DEV Community: Abhijay Mitra

My Review of 'Zero To One'

Abhijay Mitra — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 08:05:02 +0000

Apart from being a guy who reads and writes code, I am also an avid reader of books and manga. You can find about my likes and recommendations from my Goodreads profile.

I recently finished the book 'Zero To One' by Peter Thiel and thought of noting stuff down somewhere for my future use.

Cover of Zero to One (source: Wikipedia)

Why are monopolies so successful?

Tolstoy opens Anna Karenina by observing:

All happy families are alike: each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Thiel argues business is the opposite:
- All happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem.
- All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competition
Restaurants vs Tech Companies.

Restaurants: successful ones might collect healthy amounts today, but their cash flows will probably dwindle over the next few years when customers move on to newer and trendier alternatives.

Technology Companies: often lose money for the first few years. It takes time to build valuable things, and that means delayed revenue. Most of a tech company's value will come at least 10 to 15 years in the future.

Thiel skillfully points out quite opposing patterns of success.
What to consider when starting tech companies?

If one focuses on near-term growth above all else, one misses the most important question: Will this business still be around a decade from now?

Numbers alone won't tell one the answer. Instead one must think critically about the qualitative characteristics of ones own business.
How good should the proprietary tech be?

Thiel says that a good rule of thumb is that proprietary technology must be at least 10 times better than its closest substitute in some important dimension to lead to a real monopolistic advantage.

Anything less than an order of magnitude better will probably be perceived as a marginal improvement and will be hard to sell, especially in an already crowded market.
How does sales work?

Like acting, sales works best when hidden.

This explains why almost everyone whose job involves distribution whether they're in sales, marketing, or advertising has a job title that has nothing to do with those things.
- People who sell advertising are "account executives".
- People who sell customers are "business development".
- People who sell companies are "investment bankers".
- People who sell themselves are called "politicians".
Thiel emphasises the reason being, none of us wants to be reminded when we're being sold.
Are engineers skilled enough to sell tech?

The engineer's grail is a product great enough that "it sells itself". But anyone who would actually say this about a real product must be lying: either he's delusional (lying to himself) or he's selling something (and thereby contradicting himself).

The polar opposite business cliché warns that "the best product doesn't always win".

Economists attribute this to "path dependence": specific historical circumstances independent of objective quality can determine which products enjoy widespread adoption.

Thiel brings a conclusion to this dilemma by stating: It's better to think of distribution as something essential to the design of your product. If you've invented something new but you haven't invented an effective way to sell it, you have a bad business no matter how good the product.
Which problems / projects are the best?
- Doing something different is what's truly good for society and it's also what allows a business to profit by monopolizing a new market.
- The best projects are likely to be overlooked, not trumpeted by a crowd.
- The best problems to work on are often the ones nobody else even tries to solve.

Updates in Ubuntu 21.10

Abhijay Mitra — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 07:27:12 +0000

In this blog, we shall be discussing the updates and improvements in Ubuntu 21.10. Please note that this version is NOT an LTS (Long-term support) version.

Finally installed Ubuntu 21.10 after the long wait!

The Horizontal Workspaces:

The most iconic one being the introduction of horizontal workspaces!

A new Gnome Version:

Ubuntu 21.10 comes with a customized Gnome 40 desktop instead of Gnome 36 (default on Ubuntu 21.04).

Gestures:

Multitouch gestures have been improved over the last few releases.

Ubuntu Dock:

A lot of people have been using Dash to Dock extension instead of the standard Gnome Ubuntu Dock.

Gnome 40 has really improved the default Gnome Ubuntu Dock and added separators between favourite and running applications.

Software Updates:

Alongside the new additions to the OS, Ubuntu 21.10 is obviously shipped with loads of software updates.

