

book completed

view full reading log ->

my work gear

This is how my setup look now

My current desk and work setup. — Current desk setup for writing, coding, and deep work sessions.

My desk and work setup in January 2020. — Current desk setup for writing, coding, and deep work sessions.

device	for the nerds
primary machine	ASUS TUF Gaming A15, Ryzen 5 4600H (6C/12T), 15.6-inch FHD up to 144Hz, 16GB DDR4 RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650, NVMe SSD setup.
monitor	LG UltraGear 27-inch gaming monitor, IPS FHD 1920x1080, 144Hz, 1ms mode, HDR10, G-SYNC Compatible, FreeSync Premium.
keyboard	Cosmic Byte CB-GK-40 Artemis, 68-key, tri-mode (wired + 2.4GHz + Bluetooth), per-key RGB, hot-swappable switches.
primary mouse	Amkette Hush Pro Epic M, triple-mode wireless, DPI steps 800/1200/1600/3200, rechargeable 400mAh class battery.
secondary mouse	MFTEK wired USB mouse, LED backlit, up to 2000 DPI.
pen tablet	Huion HS64, 6.3 x 4 inch active area, 8192 pressure levels, 5080 LPI.
microphone	MAONO PD200X dynamic microphone with boom arm, dual USB-C and XLR output, cardioid pickup, up to 24-bit/48kHz via USB.
earpods	OnePlus Nord Buds 3, 12.4mm driver, up to 43 hours total playback.

software stack

confession	reality
my code lives in	VS Code (because everyone's extensions are here now)
primary language	Python (with occasional tourist visits to Go and C++)
I promise myself I'll learn	Vim keybindings (currently on day 847 of 'tomorrow')
tabs vs spaces	Tabs. I said what I said. (except YAML, obviously)
my most-opened app	ChatGPT (Stack Overflow is dead, long live the LLM overlords)
what actually trains my models	PyTorch + copious amounts of coffee + prayer
container situation	Docker (47GB of cached nightmares)
cloud playground	AWS for everything (SageMaker handles ML workflows, IAM for character building)
regex patterns	ChatGPT (I forget them every single time)
database choice	PostgreSQL (until I need vectors, then Milvus)
note-taking system	Obsidian (300 files, 12 are useful)
kubernetes experience	We're working through some YAML trauma
git commits	'fix' → 'actually fix' → 'wtf' → 'please work'