Languages of the Future

Abhijay Mitra — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 07:23:00 +0000

Some languages which I don't see going out of demand (until 2030 hopefully) are definitely:

Java:

Most companies in tech use Java to build their backend applications. Java is very fast as a language, is mainly based on OOPS (which makes code modular and clean to read), and most importantly is independent of platform (all you need to run it is the JVM - Java Virtual Machine). One of the best features I love about Java is its efficient exception handling and precise (compared to C++) error messages. Since Android is so popular these days, the only language that may replace Java would be Kotlin.
Swift:

Well who doesn't love Apple? Even Apple haters seem to love its clean and snappy UI. Though I don't have personal experience with Swift till now, its memory management is of high repute. As long as Apple is the world's most valuable company, Swift isn't going anywhere. Swift's ease of coding UI stuff will keep it in demand.
Javascript:

Though Javascript may be annoying at times, there's no denying of the fact that it is one of the select few languages that are extensively used in backend and frontend, server side and client side, and has extensive well designed libraries and frameworks for most industrial use cases. An application written in Javascript is almost certainly faster than a "similar" one in Python. Also, Node JS (written partly in C++) is super fast and its asynchronous multi-threaded I/O model improve the performance even more. Javascript is definitely going to stay for time in the future.
C++:

A great place to learn about this amazing language would be from the author of C++ himself. Whenever a developer looks for speed in backend, C++ is generally the way to go. C++ is blazingly fast, supports OOPS, and also is under constant development. I have spent most of my programming journey in C++.
Python:

One of the reasons Python is so popular despite being much slower compared to the others in this list must be the huge ocean of libraries and frameworks available for it. Also, code in Python looks more like pseudo code than most other languages. That makes Python code very easy to understand. Also, the learning curve in Python is much easier for newcomers in the world of software.

My Internship at Salesforce

Abhijay Mitra — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 07:05:44 +0000

This blog is about my internship experience at Salesforce India. This was a (remote - due to Covid-19) Software Engineering Internship I took in Summer 2021.

Me coding while interning at Salesforce!!! 😎

Why did you choose the company?

Salesforce is famous for its amazing work culture. I loved the way Salesforce was revolutionising modern workflow even during the unprecedented Covid-19 times.

How many rounds and what rounds?

There were a total of 5 rounds. 1 initial shortlisting coding test followed by 3 Technical Interview Rounds and 1 HR Round on the interview day.

How many rounds and the degree of difficulty? How much expertise do you need to clear the round?

There were 3 problems in the shortlisting test. One of them (3rd one) was difficult for me. The other two was of medium difficulty. I would say, being rated >= "expert" on Codeforces would be good enough to be able to solve 2 problems full. I was also able to solve the 3rd problem partially.

How important was your CV? Would you advise adding things which are not completely true in CV?

The interviewer asked about my CV in the 2nd Tech round on the interview day. All of the questions about my CV were from my past internship. I would definitely advice against writing any false pieces of information on your CV.

Duration of intern?

8 weeks

Your point of contact during your internship?

My manager was a KGP alumni himself, from my department. He always boosted my confidence and guided me throughout the internship. Also, my mentor was extremely helpful and he spoke to me on a regular basis. I did enjoy every moment with the team.

Main project or objective during your intern?

I worked at Salesforce's Health Cloud. My project was to build an application that aimed to recognize, analyse and store data automatically, directly from medical voice conversations. During the internship, I developed a prototype app for healthcare registrars that mitigated their role in registering, updating or fetching patient details, using the NLP domain of automating storage of patient interactions. I can't provide details to my work as it is confidential.

How was the work culture in the company?

Salesforce has one the best work cultures in the world. It is currently (2021) the 2nd best company in the world to work for according to Fortune. I worked for about 5 hours a day on average. They provided everything I needed for the internship, along with awesome gifts and swags on regular intervals. The employees are always happy, motivated and ready to clear all your doubts and everyone in the company was just a ping on Slack away.

Were important tasks given to you or any input you gave to your project manager which proved to be useful?

My project was a prototype of one of the breakthroughs Salesforce India's Health Cloud was planning for some time. The healthcare industry is moving towards ensuring easier access and exchange of medical information. My project was to create a very small MVP for the bigger picture application. We made key decisions while working on the project and I feel proud to have been a part of this mission.

Anything you had to learn before the start of intern?

I often had conversations about the tech being used in the project with the team and had suggested some ways at some junctures. The team was always appreciative of my suggestions and provided valuable alternatives in case I was wrong.